Karadzic arrest 'very important'

2008-07-22 07:24

Belgrade - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of war crimes including Europe's worst massacre since World War II, was arrested after more than a decade on the run, the country's president and the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said.

Charged with organising the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of up to 8 000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Karadzic topped the tribunal's most-wanted list for more than a decade.

The tribunal described him as the suspected mastermind of "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history". Prosecutors suspected he eluded the manhunt with the help of Bosnian Serb nationalists and a string of elaborate disguises.

"This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade," the tribunal's head prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said. "It clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice."

Held since Friday

Serbian President Boris Tadic's office said Karadzic, 63, was arrested on Monday evening "in an action by the Serbian security services" and taken before the investigative judge of Serbia's war crimes court, indicating imminent extradition to the UN war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands.

A Serbian police source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said Karadzic was arrested in a Belgrade suburb after a tip from a foreign intelligence service and weeks of surveillance of his safe house.

Sveta Vujacic, Karadzic's lawyer, said the fugitive had been arrested on a public bus around 09:30 on Friday and held until he was brought to the court on Monday.

"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and then he was taken to some place and kept in the room. And that is absolutely against the law what they did," Vujacic told AP Television News. "The judge also said that he will look into this matter, who and why they kept him for three days."

Investigative judge Milan Dilparic said early on Tuesday that that he had questioned Karadzic - the first step in an process that includes presenting him with the indictment and allowing three days for him to appeal any decision to hand him to the Hague court.

Considered a war hero

Heavily armed special forces of the Serbian Gendarmerie were deployed around the war-crimes court in Belgrade - apparently fearing a backlash from nationalists who consider Karadzic their war hero.

"He did not surrender, that is not his style," his brother Luka Karadzic said outside the court.

Dozens of Karadzic supporters gathered near the building chanting "Karadzic Hero!" and "Tadic Traitor!" Several were arrested after attacking reporters in front of the courthouse.

Other officers took up positions throughout central Belgrade and in front of the US embassy, which was targeted in nationalist rioting over Kosovo's declaration of independence in February.

In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo - besieged throughout the war by Bosnian Serb nationalists - streets were jammed late on Monday as Bosnian Muslims celebrated the arrest.

- AP