World Jul. 30, 2008 - 02:27PM JST ( 7 )

BELGRADE —

Radovan Karadzic, former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, has been sent to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face charges for some of the worst war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war, including genocide, it was officially confirmed in Belgrade.
   
The office of the Special Serbian Court for war crimes and organized crime said around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Karadzic was transferred after Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic authorized his extradition.
   
Independent Belgrade TV B-92 showed four cars leaving the building of the Special Court and heading toward the airport.
   
The sending of the war crimes suspect followed a night of unrest in Belgrade, when some 15,000 ultranationalists protested the arrest, demanding the release of Karadzic and some suggesting the demonstrators should storm the prison and free Karadzic. Some 50 people were hurt in clashes between protestors and the police.
   
Karadzic is to be tried for some of the bloodiest atrocities in Europe since World War II, namely the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.

At the end of the rally organized by the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, around 100 hooligans, most of them drunk teenagers, broke away and swarmed on the riot police, hurling stones and firecrackers at them.

They continued to hurl whatever they could get their hands on at the security forces despite calls for them to refrain from doing so by Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic during his closing speech.

“Do not do it, children, we did not gather for that, we do not want to destroy Belgrade, but rather Boris Tadic,” he said, referring to the pro-Western Serbian president his party accuses of treachery over Karadzic’s arrest.

The riot police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, driving back and trying to disperse the youths, many of them in hooded sports tops, into streets surrounding the Republic Square.

After almost half an hour of skirmishes, the rioters were dispersed, and an eerie calm returned to downtown Belgrade with police still holding cordons to prevent hooligans from regrouping again.

The streets where the clashes took place were covered with debris and broken glass, while a pile of plastic beer bottles were seen laying in front of the police.

Another anti-riot unit was positioned in front of the McDonalds restaurant in central Belgrade avenue Terazije, which was virtually destroyed in rioting in February against Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

Then, 150,000 demonstrators protested Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in a demonstration that sparked attacks on Western embassies, rioting and looting that left one youth dead.

The rally on Tuesday had began around three hours before the unrest with Serbian nationalist songs played as the crowd chanted Karadzic’s name.

In his speech, Nikolic said Tadic “must not decide who will be free and who will be in prison, not for a month, not for a day.”

Karadzic’s brother Luka, for his part, used the rally to call on the Belgrade government to try him in Serbia.

“It is still not late to give up extradition, for Radovan to be tried here. This will be an honorable way to get out of it, both them (Serbia) and the international community,” he said.

Wire reports