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Karadzic 'was in disguise'
22/07/2008 12:08 - (SA)
Belgrade - Radovan Karadzic, the top war crimes fugitive who evaded capture for almost 13 years, was finally arrested on a suburban bus in a disguise, Serbian newspapers said on Tuesday.
"He had a long beard and his hair was dyed in black. He had a travel bag with him, and it appears he was prepared to leave Belgrade" and offered no resistance when detained, the daily Politika said without giving any sources.
Serbian authorities have yet to reveal any details about the capture of Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men, only saying in a brief statement that it occurred on Monday night, without even revealing the location.
While some papers claimed Karadzic was arrested in a flat in central Belgrade, several others reported he had been caught on a city bus linking a central part of the capital with the suburb of Batajnica.
During his 13 years on the run, Karadzic has reportedly disguised himself as an Orthodox monk, with a shaved head and hiding in mountains between Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.
Some reports even claimed he had fled to Russia, finding shelter among Russian nationalists who supported Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.
Karadzic was last seen and photographed in the former Bosnian Serb military stronghold Han Pijesak in July 1996, a year after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) made his indictment public.
After that, he was rarely spotted in public, although former UN war crimes tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte insisted he had been in hiding on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
His last sighting was reportedly in 2005, in the Montenegrin town of Niksic, close to the border with Bosnia, where he allegedly had dinner with his wife in a small restaurant. This was never confirmed.
Earlier Tuesday, his lawyer Svetozar Vujacic, said Karadzic "was calm and composed", but had "lost weight".
There were only a few political reactions to Monday's action - ultra-nationalist Radical Party official Aleksandar Vucic described Karadzic's arrest as a "new shame for Serbia".
Pro-European Serbian President Boris Tadic "has done everything to ensure that Serbia disappears," the daily Politika quoted Vucic as saying in reference to the shrinking former Yugoslav republic that lost four wars in the 1990s.
- AFP
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