Karadzic's decision not to surrender "strategic" - brother tells Serbian paper
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - August 1, 2007, Wednesday

Text of report by Serbian newspaper Glas javnosti on 30 July

[Interview with Luka Karadzic, brother of Radovan Karadzic, by Branka Kuljanin; place and date not given: "If Radovan Surrenders, the Serb Republic Will Disappear"]

Radovan Karadzic's decision not to surrender is a strategic one. If he were to surrender he would be convicted of the gravest atrocities and the Serb Republic would disappear, Luka Karadzic, brother of Radovan Karadzic, former president of the Serb Republic and an indictee of the Hague Tribunal, said in an interview with Glas javnosti.

[Glas javnosti] Your brother has been indicted for genocide, violating war conventions, expulsion on racial and religious grounds, forcible relocation.

[Karadzic] Those who issued the indictment know that none of those counts are true or based on law, arguments, or evidence. It is an indictment that was drawn up before the war broke out in the former Bosnia-Hercegovina. We know who planned the war and caused the conflict among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia.

Those who planned the war, planned in advance to accuse the Serbs for the most horrendous atrocities. As for the Hague Tribunal and accusations against my brother, they are done solely to condemn the Serbs, to pass the blame from the criminals and evildoers - NATO and the United States and others who bombed the Serbs in B-H [Bosnia-Hercegovina], the Croats who drove away the Serbs and bombed their convoys, from Muslims, and Islamic extremists - to the victim, the Serbs. Serbs waged war against armed forces and those who were armed and attacked Serbs and Serb territory. War was not waged against civilians, neither Croat nor Muslim. Apparently my brother is to blame mostly for preventing a new genocide against the Serbs. Perhaps they blame him because, for the first time, the Serbs fought a war in which they did not shoot each other, in which Serbs did not draw blood from Serbs.

[Glas javnosti] Is there any order that proves Karadzic committed any of the acts he is accused of?

[Karadzic] That is bewildering. There is not a single written order, no witness among the Serbs, not in the Serb Republic Army, not even among those who later joined the party led by Biljana Plavsic, who could say or testify to such an order, not only by my brother, but by any senior official of the Serb Republic civilian authorities or Serb Republic Army. There is no order commanding anything that would be dishonourable to a Serb soldier or civilian. I guarantee it with my life. If anyone can testify otherwise or present a credible paper, let them do so.

[Glas javnosti] The indictment says differently.

[Karadzic] The tribunal is waiting for Radovan and Ratko Mladic only. They were convicted before their trials for genocide and no attorney or paper could prove there was no genocide and that they did not order genocide, just for the sake of abolishing the Serb Republic.

[Glas javnosti] The United States has offered 5m dollars and the B-H Federation 4m marks for information on Radovan.

[Karadzic] They are out of their mind. That is a trifle for Radovan. Who would take that money and spend it? I doubt anyone would. In those movies on bounty hunters, did anyone see them ever getting paid? They are cowboys; they offer money. Which Serb would spend that money, spend it with his family, after betraying Radovan and Ratko Mladic who fought solely for the Serb state, the Serb people and their children, and I assure you, for all well-meaning people who lived and still live in B-H, in the territories that were under the control of the Serb forces and part of the Serb Republic? The Hague Tribunal took about 300 documents from the Serb Republic in 1997 and 1998, looking only to find something by which to accuse Radovan, working for the indictment. I was there about seven or eight times, when they came. The investigators worked very professionally, respectfully, and proficiently. Who knows what happened to those documents. No one has said anything about them. There is no paper, no statement, yet they had video and audio statements and the minutes with signatures. They took every order, every decision made by Radovan and the Serb Republic Assembly. There is not a single paper that could raise the least bit of suspicion that anything illegal or unfair was done, in contravention of international conventions, international law, and the international law on war.

[Glas javnosti] The entire Karadzic family is under surveillance because of Radovan.

[Karadzic] Four of us brothers and a sister. It has become customary, and quite a bore.

[Glas javnosti] What are they looking for?

[Karadzic] I have no idea. When they search our house and we ask them what they are looking for, they give no reply. The last time they were in my house in Niksic, there were more than 20 armed people and only my wife was at home. Imagine someone ringing your bell and rapping on the gate. They did not break down the door, but they surrounded the house as if there were terrorists inside, or hardened criminals, or drug dealers. It would terrify every normal man or woman.

[Glas javnosti] Do you count the searches?

[Karadzic] That was the second time they searched the house when she was alone; on one occasion I was there, too. My Milica, my faithful love, she tried to contact me, but they interrupted the call. I heard her saying: "What is the problem? That is my phone and my husband. I have to notify my husband."

[Glas javnosti] You cannot travel abroad?

[Karadzic] The United States barred entry to me long ago and it scarcely upset me; I had no plans to travel to the United States, so I thank them. The same goes for the EU. Just three weeks ago, and I thank them as well; I will not be travelling to the European Union. I do not need them. I am barred from entering as well as from transit through the EU. Which means we cannot travel to Russia or Ukraine by car or train. Only by plane, because they cannot stop a plane. I thank them, I have no intention of travelling, especially if this is the Europe that will take Kosovo from us, pull out our heart. I have no desire to go to Europe.

[Glas javnosti] You have problems here as well.

[Karadzic] We are used to it, being tailed and bugged. But I feel at ease here as well as there. I know they are listening in on me here, but I have no concerns about who is behind me. I know what I know and what I do not know, and no one can find out from me things I do not know about.

[Glas javnosti] When did you last see Radovan?

[Karadzic] Everyone asks me that. I will tell you and make a note of it by your telephone, that it was 1998. Do not ask me again. Everyone asks me repeatedly and I tell everyone the same thing. I remember telling many journalists and yet they ask me again.

[Glas javnosti] Did you know then that it would be the last time?

[Karadzic] Biljana Plavsic came to power and Dodik. She won a landslide victory in the 1996 elections. After that, in agreement with her close friend Madeleine Albright - who had her sent to the Hague Tribunal - she broke loose from the SDS [Serb Democratic Party] and then reviled the party, Radovan, and the Serb leaders. She thought that working with the Americans was a rewarding business. She did not see how American associates before her fared. She vilified everything for which some people called her the Serb empress. She launched the campaign for Radovan's arrest, as persuaded by Albright and her chief of staff, the unfortunate Price - a Serb with American citizenship, and then Dodik came. That is why Radovan retired into complete isolation and anonymity and no one knows where he is.

[Glas javnosti] Has he taken other steps?

[Karadzic] In 1996, he changed his security staff for security reasons. Since 1990, his staff were never bodybuilders, bodyguards, or tough guys. They were professionals, members of the special forces of the B-H Interior Ministry. When the B-H split up, they became part of the Serb Republic. He did it for their safety.

[Glas javnosti] Paddy Ashdown said that Legija [Milorad Ulemek] was part of Radovan's security staff.

[Karadzic] Never. That is nonsense and only someone stupid can say that Legija fled Serbia and found refuge with Radovan after Djindjic's murder. That was so preposterous there was no point in denying it.

[Glas javnosti] What did Holbrooke guarantee Karadzic?

[Karadzic] Holbrooke guaranteed that the indictment would be withdrawn if Radovan retired from politics and public life altogether. They have this institution of withdrawing indictments and we had hopes for that, not only because Holbrooke had said so, but because we have all the arguments and because the tribunal has documents that support Karadzic's innocence. Unfortunately, they are only concerned about convicting Radovan and Mladic.

[Glas javnosti] Do you dream about your brother?

[Karadzic] I have, many times. We were very close. I am the second of five children, of our father Vuk and mother Jovanka. Radovan was born in 1945. Our father was in jail for four years and 10 months as a Chetnik [Serb nationalist in World War Two]. He came home in 1950 and I was born in 1951. I think we were lucky that our father was a Chetnik. If he had been in the partisan forces [led by Tito], he would have been sent to the Goli Otok island [where political prisoners were sent after World War Two] for sure, he would not have survived and I would not have been born. He was a man of his word, he commanded authority and you could not have him do anything that was against his conscience.

[Glas javnosti] What was the most painful time in your life?

[Karadzic] When mother died and he could not come, her first-born, to make that last speech and bid her farewell on our behalf, as he did when our father died in 1987.

[Glas javnosti] Should Radovan surrender?

[Karadzic] Somebody will write down what has happened, it will make history. There is nothing to moan about, no lectures to give. Everything that is being done is being done in the best interests of the Serbs. Radovan's decision not to surrender is strategic. If he were to surrender, he would be convicted of the most horrendous crimes and the Serb Republic would disappear.

Source: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 30 Jul 07 pp 4-5

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