Articles | Karadzic seized

Serbs arrest Karadzic

Published: Monday, 21 July 2008, 10:59PM

War crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic has been arrested, according to the Serbian authorities.

The former Bosnian Serb leader went underground in 1997 after losing power and became one of the world's most wanted men.

Karadzic, who led the Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnia war, was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 1995 for authorising the shooting of civilians in the siege of Sarajevo.

He was indicted for genocide a second time for orchestrating the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men after Serbian military commander Ratko Mladic's forces seized the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.

The West is also pressing for Mladic to be tried for war crimes.

The arrest of Karadzic and other alleged war criminals and their delivery to the Hague war crimes tribunal has been one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards EU membership.

It came on the eve of a meeting where EU Foreign Ministers were set to discuss closer relations with Serbia after the formation of a new pro-western government.

A war crimes prosecutor was due to visit the capital Belgrade on Tuesday.

Government sources said Karadzic had been under surveillance for several weeks following a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service and was arrested in Belgrade.

A statement from the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic simply said: "Karadzic was located and arrested."

He has already been taken to see judges of the war crimes court, the Serbian authorities said.

Former EU high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown said: "If this is true it's a great breakthrough for Serbia, it's a great piece of justice for Bosnia and it will be an extremely important piece of justice for the world at large."