Tyranny in the Dock (Against the Current‪)‬

After thirteen years of running from his crimes, the world's most wanted man has finally been captured. Serbian police made the arrest as this most famous of fugitives got off the number 83 bus in Belgrade. Radovan Karadzic has been wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for master-minding genocide the likes of which had not been witnessed on European soil since World War II. Karadzic, who had adopted the name Dragan Dabic and led a life as an alternative doctor, will be deported to The Hague to face trail, thus following in the footsteps of his former ally, ex-Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic. His arrest not only heralds another step away from the bitter wars which have become synonymous with the Balkans, it also places Serbia one step closer to a coveted entry into the European Union. If one looks at this development in a wider context, Karadzic's arrest may offer the opportunity for a new and progressive chapter in the United States' 'war on terror'. The arrest of Karadzic immediately prompts memories of another infamous war criminal, the Nazi Adolf Eichman. Indeed the atrocities Karadzic stands accused of, including the Siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica, constitute the worst cases of war crimes in Europe since the Holocaust, which Eichman orchestrated. But it is not only their crimes that link the two men. It is also the length of time they evaded capture, the way both men totally adopted their new personas, and the constant suspicion that those in power aided and abetted their flight from justice.