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Witness History

The capture of war criminal Radovan Karadzic

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2008, one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives, the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested in Belgrade for war crimes. Karadzic had been in hiding for more than a decade, pretending to be an alternative medicine healer called "Dr Dabic". Serbia’s former war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vuckevic remembers the tense days that led to Karadzic’s capture.

PHOTO: Radovan Karadzic in 1992 (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:37.0

This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Petra Zevik.

0:46.7

I'm taking you back to 2008 when one of Europe's most wanted fugitives, Radovan Carthage, was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, after hiding

0:56.8

for more than a decade with a $5 million bounty on his head.

1:02.1

Carthage, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, had been indicted for war crimes during the

1:06.7

Bosnian war in the 1990s.

1:09.7

It was one of the ethnic conflicts that had torn the former Yugoslavia apart.

1:14.3

Okay, NATO missed him this time, but NATO's only got to get it right once.

1:21.4

Mr. Karateich has got to get it right every time. We'll get them.

1:25.2

For more than 10 years Karjich had been successfully avoiding arrest, but in the

1:30.9

summer of 2008 the Serbian Intelligence Agency learned that Karjich might be in Belgrade,

1:38.0

pretending to be Dragan-Dabich, a doctor who practiced alternative medicine.

1:46.2

We were ready to arrest him and I insisted that we act in a way to avoid casualties.

1:51.8

Vladimir Vukovic was a Serbian war crimes prosecutor and the head of the action team

1:57.6

that arrested Radovankarajevich.

2:01.9

That was the most important job for Serbia and getting it done was not easy at all.

2:07.0

Karajich, a former psychiatrist, was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity,

...

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