Karadzic to appeal extradition
2008-07-23 08:02
Belgrade - Serb nationalists skirmished with riot police on Tuesday, lashing out against the new Western-leaning government that captured war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, as his lawyer vowed to appeal Serbia's plan to extradite the former Bosnian Serb chief to a UN war crimes court.
Riot police were deployed in downtown Belgrade to keep about 200 members of the extremist Obraz group under control, but the demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at the officers, chanted "Treason!" and tried to break through police cordons.
Five demonstrators and a policeman were injured, doctors at Belgrade emergency clinic said.
"This is a hard day for Serbia," Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party said. "(Karadzic was) a legend of the Serbian people."
Nikolic vowed his party will do "all in its power" to topple the pro-Western government.
From the village of Petnjica where Karadzic was born, a disgusted relative, Vukosav Karadzic, said he was "sorry he did not kill himself but allowed himself to be captured".
'Convincing' false identity
Serb officials say they arrested the former wartime leader on Monday evening near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run. Karadzic had grown a long, white beard to conceal his identity and had lived freely for months in the capital before being arrested.
"His false identity was very convincing," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor who co-ordinated the security forces arrest. "He had moved freely in public places."
Karadzic is sought on 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war. The psychiatrist-turned Serbian nationalist is accused of masterminding the deadly wartime siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 executions of up to 8 000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica.
While on the run in Serbia, the world's top fugitive worked at a private clinic and wrote for a Belgrade magazine, according to Serbian officials. Karadzic also lectured about meditation at a May festival in Belgrade.
To do all this, Karadzic used a false name: Dragan Dabic, government minister Rasim Ljajic said at a press conference on Tuesday. Ljajic also displayed a recent photo of an unrecognisable Karadzic with long white beard and grey hair.
Karadzic was questioned early on Tuesday by a Serbian judge who later ruled that he can be handed over to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Vukcevic said.
Karadzic has three days to appeal the ruling. His lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said he will fight extradition on the last day, Friday, to thwart authorities' wishes for Karadzic's immediate transfer.
- AP