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Serbia captures fugitive Karadzic

by flight737 | July 21, 2008 at 06:22 pm | 108 views | 1 comment

After more than a decade of search wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic of Bosnian has been captured. He is one of the world's most wanted men, his capture will give way for other most wanted men to move on further the wanted list, thus a change of position.

He has been brought before Belgrade's war crimes court, in accordance with a law on cooperation the Hague Tribunal, the Serbian presidency said.
The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader disappeared in 1996.
He had been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.
His wartime military leader, Ratko Mladic, remains at large.
Mr Karadzic's arrest was welcomed by war crimes prosecutors in The Hague as a "milestone".
"Radovan Karadzic was located and arrested tonight" by Serbian security officers, a statement by the office of President Boris Tadic said, without giving details.
"Karadzic was brought to the investigative judge of the War Crimes Court in Belgrade, in accordance with the law on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [ICTY]."
'Milestone in co-operation'
Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the ICTY, welcomed the arrest.
"I was informed by our colleagues in Belgrade about the successful operation which resulted in the arrest of Radovan Karadzic," he said in a statement in The Hague.
"On behalf of the Office of the Prosecutor, I would like to congratulate the Serbian authorities, especially the National Security Council, Serbia's Action Team in charge of tracking fugitives and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, on achieving this milestone in cooperation with the ICTY."
"This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade.
"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."
Karadzic denial
Mr Karadzic denied the charges against him soon after the first indictment and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.
The UN says Mr Karadzic's 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.
After the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war, the former nationalist president went into hiding.
International pressure to catch Mr Karadzic mounted in spring 2005 when several of his former generals surrendered and a video of Bosnian Serb soldiers shooting captives from Srebrenica shocked television viewers in former Yugoslavia.