Italian Article on Karadzic's Location

My Italian friend found this article in L'Espresso and translated it for me. For whatever reason, Karadzic remains in the public fascination of Europe, while the United States has all but forgotten about him.

In case you are wondering about L'Espresso's point of view on Karadzic, the title of this article is "Where Karadzic the Beast is Hiding!" It is from the September 7th 2007 issue of L'Espresso, written by Mr. Gigi Riva:

Karadzic now has a long beard. He wears the monk’s dress but his physical appearance has not changed: he’s not renounced the grizzled tuft. He is living in the Orthodox monasteries. He frequently moves in 3 different monasteries:

- Trebinje (in Herzegovina);
- Ostrog (in Montenegro);
- Fruska Gora (in Vojvodina, Serbia);

He is accused of genocide, war crimes and murder. For his colleague Mladic the situation is changed when he was stopped by the police and now he is in Belgrade, checked by the Serbian secret police. He’ll be used for negotiations about Kosovo’s future.

Now the international secret service has a lot information about Karadzic. Before, their work was slowed by political interests. The intelligence services lost a lot of time in the past and now 24 hours of work at day are not in enough to catch him.

A NATO general says, “For the first time we have a lot of accurate information about him, the true hunting starts now. In order to understand the reality around this killer we can divide his life in different phases”:

First period:

At the end of the war in Bosnia, Karadzic was wanted. Otherwise he was free in his home of Pale, and during this period he was not disturbed by the Italian soldiers that were responsible for that city. He was protected by his body-guards. In a page of his daughter’s (Sonja) diary we can read these words: "My dad is quiet because he’s made an agreement with Mr. Richard Holbrooke that he won’t be arrested.”

Second period:

Some of the others responsible for genocide such as Bojc moved to the south of Bosnia in the city of Sokolovac, because Pale was not a safe place anymore. During this period Karadzic lived normally without being particularly frightened.

Third period:

Differently from the precedent period the city of Sokolovac became dangerous for their protection. Karadzic thought to go in Belgrade but Bojc advised him against moving to Belgrade because Milosevic would sell him to the Americans. In this period Karadzic reduced the number of his bodyguards for two reasons: the high cost, and the practical reason that a high number of bodyguards is very visible.

During this period he was particularly active and he moved among the border of Serbia Montenegro and Bosnia.

Fourth period:

The intelligence services of the West gathered enough information to suppose that Karadzic has been protected by the Orthodox Church since 2003. There are a wide number of faithfuls who swear that Karadzic is hided in the monastery. They saw him and talked with him!! But if he’ll remain always in a monastery there aren’t conditions to arrest him, because Orthodox Church enjoys extra-territorialities. Only faithfuls can enter.

To understand the reality of Karadzic's personality we need to focus our attention on his family: Karadzic’s wife is Liljana, the sons are Alexander and Sonja. The Karadzic’s family situation worsened after the crash of the Banka Srpsko Sarajevo, that is supposed to be a financial resource for Karadzic and his family. Liljana does not have a real social life, and spends her days at home (the nickname of the house is the Pink house).

The Karadzic’s family says that they don’t have contact with Karadzic, but that is difficult to believe. They don’t communicate by PC or internet but like Provenzano(Italian Mafia boss) they use simple paper with codes.

Most of this represents conventional wisdom on Karadzic, but it is great to see it memorialized in a major publication.