Karadic asks for UN trial exemption

War-time Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is requesting that the UN Security Council pass a resolution exempting him from trial at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, insisting he was promised immunity by an American envoy.

In a letter to the president of the UN Security Council, Karadzic reiterated his claim that US envoy Richard Holbrooke cut a deal in 1996 with him to leave politics in exchange for immunity from prosecution by the Netherlands-based court.