World hails Karadzic arrest
World leaders united in hailing Serbia yesterday for the arrest of indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, with only Russia sounding a contrary note over whether he would receive a fair trial.
In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, sounded hopeful that the arrest would unblock Serbia's EU accession talks, which had been made conditional on Belgrade's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
"We have to talk to the prosecutor of the international tribunal but I am almost certain he is going to say there is 'full cooperation'," Solana said.
That reaction was echoed across European capitals, the United Nations and the White House, but with a dissident note coming from Russia's envoy to Nato, who called for Western leaders to join Karadzic in the dock.
"If the Karadzic case merits being considered in the Hague, then next to him in the dock should be those who took the decision to bomb entirely innocent people, hundreds of whom died during the 'democratisation' of the Balkans by the West," Dmitry Rogozin said in Brussels, cited by Interfax news agency.
The Russian foreign ministry stressed that any trial should be "impartial," accusing the UN war crimes tribunal of "an often biased approach."
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who served as a mediator in the Balkans conflict, hailed the capture of Karadzic as "late, late, late, but good, good, good," in comments to Swedish Radio.
The EU's current French presidency said it marked "an important step on the way to Serbia's drawing nearer to the European Union".
That positive note was echoed by EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who called the arrest "very important for Serbia's European aspirations."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed an "historic moment.”
"The victims must know: massive human rights violations will not go unpunished," she said in a statement.
The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, told reporters in Brussels: "At last! We've been waiting 13 years for this. A page has been turned.”
The US congratulated the government of Serbia on the capturing Karadzic, calling his arrest a "tribute" to the victims of atrocities there.
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