Radovan Karadzic arrest 'like capturing Osama bin Laden'

The arrest of Serbian war crimes fugitive Radavan Karadzic has been compared with capturing Osama bin Laden.

Political leaders in Europe and the US have congratulated the Serbian government on managing to detain Karadzic after 13 years on the run.

Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat who brokered the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia in 1995, described his arrest as "a historic day".

He said: "One of the worst men in the world, the Osama bin Laden of Europe, has finally been captured.

"A major, major thug has been removed from the public scene."

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, described his capture as "good news", saying it would "pave the way for a brighter, European future for Serbia and the region".

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has long been one of the most wanted men in the world.

His arrest has come after nearly 13 years on the run - during which time Serbia has come under increasing international pressure to catch him.

Accused of leading the slaughter of thousands of Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, he has twice been indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The UN says his forces killed at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".

He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.

Mr Ljajic, the Serbian minister for relations with The Hague tribunal, said Mr Karadzic had lived in a "very convincing" way, using false papers.

"He was involved with alternative medicine, earning his money from practising alternative medicine... he was working in a private practice," he told a news conference in Belgrade.

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Mr Karadzic had "walked around freely, even appeared in public places. The people who rented him the apartment did not know his true identity".