Serbia War Crimes: Lukewarm Turnout at Mass Rally for Karadzic

Around 15,000 Serb nationalists converged on Belgrade last night from all over Serbia and Bosnia in an attempt to challenge the new pro-western government of President Boris Tadic and try to block the handover of Radovan Karadzic to the war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

With tension in Belgrade at its highest since mobs attacked the US embassy in February after Kosovo's secession, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic's government was braced for trouble after the arrest on charges of genocide and war crimes of Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who had been on the run and shielded by Serbian authorities for 12 years.

But while the US embassy had predicted up to 100,000 protesters would take part in the pro-Karadzic protests, the turnout on Belgrade's main square last night was much lower. However, a few hundred protesters broke away from the rally and began pelting police with stones. The police responded with tear gas and baton rounds, and the skirmishes left at least 24 people in hospital, including nine police officers and a Spanish cameraman.

The lukewarm response to the calls for protest from the main opposition Radicals party - extreme nationalists whose leader, Vojislav Seselj, is being tried for alleged war crimes in The Hague - suggested that the hardliners who have dominated Serbia for the past 20 years are a fading force.

Aleksandar Vucic, a Radicals leader, called for demonstrations against Tadic's "treason and dictatorship".

Tadic said the protesters had a right to demonstrate peacefully. But he added: "There's no patriotism in hooliganism."

Rasim Ljajic, a Muslim official in the Serbian government responsible for cooperating with The Hague and a hate figure for the nationalists, said his phones had not stopped ringing with threats for three days. "It is clear that it is all organized," he told a Sarajevo newspaper.

Tadic has also been receiving death threats, according to the Belgrade media. European diplomats say that in advance of last week's arrest, Tadic had made it clear he feared for his own safety if he broke with nationalist coalition partners and pursued pro-western policies.

Despite Karadzic's arrest and quick moves to put allies in key posts in the powerful security services, the president's grip is fragile. The nationalists remain a strong if diminishing force. But the pro-western democrats now running Serbia may take comfort from the lackluster opposition demonstrations last night.

Tadic's predecessor, Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated in 2003 after he, too, arrested and extradited a major war crimes suspect, Slobodan Milosevic, and sought to join the European mainstream. Radicals' leaders have been openly declaring that Tadic could face the same fate as Djindjic.

"We warn Tadic that treason has never gone unpunished in Serbia. This is not a threat, but a warning of the fate that followed traitors throughout Serbian history," said Vjerica Radeta, a Radicals' MP. Ljajic described the mood in Belgrade as the most menacing since 2003. "A very bad political climate is being created, the worst since the Djindjic murder."

Karadzic is expected to be sent to The Hague any day.