War Crimes Suspect Hid In Plain Sight

For more than a decade, the world's most wanted war crimes fugitive displayed a mystifying talent for eluding international justice.

Now, with his capture outside Belgrade, a picture is emerging of how Radovan Karadzic could have survived on the run for so long - and what finally may have led to his undoing.

In a ruse worthy of any thriller, the former Bosnian Serb leader completely transformed his appearance - from besuited figure with a shock of famous salt-and-pepper hair, into a man resembling a New Age mystic with a flowing white beard and black robe.

The professionally-trained psychiatrist was almost certainly protected by a coterie of hardline ultranationalists as he worked incognito at an alternative medicine clinic in Belgrade.

But with the recent election of a pro-Western government, pressures had been mounting to tighten the dragnet against the war crimes suspect. Many observers have long suspected that recently fallen prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, a nationalist who had close ties with Karadzic during the Bosnian war, had been shielding the war crimes suspect from arrest.

Karadzic's capture in a drab suburb of the capital Belgrade has broad political implications - for the future of war crimes tribunals, for eventual closure in the cycle of Balkan blood feuds, and for Serbia's fitful journey out of international isolation.

The wartime Bosnian Serb leader stands accused of genocide for masterminding the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica, Europe's worst carnage since the end of World War II.

"After Karadzic's arrest, Serbia is on a good road to the European Union and the arrest of the remaining war crimes fugitives," said former Serbian Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic.

Karadzic's disguise was so effective that prosecutors say he walked freely around town without being noticed and even his landlords didn't know his identity. The photograph shown by prosecutors at a press conference was of a gaunt old man all but unrecognizable from the robust warlord who strutted brashly before his troops during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

The fugitive had been masquerading as an expert in "human quantum energy" using the fake name "D.D. David" printed on his business card. The initials apparently stood for Dragan Dabic, the name officials said he went by.

He even had his own Web site - www.psy-help-energy.com - and gave lectures in front of hundreds of people on alternative medicine. The site displays pictures of metallic bullet-shaped amulets and Orthodox crosses with wires running out of them.

TV footage provided by a local station to Associated Press Television News shows Karadzic sitting on a panel at a medical conference, glancing nervously at the cameraman next to him - another glimpse into his knife's edge life of hiding in plain sight.

Using his Dabic alias, Karadzic was a regular contributor to the Serbian alternative medicine magazine "Healthy Life;" its editor Goran Kojic said he was stunned when he saw the photo of Karadzic on TV and realized the bizarre truth.

"It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic," said Kojic.

Recalling past meetings with Karadzic, he said: "He was eloquent and a bit strange, like a true bohemian."

Karadzic's whereabouts had been a mystery since he went on the run in 1998, with his various hideouts reportedly including monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia. The U.S. had set a US$5 million bounty for his arrest.

For years it has been widely assumed that Karadzic's whereabouts were known to nationalist supporters and even to high-ranking Serbian officials. One cartoon depicted Karadzic clandestinely enjoying the company of Kostunica himself. But in the murky labyrinth of post-war Serbia, such accusations could never quite be proven.

The picture painted by officials suggested a successful search - as opposed to the end of protection. But few in Serbia failed to link the capture to the recent establishment of a largely pro-Western government committed to bringing Serbia into the European Union, which has been demanding the handover of war criminals.

Serbian security services said they found Karadzic on Monday while looking for another top war crimes suspect facing genocide charges, Bosnian Serb wartime commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, said Rasim Ljajic, a Serbian government official in charge of war crimes. The connection - why the search for one led to the other - was not explained.

Prosecutors said Karadzic was arrested while apparently waiting for a public bus in a grim new part of Belgrade known as a nationalist stronghold. Authorities refused to reveal more details of his arrest, saying Karadzic's movements are being analyzed and will be kept secret until Mladic's capture.

"We are absolutely determined to finish this job," said Ljajic.

Karadzic's lawyer Sveta Vujcic claimed his client was arrested Friday, not on Monday as authorities say. He said Karadzic was hooded during the capture and kept for three days in solitary confinement.

A judge ordered Karadzic's transfer to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to face genocide charges, war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said. Karadzic has three days to appeal the ruling.

Karadzic's family in Bosnia, banned from leaving the country over suspicions that they helped him elude capture, asked Tuesday to have the restrictions lifted, his daughter told The Associated Press.

Sonja Karadzic said family members want to spend at least a few hours with Karadzic before his transfer to U.N. custody.

"We even suggested traveling under police escort to see him for at least for a few hours," she said by telephone. "For years we have not seen our father, husband and grandfather; my mother's health is not very good, and we do not have the financial means necessary to travel to Netherlands."

During the siege of Sarajevo that began in 1992, Bosnian Serb troops starved, sniped and bombarded the city center, operating from strongholds in Pale and Vraca high above the city and controlling nearly all roads in and out.

Inhabitants were kept alive by a thin lifeline of food aid and supplies provided by U.N. donors and peacekeepers. Walking down the street to shop for groceries or driving down a main road that became known as "Sniper Alley" was a risk to their lives.

The siege was not officially over until February 1996. An estimated 10,000 people died.

The worst massacre of Bosnia's war was in Srebrenica in 1995, when Serb troops led by Mladic overran the U.N.-protected enclave sheltering Bosnian Muslims. Mladic's troops rounded up the entire population and took the men away for execution.

By war's end in late 1995, an estimated 250,000 people were dead and another 1.8 million driven from their homes.

Under the U.N. indictment, Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed between 1992 to 1996.

In Sarajevo, Bosnian Muslims rushed into the streets Monday night to celebrate the news of Karadzic's arrest.

"We have been waiting for 13 years and we lost hope. Now we know - there is justice," said Kada Hotic, a survivor of Srebrenica massacre.