[JURIST] The United States and other western countries repeatedly impeded efforts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] to arrest Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], according to the memoirs of Florence Hartmann [book website], former spokeswoman for ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte [BBC profile], published Monday in France. Hartmann said that French President Jacques Chirac had planned a campaign to capture Karadzic, but backed down at the urging of the US, Britain, and Germany. Hartmann also said that Russia aided in moving Karadzic to safety in Belarus, and alleged that the West helped in order to hide information about the Srebrenica massacre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive].

Del Ponte has repeatedly called on [JURIST report] Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to renew their efforts to capture Karadzic and fellow war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic [BBC profile]. Mladic and Karadzic are suspected of orchestrating the genocide of nearly 8,000 people in Srebrenica in the 1990s. BBC News has more.