Karadzic: doctor in Belgrade, disguised, arrested on bus, ordered to The Hague

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Karadzic practiced medicine in Belgrade, disguised

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uploaded by Wim Bartelds

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  uploaded by Wim Bartelds | add comment

(UPDATE, July 22)

Radovan Karadzic escaped arrest for several years by working as a doctor in private practice, using the alias Dragan Dabic, and profiting from a completely altered appearance (see BBC pictures). 'Dragan Dabic' practised alternative medicine and quietly lived in Novi Beograd (i.e. 'New Belgrade'), a populous municipality within the Serbian capital of Belgrade. His fake identity papers showed him to be a "non Serbian citizen", in the words of Mr Ljajic, the Serbian minister responsible for relations with the Tribunal in The Hague.

According to Serb officials, Karadzic has been handed his indictment and he has refused to say much since his arrest. Sources say he did not deny his true identity when questioned.

Arrested Friday

Although the Serb authorities' official story remains that Karadzic was arrested late Monday evening, several sources, among whom Karadzic' lawyer Svetozar Vujacic, claim he was arrested last Friday evening on a Belgrade city bus between the city centre and the suburb of Batajnica.

Reportedly his hair was dyed black, and he carried a travel bag. When Serb secret police officials approached him, he offered no resistance.

Earlier today Investigating Judge Milan Dilparic of the War Crimes Chamber at the Belgrade district court ordered Karadzic to be brought to the Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Karadzic has 72 hours to appeal this decision. The court then has a maximum of three days to rule on the appeal.

Several sightings

Karadzic' arrest is widely seen as an attempt of the new pro-EU Serbian government to comply with demands made by the EU that any kind of Serbian 'integration' into Europe must be preceded by handing over Karadzic and Gen. Mladic. Over the past thirteen years there have been several sightings of both men. In the late Nineties they were even able to travel large distances through the Balkans, unchecked by UN roadblocks.

The intelligence services of several Western countries had been on the lookout for Karadzic since his disappearance from public view in 1997. Reliable sources say there have been a few instances where he could have been apprehended, but that it was decided not to go ahead, for fear of inciting such public Serb outrage that the fragile stability of the Balkans might be endangered. This would imply that the arrest that has now been made, was (to a certain extent) based upon a much milder expectation of such public unrest. 

Mladic

Unconfirmed intelligence rumours say that if Karadzic was already in custody last Friday, it was kept silent in an attempt not to warn off fugitive Ratko Mladic, whose arrest had also been planned. The Serbian authorities are still very reluctant to provide details about Karadzic' arrest and the circumstances under which it took place, for fear of compromising an apparently ongoing operation to arrest Mladic as well.