'Butcher of Bosnia' arrested

BELGRADE (Agencies) - Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, the man accused of masterminding the massacre of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during the brutal Balkans conflict, has been arrested after more than 13 years on the run. Karadzic, accused of ordering the deadly siege of Sarajevo and some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II - including the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica - was arrested by Serb authorities on a bus in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Monday night, his lawyer said.
The capture of the so-called ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ was hailed as a landmark for international justice and for Serbia, whose new government has pledged to bring its wanted war criminals to justice as a condition of membership of the European Union.
Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted men, was arrested on genocide charges while practising medicine under a fake name in Belgrade, officials said Tuesday. Despite his status as one of the most wanted men on the planet, Karadzic, 63, had been working in a medical clinic with only a false name and a beard to conceal his identity.
“He was working and performing alternative medicine, making money that way,” said Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian minister in charge of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
“He was very convincing in hiding his identity,” said Ljajic, who held up a photograph of Karadzic with almost hippy-like long white hair and beard.
Of all the ICTY fugitives, Karadzic was always the subject of the most fevered speculation about his whereabouts.
He had last been seen in public in the eastern Bosnian town of Han Pijesak in July 1996, and was previously thought to have hidden away in Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, or even Russia.
Following his capture, he was questioned by a magistrate who concluded “all conditions have been met for his transfer” to The Hague for trial, said Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor.