THE drinkers at Luda Kuca – "Madhouse" – in Belgrade paid little attention to the burly man nicknamed Santa who sat in the corner and spilled plum brandy on to his bushy beard.
He looked like a man who moved slowly; heavily built, avuncular, a man who seemed unperturbed and self-assured.
But beneath the heavy-rimmed glasses Santa's eyes moved quickly. He was always on the look-out for enemies real and imagined – and wit
h good reason.
For he was none other than Bosnian mass-murder suspect Radovan Karadzic, whose double life in the Serbian capital extended to that most human of male practices – a trip down the pub.
While he immersed himself in his alter-ego of Dragan Dabic, his past was always there to remind him of former glories – in the form of his portrait staring down at him from the walls of the Madhouse pub from when he was leader of the self proclaimed Republika Srpska.
A magnet for nationalists who share his view of Serbian glory, the Madhouse was a safe place for Karadzic.
Often, when he was full of red wine and slivovitz, he would relax a little, reach up from his little table near the bar and grab the gusle off the wall.
Karadzic would strum the single-stringed musical instrument he was taught to play by his father, which is popular across the Balkans, and sing and narrate epic stories of Serb greatness.
Guests recall that he often chose a special spot to perform these solo performances, right underneath his own picture and the portrait of another Serbian "hero", that of the still-at-large General Ratko Mladic.
Other details emerged yesterday of the life of Europe's most wanted man. Karadzic, who had been on the run for nearly a decade, had a girlfriend he presented as an associate in the alternative medicine business he ran, said Zoran Pavlovic.
Pavlovic, a software engineer, said he was hired in February by Karadzic to set up a website for him to advertise his expertise in "human quantum energy".
Pavlovic said he visited Karadzic's apartment in Yury Gagarin Street in a grim suburb of the capital called New Belgrade once or twice a month to discuss the project.
On a table, he said, was a framed photograph of four boys – all dressed in yellow LA Lakers T-shirts – who Karadzic said were grandsons living in America.
Karadzic claimed to have lived in New York, and that he "got his diploma" in the US. "He told me he travelled often to America and I had no reason to disbelieve him," Pavlovic said.
His rented two-room flat was a mess, with things strewn about. Karadzic was always dressed in black and often complained that money was hard to come by, Pavlovic said.
"Frankly, he scared me a bit. I thought he belonged to some religious sect or something, with that beard and all, but I treated him as any other client."
Pavlovic displayed gold- and silver-plated, bullet-shaped metal objects that Karadzic had given him and which he used in his healing practices to attract "cosmic energy".
Karadzic introduced the girlfriend only by her first name, Mila – an attractive brunette in her early 40s – and Pavlovic said she sometimes offered her own suggestions for the website. Karadzic remained officially married to Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, who lives in their family house in the former Serbian stronghold of Pale, just east of Sarajevo.
"If anyone knew who he really was, she (the girlfriend) must be the one," said Pavlovic.
"He was always polite, offering his services to help my husband, who had a stroke," said Milica Sener, a neighbour who lives one floor down. "But I declined. We don't believe in alternative medicine."
Shopkeeper Gordana Blagojevic said Karadzic bought yoghurt and whole-grain bread at her store every other day, sometimes with his girlfriend in tow. "I was shocked to hear who he really is."
Pensioner Milica Bjelanovic said Karadzic moved to the neighbourhood about a year and a half ago; she described him as a quiet man whose striking appearance – a kind of bushy beatnik with long hair worn in a plaited top-knot – made him an oddity.
The arrest of Karadzic has been applauded by European governments who hailed Serbia's new pro-Western leadership for the capture.
But in Belgrade, Serbian nationalists lashed out at authorities. Dozens of extremists took to the streets on Tuesday, clashing with police during a protest in the capital.
Chanting "Treason!" the demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at riot police who cordoned them off.
Five demonstrators and a policeman were injured. "This is a hard day for Serbia," Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party said, vowing his party will do "all in its power" to topple the pro-western government.
Political analyst Miodrag Stojadinovic said the identity Karadzic assumed surprised everyone because it was so far from any attempt to live in the shadows. "He hid closest to his own profession," Stojadinovic said of Karadzic, who practised psychiatry in Sarajevo before the Bosnian war.
"His support network may have eventually disintegrated and he was left alone, but someone somewhere must have eventually betrayed him."
Tomas Kovijanic, the keeper of the Madhouse pub, makes no bones about his nationalist leanings, but claims that he was fooled along with the other regulars about Karadzic's true identity.
"No, I never recognised him at all," he said,. "But if you look at his before and after pictures, I would say that he camouflaged himself damn well.
"I guess it was a year ago he has first visited the restaurant. There was a musician playing the gusle and Santa got up and played himself.
"He was pretty good. Gusle players sing long laments and stories about Serbian greatness; he was very good at it.
"And I am sure he was smiling beneath all that hair at his and Mladic's pictures on the wall."
'He is convinced, with God's help, he will win'RADOVAN Karadzic will conduct his own defence at his tribunal in The Hague and is convinced he will be cleared of charges of genocide.
Karadzic, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs in the 1992-95 Bosnia war, was arrested in Serbia on Monday after 11 years on the run.
He was one of three remaining war-crimes fugitives from the Yugoslav wars, their arrest a condition for Serbia to move towards European Union membership. He is now in a Belgrade prison awaiting extradition to The Hague, which could come this weekend.
Karadzic's lawyer in Serbia, Svetozar Vujacic, said his client was in good mental and physical condition. He was not talking to investigators, but "defending himself with silence".
"He is going to have a legal team in Serbia, but will defend himself during his trial at The Hague," Mr Vujacic said.
"He is convinced that, with the help of God, he will win."
Karadzic is twice indicted for genocide for the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in 1995 and for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo.
Some 11,000 people died in the Bosnian capital from sniper fire, mortar attacks, starvation and illness.
Karadzic had wanted Serb areas of Bosnia to be linked to Serbia and other Serb-dominated areas at a time when Slobodan Milosevic was fanning nationalism in Serbia.
Yesterday, he requested and got a haircut and shave.
"He looks like his old self, a bit aged," Mr Vujacic said.
Karadzic had planned to surrender next January, when The Hague tribunal is due to stop launching new trials. He thought it biased and wanted a trial in Serbia.
The arrest, two weeks into the term of Serbia's new government, is a great success for the coalition of the pro-western Democrats and the Socialist Party founded by Mr Milosevic, a one-time backer of Karadzic.
Brussels has called the arrest "a milestone" on Serbia's road to joining the EU, but will wait until the next report by Hague chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz before deciding on whether to unfreeze trade benefits, diplomats said.
Some EU leaders have indicated Belgrade must go further to reap the full benefits, by arresting Karadzic's military chief, Ratko Mladic, who is wanted on the same charges.
The full article contains 1400 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
