How fugitive Ratko Mladic was caught

Living under an assumed name in a small village in northern Serbia, one of the world's most wanted men - Ratko Mladic - is said to have put up no resistance when he was finally arrested after years in hiding.
The 69-year-old, who appeared to have a paralysed arm, was not in disguise and was "very co-operative", Belgrade's B92 radio said.Gen Mladic, facing charges including an accusation of genocide over the massacre of at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, was seized during a dawn operation on Thursday.
Three special units descended on a house in the village of Lazarevo, about 80km (50 miles) north of Belgrade, Serbian security sources told AFP news agency.
The house, owned by a relative of Gen Mladic, had been under surveillance for the past two weeks, one of the sources said.
The former general, reportedly using the assumed name Milorad Komodic, "looked like an old man", Rasim Ljajic, a government minister in charge of co-operation with the UN tribunal, told the Associated Press.
"One could pass by him without recognising him," he explained. "He was pale, which could mean he rarely ventured out of the house - a probable reason why he went unnoticed."
Support and protection Gen Mladic has evaded capture for years.
After the end of the Bosnian war, he returned to Belgrade, enjoying the support and protection of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
He lived openly in the city - visiting public places, eating in expensive restaurants and even attending football matches - until Mr Milosevic's arrest in 2001.
Some reports say he then took refuge in his wartime bunker in Han Pijesak, not far from Sarajevo, or even in Montenegro. However, other reports claimed he remained in or around Belgrade.
Instead, it appears he was was living at least some of that time in a quiet village in the north of Serbia.
0 comments:
Post a Comment