EUFOR troops raid Karadzic's family homes

28/03/2008

EUFOR peacekeepers raided the homes of Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic's family and a neighbour on Thursday, searching for information on his whereabouts.

(Blic - 28/03/08; AFP, Reuters, AP, DPA, BBC, Balkan Insight, EUFOR, B92 - 27/03/08; B92 - 26/03/08; Reuters - 07/03/08; BBC - 06/03/08)

EU peacekeepers conducted an early morning raid at the homes of Radovan Karadzic's wife and daughter, as well as at a neighbour's house. [Getty Images]

EU peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) raided the homes of family members and a neighbour of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Thursday (March 27th) in an attempt to find clues to the top war crimes suspect's whereabouts.

The operation was launched before dawn with simultaneous searches at the homes of the fugitive's wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic, daughter Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic and Smiljka Popov, who is believed to belong to a network of supporters helping the wartime leader evade justice. All live in the town of Pale, 16km southeast of Sarajevo.

"The aim of the operation is to find material and information that could assist the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the ongoing search for persons indicted for war crimes," EUFOR spokesman Phillip Treloar said. "We are putting pressure on networks believed to be involved in protecting these persons."

During the raids, which were supported by NATO forces in BiH, peacekeepers found "items of interest" that will be examined, Treloar said. Bosnian Serb police also provided support.

Earlier this month, local forces searched the houses of Karadzic's former bodyguards Nebojsa Cavkic and Vlatko Lopatic, suspected of helping him elude arrest. Computers, mobile phones and SIM cards were among the items confiscated.

Thursday's operation was conducted at the request of the ICTY, which issued its initial joint indictment against Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic in 1995.

Both are accused of involvement in a host of war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 conflict in BiH. They have also been charged with genocide stemming from the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which left approximately 11,000 people dead.

Karadzic went on the run in 1996. He is widely believed to be moving between Republika Srpska, Serbia and Montenegro.

During his visit to BiH on March 7th, Serge Brammertz, who replaced Carla del Ponte as UN chief prosecutor in January, called for Karadzic and Mladic's arrest.

They top the list of four remaining suspects still sought by the ICTY. The other two are former Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin and Goran Hadzic, a political leader charged with war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 conflict in Croatia.

Acting on a tip, Serbian police raided a house in the southern city of Nis on Wednesday, as part of a "comprehensive search" for Zupljanin, but failed to arrest the fugitive. Officials believe he was tipped off about the operation.

Rasim Ljajic, the head of Serbia's council on co-operation with the ICTY, and Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic both confirmed that traces found during the raid showed that Zupljanin had been there.