The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Belgrade

Serb nationalists skirmished with riot police in the capital Tuesday, lashing out against the new Western-leaning government that captured war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic's lawyer vowed to appeal Serbia's plan to extradite the former Bosnian Serb chief to a U.N. war crimes court.

Riot police deployed in downtown Belgrade to keep about 200 members of the extremist Obraz group under control. The demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at the officers, chanting "treason!" and trying to break through police cordons.

Five demonstrators and a policeman were injured, doctors at Belgrade emergency clinic said. "This is a hard day for Serbia," said Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, adding that Karadzic was "a legend of the Serbian people." Nikolic vowed his party will do "all in its power" to topple the pro-Western government.

In the village of Petnjica, where Karadzic was born, a relative of the wartime Bosnian Serb leader, Vukosav Karadzic, said he was "sorry he did not kill himself but allowed himself to be captured."

Serb officials say they arrested Karadzic Monday evening near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run. The war crime suspect had grown a long white beard to conceal his identity and had lived freely in the capital before being arrested.

"His false identity was very convincing," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor who coordinated the security forces arrest. "He had moved freely in public places."