BELGRADE, Serbia — Authorities began extraditing ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the U.N. war-crimes tribunal to face genocide charges early today, an official with the Serb prosecutor’s office said, despite a violence-tinged protest hours before by thousands of his supporters.
Karadzic is accused by the U.N. court of masterminding the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica, Europe’s worst massacre since World War II. He also is charged with spearheading the three-year siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead.
Karadzic spent nearly 13 years on the run before being arrested last week in Belgrade, where he lived under the assumed identity of a health guru, sporting a long white beard and hair, and large glasses.
Three Jeeps with tinted windows were seen speeding away early today from the Belgrade war-crimes court, where Karadzic was being held. An official with the prosecution office told reporters that Karadzic was in one of those Jeeps on his way to the Belgrade airport, from where he will be flown to the U.N. court in the Netherlands.
Karadzic faces 11 charges at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, including genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide.
Despite the war-crimes allegations, he is still revered by many as a wartime hero for helping to create the Bosnian Serb mini-state.
Hours earlier, a demonstration against Karadzic’s extradition turned violent on its fringes as stone-throwing extremists clashed with police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
While most of the 15,000 demonstrators sang nationalist songs and waved posters of their “Serb Hero,” a few hundred hard-liners broke away from the gathering and threw rocks and burning flares at police in downtown Belgrade.
Later, police fired tear gas at large groups of protesters while pushing them from the square after the rally. Police blocked off several neighborhoods, stopping traffic and the passage of demonstrators. Police Chief Milorad Veljovic said the area was “under control” by midnight.
Belgrade’s emergency clinic reported 46 people injured, including 25 police officers and 21 civilians.
Riot police had taken up positions across the capital and heavily armed anti-terrorist troops guarded the U.S. Embassy as busloads of ultranationalists arrived from all over Serbia and Bosnia for the anti-government rally.
Police estimated the turnout at 15,000 people — far fewer than expected. The last major nationalist rally, in February after Kosovo’s declaration of independence, drew 150,000 people and led to an attack on the U.S. Embassy amid a violent looting spree.
