I wanted to highlight this because it’s really very dramatic given how much the international eye has refocused on Serbian war crimes. The wife of one of the leaders indicted for genocide spoke out on regional television stations appealing for his surrender. I can’t even imagine how hard that must be.

29 July 2005 (RFE/RL) — The wife of war crimes indictee and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appealed to her husband in a broadcast carried by several regional television stations yesterday to surrender to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.

Bosnian and international media said the appeal came as a surprise to regional political, military, and journalistic communities, while a EUFOR commander suggested it was a logical consequence of the 60-year-old’s decision to evade trial.

An adviser to Serbian President Boris Tadic, Jovan Simic, said the situation is “very serious” and that “we will probably know ÄKaradzic’sÅ answer very soon.”

Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic stressed that their family can no longer live with the incessant pressure from unnamed international and local authorities seeking his arrest for .

“Our family is under constant pressures from all sides,” Zelen-Karadzic said in an emotional appeal. “Our lives and existence are threatened. That is why I have to make a choice between my loyalty to you and toward my children and grandchildren. And I have made it.”

She stressed that “it is painful and difficult for me to plead with you. However, I am pleading with you with all my heart and soul to surrender.”