SFOR troops smash up Radovan Karadzic home

Nato HQ in Brussels has reported that International Stabilisation Force troops (SFOR) conducted a search of former Serbian president Radovan Karadzic's house in Pale on Tuesday. However, according to Nato information, the search did not yield any results, except for the fact that "a few firearms were discovered." The ex-president's wife, Liliana Zelen Karadzic, told journalists that the operation, which involved about 50 soldiers and three helicopters, started at 3 a.m. local time and lasted for five hours. According to her, they put the 60-year-old night watchman in handcuffs and turned over everything in the house in an attempt to find Karadzic himself. He has been accused by the Hague tribunal of committing war crimes.

Nobody was at home at the time of the search apart from the night watchman. The ex-president's son, Alexander, had left a few hours prior to the operation.

The troops shot up the house's lock to gain entry, ripped up floorboards and tore off all the paintings from the walls. The ex-president's wife said that the SFOR troops took away two computer disks and several video cassettes featuring recordings of meetings involving the former Bosnian Serb leader.

Karadzic's wife believes that the search was conducted to exert pressure on and frighten members of the former president's family.