Bosnian peace agreement in the hands of its top war criminal?

ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/AFP/Getty Images

For more than a decade, Bosnia has been struggling to pull itself back together under the Dayton Peace Accords, the 1995 agreement that brought an end to the country’s bloody civil war but also left Bosnia divided into two mini-states.

Also for more than a decade, Radovan Karadzic (shown at right) — one time president of the Bosnian Serbs, now indicted by the U.N.’s International Criminal tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity –- has remained at large, making a mockery of the court’s attempt at international justice. (For anyone who’s seen The Hunting Party, you know the story).

Now, Bosnian officials have reported that the actual original copy of the signed peace accords is missing from the presidential archives. And who do they think has it? None other than Radovan himself. Vladimir Lukic, former prime minister of the Serbian half of Bosnia, said:

I suppose the document was given to the President of the Republika Srpska (Karadzic) for safe keeping.”

No wonder Bosnia continues to be an unsustainable, divided country — its founding document has been entrusted to the very face of ethnic cleansing.