MONTENEGRO: The former Bosnian Serb leader is on the run from the war crimes tribunal. But he keeps in touch with his brother, Luka, who spoke to Eve-Ann Prentice, reporting from Niksic in Montenegro.
Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader and one of the most hunted men on earth, has managed to slip through the net once more. The Internet, that is.
While the massed ranks of NATO and the United Nations periodically scour the remote mountain villages of northern Montenegro and southern Bosnia in vain attempts to arrest him, Mr Karadzic has managed to send a message to his fellow Serbs, which is soon to be posted on the World Wide Web, congratulating them on Yugoslavia's victory as gold medallists in the world basketball championships last month.
Now his younger brother, Luka (50), warns that Mr Karadzic's protectors will not let him go without a fight if UN troops eventually do manage to snatch him from one of the hideouts he is believed to move between constantly. "I assume that if something like this happens, there will be violence," he says.
"More than 90 per cent of the people there are protecting him and even Carla del Ponte [chief prosecutor in the war crimes tribunal] has said that the Karadzic cordon will be hard to break. The whole Serbian community protects him."
Luka pauses to light a cigarette as he explains that his brother's baseball-victory congratulation is one of the small but significant ways in which Mr Karadzic's family know he is alive and well, insisting as they do that they have not had direct contact with him for years. The man who was political leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the bitter civil war of a decade ago has been on the run from the international community for almost seven years.
Earlier this year, UN troops launched two helicopter raids on villages in the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska region, bordering Montenegro, in an attempt to snatch the elusive Mr Karadzic.
But the nearest they came to seizing him was when they opened fire on his portrait, according to local people who are still furious about the operation.
Villagers in Celebic say the international soldiers broke doors, harassed women and children and panicked their livestock. One young girl was so traumatised that she fainted, according to Montenegrin journalist Nikola Markovic, who was in the village at the time.
"Only God knows if they came close to taking Radovan," says his brother.
"They probably have some vague hints about where he is, but as far as I know he was never in imminent danger of being caught."
Luka is speaking from the Belgrade offices of the Committee for the Truth About Radovan Karadzic, a group of admirers who run the website where the fugitive's messages are posted.
The site also contains a letter from the former Bosnian Serb leader, written in April this year, in which he says he has made "thousands of new friends" who are protecting him, and where he professes a desire "never to be a shame to my grandchildren".
Luka, as bald as his infamous brother is shaggy-haired, says one of the hardest aspects of being on the run for Karadzic is his inability to see his children, Sonia and Aleksandar, and four grandchildren - all born after his disappearance into the mountains.
Mr Karadzic's wife. Liljana, runs a Red Cross department in Banja Luka, Bosnia.
"He always liked children and was always looking after me when we were young. I bet he has taken it very badly that he has not seen any of his grandchildren; one, Ivan, was born just two months ago."
Mr Karadzic must also have been torn with anxiety in January and February this year, when his mother, Jovanka, was seriously ill at her home in Montenegro's second city, Niksic. "She is now much better," says Luka of the woman who gave birth to Radovan in a stable in Bosnia 57 years ago.
Conversation with Luka, meanwhile, is frequently interrupted by mobile telephone conversations. Radovan Karadzic's younger brother runs a fruit juice company from Belgrade, but earlier this year he lost a contract to lease petrol stations from Serbia's state oil company, Jugopetrol.
America threatened new sanctions against the country unless Jugopetrol severed its links with Mr Karadzic's brother and "this forced me almost to bankruptcy", he says. "I am about to start legal proceedings against the US government because of this," he adds.
"Lawyers are helping me prepare a case to go before the international courts because of their illegal moves. They are stopping me pursuing my business, which is unthinkable in Western countries."
Since Radovan Karadzic may have access to the Internet, does Luka have any message for his brother, should he read this interview? Far from being a war criminal, Radovan Karadzic is a truly noble person, says Luka.
"After the demonisation of the Serbs and the media war, it is hard to explain to people in the West about the real Radovan. When the war started he was defending his people all the time, but he never wanted to defeat the Muslims or conquer Sarajevo. Radovan was reluctant to use his military superiority."
Luka insists: "We have so much proof that will help Radovan if he ever gets to the Hague. Will they get him in the end? We don't think about that at all. They are hunting one humanist and philosopher and it would be more appropriate to remove the indictment against him right now, while they can keep their honour.
"My message to him is that I personally, and the majority of Serbs, are proud of him for all the things he has done for the Serbian people. I am especially proud of the things he is doing right now and I send him my full support. Let God be with him."