Nato troops have arrested the son of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic in the hope he can lead them to his father, who is wanted for orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre 10 years ago this month.
Witnesses in Pale, Karadzic's wartime stronghold near Sarajevo where his wife, son and daughter live, said Nato
soldiers set up a meeting with Aleksandar "Sasa" Karadzic (32), then handcuffed him and took him away by helicopter.
"They took Sasa from his flat. He was handcuffed and wore a flak-jacket. They put him in a black jeep and then put a hood over his head," a witness said.
Aleksandar's sister, Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic, said Nato had set up a meeting to return documents seized in May during a raid on the apartment of his father-in-law, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Nato soldiers asked other family members to leave the room and when his father-in-law entered a few minutes later it was empty, she said. Witnesses said they saw the soldiers put Sasa onto a helicopter at a nearby playground.
The arrest comes a few days before the July 11th anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, for which the former Bosnian Serb president and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladic are charged with genocide by the UN court.
"Aleksandar Karadzic is suspected of rendering support to an . . . indicted war criminal, and may have information vital to the goal of locating indicted war criminals or identifying their supporters," Nato said in a statement.
Sonja Karadzic called it a "kidnapping", part of constant pressure on the family, and said it was probably related to the 10th anniversary of the "Srebrenica events".
"But they know better than us that we have not had contact with Radovan Karadzic for years, since they follow and tap our phones all the time," she added. "The family is the weakest link in his support network."
Nato raided the homes of Karadzic's family in May searching for information. A alliance official told Reuters last week the alliance did not know where Karadzic was.
Karadzic and Mladic are also charged with the wartime siege of Sarajevo in which 10,000 people were killed. Some 200,000 people died in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, mostly Bosnian Muslims.
Karadzic went underground in 1997. Mladic lived discreetly in Belgrade until 2002 then vanished. The West says they are both protected by hardline Serb nationalists in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.