The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Belgrade

Serbia said Monday its security forces had captured Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader accused of genocide, after nearly 13 years on the run from a UN war crimes court.

"Radovan Karadzic was located and arrested tonight," said a statement from the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

"Karadzic was brought to the investigative judge of the War Crimes Court in Belgrade, in accordance with the law on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)," it added.

The Serbian presidency and war crimes prosecution refused to elaborate on the brief statement, which did not disclose any further information about the time and place of Karadzic's arrest.

However, a war crimes official who requested anonymity said the 63-year-old had offered "no resistance" when he was arrested on Serbian territory, and appeared to have been in a "depressive mood."

His capture comes two weeks after Serbia got a new pro-European Union membership government dominated by Tadic's pro-Western Democratic Party, with the support of the reformed Socialists of late president Slobodan Milosevic.

Along with his former army chief Ratko Mladic, Karadzic had evaded the ICTY since 1995 when they were charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Mladic, 65, is now one of only two other remaining fugitives of The Hague-based court. The other is Goran Hadzic, 49, a former Serb politician wanted for "ethnic cleansing," but in Croatia.

Karadzic's arrest was promptly welcomed by UN war crimes chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz, the French presidency of the European Union, and the United States, as well as an association of mothers of those killed in 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Brammertz praised Serbia for the arrest, which came a day before he visits Belgrade, whose cooperation with the UN court is the main obstacle to the Balkan country's EU integration. "I was informed by our colleagues in Belgrade about the successful operation which resulted in the arrest of Radovan Karadzic," the prosecutor said in a statement in The Hague, the seat of the UN tribunal.

"I would like to congratulate the Serbian authoritiest on achieving this milestone on cooperation," said Brammertz. A judge finished interrogating former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic early Tuesday, the first step in a procedure to hand over the accused mastermind of Europe's worst massacre since World War II to a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Karadzic, a psychiatrist turned die-hard Serbian nationalist politician, was arrested by Serbian forces and taken before the country's war crimes court on Monday, indicating imminent extradition to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

"The questioning is over," investigating judge Milan Dilparic said Tuesday, referring to the first step in a legal process that includes presenting Karadzic with the indictment and allowing three days for him to appeal any decision to extradite him.

Karadzic's lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said Tuesday that he would launch an appeal against the extradition.