Pressure on the family Karadzic.

last updated 8 January 2015

Serbia-Montenegro

Svetlana Vojinovic

What could make a loyal wife suddenly turn against her husband? asked Svetlana Vojinovic in Belgrade’s Glas Javnosti. Could it be fear for her children? For 10 years, Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic was one of the most defiant defenders of her husband, the indicted Bosnian-Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. She refused to confirm or deny rumors that Radovan, who is wanted for genocide of Bosnian Muslims during the Yugoslav wars, was hiding in either Serbia or the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia. Last week, though, she suddenly appeared on regional television, “visibly shaken and tearful,” appealing to her husband to turn himself in for his family’s sake. She looked like a browbeaten, frightened woman, forced to do something against her will. And indeed, her brother-in-law told this newspaper that “people”—presumably from NATO and the Serbian government—have been “exerting exceptional pressure” on Karadzic family members. Radovan and Ljiljana’s son, Sasa, has been detained and questioned, possibly threatened. We can only wonder what they said to Ljiljana to “drive her to such an action.”