56 The Sunday Times Magazine 13th november 2005

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Investigation

It’s been 10 years. The huntfor Bosnia’s brutal warcriminals goes on — or does it? Charges of farceand incompetence are beinglevelled. Is the manhunt a sham, an internationalconspiracy to leave the fugitives at large? REPORT BY CHRISTINE TOOMEY

Below: bodies dug out inKozluk in 1999, believed tobe the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre

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s we round a bend inthe road, after crossing the border from Bosnia into Montenegro on almost impassablelogging tracks, the silence of the remoteDurmitor mountains is broken by the sound of a mechanical digger. In the distance a group ofmen work with pickaxes and shovels alongside asmall bulldozer. When our car draws close, theyseem startled, down tools and move as one in ourdirection. Behind them, it appears they havehewn out of the rock face the beginnings of astage and tiered seating. When we walk towardsthe men, they quickly surround my interpreterand me, and demand to know who we are andwhy we have come. Few strangers venture intothese parts and those who do are rarely welcome.

Many of the men share a common surname:Karadzic. All are relatives of Europe’s mostwanted war criminal: Radovan Karadzic, thebouffant-haired former Bosnian Serb presidentcharged with genocide by the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia(ICTY) in the Hague. Extraordinarily, what thesemen are building is a venue for a literary festivalto be held in his honour.

For the past 10 years, Radovan Karadzic andhis chief military henchman, Ratko Mladic, havebeen at the top of the Hague’s wanted list as chiefarchitects of the savage 1992-5 war in whichover 200,000 people, mostly Bosnian Muslims,were raped, tortured and killed. As the smaller fryresponsible for such ethnic cleansing havegradually come to trial, the two men held mostresponsible for the worst war crimes committedin Europe since the end of the second world warremain at large. I have set out to discover why.

This is Petnjica, the small village whereKaradzic was born. There are more than a dozenfamilies here bearing the Karadzic name. Whatgreets us is perhaps the ultimate symbol of thefolly and denial of those who continue tosupport both Karadzic and Mladic. It is a follymatched by the incompetence of internationalpeacekeepers, others within the internationalcommunity, and government authorities in theregion, who defiantly declare they want bothmen brought to justice, yet have allowed thedecade-long manhunt to descend into farce.

The longer this farce continues, the more it is interpreted by those with an interest in rewriting history as evidence of the lack of a case to answer. For the Karadzic clan, however,history has always been seen through a warpedprism. “Radovan is a good man. He did what allof us would have done to defend our fellowSerbs,” says Tomislav Karadzic, older cousin of

the former head of state. The stooped 63-year-old shakes his head as he leads us across fields forcoffee at his farmhouse. “It’s very hurtful whatthey say,” he complains, refusing to hear of thecharges laid against the man he recalls playingwith as a child. In the words of one of the ICTYjudges, these charges relate to “scenes ofunimaginable savagery… truly scenes from hell,written on the darkest pages of history”.

One of two counts of genocide faced by bothKaradzic and Mladic stems from the July 1995slaughter of an estimated 7,500 men and boys inSrebrenica in which, the indictment states, “Menwere buried alive, women mutilated, childrenkilled before their mother’s eyes… a grandfatherforced to eat his own grandson’s liver.” YetTomislav insists: “I’m proud to call myself aKaradzic. This is a noble family: we haveproduced dukes and warriors, writers, heroes.”On the wall hangs a family tree dating back to1642, with hundreds of names. He points outone central character to whom his cousin isdirectly related: Vuk Karadzic, a well-known19th-century Serbian writer, who drew up asystem of phonetics fundamental to the Serbo-Croatian language. “Radovan inherited his

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literary talent. That is why we are building avenue here for a biennial international Karadzicliterary festival.” The first phase is due to befinished this month, he says, after which therewill be an inauguration. “We expectschoolchildren and international visitors, oncethe festival is launched. And if God is just,Radovan will, one day, be able to attend,” saysTomislav of the man on whose head the USgovernment has placed a $5m bounty. Whenasked when that might be, Tomislav staresbroodily into the distance.

“The mountains and caves around here haveprotected Karadzics for more than 500 years,”says Simeun Karadzic. “They will never give uptheir secrets – least of all to you. You probablyhave family in the armed forces who droppedbombs on our children in Belgrade. Let me showyou something that hangs in the house of everygood Serb family, and you will understand whynobody is a traitor.” Karadzic and Mladic beamout from photographs above the September-October page of a 2005 calendar. The curse thatruns alongside reads: “Whoever betrays theseheroes, let his heart explode. Whoever sayswhere they are, let him eat his own bones. Lethim answer to God for his deeds. For in hisfamily there will be neither marriages norcelebrations. And no more males to carry guns.”

“Why is it only Serbs are blamed for whatwent on? There was killing on all sides,” saysSimeun, ignoring the fact that Croat and BosnianMuslim soldiers face war-crimes charges in theHague too. He then takes us on a tour of thebuilding site, pointing out areas that will beplanted “with national flowers, not Dutch tulipsor English grass”. Neither Simeun nor Tomislavwill disclose where the money is coming fromfor this scheme in such a poor village, except tosay there are “benefactors who make donations”.

Amid all the boasting, the two cousins providea crucial insight into the man who ordered thecitizens of Sarajevo to be starved of food andsniped at for three years. He comes from a familyaccustomed to violence. “All Karadzics are likewild animals. But Radovan’s father was not onlyharsh, he was dangerous,” says Simeun, thoughhe stops short of mentioning that RadovanKaradzic’s father was ostracised by his familyafter being accused of raping and killing a cousin,and that his grandfather murdered a neighbourin an argument over stolen oxen. To escape thisviolent childhood, no doubt, Radovan Karadzic,a bright student, left Montenegro for Sarajevo, totrain first as a doctor and then as a psychiatrist,and write poetry. He portrayed himself as asensitive bohemian; work colleagues rememberhim anxiously biting his fingernails until they bled, and locking himself in his office when confronted by agitated patients. It was afterhe had been jailed briefly for embezzlement inthe mid-1980s that he modelled a career forhimself as a dangerous demagogue.

As the communist state of Yugoslaviacrumbled in the early 1990s, Karadzic helped set up the Serbian Democratic party (SDP)

when Bosnia was struggling for independence.The SDP supported the goal of a “GreaterSerbia”, uniting all Serbs in the disintegratingstate, as did his mentor Slobodan Milosevic, thenpresident of Serbia. As both whipped up Serbnationalism, turning it into a murderous frenzy,Karadzic declared himself head of theindependent Serbian republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and set about “cleansing” it ofCroats and Bosnian Muslims.

More than a decade later, Milosevic is sittingin a courtroom at the Hague, charged with warcrimes in Kosovo and Croatia, and genocide inBosnia. Both Serbia and Republika Srpska – thevast swathe of territory to the north and east ofBosnia ceded to the Serbs by the Dayton peace accords – are regarded internationally aspariah states, and their people have been leftstruggling for economic survival. As a result,support for Karadzic is on the wane. In most ofRepublika Srpska, it is only those in the still-functioning SDP, which many view as Karadzic’sprivate protection racket, who openly back him.Except, that is, in this mountainous corner ofnorthwestern Montenegro where he was born,and in remote communities in southeasternBosnia, where he is still revered and so isbelieved to move about with ease.

While Karadzic has been losing the support ofhis fellow Serbs, many have excused Mladic onthe grounds he was a professional soldier doinghis master’s bidding. But, as with the Karadzicclan, there is widespread denial of the truth ofwhat happened during Bosnia’s brutal conflict.

Milica Avram, Mladic’s 65-year-old sister,improbably insists she has neither seen nor heardfrom her brother in years. “If he was a bad man, itwould not be so hard to bear. But he is a greatman. He did nothing he is accused of. He was theone handing out sweets and chocolates tochildren in Srebrenica. He never wanted to be asoldier, he wanted to be a doctor. But where we grew up, he had no chance of an educationunless he entered the military,” says Avram, who lives in Vojkovici, on the road from Sarajevoto Foca, the town where Karadzic and Mladic’smen operated one of the most notorious rape camps during the war. When we travelfurther along the road to Foca, and take a detourinto the Treskavica mountains, it is easier to see what she means.

“There used to be a saying in the army: ‘If youstep out of line, you’ll be sent to Kalinovik,’ ” ourdriver says, manoeuvring onto yet another dirttrack beyond the small town of that name. Thehamlet of Bozinovic, where Mladic was born, isfurther on, across a rocky moonscape dottedwith the rusting hulks of cars on which black 61

RADOVAN KARADZIC

RATKO MLADIC

1945 Born Petnjica, Montenegro 1960 Moves to Sarajevo 1968 Starts to publish poetry 1971 Graduates as physician and psychiatrist 1985 Imprisoned on embezzlement and fraud charges 1990 Helps found Serbian Democratic party 1992 Declares himself president of theindependent Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the ensuing war (1992-5), an estimated 200,000 are killed 1995 Indicted by the ICTY in the Hague for warcrimes and crimes against humanity1996 Forced to step down as president of theSerbian Democratic party after sanctionsthreatened against Republika Srpska1996 International arrest warrants issued for Karadzic and Mladic on July 11, andKaradzic goes into hiding

1943 Born Bozinovic, near Kalinovik, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1965 Graduates from military academy andrises rapidly through the ranks of the Yugoslavpeople’s army (JNA)1991 Appointed commander of the JNA inKnin, Croatia, which had just declaredindependence. An estimated 20,000 die in a seven-month war, during which hospitals are pounded with artillery1992 Appointed commander of the Bosnian Serb army1994 His daughter Ana commits suicide1995 Aided by the JNA, leads Bosnian Serbforces to take the UN ‘safe havens’ of Srebrenicaand Zepa. Televised patting children on the head; 40,000 Bosnian Muslims are thenexpelled from Srebrenica and an estimated7,500 men and boys are executed. Massgraves are still being unearthed1995 Indicted by the ICTY on the samecharges as Radovan Karadzic. Internationalwarrant for his arrest issued the following year2000 Seen attending football matches inBelgrade (including a friendly betweenYugoslavia and China in March) and diningopenly on steak and caviar in Belgraderestaurants, up until 2002 — several monthsafter his political mentor Slobodan Milosevic is extradited to the Hague in 2001

LONG DAY’S JOURNEYINTO DARKNESS

Karadzic is a great man. He did nothing he is

accused of. He was the one handing out sweets

and chocolates to children in Srebrenica’

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crows perch. Mladic’s relatives turn their backsand curse us when we ask when they last saw thegeneral. Jovo Mandic, an elderly neighbour,shakes his fist and shouts: “We would all kiss himand hide him if he came here. I would give mylife, my own child, to save him. He is a nationalhero!” Such sentiments are echoed by many we speak to across Republika Srpska. “It is notpossible he is a war criminal. He was a goodcommunist,” says his former driver, a grocer inthe northern town of Han Pijesak. “Thoughmaybe, following the death of his daughter, helost his grip a little,” he adds. Others claim thatMladic’s blood lust increased after the suicide ofhis only daughter, Ana, who killed herself in1994 after reading accusations about her father’sbrutal war record. The 23-year-old medicalstudent shot herself in the head with a gun thather father had sworn should only be fired tocelebrate the birth of his grandchildren.

Yet since the release, last July, of video footageof the murder of a group of Bosnian Muslim menfrom Srebrenica – 10 years after the slaughter –Serbs are beginning to change their minds aboutMladic. The footage shows six terrified prisoners,some in their teens, being hauled from a truck bySerb paramilitaries and subjected to a mockexecution before being led into the woods andshot. Until 2002, however, eight years after beingcharged alongside Karadzic with genocide andother crimes against humanity, Mladic was stillreceiving a full military salary from the Serbiangovernment, and until two years ago he was onthe payroll of the defence ministry of RepublikaSrpska. Even now he receives a pension of about€400 a month from thegovernment of Serbia andMontenegro – moneycollected by his son.

With the supportnetworks for Mladic andKaradzic so clearlydefined, and the circles,even some geographicalareas, within which theyhave been moving known,it’s no wonder there is suchanger about the ongoingfailure to capture them.The EU has insisted that talks for Bosnia-Herzegovina to join the union don’t start untilboth men are behind bars at the Hague. This hasleft the country with seriously stunted politicaldevelopment, low growth, high unemploymentand pervasive corruption.

The woman whose regular proclamationsabout imminent arrest particularly angerBosnians is the ICTY’s fist-thumping Swiss-born chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. Yet, apartfrom a small number of investigators on theground in Bosnia, the tribunal Del Ponte joinedin 1999 lacks a police force of its own, making itreliant on international peacekeepers and theauthorities of the former Yugoslav republics tohunt the men down and deliver them to theHague. For years these various organisations –

says is not completely far-fetched. Lucrativedeals in black-market cigarettes, whisky andpetrol, together with drug-trafficking and illegallogging, are believed by those on the trail ofKaradzic and Mladic to provide the financialunderpinnings of their support networks.

Certainly, Nato believed he was here threeyears ago when, early one February morning,four US helicopters swooped low, and militarytransport vehicles pulled into Celebici. Bothdisgorged more than 100 masked Nato soldiers,who moved from house to house here and inneighbouring hamlets, banging on doors andarresting and interrogating villagers for two days.They repeated the operation six months later.

Looking out across the vast stretches ofwooded mountains that surround Celebici, it isclear that if Karadzic had been anywhere in the vicinity as the Nato troops approached, hewould have had ample warning and time toescape into Montenegro. The border lies lessthan a kilometre away, and it has taken us overtwo hours to pull our car along the deeply

potholed mud track that leads here from Foca. Another attempt by Nato forces to arrest

Karadzic was staged in an equally high-profilebut equally unsuccessful operation in Pale, nearSarajevo, last year. Acting on information thatKaradzic was ill and seeking medical help, Natotroops stormed a priest’s house, but no trace ofKaradzic was found. Since then, there have beenrepeated raids on the homes of his wife, Ljiljana,and daughter, Sonja, in Pale, and in July his sonwas arrested for questioning. Until last year thesehouses were guarded by French troops attachedto the Nato force. As well as the deal Holbrookeallegedly struck with Karadzic, there have longbeen suspicions that the French continued toprotect him because of their traditional ties withthe Serbs. Some claim that French soldierswould make no mention, until a day or so afterKaradzic’s wife had left her house, that she wasgoing on trips – trips she is now understood tohave been taking to see her husband.

Letters seized by Nato forces during one ofthe raids on her home show that Karadzic hascontinued to correspond with his wife 63

including Nato, Eufor (the 7,000-strong EUforce), the US and EU police missions andintelligence services, the Bosnian and RepublikaSrpska police and intelligence agencies, togetherwith those of Serbia and Montenegro andBosnia’s state border service – have been pointingthe finger of blame for failure at each other.

In the immediate aftermath of the war inBosnia, Nato commanders excused their lack ofsuccess in arresting war-crimes suspects by citingfears that such arrests would destabilise the region.This led to farcical situations in which Karadzic,Mladic and others were waved through Natocheckpoints without being stopped. Later, thisexcuse shifted to a desire to minimise reprisalsagainst Nato soldiers attempting to apprehend thewanted men – so-called “force protection”. MostBosnians are convinced the real reasons for thelack of arrests are behind-the-scenes deals struckby Nato with Mladic and, in particular, Karadzic,to bring the conflict to an end. Karadzic hasboasted he was assured by the US envoy at thetime, Richard Holbrooke, that as long as he retired

from political life, he would be leftin peace. Following on the trail of bungledattempts to seize both men, it is impossible notto believe that there is some truth in this.

) ) ) ) )

High in the mountain village of Celebici insoutheastern Bosnia, somebody switches off thelight in a wooden house and refuses to answerthe door when we approach as dusk falls. “Weknow nothing, we think nothing,” says an oldwoman, sullenly serving beer to a forestryworker and a hyperactive teenager in a smallshack that serves as a bar. “Why would anyonecome to a place like this where even we canhardly survive?” she says when asked if she knewif Karadzic had ever been in the area.

“Yes, I saw him: he was here. He runs a drugsring here,” the teenager contradicts her. What he

Most Bosnians are convinced the real reasons

for the lack of arrests are behind-the-scenes

deals struck by Nato with Mladic and Karadzic

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Above: a poetry book by Karadzic,entitled Under the Left Breast ofthe Century. Above right: Petnjica,northwest Montenegro; Karadzic’sbirthplace. Left: a collection of Karadzic’s poems for children

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and to receive clandestine visits from her whileon the run. In letters written between January1999 and December 2002, passed to his wife bycouriers, he talks of arranging meetings: “Nowsummer is practically here, everybody is goingsomewhere, so it would not be a problem [tomeet].” Later, presumably after they have met, hejokes about his wife feeling unwell: “If I wasyounger, I would hope you were pregnant.”

While in hiding, he has also continued todevelop his amateur literary career. In the pasttwo years, an autobiographical novel, MiraculousChronicles of the Night, has become available inthe Serbian capital and Republika Srpska. He isalso said by Sonja to have been working on a playcalled Situation – “a black comedy about a manchosen to become the leader of his people”, shesays. A play he hopes, perhaps, to see performedone day at the Karadzic literary festival.

Some claim that Karadzic now spends muchof his time disguised as an Orthodox priest,moving regularly between church properties onboth sides of the Bosnia-Montenegro border.Monitored phone calls are said to have trackedhim to a temporary hiding place in Montenegro’sOstrog monastery. “Church is no place forpolitics. We are not hiding him here. Only Godcan protect him now,” says Father Sergei, a seniorpriest at Ostrog. Other seized letters written byKaradzic, however, suggest he has been trying toinvolve the church in dubious property deals.

bunker complex at Han Pijesak, which onceserved as the general’s wartime headquarters.

Six months later, Nato troops swooped on thesite and found the underground complex fullyheated, with beds made and a kitchen fullystocked. In an operation code-named “stabledoor”, they ordered the bunker to be sealed offwith concrete. When we visited in September,however, Serb soldiers standing guard at itsentrance, and ordering us to leave immediately,gave no indication that the site had been closed.

In recent months there has been muchspeculation that Mladic would rather commitsuicide than risk capture. Others claim thatnegotiations are under way with the governmentin Belgrade to persuade him to surrender to theHague. A large amount of money is said to havebeen offered to his family if he hands himself in.To the outrage of most Bosnians, money isknown to have been paid to the families of other,lower-ranking war-crimes suspects, partiallyexplaining the large number of surrenders ofwanted men – 69 in all, 24 in the past year. Thisbrings to 126 those indicted for war crimes bythe ICTY who have so far been sent to theHague for trial – 25 of them arrested outside theBalkans, some in Russia and South America. Asthe number of war-crimes suspects wanted bythe ICTY has dwindled – just seven, includingKaradzic and Mladic, remain at large – themilitary brass with both Nato and Eufor

Mladic, meanwhile, is believed still to rely on theprotection of his former military comrades. Until three years ago, he was seen dining openlyin expensive restaurants in Belgrade, and wasspotted attending football matches. AfterMilosevic was sent to the Hague, and Mladic losthis political protector, he went into hiding andhas rarely been sighted since. On the eve of localelections in Serbia in the summer of 2004,however, Nato sources say he sought refuge in a a

Above: Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic (right) andSonja, her daughter, athome in Pale, 2004. Left:Ostrog monastery inMontenegro, believed tobe a hideout for Karadzic

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bridle at accusations that their list of bungledoperations amounts to serial failure.

“Yes, it’s true the most wanted are still at large,”concedes General Bill Weber, the newly arrivedTexan head of Nato’s small remaining force. “But what’s interesting is that as the number of‘Pifwcs’ reduce, you can focus more of yourattention and resources on the small number thatremain.” Pifwcs is an acronym for “personsindicted for war crimes”, but as a civilian at thebase later pointed out, “It makes them soundmore like cute cookies than criminals.” Webergoes on to admit how the Americans really viewit: “We just want to get this issue off the tablenow and move on. It’s been 10 years. It’s gone onlong enough. How much longer can it go on?”

It is a question every Bosnian would likeanswered. But Weber’s comment sums up theincreasing lack of interest most feel that theinternational community now shows towardsthe issue of arresting Karadzic and Mladic. Thepolicy of Britain and the rest of the EU and theUS has been a combination of carrot and stick;the carrot being the beginning of accession talksto the EU and membership of Nato’s Partnershipfor Peace programme, and the stick, a suspensionof aid. But neither has worked so far when itcomes to Karadzic and Mladic.

“Bosnia has become a sideshow, an irritant, anuisance, now that the focus is on Iraq and thewar on terrorism,” said one frustrated political

‘hold on until the foreigners get bored, go awayand leave us to our own devices’. But we will notgo away until they are captured,” says Ashdown.Weber’s assurance is more alarming: “I’d like toremind people that Simon Wiesenthal was stillchasing war criminals 50 years after the end ofthe second world war.” Bosnia may not have theluxury of so much time.

Aside from talks on the country’s accession tothe EU and future economic welfare beingconditional on their capture, some raise thespectre of renewed conflict if they are not caught.There has never been any doubt that the wayBosnia was carved up into a semi-autonomousSerb republic and Muslim-Croat federation –which share rotating positions of governmentauthority – was unworkable in the long term.The longer Karadzic and Mladic remain at large,the greater the risk of those, especially withinRepublika Srpska and neighbouring Serbia,using such a denial of atrocities committedduring the war to fuel dangerous tensions inBosnia’s fledgling democracy. Suzana Sacic, acolumnist with the Sarajevo weekly newsmagazine Slobodna Bosna, sums up the threat:“Evil politics are behind the fact that Karadzicand Mladic have been allowed to remain free.This has left this entire region in a dangerousvacuum. What would have happened if Hitlerhad remained on the scene, and been allowed tocontinue influencing Germany’s political life?” ■

consultant. Given the amount of intelligencethere has been about the whereabouts of bothmen, he reflects the view of many that neitherwill be caught until it is considered politicallyexpedient – especially by the authorities inSerbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska.

Paddy Ashdown, the internationalcommunity’s high representative in Bosnia,looks weary as he speaks of the need for the huntfor Karadzic and Mladic to be viewed as a “longcampaign, not a series of commando raids. Untilnow the policy of the international communityhas been the policy of the lucky break. What youhave to do to catch him is change the perceptionof the people who provide him with support”.

To this end, Ashdown has concentrated hisefforts on launching Operation Balkan Vice tocrack down on the organised-crime networksthat support Karadzic and Mladic. He has frozenthe assets of many of those involved and sackeddozens of officials, including Bosnian Serbpoliticians and police accused of impeding thehunt. “You can’t have stable peace withoutjustice, and you can’t have justice until theprimary architects of this horror are brought totrial,” says Ashdown, whose term of office is dueto end early next year. Whoever takes his place ashigh representative is mandated by the Daytonpeace accords to continue pushing for the arrestof Karadzic, Mladic and other wanted warcriminals. “Karadzic has famously vowed he will

BOSNIAN WAR CRIMES: continued