NATO hopes rise for Karadzic surrender

Financial, political and psychological pressure to bring him to justice

An unidentified woman walks in front of a poster with the slogan: ‘Either them (suspects) in The Hague or us (Serb people) in Hell,’ in Banja Luka earlier this year.

By Paul Taylor - Reuters

BRUSSELS - Hopes are rising at NATO that fugitive Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian-Serb president, may soon surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal, ending a decade of embarrassment for the alliance charged with catching him.

Karadzic led the breakaway Bosnian-Serb state in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Europe’s bloodiest since World War Two. He is wanted on charges of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre. Indicted just before NATO entered Bosnia in 1995 to enforce the Dayton peace accords, he vanished in 1997.

But financial pressure on his backers, political pressure on Bosnian-Serb authorities and psychological pressure on his family could finally bring him to justice, a NATO source said.

“There is some optimism at NATO that he may turn himself in in the coming weeks. The money is running out,” the source said, stressing he had no direct access to intelligence.

“It’s getting very hard for him to pay the support network, the bodyguards. A lot of money has been squandered and he hasn’t been able to generate new supplies of funding.” Dwindling cash has made it harder for the 60-year-old former psychiatrist to move around and therefore has made him easier to locate, the source added. Karadzic resigned in July 1996 under international pressure.

When NATO troops began arresting war crimes suspects a year later, he went underground, allegedly flitting between eastern Bosnia and Serbia-Montenegro under the protection of hardliners. Said to be hiding in monasteries or to be on the move disguised as an Orthodox priest, Karadzic remained popular among nationalists. They continued selling his posters and published what they said were books authored by the former psychiatrist.

Against this embarrassing background, Bosnia’s Western backers started targeting his alleged supporters in 2002. In the summer of 2003, they imposed asset freezes and travel bans on his family and former associates.

Bosnia’s international peace overseer Paddy Ashdown sacked some 70 Bosnian-Serb officials in 2004 for their suspected support of Karadzic and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladic, who has been indicted on the same charges. This year NATO upped the pressure before the July anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, raiding the family’s homes several times and arresting his son Aleksandar for 10 days. The unrelenting hunt led his wife to plead for his surrender “for the sake of the family” in an emotional interview on Bosnian and Serb television stations last week.