War crimes fugitive Karadzic arrested

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Karadzic's arrest was one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards European Union membership and may be enough to secure Serbia closer ties with the EU and possibly the status of membership candidate this year.

Serbian officials said Karadzic was arrested on Monday evening while moving from one Belgrade suburb to another. They showed reporters a photograph of an unrecognisable Karadzic, thin, with a long, white beard, flowing hair and thick glasses.

He was working for a private clinic, posing as a specialist in alternative medicine, said Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's point man for cooperation with The Hague war crimes tribunal.

"He was using false documents under the name of Dragan Dabic," he said.

His last known address was in New Belgrade, a sprawling suburb of massive tower blocks that can house dozens of flats.

"He happily, freely walked around the city," Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told reporters. "Even the people he rented a flat from were unaware of his identity."

When the news broke on Monday, people poured in celebration onto the streets of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital which Karadzic's troops shelled mercilessly in a 43-month siege during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

"I called and woke up my whole family," said Sarajevo resident Fadil Bico as cars honked horns and Bosnian state radio played excerpts of Karadzic's wartime hate speeches.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said his arrest showed Belgrade was cooperating fully with the U.N. war crimes tribunal. An EU foreign ministers meeting was to discuss closer ties with the new pro-Western government.

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