(AFP) – Jul 21, 2008

BELGRADE (AFP) — The wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men who stands indicted for genocide, has been arrested after nearly 13 years on the run.

Karadzic, 63 -- described as the "Osama bin Laden of Europe" -- was "located and arrested" by Serbian security forces Monday night, said the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

He was immediately produced before the War Crimes Court in Belgrade -- considered a first step towards eventual extradition and trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Karadzic, a close ally of late autocratic Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, appeared "depressive" and offered "no resistance" when arrested, said a war crimes official who requested anonymity.

Reports said Karadzic, last seen in public in July 1996, was disguised with a beard and dyed black hair when nabbed on a bus travelling north from central Belgrade.

Along with his former army chief Ratko Mladic, Karadzic had evaded the ICTY since 1995 when they were charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Their capture was a major pre-condition for Serbian accession to the European Union and Karadzic's arrest came two weeks after the formation of a new pro-EU membership government dominated by Tadic's pro-Western Democratic Party.

Mladic, 65, is now one of only two remaining fugitives of The Hague-based court. The other is Goran Hadzic, 49, a former Serb politician wanted for "ethnic cleansing" in Croatia.

Karadzic's arrest was welcomed by the United States, the European Union, and the UN war crimes court, as well as an association of mothers of those killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed it as "a historic moment for the victims who have waited 13 years" and praised the Serbian authorities for taking a "decisive step" toward ending impunity for those indicted for war crimes.

UN war crimes chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz also commended Serbia, while a White House statement noted the poignant timing of Karadzic's capture"The timing of the arrest, only days after the commemoration of the massacre of over 7,000 Bosnians committed in Srebrenica, is particularly appropriate, as there is no better tribute to the victims of the war's atrocities than bringing their perpetrators to justice," the statement said.

Bosnian Croats and Muslims, against whom Karadzic waged a barbaric campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the early 1990s, see him as a murderous megalomaniac with a twisted view of history and warped sense of his own destiny as a leader of the Bosnian Serbs.

Kada Hotic, who lost her son and husband as Serb troops overran the wartime Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica before summarily killing thousands of Muslim men and boys, expressed relief.

"Justice has finally been done. A war criminal cannot hide forever," Hotic said, as several dozen Muslims celebrated the news in a main square of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

"A major thug has been removed from the scene," former US envoy to the Balkans Richard Holbrooke said, describing Karadzic as the "Osama bin Laden of Europe."

But for some Serbs he remains a hero who stood up to age-old enemies and great powers and carved out a separate Serb homeland.

Some 50 ultra-nationalists gathered early Tuesday to protest his arrest in front of Belgrade's war crimes court which was under heavy security.

An examining magistrate wrapped up the preliminary questioning of Karadzic early Tuesday, the Beta news agency reported.

Once all the legal hurdles are cleared, Karadzic could be extradited to the UN court in a week.

Lawyer Svetozar Vujacic, Karadzic's legal representative, cited his client as saying during questioning that he was arrested on Friday in a bus in Belgrade and had since been held in "detention in a room somewhere," Beta reported.

Karadzic described the situation as a "farce" and was "calm and composed" during questioning, Vujacic said.

The worst crimes on Karadzic's indictment are the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in which some 10,000 civilians were killed, and the Srebrenica massacre.

In the bitter war against Bosnia's Muslim-led government, he is said to have authorised "ethnic cleansing" in which more than a million non-Serbs were driven from their homes in villages where they had lived for generations.

The expulsions were accompanied, according to foreign observers, by widespread killings and up to 20,000 rapes in a calculated programme of terror that left the international community both shocked and impotent to respond.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he hoped Karadzic's arrest would now help unblock a key EU-Serbia accord.

"We have to talk to the prosecutor of the international tribunal, but I am almost certain he is going to say there is full cooperation," Solana said.

Serbia needs to prove its full cooperation with the ICTY to secure EU candidacy, something it hopes to achieve by the end of this year before winning full membership in 2012.

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