Jovanka Karadzic, an 83-year-old widow, was laid to rest in this Montenegrin town this weekend with honors befitting a national heroine.
Her great achievement, most said, was her son, Radovan, a psychiatrist and poet, but better known to the outside world as the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during Bosnia's civil war, from 1992 to 1995. He is one of the most wanted war crimes suspects sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in The Hague.
Almost 10 years have passed since the tribunal indicted him as the main advocate of killing or forcing out Bosnia's Muslims and Croats during the war, in which an estimated 150,000 people were killed. But in spite of repeated efforts to seize him, mainly by NATO-led troops in Bosnia, he has avoided capture.
Officials at the war crimes tribunal say a well-financed support network that includes police officers and members of the intelligence services in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as members of the Serbian Orthodox Church, has enabled Karadzic to remain on the run.
The funeral of Karadzic's mother provided admirers -- for whom Karadzic still holds near mythical status -- an opportunity to show their support for him. It was also a reminder of his elusiveness.
Former soldiers, a few wearing T-shirts bearing Karadzic's picture and the slogan "Serbian Hero," attended a packed service at the main public cemetery here. The two most senior members of Montenegro's Serbian Orthodox Church led the funeral, which was attended by people who had traveled from Bosnia and Serbia for the occasion.
Amfilohije Radovic, the Metropolitan of Montenegro, described Mrs. Karadzic as "the mother of an immortal." He described a conversation he said he once had with her: "She once said: `I would be a happy mother if they brought my son's dead body for me to kiss if I know he had died devoted to truth and his people. I would be an unhappy mother if they brought him to me alive and he had betrayed his people and his fate.'"
For Serbian nationalists, who make up the largest bloc of voters in both Serbia and Bosnia's Serbian republic, Karadzic remains a symbol of defiance against the rest of the world, all the more important perhaps since their governments have begun to cooperate with the tribunal.
Substantial evidence of Karadzic's whereabouts has been scarce. The tribunal's chief prosecutor said at one stage Karadzic had been given refuge at a Serbian Orthodox Monastery near Niksic, a claim the church denied. A Bosnian newspaper also published claims that he had cut off his thick gray locks, and adopted a monk's habit.
Although Serbian and Bosnian Serb authorities long stonewalled on arresting suspects because of popular opposition to handing them over, international pressure has borne fruit, diplomats in the region contend, with the transfer of 12 Serbian war crimes suspects this year.
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