The wife of long-sought Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic urged her husband in a dramatic appeal Thursday to surrender to United Nations authorities, dpa reported. Grave-faced and clearly close to tears, Ljilijana Zelen-Karadzic said via the Belgrade broadcaster B-92: "I beg you with all my heart to give yourself up." She said she was making the appeal after being torn between "loyalty" towards her husband on one hand and towards their children and grandchildren on the other. Karadzic, she said, should surrender if he was still alive, and if he were still able to make a "voluntary" decision. She said the entire family had long been under pressure. Their lives had been threatened, and they were living in fear. For this reason her husband should "sacrifice" himself for his family. NATO and European Union forces have repeatedly searched Karadzic family homes in the past months. His son Alasander was detained for several days, and his bank accounts have been blocked for years. Karadzic, leader of Bosnian Serbs during the 1991-95, conflict was indicted along with his top military commander Ratko Mladic a decade ago by The Hague-based U.N. International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
