Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who is on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has sent a letter to the Croatian government asking for cooperation regarding documents on arms smuggling during the early 1990s war, the tribunal said on Monday.
The Croatian Justice Ministry confirmed it had received the letter but would not comment on its content.
Karadzic claims that apart from relief, Islamic countries dispatched arms to Bosnia-Herzegovina as well and that they were partly smuggled via Croatia.
He refers to his letter to the Croatian government from March, asking for an explanation of the circumstances under which, as he claims, the well-known shipment passed through Croatia.
Does the Croatian government claim that such a shipment arrived at Zagreb's airport and was transported to Bosnia without there being any record of it? If so, I would like to confirm this, if not, I would like to receive copies of those documents, Karadzic says in the letter forwarded to the Croatian ambassador to the Netherlands.
He also wants a final answer to the question if there are audio or written records of meetings at the President's Office attended by the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and of meetings between the then Prime Minister Nikica Valentic and representatives of Iran.
Karadzic wants the Croatian government to say if the tracing of those documents was completed, and if so, what the findings are.
The government said in a letter to Karadzic in March that it had found documents on the activities of the Muslim humanitarian organisation Merhamet (Red Crescent) and a report on the amount of humanitarian aid which passed through Croatian Interior Ministry checkpoints.
The government said it could let Karadzic's defence team see the documents, but in today's letter he asks if any of those documents referred to the transport of arms so that he can see if viewing them makes any sense.
Karadzic asked that the Hague tribunal issue a subpoena to Croatia, but the tribunal ruled on July 13 that he had not exhausted all his options to have Croatia cooperate in the delivery of documents he considered essential for his defence.
Karadzic has until August 10 to notify the tribunal about the progress of his negotiations with Croatia.
He is on trial for genocide and war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992-95.
