<http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2360104340> http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2360104340
Serbia: Intelligence service protected Karadzic, claims minister Belgrade, 23 July (AKI) – Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Wednesday that the state intelligence service had protected Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic. Karadic was arrested in Belgrade late on Monday after thirteen years in hiding. Not a single policeman took part in Karadzic’s arrest, but this was done by the state security agency (BIA), which is not under his control, Dacic told Belgrade daily Press. “BIA had protected him and BIA has now turned him over,” Dacic said without elaborating. He said it would be interesting who, and on whose orders, had protected Karadzic until now. Karadzic’s arrest was a part of a “classical turnover of power and the turning over of Radovan Karadzic,” said Dacic. He took over as Interior Minister in the new government of prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic earlier this month. Dacic seemed to blame former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, who was ousted by president Boris Tadic’s pro-European coalition in the May election for dragging his feet on arresting Karadzic. Karadiz is now awaiting extradition to the UN's Hague-based tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he will face crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide charges. <http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2356890116> He had been living in Belgrade under a disguise (photo). Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for the Serbian war crimes court, said the extradition may take place at the weekend or early next week. Dacic, a leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia which formed a governing coalition with Tadic, has been ridiculed in the press for “washing his hands” of Karadzic's arrest, fearing negative reactions from his party members. His predecessor and former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was also accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide and died in his Hague jail cell in March 2006, months before he was due to be sentenced. Karadzic, a war time Bosnian Serb leader, is still considered by many Serbs to be a hero who only defended Serbs in Bosnia, and his arrest caused a public shock. Some two hundred nationalist youths carrying his pictures clashed with police in the centre of Belgrade on Tuesday evening, but the situation has generally been quiet. __._,_.___
