WELL, THIS ISN’T A COMPLETE SHOCK:

President Jacques Chirac negotiated a secret deal to protect Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of Europe’s worst atrocities since the Second World War, according to evidence submitted to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

M Chirac allegedly agreed to sabotage the extradition of Gen Mladic to face genocide charges for his role in the planned extermination of Bosnian Muslims, including the massacre of 7,000 men and boys in the UN safe haven of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Typical. And yet it’s the United States that gets savaged for a lack of commitment to international law. . . .

UPDATE: Heh:

French President Jacques Chirac, a vocal supporter of the International Criminal Court, the European Union, and the United Nations said today that France is a sovereign nation and international courts or tribunals are “suddenly a bad idea.”

A spokesman for Mr. Chirac said his new pronouncement has “no connection whatever” with yesterday’s revelation that the U.N. war crimes tribunal has received evidence that Mr. Chirac may have cut a deal to protect accused Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic.

Gen. Mladic, still at large, stands accused of war crimes resulting in the deaths of thousands.

“Globalism is overrated,” said a written statement from Mr. Chirac. “International tribunals and courts open the doors to political opportunists with anti-French agendas. This, I find, is suddenly a bad idea.”

Double-heh.