| Chicago Tribune Jul. 23--Over the past decade, as borders and barriers across an increasingly integrated Europe seemingly fell with each passing day, new ones were being constructed around Serbia. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS Most Serbs chafed under their deepening isolation, but a sense of national martyrdom and the refusal to turn over two alleged war criminals converged to keep Serbia on Europe's doorstep, a festering trouble spot for the continent. The European Union made clear that impoverished Serbia would be kept in penury as long as its government refused to make a serious effort to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, the men accused of authorizing the executions of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. But with the dramatic capture of Karadzic, who investigators said Tuesday had hid in plain view for years in Belgrade, the door to Europe may have begun to swing open for Serbia. When he was grabbed on a Belgrade bus, the 63-year-old Karadzic looked more like a Balkan Santa Claus than the former leader who had become Europe's most wanted man. His trademark shelf of silver hair was gone, replaced by a flowing white beard and long, silvery mane. Karadzic was arrested in what appears to have been a carefully planned operation. According to Serbian authorities, he had been practicing medicine in Belgrade under a false identity, attending public meetings, appearing on local television and even contributing articles on "spirituality" to a wellness magazine. He reportedly possessed fake documents and lived under the name Dragan Dabic, a guise that prosecutors said allowed him to walk freely around Belgrade. "His false identity was very convincing", Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Tuesday in Belgrade about Karadzic's disguise. "Even his landlords were unaware of his identity." The arrest was hailed across Europe, which had demanded Karadzic and Mladic's arrests as a non-negotiable condition of Serbia's entry to the EU. "We have waited for this for 13 years. Finally. Finally", French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels. "This is a very good thing for the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union." For much of the 1990s, Karadzic and Mladic were the face of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, crimes they are accused of committed in full view of the public while European governments sat by passively. Karadzic spoke of the "necessity" of subjecting the civilians of Sarajevo to a siege that lasted nearly four years, and of how his campaign to force Muslims and Croats from their homes in Bosnia was really doing them a favor. Mladic served as his eager executioner. The two are accused of writing the darkest chapter of recent European history in July 1995 when they orchestrated the execution of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, in an area that was supposedly protected by UN peacekeepers. That November, the two were indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague to face genocide charges. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Karadzic's arrest a "historic moment." "The victims need to know: Massive human rights violations do not go unpunished", she said. Karadzic's political career crashed soon after Srebrenica with the signing of the Dayton peace agreements, which ousted him as leader of the Republika Srpska. He and Mladic had already been indicted by the war crimes tribunal; the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for their capture. And thus they began their careers as fugitives from justice. The pair were frequently described as "the world's most wanted men." In truth, the world lost interest in them fairly quickly. Karadzic was widely believed to have taken refuge in various monasteries in Bosnia and neighboring Montenegro. Despite the presence of thousands of NATO troops in Bosnia, and frequent reports of sightings of the tall, bushy-haired leader and his red Mercedes sedan, he managed to elude capture. Mladic, meanwhile, lived relatively openly in Belgrade under the protection of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who died in a Dutch jail cell in 2006 while standing trial himself for alleged war crimes. The stocky general was often seen dining in restaurants and attending big soccer matches. Mladic, 66, remains at large. Although many in Europe expect that he will be arrested soon, he is a somewhat more difficult case than Karadzic. He is believed to retain a support network of former Yugoslav soldiers and officers, and taking him alive could be tricky. Among a shrinking core of extreme Serb nationalists, Karadzic and Mladic are still regarded as heroes. But the EU's refusal to consider Serbia for membership until it arrested the two most famous war crimes suspects has gradually turned public opinion against them. When Boris Tadic, a pro-Western moderate, was re-elected president earlier this year on a promise to steer Serbia toward EU membership, the arrests of Karadzic and Mladic seemed increasingly likely. "The parliamentary election opened the door--and it showed that the public was ahead of the politicians", said Sonja Biserko, chairwoman of Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. "Karadzic was a symbol of the Milosevic policy. 1/8Former Serbian President and Prime Minister Vojislav3/8 Kostunica was installed as someone who had to keep the same policies by other means. This is now the end. Karadzic is the end of these two epochs", she said. Tadic defeated a hard-line nationalist, Tomislav Nikolic, in a close election last February. He was not able to form a new government until early this month. Last Friday, the Cabinet replaced the head of the secret police; Karadzic's arrest followed. His lawyer said Karadzic was arrested Friday, but the government says the arrest came Monday night. The Bosnian Serb's capture generated street protests in Belgrade, with police at one point clashing with about 200 nationalists who were demonstrating against the Western-leading government. There was a lot of chatter, as well. Dragan Ilic, host of Belgrade Radio B92's top morning show, said the station was flooded with calls, including some from people who had seen Karadzic at local appearances and on Serbian television shows. "Two girls called in and told me that he was very nice", Ilic said. "He was calm and was a good lecturer. He talked about ... meditation and how it related somehow to Serbian Orthodox monks' spiritual pilgrimages." He added that most of the talk was focused on the surprise elements of Karadzic's capture. No one quite expected the Bosnian Serb leader to ever be captured on a bus. And no one, Ilic said, expected him to "look like Santa Claus." "We always expected there would be some dramatic event. Milosevic's arrest was like a Greek tragedy. But this: He looks like Santa Claus and Hannibal Lecter rolled into one", he said. "It's like he was playing a game", Ilic said of the man known for living large on Serbia's stage during the war. "He needed some form of exhibitionism. He needed to publish--and it's like he kept sending messages. Even if people didn't know he was Radovan Karadzic." Karadzic's next grand stage will be the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, where he will face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. If convicted, he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Tom Hundley reported from Chicago and Chris Spolar from Barcelona. Tribune news services contributed to this report. thundley@tribune.com cspolar@tribune.com
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