Karadzic Losing Cachet Among Serbs
HAN PIJESAK, Bosnia-Herzegovina — In mountains scattered with sawmills and war bones, Zoran Mikevic paints murals of martyrs and saints in the cool half-light of a church. He is reticent about the bloodshed that ruined this land a decade ago. But when pressed, he hops off his scaffolding and deifies Bosnia's most notorious war crimes fugitive.
"Radovan Karadzic led his people through a difficult time," said Mikevic, his voice softly echoing through the Serbian Orthodox church here. "All the saints I'm painting on these walls are martyrs. Karadzic is a martyr too. He's a Serb. He's one of my own, and there's something in me that loves the underdog."
Accused by international authorities of orchestrating the 1995 massacre of about 7,500 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, Karadzic has been eluding thousands of NATO troops and jeopardizing the credibility of the international community. He is believed to be traveling with bodyguards, slipping through backwater villages and pine forests, and bankrolled by a secret network of supporters.
Karadzic's wartime leadership remains revered in this rugged terrain, but passion for the bushy-haired poet turned charismatic nationalist has become muted over the years as many Bosnian Serbs blame him for their economic and political turmoil. Time and poverty have diminished Serbian dreams of ethnic purity. And Karadzic -- much like former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- is viewed by many as an unwanted relic from a painful era.
"I have no time for Radovan Karadzic. I have my own problems," said Sofija Mirkovic, more scant in her praise than Mikevic as she sat in the shadow of the church. "My husband died of lung cancer. I live on a [$45]-a-month pension. I'm 65 years old and have to cut my own wood for winter."
A man who gave his name only as Bozidar offered blunt advice: "If I were Karadzic, I'd turn myself in to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague just to stop the suffering of my people. Serbs would respect him even more if he did that. People don't condemn Karadzic, but they don't like him so much anymore."
Such sentiments would have rarely been whispered -- if held at all -- just a few years ago. The change in mood, Western officials say, increases the possibility that Karadzic's protective cloak may splinter. The international administrator of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, intensified pressure on the Serbian leadership last week by removing 59 government and police officials he accused of helping Karadzic hide in a "climate of secrecy and impunity."
- Serbian Party Expels Karadzic, Other Suspects Dec 25, 2001
- Bosnia Serbs to Seek War Crime Figures Nov 16, 2001
- NATO-Led Forces Arrest 1992 Massacre Suspect Jun 14, 2002
