Fugitive Poet Karadzic's Verses Published

The wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has managed to elude his pursuers for eight years, hiding out in the damp Bosnian mountains. Yesterday, however, Europe's most wanted fugitive gave his pursuers the first tantalising clues as to where he might be found - by publishing a book of poetry.

Dr Karadzic, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide, wrote the poems recently, his publisher said. The slim volume is titled Under the Left Breast of the Century. It features 47 poems about rugged mountains, thick green forests, rivers and wild animals. Though the pastoral work is unlikely to lead investigators to his doorstep, it appears to confirm he is in the mountainous south-eastern region of Bosnia.

Dr Karadzic's publisher, Slavoljub Obradovic, refused to reveal how he had got hold of the verses from Dr Karadzic, who has been on the run since 1996. "This is my professional secret," Mr Obradovic said, after launching the book in Pozarevac, the home town of Dr Karadzic's wartime mentor, the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

A psychiatrist by profession, Dr Karadzic led a Bosnian Serb rebellion in 1992 that turned into a war against Bosnia's Muslims and Croats. He was indicted in 1995 by the UN war crimes tribunal and has so far evaded capture.