Troops hunt Bosnian Serb ‘war crimes’ fugitive

updated 12:37 p.m. ET March 27, 2008

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Peacekeepers searched the homes of the family and a neighbor of Bosnia's most-wanted war crimes suspect on Thursday looking for clues to his whereabouts, officials said.

European Union forces supported by NATO began simultaneous searches at the homes of Radovan Karadzic's wife, Ljiljana, his daughter, Sonja, and his neighbor Smiljka Popov.

The aim was to find material or information that may help in the search for war-crimes suspects, and to put pressure on networks that support him in hiding, said Lt. Philip Treloar, a spokesman for the European Union Force, EUFOR.

"We took away items of interest," he said, without elaborating.

Popov, who runs an accounting service, told local media the troops had taken documents related to her company as well as her telephones and computers.

The three homes were all in the wartime Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, 10 miles east of Sarajevo. Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic lives in her sister's house, in the same neighborhood as Popov's home. Sonja Karadzic lives with her family in an apartment building.

Indicted for genocide
Bosnian Serb police were helping EUFOR and NATO troops in the search, Treloar said.

Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, and Ratko Mladic, his military commander, were indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for genocide and other crimes, including the slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Both have eluded capture since the 1995 indictment. NATO officials believe a network of supporters is funding and helping to hide the fugitives.

$5 million reward
Mladic is believed to be hiding in Serbia, but there have been no hints about Karadzic's whereabouts for years.

Karadzic's home and the homes of his children have been raided many times, with documents and other material seized and his family members questioned.

The government of the United States is offering $5 million for any information that could lead to the arrest of Karadzic, Mladic or two more suspects on the run, Stojan Zupljanin, a Bosnian Serb military leader, and Goran Hadzic, a political leader wanted for war crimes in Croatia.

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