Karadzic to appeal extradition to UN court

The Associated Press , Belgrade, Serbia | Wed, 07/23/2008 11:05 AM | World

Serb nationalists skirmished with riot police in the capital Tuesday, lashing out against the new
Western-leaning government that captured war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic's lawyer vowed to appeal Serbia's plan to extradite the former Bosnian Serb chief to a U.N. war crimes court.

Riot police deployed in downtown Belgrade to keep about 200 members of the extremist Obraz group under control, but the demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at the officers, chanted
"treason!" and tried to break through police cordons.

"This is a hard day for Serbia," Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party said. "Karadzic was a myth and a legend of the Serbian people."

Nikolic said his party will do "all in its power" to topple the pro-Western government.

From the village of Petnjica where Karadzic was born, a disgusted relative, Vukosav Karadzic, said he was "sorry (Karadzic) did not kill himself but allowed himself to be captured."

Serb officials say they arrested the former wartime leader Monday evening near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run. Karadzic had grown a long, white beard to conceal his identity and had lived freely for months in the capital before being arrested.

"His false identity was very convincing," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor who coordinated the security forces arrest. "He had moved freely in public places."

Karadzic is sought on 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war. The psychiatrist-turned Serbian nationalist is accused of
masterminding the deadly wartime siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 executions of up to 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica.

While on the run in Serbia, the world's top fugitive worked on a private clinic and wrote for a Belgrade magazine, according to Serbian officials. In May, Karadzic lectured about meditation at a festival in Belgrade.

Karadzic used a false name: Dragan Dabic, government minister Rasim Ljajic said at a pressconference Tuesday. Ljajic also displayed a recent photo of an unrecognizable Karadzic with long white beard and gray hair.

Karadzic was questioned early Tuesday by a Serbian judge who later ruled that he can be handed over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Vukcevic said.

Karazic has three days to appeal the ruling. His lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said he will fight extradition on the last day, Friday, to thwart authorities' wishes for Karadzic's immediate transfer.

Ljajic refused to reveal more details about Karadzic's arrest, saying Karadzic's movements were being analyzed to help rack down another war crimes suspect still in hiding, Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic. Serbian security services found Karadzic, 63, while looking for Mladic, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the arrest a "historic moment."

"The victims need to know: Massive human rights violations do not go unpunished," she said in Berlin.

European Union foreign ministers said the arrest sets Serbia firmly on the path toward EU membership. "This is a very good thing for the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union." (*****)

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