Police Raid Home Of Ex-Karadzic Aide

As the wartime commander of the Regional Security Service Centre in Banja Luka, Zupljanin was accused of overseeing detention camps in western Bosnia where Serb forces held Muslims and Croats, many of whom were tortured and killed during the 1992-95 war.



Zupljanin, 56, was a close associate and a special advisor to the former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, who has been on the run since 1995, when he was indicted by the Hague tribunal for war crimes.



According to the indictment which remained sealed until 2001, Zupljanin is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and the violation of the laws or customs of war, including murder, torture, persecution, extermination, and inhumane acts and devastation of towns, villages and sacral objects.



In a statement issued after the raid on March 8, EUFOR said that "documents, computer equipment and other items were seized” and retained by the Bosnian Serb police for further investigation.



One day earlier, Bosnian Serb special police searched premises belonging to the suspect's cousin, Slobodan Zupljanin. Several houses, a company and a hotel in Republika Srpska were raided in the attempt to find information that could lead to the capture of Stojan Zupljanin.



Slobodan Zupljanin, who the chairman of Bosnia's Foreign Trade Chamber, was suspected of providing help to his cousin Stojan. But in an interview given to a local radio station shortly after the raid, he denied he was helping his relative evade justice.



"It's not my fault we have the same last name," the AP news agency quoted him as saying.



Stojan Zupljanin is one of the four most wanted Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives indicted for genocide, along with Radovan Karadzic, and Bosnian Serb Army generals Ratko Mladic and Zdravko Tolimir.