War Crimes Fugitive Radovan Karadzic Arrested in Serbia

Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted men, was arrested yesterday 13 years after he was first indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal.

The 63-year-old war crimes suspect faces genocide charges for his role in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War, and for organising the siege of Sarajevo which claimed 12,000 lives.

He was understood to have been brought before a hastily-convened court in Belgrade last night after he was seized by Serb forces inside the country, according to Boris Tadic, the President.

The arrest is a significant breakthrough for the new pro-western government in Serbia, a country which has faced international isolation while Karadzic and fellow war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander, have remained at large.

The EU has made their hand-over a condition of progressing towards membership talks.

Radovan Karadzic led the self-proclaimed Serb administration of Bosnia in the early 1990s which resisted the country’s independence and suppressed other ethnic groups in some of the worst violence that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.

He is likely to be put on trial at The Hague in the most high-profile prosecution arising from the Balkans conflict since that of Slobodan Milosevic ended with the death from natural causes of the former Serb president in 2006 before a verdict could be reached.

“This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade,” said Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

“It is also an important day for international justice because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice.”

Richard Holbrooke, the former US assistant secretary of state who negotiated the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the war in Bosnia, described Karadzic as “a real true architect of mass murder” and hailed the news of his arrest as “a tremendous step forward for Serbia’s desire to join the West”.

He said: “This is the most wanted man in Europe, the Osama bin Laden of Europe. He has evaded capture for almost 13 years. He was the primary intellectual architect of the ethnic cleansing.”

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the international community’s former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, called the arrest as an “extremely important piece of justice for the world at large”.

He said: “I have heard so many rumours in the past but if they have got him then that is a very significant breakthrough for Serbia, for the Balkans and for justice.”

Still a hero to some in Serbia, Karadzic was first indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in July 24 1995, since when he is said to have resorted to a number of elaborate disguises and relied on a network of supporters to evade capture.

His reported hide-outs included Serbian Orthodox monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia. Some newspaper reports said that he had at times disguised himself as a priest by shaving off his trademark mane of silver hair and wearing a cassock.

President Tadic’s office said in a statement that Karadzic was arrested “in an action by the Serbian security services”.

Karadzic’s wife, Ljiljana, said from her home in his former stronghold of Pale, near Sarajevo, that her daughter Sonja had called her before midnight. “As the phone rang, I knew something was wrong. I am shocked. Confused.

“At least now, we know he is alive.”

A senior Serbian government official told The Times: “Mr Karadzic was arrested late on Monday at a yet undisclosed location in Serbia in a covert operation by the Serbian Security Information Agency. He has already been handed over to the War Crimes Panel of the Belgrade District Court, where he was questioned by the on-duty investigating judge and will be transferred to the the Hague Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia where he will be put on trial.”

The news will delight EU foreign ministers meeting today in Brussels, who already had Serbian accession on the agenda and have piled enormous pressure on Belgrade to find the final war crimes fugitives.

Pre-accession talks have started, designed to encourage the reformist government formed in Belgrade earlier this month after closely-fought elections in May.

In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, the news of Karadzic’s arrest was greeted with spontaneous celebrations as dozens of jubilant Bosnians gathered in the streets to mark what is seen as the beginning of the final chapter in the history of the country’s bloody civil war of the 1990s.

Nerma Jelacic, a spokeswoman for The Hague Tribunal, told The Times: “The Tribunal welcomes the news, which was eagerly expected for over 13 years. The new Serbian government has lived up to their promises and confirmed the pro-European credentials.

“Mr Karadzic’s trial will be one of the biggest events in recent criminal history. He will be given a trial in accordance to the highest standards of international law.”

The capture of Karadzic follows the arrest of the fourth most important fugitive, Stojan Zupljanin, 56, the former head of the Bosnian Serb security forces, last month.

A statement from the EU presidency, currently held by France, said the arrest was “an important step on the path to the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union.”

Under the indictment, last amended in May 2000, the UN war crimes tribunal charged Karadzic with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed between 1992 to 1996.

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