War Crimes Fugitive Radovan Karadzic Arrested

Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb wartime president and one of the world's most wanted men, has been arrested, Serbian government and judicial sources have said.

The office of the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, confirmed that Karadzic had been arrested in Serbia. He was detained and taken to see judges of the war crimes court.

Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnia war, was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in July 1995 for authorizing the shooting of civilians during the 43-month siege of Sarajevo.

He was indicted for genocide a second time four months later for orchestrating the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.

He went underground in 1997 after losing power.

Karadzic was one of three fugitives wanted by the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal who were still at large. He refuses to accept the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.

If Karadzic is extradited, he would be the 44th Serb suspect extradited to the tribunal. The others include former president Slobodan Milosevic, who was ousted in 2000 and died in 2006 while on trial on war crimes charges.

The arrest of Karadzic and other indicted war criminals and their delivery to the Hague war crimes tribunal has been one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards EU membership.

The West is also pressing for the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.