IN A private clinic deep in the sprawling concrete suburb of Novi (New) Belgrade, Dr Dragan Dabic was accepted unquestioningly as a quiet, softly spoken practitioner of alternative medicine.
During more than a decade out of public view, the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, once known for his distinctively coiffed hair, had done his utmost to alter his appearance from that of the man the world was hunting.
When it finally caught up with him, on Monday, the world found a shuffling, elderly man, his face obscured by a bushy white beard.
Yesterday, as details of Karadzic's assumed identity began to emerge, a judge in Belgrade ordered his extradition to the Hague to face the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
The 63-year-old psychiatrist has three days to appeal the ruling and his lawyer said he intends to do so.
Karadzic has been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide relating to the war in Bosnia. The UN says his forces killed up to 8,000 Bosnian men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".
He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.
Politicians and commentators said his arrest on Serbian soil showed Serbia's two-week-old government putting pragmatism before pride with the aim of pushing towards European Union membership and economic prosperity.
Karadzic is expected to be moved this week to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), created 15 years ago to prosecute crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
The complexity of a case that encompasses most of the worst atrocities of the war and likely legal wrangling stand in the way of a speedy trial.
Serbian intelligence officers were on the trail of Mr Karadzic's military leader, Ratko Mladic, when they stumbled upon Karadzic, the office of Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said yesterday.
Mr Vukcevic said: "Kardzic walked around freely. The people who rented him the apartment did not know his true identity."
Karadzic appears to have lived comfortably within his new identity. He liked being with people and getting attention.
He was a regular contributor to Belgrade's Healthy Life magazine whose editor, Goran Kojic, said he was shocked.
"It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic," Mr Kojic said. "He was a kind man, with good manners, quiet and witty,"
Mr Vukcevic said: "He was interrogated during the night. His identity was confirmed and he was handed the indictment. He is defending himself mainly with silence."
A statement from the EU presidency, held by France, called the arrest "an important step on the path to the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union".
Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said this would clear Serbia's path towards membership.
And David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said the arrest had boosted Serbia's hopes of becoming a member of the "European family".
Sveta Vujacic, Karadzic's lawyer, said the fugitive had been arrested on a bus at about 9:30am on Friday and held over the weekend until he was brought to the court yesterday.
"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and then he was taken to some place and kept in the room," Mr Vujacic said.
"And that is absolutely against the law what they did."
How Karadzic looked in 1994, as the ruthless leader of the Bosnian Serbs
"This is an important day for the victims who have waited for this . It is also an important day for international justice because it demonstrates nobody is beyond the reach of the law." – Serge Brammertz, head prosecutor for the UN war crimes tribunal.
"His false identity was very convincing." – Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbian war crimes prosecutor.
"This brings some settlement in our hearts and brings us forward to the future." – Munira Subasic, who lost two sons in the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.
"We have been waiting for 13 years. Now we know there is justice." – Kada Hotic, a survivor of Srebrenica massacre.
"It's been a long hoped-for day." – Lord Ashdown, former international administrator in Bosnia.
"Karadzic is a Serbian hero. There will be a backlash." – Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian Radical Party.
"The Hague tribunal is not a place where justice is served." – Mladen Bosic, leader of the Bosnian Serb Democratic Party.
WHAT NEXTRADOVAN Karadzic is expected to be moved later this week to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Once there he will be taken to the tribunal's detention unit inside a Dutch jail close to the North Sea coast. Within days he will be called to court for an initial appearance. Judges will ask him to enter pleas to the charges against him, although he may delay his plea by up to 30 days. UN prosecutors and judges are likely to seek a speedy trial to avoid the lengthy proceedings that have dogged the Hague tribunal in the past.
