POZAREVAC, Serbia-Montenegro - A new book of poems by war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic features verse about rugged mountains, thick forests and wild animals - possible clues about where the indicted wartime Bosnian Serb leader could be hiding.
The collection, released Monday and titled Under the Left Breast of the Century, is the sixth book by the former Bosnian Serb leader charged in 1995 by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands with genocide and crimes against humanity for his actions during Bosnia's 31/2-year war.
"It's a professional secret how I came to posses these Karadzic poems," said Slavoljub Obradovic, the publisher. "I don't know where he is hiding. I wouldn't say even if I knew."
Karadzic, a psychiatrist and self-styled poet, has evaded several attempts by NATO-led peacekeepers to catch him despite a $5-million reward for information leading to his arrest. He is thought to be hiding in the remote mountainous triangle bordering Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
The poems bear the stamp of Karadzic's complicated style, which fuses historic references with allusions to the natural world.
Karadzic has previously published at least one of the poems in the collection, Sarajevo, in the 1970s. It foreshadows the carnage that hit Bosnia two decades later - atrocities many blame on Karadzic and his followers.
Some of the latest verses, like those from the poem Midday, may indicate where Karadzic is hiding, such as one section where he discusses "the mountain, on the road to wilderness," and describes an encounter with a "tall and lean wolf."
Karadzic's verses, which have long circulated in the Balkans as well as in Russia and Greece, are difficult to translate and have won little praise from literary circles because of their complex style.
