Former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, accused of masterminding "ethnic cleansing," deportations and killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, has been arrested after more than a decade in hiding. Karadzic, 63, faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war that have earned him the nickname "Butcher of Bosnia." Last seen in public in 1996, Karadzic was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the 1992-1995 war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. The conflict included the Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and a deadly, 44-month siege of Sarajevo. Former U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke blamed Karadzic for all the deaths in the three-year war in Bosnia, which had the bloodiest of the Balkan conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. "Without Radovan Karadzic, this thing wouldn't have happened, " Holbrooke told CNN. While president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats during a campaign of "ethnic cleansing." Early estimates of the death toll from the 3-year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000.
