U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has praised the arrest of
former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and says she hopes his
former military chief Ratko Mladic is captured next.
Speaking to
reporters Thursday during a tour of Asia, Rice called the arrest a step
forward for Serbia to establish its European identity. She urged
Europe to speed up efforts to normalize relations with the nation.
On
Wednesday, Karadzic's lawyer said he believes Karadzic will be cleared
of genocide charges. The attorney says Karadzic will conduct his own
defense at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
Serbian
security officials arrested Karadzic Monday in Belgrade. He had lived
openly in the Serbian capital, practicing alternative medicine under
the name Dragan Dabic.
Genocide charges against Karadzic stem
from the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys near the
Bosnian city of Srebrenica.
He is also charged with the siege
of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during which snipers, shellfire,
disease and starvation killed thousands.
With Karadzic's
arrest, the Balkan war crimes tribunal's top fugitive targets now are
Mladic and ex-Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic. Former Bosnian Serb
police commander Stojan Zupljanin was arrested last month in Serbia.
