A mistress, a bogus family he said he left in the US and regular visits to a bar called "The Madhouse" where he sipped wine below a picture of himself in his heyday — these are among the details that have emerged about Radovan Karadzic's secret life.
Since his arrest on Monday, Serbs have been enthralled by the former Bosnian Serb leader’s transformation from a suit-and-tie politician who led Bosnian Serbs to their country’s ethnic bloodletting into a long-haired health guru.
Genocide charges against him and his upcoming extradition to the UN war crimes court have taken a back burner to every new revelation.
PHOTO: AP
Karadzic’s metamorphosis was so complete that many of his neighbors say they are struggling to comprehend how the friendly man they knew as Dr Dragan David Dabic could have turned out to be one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives.
“His new life was fascinating. He hid in the open,” criminologist Leposava Kron said.
Karadzic, who had been on the run for nearly a decade, had a girlfriend he presented as an associate in the alternative medicine business he ran, said Zoran Pavlovic, a software engineer.
Pavlovic said Karadzic hired him in February to set up a Web site to advertise his expertise in “human quantum energy.”
Pavlovic said he had visited Karadzic’s apartment in a grim suburb of the capital called New Belgrade once or twice a month to discuss the project. On a table was a framed photograph of four boys — all dressed in yellow LA Lakers T-shirts — who Karadzic said were grandsons living in the US.
Karadzic claimed to have lived in New York City and that he “got his diploma” in the US.
“He told me he traveled often to America and I had no reason to disbelieve him,” Pavlovic said.
Karadzic was always dressed in black and often complained that money was hard to come by, Pavlovic said.
“Frankly, he scared me a bit. I thought he belonged to some religious sect or something, with that beard and all, but I treated him as any other client,” Pavlovic said.
He displayed gold and silver-plated, bullet-shaped metal objects that Karadzic had given him and which he used in his healing practices to attract “cosmic energy.”
Karadzic introduced the girlfriend only by her first name, Mila — an attractive brunette in her early 40s — and Pavlovic said she sometimes offered her own suggestions for the Web site. Karadzic remained officially married to Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, who lives in their family house in the former Serbian stronghold of Pale.
“If anyone knew who he really was, she [the girlfriend] must be the one,” Pavlovic said.
Attempts to track down Mila for comment were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
Karadzic’s neighbors had only praise for him.
“He was always polite, offering his services to help my husband, who had a stroke,” said Milica Sener, a neighbor who lives one floor down. “But I declined. We don’t believe in alternative medicine.”
Shopkeeper Gordana Blagojevic said Karadzic bought yogurt and whole-grain bread at her store every other day, sometimes with his girlfriend in tow.
“I was shocked to hear who he really is,” Blagojevic said.
Pensioner Milica Bjelanovic said Karadzic moved to the neighborhood about a year and a half ago. She described him as a quiet man whose striking appearance — a kind of bushy beatnik Santa with long hair worn in a plaited top-knot — made him an oddity.
Misko Kovijanic, who owns “The Madhouse” bar in Karadzic’s neighborhood, said Karadzic was a regular who liked to sip red wine in the tavern decorated with a photo of himself and fellow war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic.
The photographs hang over bottles of Serbian slivovitz plum brandy lined up on the bar, showing Mladic in combat fatigues and Karadzic, with his familiar salt-and-pepper mane, in a stylish suit.
“I’m very proud that he came to my pub, and I’m very sad that he was arrested,” Kovijanic said.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person