http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=cdcd79d3-406f-4b8c-8ae0-40b99d727279
Serbian newspaper publishes Karadzic picture
Shot of former leader show 'considerably thinner' man and without facial hair
Thursday, July 31, 2008
CREDIT: ALEXA STANKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images
A man in Belgrade reads a Serb newspaper sporting an exclusive photo
of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, shorn of his guru-like
hair and beard, allegedly prior to his transfer to The Hague
BELGRADE - A Serbian newspaper published pictures Thursday of Radovan
Karadzic shorn of his guru-like hair and beard, ahead of his
appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal.
"It is him!" said the front-page headline of the daily Blic, across
the top of a photograph of Karadzic, a paler and thinner version of
the man when he was the wartime leader of Bosnia's Serbs in the 1990s.
In a large caption below, it states: "Radovan Karadzic on the verge of
his extradition to The Hague," where the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is based.
Karadzic, who is accused of genocide, was arrested in Belgrade on July
21 after more than a decade on the run disguised as Doctor Dragan
Dabic, a hirsute alternative medicine healer.
The 63-year-old is to appear before the ICTY on Thursday, a day after
being transferred from Belgrade to The Hague in the Netherlands.
Another of the "exclusive photographs" published by the tabloid shows
Karadzic simply dressed in a light-blue T-shirt. A necklace is
dangling around his neck.
Karadzic was "considerably thinner (and) noticeably finds it difficult
to walk," said the accompanying text, adding that although shaven, he
"still has the recognizable wavy hair."
The images, it added, "did not give the impression that he was too
much concerned."
The pictures - also on the website of the newspaper, www.blic.co.yu -
were a major scoop given the huge interest in the Karadzic case.
At the time when he was shorn of his locks and beard last week, his
lawyer Svetozar Vujacic told AFP: "He's looking good. He had a hair
cut, he shaved himself, and is in great shape. He now looks just like
before."
Upon seeing the pictures, Serbs in the capital Belgrade said they
showed he had aged as expected since he was last seen in public
without a beard, the year after he was indicted for war crimes in
1995.
"That is definitely Radovan, only he's aged. Anyhow, many years have
passed," Dejan Lausevic, a 43-year-old social worker, told AFP.
"That's that face. He's skinnier, his hair isn't as messy as I
remember and he's older," said 29-year-old economist Aleksandra
Simovic.
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Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
