Wanted War Criminal Radovan Karadzic Arrested After Long Chase

Karadzic played a crucial role in the planning of the war that erupted over the Bosnia region's secession from Yugoslavia. The United Nations accused him of masterminding massacres and "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."

The U.N. war crimes tribunal indicted Karadzic in July 1995 for authorizing the shooting of civilians during the 43-month siege of the city of Sarajevo and for orchestrating the slaughter of some 8,000 Muslim men after Serb forces seized the U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica.

Who is Karadzic?

	Karadzic's political movement and military force was responsible for ethnic cleansing and attacks on civilians during the Bosnian war.

Karadzic became a psychiatrist in a city hospital, began writing poetry and befriended Serb nationalist writer Dobrica Cosic, who encouraged him to go into politics, according to the BBC.

In 1990, he helped set up the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in response to the rise of Bosnian Muslims and Croat Catholics who wanted to split from Yugoslavia.  Yugoslavia had been under Serb control, but in the newly formed nation, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbs were only a one-third minority.

Karadzic and his followers did not want to become a minority, and so declared the creation of the independent Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.   

A vicious war ensued, in which Serbs besieged the capital Sarajevo for 43 months, terrorizing the civilian population with a relentless bombardment and sniper fire.

Near the war's end in 1995, Serbian forces attacked Muslim refugees who had fled from Srebrenica to a U.N. camp protected by Dutch troops, extracted the men and boys from their families, and killed them.

Troops from the United States and NATO allies intervened to end the war and the 1995 Dayton peace treaty divided Bosnia-Herzegovina into a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb republic, with a three-member presidency consisting of a Muslim, a Croat and a Serb.

In hiding for over 10 years

	Karadzic worked as a new-age doctor under a fake name and grew a large beard to hide his identity.

The U.S. and Europe long suspected that the Serbian government was failing to press the search, as many Serbs see the U.N. war crimes tribunal as biased and prone to laying all the blame on Serbia.

However, the new government, which is eager to join the European Union, signaled it wanted to comply and stepped-up the hunt.

According to government officials, Karadzic grew a long white beard and moved freely in the city of Belgrade practicing alternative medicine under the false name, Dragan Dabic.  He was regarded as an expert in meditation, calmness and silence, and wrote for Healthy Life magazine.

Serbian government claims victory

	Karadzic is still a popular figure among some Serbs, seen here at a pro-Karadzic rally in Belgrade, Serbia, after his arrest.

Cars honked horns and Bosnian state radio played excerpts of Karadzic's wartime hate speeches as a reminder of his crimes.

Munira Subasic, head of a Srebrenica widow's association said the arrest "is confirmation that every criminal will eventually face justice."

"I hope that people who had to keep quiet because of Karadzic will start revealing the locations of mass graves and let us find the truth about our loved ones," she said.

In the Bosnian town of Kozarac, the organizer of a rock concert interrupted the show to announce the news, only to receive laughter from the audience and thumbs up for a good joke.

Zinaida Mahmuljin, who was in the audience, told the AP it was only when mobile phones began ringing in the crowd and the news began to circulate that people realized the announcement was true. Then the party really started, she said.