Serbian police: Mladic captured in routine raid

Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was captured in a routine raid as he headed out to his garden for a pre-dawn walk, three Serbian police officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The officials said about two dozen masked, black-clad members of a team of special police had no specific intelligence that Mladic was inside a relative's yellow brick house, one of four homes hit simultaneously Thursday in the tiny northern Serbian village of Lazarevo.

It was the first visit to the village by police who have been conducting similar operations throughout Serbia for years in the hunt for Mladic, the officials said. Charged by the U.N. war crimes court with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Mladic was last seen in public in January 2006.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, the Serbian police officials told the AP that Mladic identified himself immediately after his arrest, handing over two pistols that he was carrying without a fight.

Mladic was taken to a jail cell at Serbia's war-crimes court where, a judicial official told the AP, he was given strawberries Friday after requesting them along with Leo Tolstoy novels and a television set. It wasn't immediately clear if he'd also been given the books and TV.

The judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Mladic had also asked to visit the Belgrade grave of his daughter Ana, who killed herself in 1994.

The Belgrade court ruled that Mladic can be extradited to the tribunal despite defense claims he is too sick to face trial.

A defense lawyer said Mladic would appeal the decision on Monday. The former fugitive could extradited within hours if that appeal is rejected. If Mladic is extradited, he will argue that he's innocent of war crimes charges, the suspect's son indicated after visiting the former fugitive in jail.

"His stand is that he's not guilty of what he's being accused of," Darko Mladic told reporters outside the Belgrade court.

One of the world's most-wanted fugitives, Mladic was the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, which left more than 100,000 people dead and drove another 1.8 million from their homes. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were slain, tortured or expelled by a campaign to purge the region of non-Serbs.

"He might have aged and lost weight but the bloodthirsty look in his eyes is the same as the one he had in Srebrenica in 1995," said Sabra Kolenovic, who lost her husband and son in the massacre. "He should be crossed out from the list of human beings."

The chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal said he was considering whether to put Mladic on trial together with former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

Serge Brammertz said that ideally he would have both men in one trial, facing charges of jointly orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Karadzic's ongoing trial started in 2009 and a Mladic trial would not begin for months, but Brammertz said he is confident he has "strong and credible evidence" against him.

The operation to arrest Mladic began around 5 a.m. Thursday with four white jeeps carrying the special Serbian policemen into Lazarevo while most of its 2,000 residents were still asleep, police officials said.

Mladic was awake inside the house with a rusty white fence, unable to sleep because his body ached from ailments he has suffered over the 16 years he had spent on the run, the officials said.

The police officials said they had learned that Mladic moved into the largely Bosnian Serb village about two years ago, figuring he could be safe with his relatives there.

Mladic was about to venture into the grassy yard for some fresh air when four men in masks and black fatigues without insignia jumped over the fence and burst into the house, grabbing the frail-looking man and forcing him to the floor face down.

"Identify yourself," shouted one of the policemen. "I'm Ratko Mladic," he replied in a whisper. "Don't do something funny," the officer said demanding the two guns he was carrying. He complied, according to the three officials.

Mladic was pushed into one of the jeeps, which drove full speed out of the village toward the capital, Belgrade, with dust flying, the officials said.

Serbian officials said no one will pick up the $10 million (7 million euro) reward for Mladic's arrest because police were not acting on a tip when they arrested him.

Serbia's defense minister said Mladic's whereabouts were unknown to officials for at least the last four years and that an investigation will determine where he was hiding and who assisted him.

Court spokeswoman Maja Kovacevic said Mladic refused to accept the Hague indictment during Friday's extradition hearing.

"He has a series of chronic ailments, but he's capable of following the trial," Kovacevic told reporters.

His son said Mladic suffered two strokes while on the run for 16 years, has a partially paralyzed right hand and can barely speak.

Defense lawyer Milos Saljic said Mladic "jumped from subject to subject, and spoke inconsistently," during the hearing. He said Mladic needed medical care and "should not be moved in such a state." He demanded that an "independent medical commission" examine Mladic.

Serbian war crimes prosecutors argued that the health issue appeared to be a tactic to delay Mladic's extradition, and a tribunal spokeswoman said from The Hague that it was capable of dealing with any health problems.

A police photo of Mladic showed him looking hollow-cheeked and shrunken after a decade and a half on the run, a far cry from the beefy commander accused of personally orchestrating some of the worst horrors of the Balkan wars.

The photo taken moments after his arrest shows a clean-shaven Mladic with thinning hair and wearing a navy blue baseball hat. He looks up with wide eyes, as if in surprise.

Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said that Mladic is taking a lot of medicine, but "responds very rationally to everything that is going on."

Mladic's arrest was trumpeted by the government as a victory for a country worthy of European Union membership and Western embrace.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton hailed the arrest but said Serbia's path to the EU still "requires a lot of work.

Serbia's pro-Western government has announced plans to win EU candidate status by the end of 2011.

The EU has urged Serbia to move ahead with judicial reform, crack down on crime and corruption, respect human rights, change electoral laws, create a safe business environment and for results in ongoing talks with Kosovo, its former province.