Bosnian Serb Captured; Sought for War Crimes

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In this May 1994 file photo, Bosnian Serb Stojan Zupljanin, left, and Radovan Karadzic speak in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening, July 21, 2008 in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. Serb authorities turned Zupljanin over to The Hague in June 2008 after nine years on the run. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic) (Radivoje Pavicic - AP)

In this Oct. 5, 1995 file photo, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic speaks to reporters during a press conference in the Bosnian Serb-stronghold of Banja Luka. The office of Serbian president says former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia. President Boris Tadic's office says in a statement that Karadzic was arrested on Monday July 21, 2008 evening "in an action by the Serbian security services." (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic, File) (Radivoje Pavicic - AP)

Top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic talks to reporters in Pale, Bosnia, in this June 1995 file photo. The office of Serbian president says former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia. (AP Photo/Srdjan Ilic, FILE) (Srdjan Ilic - Associated Press)

In this April, 15 1995 file photo, Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic, left, and Bosnian Serb Army commander General Ratko Mladic, right, listen during a Bosnian Serb assembly session in the western Bosnian town of Sanski Most some 80 kms (50 miles) west of Banja Luka. The office of Serbian president says former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia. President Boris Tadic's office says in a statement that Karadzic was arrested on Monday July 21, 2008 evening "in an action by the Serbian security services." (AP Photo/Sava Radovanovic, File) (Sava Radovanovic - AP)

Police guard the entrance to the special court in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (Darko Vojinovic - AP)

This image made from video shows Luka Karadzic, the brother of Bosnian war crimes fugitive political leader Radovan Karadzic, speaking on a cell phone outside of the war crimes court in Belgrade Monday, July 21, 2008 where his brother is reportedly held. Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/RTS via AP Television News) (AP)

Luka Karadzic, a brother of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, speaks on a mobile phone in front of a special court in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (Darko Vojinovic - AP)

In this March 4, 1993 file photo, Bosnian Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic holds a map proposed by international negotiators Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance during a news conference at United Nations headquarters. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening July 21, 2008 in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File) (Marty Lederhandler - AP)

In this Thursday Dec 11, 1997 file photo, Bosnian Muslim Mujic Nura, a refugee from eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, wipes her tears as she holds pictures of her missing sons, during a demonstration in Sarajevo. Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening, July 21, 2008 in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Sava Radovanovic) (Sava Radovanovic - AP)

In this Friday, July 11, 2008 file photo, a Bosnian Muslim woman weeps among coffins of Srebrenica victims during funeral ceremony at Memorial center of Potocari near Srebrenica, 120 kms northeast of Sarajevo. The 307 bodies were excavated from mass-graves in Eastern Bosnia and were identified as Muslims killed by Bosnian-Serb forces in the Srebrenica area. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday, July 21, 2008 evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) (Amel Emric - AP)

In this Sunday, Feb. 4, 1996 file photo, journalists inspect the site where four Muslim soldiers died in Srebrenica, which fell to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening, July 21, 2008 in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (Alexander Zemlianichenko - AP)

A June 1995 photo of Radovan Karadzic, now in custody in Serbia. (Srdjan Ilic - AP)

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"At least now, we know he is alive," his wife, Ljiljana Karadzic, told the Associated Press. She had previously called on her husband to turn himself in.

Serbian officials released few details about how Karadzic was captured. Government sources in Belgrade, the capital, told reporters he had been under surveillance for some time, following a tip from a foreign intelligence service.

He was apparently taken into custody in Belgrade, underwent formal identification and was brought before an investigative judge in Serbia's war crimes court, an apparent prelude to his extradition to The Hague. The courthouse was surrounded by heavily armed police.

The European Union and the United States have been pressuring Serbia for years to produce Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, as a step toward full rehabilitation following the wars of the 1990s. E.U. membership could not proceed, the government was told, until Serbia discharged its duties to the court.

Elections in Serbia this year were seen by many analysts as a contest between pro-Western politicians who wanted to integrate with the European Union and nationalists who favor Russia. The generally pro-Western Tadic was returned to office, an outcome welcomed by the E.U. and the Bush administration.

Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the arrest could have happened earlier, if not for political obstruction in Serbia.

Karadzic was born in Montenegro to a Serbian nationalist father who fought Yugoslavia's then-President Josip Broz Tito, the Communist leader who held the multiethnic country together until his death in 1980. As a teenager, Karadzic moved to Sarajevo, the city he would do so much to destroy, and qualified as a psychiatrist who specialized in treating depression.

Yugoslavia, a federation of six republics, began to disintegrate in the late 1980s and early 1990s, bringing back to the fore centuries-old mutual hatreds among the country's many ethnic groups. Karadzic emerged as Milosevic's local political proxy in an attempt to build a Greater Serbia that would absorb large parts of Bosnia, a multiethnic country that also has major communities of Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims, and Croats.

In 1992, Karadzic warned that any attempt to create an independent Bosnia could "make the Muslim people disappear." He became the face of his own promise as a quarter of a million people, many of them civilians, died in a conflict that the war crimes tribunal described as "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."

Karadzic's organization, the Serb Democratic Party, which was backed by the Yugoslav army and special police units, armed Serbs who attempted to ethnically cleanse Muslims and Croats as they seized large swaths of territory. Nearly two million people were driven from their homes.

The NATO alliance belatedly intervened and forced Milosevic to the negotiating table, where he signed a peace settlement in December 1995. Karadzic, who was jettisoned by his former sponsor, denounced the deal and in 1997 went into hiding.

He now faces a trial on charges of genocide, extermination, murder, willful killing, deportation, inhumane acts and other crimes, according to the international court.

Staff writer Nora Boustany in Washington contributed to this report.