Serbia captures Srebrenica genocide mastermind Radovan Karadzic
Güncelleme Tarihi:
A judge on Tuesday finished interrogating Radovan Karadzic, the first step in a procedure aimed at handing the accused mastermind of Europe's worst genocide since World War II over to a U.N. war crimes court. Karadzic was practising alternative medicine and living in Serbia's capital, Belgrade and captured in a bus. (UPDATED)
"The questioning is over," investigating Judge Milan Dilparic said about the opening round of the legal process, which will include presenting the wartime Bosnian Serb leader with the indictment against him and allowing him three days to appeal any decision to extradite him to the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Charged with organizing the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 genocide of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Karadzic topped the tribunal's most-wanted list for more than a decade.
Serbian security forces late Monday had captured Radovan Karadzic, the mastermind of the Srebrenica genocide-- Europe's worst atrocities since World War Two-- who had been on the run for nearly 13 years.
Karadzic, 63 -- known as the "Osama Bin Laden of Europe" -- had been "located and arrested tonight," said a statement Monday from the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic.
Karadzic was practising alternative medicine and living in Serbia's capital, Belgrade. He was working in a private practice in a "very convincing disguise", sporting a long white beard, and calling himself Dragan Dabic, a Serbian official told BBC.
"Karadzic was brought to the investigative judge of the
The court must present criminal charges before extraditing Karadzic to the United Nations court in
A Serbian police source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, told the Associated Press Karadzic was arrested in an unidentified Belgrade suburb after a tip from a foreign intelligence service and weeks of surveillance of his safe house.
Sveta Vujacic, Karadzic's lawyer, said the fugitive had been arrested on a public bus at about 9:30 a.m. Friday and held until he was brought to the court Monday.
"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and then he was taken to some place and kept in the room. And that is absolutely against the law what they did," Vujacic told AP Television News. "The judge also said that he will look into this matter, who and why kept him for three days."
The tribunal has described him as the suspected mastermind of "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history." Prosecutors suspected he eluded the manhunt with the help of Bosnian Serb nationalists and a string of elaborate disguises.
The presidency and prosecutors refrained from disclosing any more details about the operation, but a war crimes official who requested anonymity told AFP, Karadzic appeared "depressive" and offered "no resistance" when arrested on Serbian territory.
His arrest leaves two war crimes suspects still wanted by the Hague tribunal. ICTY accused Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, 65, the Bosnian Serb military commander, of responsibility for atrocities committed during Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-95 war, which killed an estimated 250,000 people and drove another 1.8 million from their homes.
The other fugitive of The Hague-based court is Goran Hadzic, 49, a former Serb politician wanted for "ethnic cleansing," but in
Karadzic led the self-proclaimed Serb administration of
The 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 organizing the siege of
It is likely to be 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.
Cooperation with the UN war crimes court is the key for
The capture of Karadzic comes two weeks after
WORLD HAILED ARREST
Karadzic's arrest was promptly welcomed by the
“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.”
The UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed it as "a historic moment for the victims." "This is a historic moment for the victims, who have waited 13 years for Mr. Karadzic to be brought to justice," Ban said in a statement released by his press office.
The statement said the secretary general was "heartened" by the arrest of Karadzic and commended Serbian authorities "for this decisive step toward ending impunity for those indicted for serious violations of international law during the conflict in the former
A White House statement also congratulated
"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."
SREBRENICA GENOCIDE VICTIMS
One of the top war crimes suspects in the Balkans, Karadzic is seen widely as a murderous megalomaniac with a twisted view of history and his supposed destiny as a leader of the Bosnian Serbs.
Bosnian Croats and Muslims, against whom Karadzic waged a barbaric campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the early 1990s, have no doubt that he is one of the monsters of the 20th century.
Kada Hotic, who lost her son and husband as Serb troops overran the wartime Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica before summarily killing some thousands of Muslim men and boys, expressed relief at Karadzic's arrest.
"Justice has finally been done. Tonight's event showed that a war criminal cannot hide forever," Hotic said, as several dozen Muslims celebrated the news in a main square of the Bosnian capital
"A major thug has been removed from the scene," former