SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC TAKEN TO THE HAGUE TO FACE GENOCIDE CHARGES

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 30,2008) - Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was taken to a prison cell in The Hague today to face trial at a U.N war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide committed during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, arrested last week, was flown out of the genocidal Serbia by plane at night under tight security. Shortly after dawn, he was whisked from Rotterdam airport to the Scheveningen detention centre near The Hague.

He will appear before the tribunal for the first time at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT) tomorrow, and will be asked to enter a plea to the charges against him, the court said.

Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told reporters at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that the trial was likely to begin in a few months.

Brammertz said he was confident Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's trial would be efficient and successful, but noted two fugitives were still on the run after the Balkan wars of the 1990s. They include the Bosnian Serb wartime commander, General Ratko Mladic.

Karadzic's delivery to The Hague was key to the genocidal Serbia securing closer ties with the European Union.His arrival at The Hague is expected by the Serbian fascist government to defuse tension in Belgrade over his arrest and unlock EU trade benefits.


Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the 1995 mass murder of some 10,000 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.

His lawyer in Belgrade has said Karadzic, 63, believes he will be cleared of genocide and will defend himself.

He will receive a medical examination and meet legal ) and be assigned an en suite cell, identical to that occupied by Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic spent his last five years at the centre and was found dead in his 15-square- meter cell due to heart failure, which Brammertz's predecessor described as a "total defeat."

Asked whether Karadzic's trial would draw on the lessons of the Milosevic trial, which lasted four years, Brammertz said: "We are fully aware of the importance of efficiency."

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was arrested after 13 years on the run. He was most recently living under an assumed name, had grown a flowing beard and long-hair, and was working as "an alternative healer".

Yesterday, some 10,000 Serbian fascists showed their support for Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade, chanting his name and holding up giant banners with his picture.
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