VZCZCXRO9606
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0773/01 2121833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301833Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0236
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHNS/NSC WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000773 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC KAWC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA EXTRADITES FUGITIVE WAR CRIMINAL 
KARADZIC TO HAGUE 
 
REF: A) BELGRADE 765, B) BELGRADE 744, C) 
BELGRADE 718 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) The Serbian government extradited 
Radovan Karadzic, International Criminal Tribunal 
for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indictee and 
wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, to The Hague 
in the early morning hours of July 30.  Human 
rights NGOs, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), 
and other observers have called for the 
government to educate the public about the 
grounds for Karadzic's arrest and explain that 
the move is more than a simple fulfillment of 
international obligations.  The Radical Party's 
(SRS) July 29 protest drew a modest crowd of -- 
at most -- 15,000 and ended in violence, despite 
SRS's pledges to keep the peace. 
Ultranationalist Obraz plans to continue the 
small-scale nightly protests that it has 
organized since Karadzic was arrested.  In 
arresting and extraditing the notorious Karadzic, 
the Serbian Government has taken arguably the 
most dramatic political step since Milosevic was 
toppled.  End Summary. 
 
Karadzic Arrives in The Hague July 30 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Serbian War Crimes Special Court 
confirmed in a July 30 public statement that 
Karadzic left Belgrade at 04:00 local time on 
July 30 and arrived at the Scheveningen detention 
facility in The Hague later that morning.  Serbs 
woke up to television news footage of Karadzic 
landing in the Netherlands onboard a Republic of 
Serbia jet.  The Special Court told us that, 
after waiting "a reasonable amount of time" to 
receive Karadzic's appeal (Ref A), it determined 
that no there was no appeal and sent the 
extradition order to the Justice Ministry.  The 
Justice Ministry signed the order late on July 
¶29.  Karadzic's lawyer told the press that he had 
not sent the appeal in an effort to delay 
extradition and give Karadzic's family time to 
travel from Bosnia to see him (which did not 
happen). 
 
Reactions to Extradition 
------------------------ 
 
¶3. (U) In interviews with B92 television, 
Serbia's leading human rights activists, 
including Humanitarian Law Center Head Natasa 
Kandic, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in 
Serbia Head Sonja Biserko, and Belgrade Center 
for Human Rights Director Vojin Dimitrijevic 
called on the government to explain the reasons 
for Karadzic's indictment, arrest, and 
extradition.  They said the government was now 
responsible for creating the right social 
environment so that misinformed youth who had 
been calling President Tadic a traitor would not 
react the same way upon the arrest of Ratko 
Mladic, one of the two remaining ICTY indictees 
at large.  Biljana Kovacevic Vuco of the Lawyers' 
Committee for Human Rights made a similar point 
to us last week, saying the government has a 
responsibility to tell the full story of what 
happened and why Karadzic was not a hero. 
 
¶4. (U) In an interview with Voice of America, 
Liberal Democratic Party official Natasa Misic 
said Karadzic's arrest and extradition were 
important not only because of the need to fulfill 
international obligations but because Serbian 
society needed to confront the truth about the 
past. 
 
¶5. (U) The Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the 
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), and New Serbia 
(NS) have thus far not commented.  Aside from a 
mid-morning press conference to present the 
facts, the government has been silent as well. 
 
Hooligans Turn Violent at Radicals' Protest 
 
BELGRADE 00000773  002 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The July 29 rally organized by the Serbian 
Radical Party (SRS) drew a modest turnout of at 
most 15,000 mostly peaceful protestors. 
Participants included typical SRS supporters -- 
middle-aged and older men and women -- many of 
whom came to Belgrade by bus from the regions. 
They began to gather at Republic Square shortly 
before 19:00.  There were also dozens of young 
people wearing paraphernalia from 
ultranationalist group Obraz and preparing face 
masks at the beginning of the rally.  The rally 
remained peaceful until 21:45, near the end of 
the official program.  SRS party leaders 
Aleksandar Vucic and Tomislav Nikolic spoke and 
read a message from party head and ICTY defendant 
Vojislav Seselj.  NS leader Velimir Ilic, DSS 
official from North Kosovo Milan Ivanovic, and 
Misa Vacic of the "1389" (Note: The date of the 
mythologized Battle of Kosovo) nationalist youth 
organization also spoke.  The speakers were 
greeted by chanting from protestors, including 
"uprising, uprising" and "treason." 
 
¶7. (U) Despite Vucic's continued calls for calm, 
several hundred youth began to clash with police 
at 21:45.  Police responded with tear gas, smoke 
bombs, and rubber bullets and, according to 
Vucic, beat him when he tried to calm down some 
rioters.  Nikolic stopped his speech due to the 
violence and instead unsuccessfully urged the 
rioters to calm down and not embarass Serbia. 
Peaceful protestors left the rally soon after the 
rioting began.  Police cleared Republic Square in 
about 40 minutes, but small-scale disturbances 
continued elsewhere in the city.  Rioters looted 
a McDonald's in the suburb of Novi Beograd and 
smashed shop windows in the center of town. 
Republic Square was littered with debris and 
broken phone booths and traffic lights and signs 
in the immediate aftermath of the rally, but by 
opening of business on July 30, the square had 
been restored to normal.  Twenty-one civilians, 
including two reporters -- one allegedly beaten 
by police despite his attempts to identify 
himself -- and 25 police were injured. 
 
¶8. (U) Vucic told the press he believed the 
violence had been instigated by "infiltrators" 
planted by the government, which wanted to 
discredit the rally.  Human Rights and Minorities 
Minister Svetozar Ciplic told press the 
government's reaction showed that Serbia was 
ready both to fight with those who would return 
to the past and also to move forward. 
 
Small Protests to Continue 
-------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Police told us that ultranationalist 
group Obraz plans to continue the small nightly 
protests on Republic Square that it began after 
Karadzic was arrested (Ref C).  Protests are to 
resume on July 30 and take place every night for 
at least another week.  In addition, on August 4 
the group plans to commemorate Operation Storm, 
Croatia's 1995 military operation retaking the 
then Serb-controlled Krajina.  Police said the 
August 4 protest would end with a march to the 
Croatian Embassy, which is located one block from 
the U.S. Embassy. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) As MFA political director Borko 
Stefanovic reminded us immediately after 
Karadzic's arrest, former Prime Minister Zoran 
Djindjic used to say "If you have to swallow a 
lot of frogs, swallow the biggest one first." 
The Serbian government has clearly swallowed an 
enormous "frog" by arresting and extraditing 
Karadzic.  We expect that the relatively low 
turnout for the SRS rally will sap the Radicals' 
and ultranationalists' energy in opposing Hague 
cooperation, making the eventual arrests of Ratko 
Mladic and Goran Hadzic that much easier.  Though 
 
BELGRADE 00000773  003 OF 003 
 
 
the arrest and extradition of Karadzic is 
arguably the single most important act of Tadic's 
administration, it is just the first of a number 
of bold moves he must make to improve Serbia's 
standing in world opinion.  The government can no 
longer avoid confronting the public with the 
crimes of the Milosevic era.  The biggest "frog" 
of all will be for Serbia's public to recognize 
that Serbs were victims, not of the international 
community or other ethnic groups in the former 
Yugoslavia, but of their own leaders.  End 
Comment. 
 
BRUSH