Sarajevo - International administrator in Bosnia Miroslav
Lajcak said he may consider returning travel documents to the
Karadzic family once he is sure this would not contribute to the
support network for suspected war criminals still at large, Bosnian
media reported Friday.
After the top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic was
arrested late Monday in Belgrade, his wife and daughter called on the
international community's high representative in Bosnia to give them
back their travel documents so they can visit Karadzic while he is
still in Belgrade.
In January Lajcak ordered the confiscation of the documents under
the suspicion that the family were involved in the support network
for war crimes suspects still at large.
Stressing that they don't have enough money to travel to The Hague
once Karadzic is transported to the UN war crimes tribunal there, his
family asked for permission to visit him in Belgrade.
Lajcak told a local TV station in Bosnia that Karadzic's family
'will have many opportunities to see their father in the years to
come, which is not the case for the victims of the massacre in
Srebrenica and in many other places.'
He also commented on the statement of the Bosnian Serb Prime
Minister Milorad Dodik, who said the Bosnian Serb government is
willing to support Karadzic's family financially.
'That sounds like needless, cheap pre-elections rhetoric,' said
Lajcak.
Lajcak's Principal Deputy Raffi Gregorian warned that the motives
behind Dodik's offer to help the Karadzics were questionable.
He said Bosnia's institutions should investigate how it was
possible for members of the Karadzic family to live for years without
any official income.
Serbian authorities arrested Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade late
Monday.
The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Karadzic for war crimes, genocide, crimes
against humanity and severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions during
the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Karadzic was hiding from justice for nearly 13 years before he was
arrested. He had been using a false identity and working in a private
clinic in Belgrade as a doctor of alternative medicine.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story