Bosnian Serb War Crimes Fugitive Karadzic Arrested (10)

Bosnian Serb War Crimes Fugitive Karadzic Arrested

By Ellie Tzortzi and Daria Sito-Sucic
18 minutes ago



BELGRADE/SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, charged with genocide for the murder of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica and other crimes during the Bosnian war, has been arrested after 11 years on the run.








"Karadzic was located and arrested," President Boris Tadic said in a terse statement on Monday night, words that Bosnian Muslims had begun to despair of ever hearing.

People poured onto the streets of Sarajevo, the city Karadzic's troops shelled mercilessly in a 43-month siege during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, to celebrate the capture of the man charged with authorizing the slaughter of 11,000 of their fellow citizens.

"I called and woke up my whole family," said Sarajevo resident Fadil Bico, as cars streamed through the streets honking horns and Bosnian state radio played excerpts of Karadzic's wartime hate speeches.

Serbian government sources said Karadzic was arrested on Monday but had been under surveillance in Serbia for several weeks after a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service.

He did not resist arrest. His lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, told reporters Karadzic was arrested on Friday night while taking a bus between two suburbs of Belgrade, and had been held for three days before the announcement.

Details of the arrest and the timetable of his likely extradition to The Hague war crimes tribunal were expected at a news conference at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).

Karadzic was indicted along with his army commander, General Ratko Mladic, for genocide at Srebrenica, where some 8,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim males were rounded up and murdered and bulldozed into mass graves in July 1995.

He is also charged with authorizing the shooting of civilians during the Sarajevo siege...............

Just saw this on Yahoo-News

A change of boss at the top of the secret police and he is arrested within days.......

And eu membership being sought......

But then again,soooooo much negative stuff going on ¨tis good to see something positive.

Yep,some "Coincidences"are happening in International Politics!
Wonder if he throws Crop too,before his Trial is finished.

Serbian judge orders Karadzic to UN tribunal (AP)

AP - A judge has ordered ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic handed over to the U.N. war crimes court to face charges of genocide and other atrocities against Muslims and Croats in his country, a Serbian prosecutor said Tuesday.
Has 3days to appeal.

Wonder if he dies of a Heart-Attack in his Cell too.

Karadzic seeks to act as own lawyer at UN tribunal By JOVANA GEC, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago



BELGRADE, Serbia - Radovan Karadzic hopes to defend himself against U.N. war crimes charges, his lawyer said Wednesday, raising the prospect that one of Europe's most wanted men will use the courtroom to preach Serb nationalism and rewrite the history of the Balkan wars.











Bruno Vekaric, spokesman for Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, said the former Bosnian Serb wartime leader's extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, "could be Monday or Tuesday — but it could be earlier, too."

Karadzic is wanted on 11 charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity for allegedly leading ethnic cleansing campaigns against Croats and Muslims in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The psychiatrist-turned-Serbian-nationalist is accused of masterminding the deadly wartime siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 executions of some 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica.

He was captured Monday in Serbia after more than a decade on the run and is in a Belgrade cell awaiting extradition to The Hague.

"He can't wait to appear before the court," his lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, told reporters. "He will have a legal team that will help him, but he will defend himself."YEAH RIGHT!!!!!

Karadzic has 30 days after his transfer to enter the pleas. If he refuses, judges will automatically enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Vujacic has said he would resist extradition. A 72-hour period for Karadzic to launch a formal appeal expires on Friday, Vekaric said.

Vujacic said Karadzic intends to defend himself during his upcoming trial at the U.N. tribunal, with the help of a team of legal advisers, just as the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic did. Milosevic died in 2006 while on trial in The Hague.

The court's spokeswoman, Olga Karvan, said Wednesday that prosecutors "believe the interests of justice will be best served if the accused are assisted by qualified counsel."

The arrest of Karadzic, one of world's most-wanted men, was hailed by the U.S. and by European governments who applauded Serbia's new pro-Western leadership for the capture.

But in Belgrade, dozens of Serbian nationalists took to the streets Tuesday, clashing with police during a protest in the capital.

Chanting "Treason!," the demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at riot police who cordoned them off. Five demonstrators and a policeman were injured, doctors at a 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.

cont

Serb officials say they arrested Karadzic on Monday evening near Belgrade. Karadzic had grown a long, white beard to conceal his identity and had lived freely for months in the capital before he was captured.

"His false identity was very convincing," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor who coordinated the security forces arrest. "He had moved freely in public places."

While on the run in Serbia, he worked at a private clinic and wrote for a Belgrade magazine, according to Serbian officials.

To do all this, Karadzic used a false name — Dragan Dabic — government minister Rasim Ljajic told reporters Tuesday. Ljajic displayed a recent photo of an unrecognizable Karadzic with long, bushy white beard and gray hair.

Ljajic refused to reveal more details about Karadzic's arrest, saying his movements were being analyzed to help track down another top war crimes suspect still at large, Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic.

Karadzic appeared to be arrested because of a change in political will.

Serbian President Boris Tadic's pro-Western government came to power only two weeks ago and appointed a new security chief, replacing an aide to former nationalist prime minister Vojislav Kostunica.
European Union foreign ministers said the arrest helped Serbia's bid for membership in the bloc, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Karadzic's capture as a "historic moment."

Karadzic's whereabouts had been a mystery since he went on the run in 1998; his early hideouts reportedly included monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia.

Karadzic's family in Bosnia, barred from leaving the country because of suspicions that they helped him elude capture, has asked to have those restrictions lifted, his daughter told The Associated Press.

More than 100,000 people died during Bosnia's war, and 1.8 million others were driven from their homes.