Goran Hadzic, 52, was a key figure in the breakaway Krajina Serb republic in Croatia, and after the arrest of wartime General Ratko Mladic earlier this year, he was Serbia’s last remaining figure sought by the United Nations war crime tribunal in The Hague.
“This morning Goran Hadzic was arrested in the region of Fruska Gora,” said President Boris Tadic, who called a special news conference to announce the arrest.
Fruska Gora is a hilly, pastoral region noted for its many Serb Orthodox Monasteries, although Tadic said Hadzic was not arrested in a monastery or a military barracks.
His arrest, and that of Mladic, followed several years of intensive work by Serbian officials, he said.
“We’ve been working very hard in the past three years,” Tadic said. “You have to work, you have to prepare your actions and at the end of the day you have your results.”
He cited the killing of Osama Bin Laden earlier this year after a decade-long US manhunt. “We also had the same situation,” Tadic said.
Hadzic is charged with ordering the killing of hundreds and the deportation of thousands of Croats and other non-Serbs from the region of Croatia he took over.
For years he was overshadowed by the higher profile ethnic Serb fugitives Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, and his military commander Mladic. Hadzic may ultimately be remembered mostly as the man who evaded justice longer than others charged with crimes in the 1990s Yugoslav wars.
“He is much more discrete than the others in terms of personality and what he did,” said Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, a member of European Parliament who served with UN forces in the region of Croatia where Hadzic was a regional leader. “He was not a particularly notable personality.”
Hadzic was a physically imposing figure however at 1.85 meters tall with a full dark beard during the war years.
The European Union, which hailed Belgrade for finding Mladic in May, had continued to insist on the arrest of Hadzic for Serbia to make progress toward European Union membership.
“This is a further important step for Serbia in realising its European perspective and equally crucially for international justice,” three top EU officials said in a joint statement welcoming the arrest.
Both NATO and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a former E.U. and UN Envoy to the region, said it closed an important chapter in recent European history.
“I warmly congratulate Serbia,” Bilt said.
Hadzic lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until July 13, 2004, when The Hague sent an indictment and arrest warrant to Belgrade. He fled immediately, tipped off by nationalizt hard-liners in Serbia’s security services.
His escape was kept a secret for days, while relatives said he was at home and police denied having orders to arrest him. The Hague later made public surveillance pictures showing him leaving his house with a bag on the afternoon of July 13.
Hadzic also gained notoriety for his involvement in murky deals including illegal exports of oak, wine and crude oil from a well under Serb control. He was frequently seen in the company of Zeljko “Arkan” Raznatovic, a paramilitary leader and head of Belgrade’s underworld at the time.
Recent experience with Mladic suggests it could take several days before Hadzic is extradited to The Hague. Nerma Jelacic, a spokeswoman for the Yugoslavia tribunal in The Hague, declined to comment.
