Karadzic caught in Serbia, set for Hague extradition

Bosnian Serb wartime leader lived in hiding as long-haired, new-age doctor

Rasim Ljajic, head of the Serbian council for cooperation with the tribunal, shows an undated photo of Radovan Karadzic with glasses, long, gray hair and a beard, during a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, yesterday.

BELGRADE (AP) – Radovan Karadzic grew a long, gray beard to conceal his identity and even managed to openly practice alternative medicine while in hiding, officials said yesterday in revealing details about the war crimes fugitive’s capture after a decade on the run.

Karadzic, the wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs, was arrested Monday night in a Belgrade suburb, officials said.

A judge has ordered his transfer to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to face genocide charges, war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said. Karadzic has three days to appeal the ruling. His lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said he will launch the process to fight extradition on Friday.

Karadzic – a psychiatrist accused of masterminding the deadly wartime siege of Sarajevo and the executions of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war – had topped the tribunal’s most-wanted list for years.

Government official Rasim Ljajic said Karadzic, once known for his distinctively coifed hairdo, was unrecognizable. “His false identity was very convincing,” Vukcevic said. “Even his landlords were unaware of his identity.” Karadzic used a false name, Dragan Dabic, Ljajic said.

The editor-in-chief of Belgrade’s Healthy Life magazine, Goran Kojic, said he was shocked when he saw the photo of Karadzic on TV, recognizing him as a regular contributor to the publication. “It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic,” Kojic said.

Karadzic’s whereabouts had been a mystery since he went on the run in 1998, with his hideouts reportedly including monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia.

Serbian security services found Karadzic, 63, while looking for another top war crimes suspect facing genocide charges, Bosnian Serb wartime commander General Ratko Mladic, Ljajic said. A judge finished interrogating Karadzic yesterday and issued the order for his extradition.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Serbia’s arrest of wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is a milestone on its road to joining the European Union, but Belgrade must go further to reap the full benefits, EU ministers said yesterday.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the arrest of the man wanted for planning and ordering Europe’s worst atrocities since World War Two showed Belgrade was willing to cooperate fully with the UN war crimes court in The Hague. That was the precondition set by EU states in April for implementing a deal on closer ties with Serbia, putting it fully on track to ultimate membership in the bloc.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on the bloc to allow Serbia to enjoy improved trading conditions, insisting Belgrade must have something to show for the step.

But some countries at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting, including the Netherlands, were reserved about the idea.

Several stressed that Karadzic’s wartime military commander Ratko Mladic, also wanted for genocide, was still at large.

“We’ve been waiting for this for 13 years,” said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the presidency of the 27-nation EU. “Things will be easier, but let’s not prejudge anything... Karadzic has been arrested but Mladic has not.”