Post by SKORIC on Jul 23, 2008 2:57:33 GMT -5
BELGRADE - The infamous, hunted war-crimes suspect was not in a distant monastery or a dark cave when caught at last, but living in Serbia's capital. Nor was Radovan Karadzic lurking inconspicuously, but instead giving public lectures on alternative medicine before audiences of hundreds.
He was hiding behind only an enormous beard, white ponytailed hair topped with an odd black tuft, and a new life so at odds with his myth as to deflect suspicion.
On a dreary, rainy day yesterday in Belgrade, the day after Karadzic's capture, foes and supporters alike were left to marvel at what appeared to be his complete metamorphosis. As Serbs grappled with the repercussions of his arrest, and his place as a symbol of crimes carried out in their name, they were also left to sort out the two lives of a single man.
The fatigues-wearing leader of the Bosnian Serbs was unrecognizable in a guise that was part guru and part Santa Claus. As Dragan Dabic, the former psychiatrist worked for years in a clinic in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, practicing alternative medicine. He even lectured on videotape at local community centers, an open and active life that would appear to be an extraordinary risk for one of the world's most-wanted men.
"For an older person, he had very many interests," said Maja Djelic, 28, a Belgrade resident who, like Karadzic, wrote for the magazine Healthy Life. She said they met for coffee and conversations, about acupuncture and the Internet, at a cafe called Biblioteka in downtown Belgrade. Karadzic, she recalled, was very interested in improving his website.
"He said, when being introduced, 'My name is Dr. Dabic, but call me David,' " she said, adding that the two met last November. During an interview yesterday, Djelic referred to him as Dr. David, not Karadzic.
"He was really friendly and really open and had a way of speaking with people," Djelic said. She said that he did not speak with a Bosnian accent, and seemed like a valuable member of the small alternative-medicine community here, not someone who could have been the force behind the notorious Srebrenica massacre and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.
"I still don't believe it's the same person," she said, though the editor in chief of the magazine confirmed in interviews with numerous news outlets that Karadzic, under his assumed identity, had written for Healthy Life.
Despite the apparent completeness of his disguise, it was not publicly known whether, as war crimes prosecutors have often alleged, the Serbian government had long known Karadzic's location and was waiting only for a convenient moment to apprehend him.
A wartime friend of Karadzic's who did not want to be named, to avoid the attention of prosecutors, said he believed that the arrest was the result of a tip-off, but also that recently Karadzic had "made a mistake in communication," though he declined to elaborate.
Whatever led to his apprehension, the authorities managed to track down the elusive Karadzic at last on Monday. A judge concluded that he should be transferred to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, although Karadzic now has three days in which to appeal the decision. Karadzic had been questioned but, so far, ministers said, he has remained silent.
Karadzic, who was president of the Bosnian Serb administration during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, went into hiding a year or so after being indicted in July 1995 by an international war crimes tribunal in the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica earlier that year.
He was also charged with genocide, persecutions, and other crimes for killings of non-Serbs by forces under his command.
The charges state that his forces killed, tortured, and raped some of the thousands of non-Serbs they funneled into camps set up by Bosnian Serb authorities. In addition, he was charged with responsibility for the shelling and sniper-shootings of civilians in Sarajevo during the 43-month siege of the city in which thousands were killed or wounded.
www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/07/23/karadzic_concealed_identity_with_long_white_beard/
He was hiding behind only an enormous beard, white ponytailed hair topped with an odd black tuft, and a new life so at odds with his myth as to deflect suspicion.
On a dreary, rainy day yesterday in Belgrade, the day after Karadzic's capture, foes and supporters alike were left to marvel at what appeared to be his complete metamorphosis. As Serbs grappled with the repercussions of his arrest, and his place as a symbol of crimes carried out in their name, they were also left to sort out the two lives of a single man.
The fatigues-wearing leader of the Bosnian Serbs was unrecognizable in a guise that was part guru and part Santa Claus. As Dragan Dabic, the former psychiatrist worked for years in a clinic in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, practicing alternative medicine. He even lectured on videotape at local community centers, an open and active life that would appear to be an extraordinary risk for one of the world's most-wanted men.
"For an older person, he had very many interests," said Maja Djelic, 28, a Belgrade resident who, like Karadzic, wrote for the magazine Healthy Life. She said they met for coffee and conversations, about acupuncture and the Internet, at a cafe called Biblioteka in downtown Belgrade. Karadzic, she recalled, was very interested in improving his website.
"He said, when being introduced, 'My name is Dr. Dabic, but call me David,' " she said, adding that the two met last November. During an interview yesterday, Djelic referred to him as Dr. David, not Karadzic.
"He was really friendly and really open and had a way of speaking with people," Djelic said. She said that he did not speak with a Bosnian accent, and seemed like a valuable member of the small alternative-medicine community here, not someone who could have been the force behind the notorious Srebrenica massacre and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.
"I still don't believe it's the same person," she said, though the editor in chief of the magazine confirmed in interviews with numerous news outlets that Karadzic, under his assumed identity, had written for Healthy Life.
Despite the apparent completeness of his disguise, it was not publicly known whether, as war crimes prosecutors have often alleged, the Serbian government had long known Karadzic's location and was waiting only for a convenient moment to apprehend him.
A wartime friend of Karadzic's who did not want to be named, to avoid the attention of prosecutors, said he believed that the arrest was the result of a tip-off, but also that recently Karadzic had "made a mistake in communication," though he declined to elaborate.
Whatever led to his apprehension, the authorities managed to track down the elusive Karadzic at last on Monday. A judge concluded that he should be transferred to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, although Karadzic now has three days in which to appeal the decision. Karadzic had been questioned but, so far, ministers said, he has remained silent.
Karadzic, who was president of the Bosnian Serb administration during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, went into hiding a year or so after being indicted in July 1995 by an international war crimes tribunal in the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica earlier that year.
He was also charged with genocide, persecutions, and other crimes for killings of non-Serbs by forces under his command.
The charges state that his forces killed, tortured, and raped some of the thousands of non-Serbs they funneled into camps set up by Bosnian Serb authorities. In addition, he was charged with responsibility for the shelling and sniper-shootings of civilians in Sarajevo during the 43-month siege of the city in which thousands were killed or wounded.
www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/07/23/karadzic_concealed_identity_with_long_white_beard/