|
Daughter asks to visit Karadzic
23/07/2008 14:01 - (SA)
Pale - The daughter of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic appealed Wednesday to an international envoy to allow his family to visit him in a Belgrade prison cell.
"I ask for Mr (Miroslav) Lajcak ... to enable our trip to Belgrade, since it is very likely the last chance to see my father," Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic said.
"My mum is sick, and our financial situation is such that we could not afford to make a visit to The Hague" where the UN war crimes tribunal is based, she said.
Lajcak, acting on the UN court's request, had ordered police to seize travel papers from Karadzic's four closest family members in January as they were suspected of helping him to evade capture.
Karadzic, on the run for more than a decade, was arrested by Serbian security forces in Belgrade on Monday night and is expected to be transferred to the UN court within days to answer to genocide charges.
"I appeal for permission to make the visit. After 10 years of living in hell, I don't see any need for any additional maltreatment," said Karadzic-Jovicevic.
She was referring to pressure by the international community in Bosnia that included frequent pre-dawn raids by peacekeepers based in the country on the homes of the Karadzic family.
Earlier, Lajcak's office said the powerful envoy would reconsider measures undertaken against the family members "after consultations with local and international partners".
He had ordered the seizure of the travel documents of the Bosnian Serb wartime leader's wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic, their son Sasa, daughter Sonja and her husband.
Prior to his arrest, Karadzic lived freely in Belgrade, practicing alternative medicine under a false name, according to Serbian officials. He disguised himself under flowing white hair and a thick beard.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Karadzic for genocide and war crimes near the end of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
The charges are mainly related to two of Europe's worst atrocities since World War 2, the 44-month siege of Sarajevo which killed more than 10 000 people and the Srebrenica massacre of about 8 000 Muslim males.
- AFP
|
News
