Wed 23 Jul 2008 00:07
How ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Radovan Karadzic used bearded medicine man disguise to evade capture for a decade
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Via Daily Mail:
This is the extraordinary disguise which allowed one of the world’s most wanted men to escape justice for years.
Behind a bushy white beard, grandfatherly spectacles and with his infamous bouffant hair dragged into a ponytail, Radovan Karadzic practised as a doctor in Belgrade, capital of the country which was supposedly hunting him down for genocide.
The Butcher of Bosnia, accused of responsibility for the murder of 20,000 civilians, was allowed to work as Dr Dragan Dabic a practitioner in alternative medicine, to write for Serb publications and, with grotesque irony, to contribute to a magazine entitled Healthy Life.
Bouffant: Radovan Karadzic as the world remembers him during the Bosnian war, left, and as the bearded and bespectacled Dr Dabic
Last night, following his arrest on a Number 73 bus in the Serb capital, nationalist extremists fought with riot police, accusing the new West-leaning government that captured him of treason.
Karadzic was the architect of the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo in the Balkan wars of the early 1990s when he was Bosnian Serb president. His indictment for war crimes describes the
landscapes he left behind as ‘truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history’.
Did Karadzic simply fade into the freedom of anonymity, or did Serbia turn a blind eye to his existence, handing him over only when it became clear that the new government’s dream of joining the EU would never be granted while he was at liberty?
War criminal: Karadzic went unnoticed as a regular magazine contributer
Tales of his flight from justice and enduring freedom are the stuff of legend among his supporters – and a constant source of pain for the families of massacre victims. What seems certain is that it was not a solo performance.
Intelligence sources believe he was hidden and helped by a close-knit network of military friends and Serb nationalists before being fed into the bustle of Bel-Supporters made it clear that ‘every Serb house shall be his hiding place and every true Serb his ally’, as one phrased it.
Some claimed Karadzic had joined a monastery, others that he was hiding in Britain, Russia, or Eastern Europe.
In 2004, dozens of U.S., British, German and Slovenian troops in helicopters and vehicles mounted a night-time raid on a Serbian Orthodox church and the home of a priest, wounding him and his son.
But there was no trace of Karadzic.
Recently Nato and EU troops raided the homes of Karadzic’s wife and children in Pale, his wartime stronghold southeast of Sarajevo. They even searched the sewage tank, his wife Ljiljana said.
For the last several years, however, he was apparently living openly in Belgrade as Dr Dabic.
Mass grave: The bodies of dozens of Srebrenica victims are investigated in 1996
He spoke quietly, became ‘very religious’ and chatted easily with friends about ‘family life’.
While international authorities were supposedly scouring Europe for him, he was appearing in public and being filmed giving alternative medicine talks.
He even had his own website, which published his email address and phone number, and promised his treatment could help everything from impotence to autism.
Last October Karadzic, who trained as a psychiatrist, appeared at a well-being convention organised by Healthy Life magazine, and introduced himself to staff as a neuro-psychiatrist who wanted to contribute articles.
Editor Goran Kojic said he liked to write morbid and surreal poetry, and sometimes children’s poems. ‘He was a kind man, with good
manners, quiet and witty,’ he said.
There were conflicting reports of his arrest, but his lawyer Sveta Vujacic said it happened on a Number 73 bus in Belgrade on Friday.
Three civilians got on the bus and approached Karadzic while he was reading a magazine. He thought they were ticket inspectors.
They ordered him off, blindfolded him, put him in a car and drove for around 20 minutes, he said. He was placed in a small room but refused to answer questions.
Vujacic said he was now in good spirits but refusing to co-operate with police.
Partners in crime: Karadzic with the Bosnian Serb general Radko Mladic, left
It appears that a surveillance operation was mounted several weeks ago and that authorities were watching an address in a suburb of Belgrade.
There were conflicting reports over whether the address was linked to Karadzic or his murderous and fugitive cohort, General Ratko Mladic.
But whatever the target, Karadzic became the prize. His arrest led to scenes of unbridled joy across the former war zones where so many lives were lost.
Equally, however, the unrest among supporters in Belgrade suggest he may be moved out of the country as quickly as possible.
The timing of the arrest raised suspicions that it was secured by politics, not police work.
It came just two weeks after a new, pro-Western Serbian government took office and coincided with informal negotiations that could allow Serbia to join the EU at some stage.
Brussels had made it clear to Belgrade that EU membership was dependent on Karadzic being handed over.
Commentators suggested that Serbian authorities must have known the whereabouts of Karadzic – who was drawing an army pension until recently – but had no interest in handing him over.
Karadzic with former US President Jimmy Carter before their talks in Pale, outside Sarajevo, in 1994
That changed with the new government. And it quickly seems to have won Serbia some EU plus marks.
Hours after his arrest, senior figures were already talking about a ‘brighter future’ for Serbia with the EU.
There have long been suspicions that Karadzic’s family helped to conceal him, an allegation they robustly deny.
However it seems likely that he will be formally reunited with them soon, a luxury denied to relatives of all those of victims of his regime.
His daughter Sonja Karadzic said family members want to spend at least a few hours with him before his transfer into the hands of the United Nations.
Wife Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic was ‘shocked’ to learn of the arrest. ‘As soon as the phone rang, I knew something was wrong,’ she said.
‘I am very shocked. Confused. But at least we know he is alive.’
In neighbouring Montenegro, his relatives still view him as a hero and believe his arrest was an act of treason.
‘I am very sad that this has happened to Radovan. I feel sorry for him,’ said family member Vukosav Karadzic, from the village of Petnjica where Radovan was born.
‘I am sorry he did not kill himself but allowed himself to be captured. He was betrayed by our people.’
Karadzic’s mother Jovankas, who lived in nearby Niksic, was in her 80s when she died recently.
In an interview while he was on the run she spoke proudly of her son and described him as ‘a fine, good man’.
Lawyers for Karadzic said they would appeal against his detention, a process which could delay his transfer to The Hague.
They have already complained that he was illegally held.
One protested that the arrest of the man accused of genocide was ‘absolutely against the law’.
Sources said it could be months before he is brought to trial.
Once Karadzic does arrive in The Hague, he will be rushed amid tight security to the tribunal’s purpose-built detention unit inside a jail close to the North Sea coast.
He will take up residence in a cell in the same block where Milosevic died in 2006 shortly before the end of his genocide trial.
It was here that the former Serb president mapped out his defence while listening to Frank Sinatra and Celine Dion CDs.
The first chance the public will get to see Karadzic will be within days of his arrival, when he has to appear in court before a red and black-robed judge for a brief arraignment-style hearing in which he will be asked to enter pleas.
Riots: Serbian police clashing with Karadzic supporters, in Belgrade yesterday
