Watching the "Karadzic capture" press conference

[dianeduane]

This is fascinating stuff. Apparently Radovan Karadzic decided that to successfully elude capture, he needed to ditch his armed entourage. Having done so, he then disguised himself as a very full-bearded white-haired guy with glasses and settled down in Belgrade, renting a suburban flat under a false name, passing himself off as a practitioner of alternative medicine, even working with a local GP. He moved freely around Belgrade for no telling how long, and apparently even the people who rented the flat to him weren’t suspicious of him.

Apparently he was actually caught (while traveling on a bus) three days ago: the delay in revealing they had him may have been because the authorities were waiting for the results of DNA testing to make sure they actually had the right man.

(headshake) In the “disturbing concept” department: the disguise makes him look a little like Albus Dumbledore.

Tags: Karadzic, news, Serbia, capture

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

He does! Perhaps we need to set some Dementors on him...

[cuddles-batcave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, great idea but I'm sure even Dementors might balk at the offer, after all Karadzic has never felt 'desolate' or 'regret' for his actions.

B**trd

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

But Dementors consume happy thoughts. The desolation is a side effect.

[aunty_marion]

Ah, how sweet. He didn't really get killed by Snape, and Grindelwald isn't dead either. They just eloped to Belgrade...

[bellinghwoman.livejournal.com]

He also bears a disurbing resemblance to Rowan Williams...

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Hmm... now that you mention it... yes he does.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

They mentioned the resemblance on NPR this morning too. *grins*

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Did they indeed! How interesting. :)

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, it was mentioned by I think a Bosnian reporter whom they were interviewing on Morning Edition. I'm more amused by Doug Muir talking about how his wife (semi-jokingly) thought that he was living down the street from them when they were doing contract work in Belgrade at A Fist Full of Euros (http://fistfulofeuros.net/) and one of the comments in his blog entry was from a BBC rep wanting to interview them about it!

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

What's Serbian for "Pollyjuice Potion"?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

One does wonder.

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

Is that the one that tints your glasses pink? ;-)

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

I can see the resemblance and to a certain clergyman. *grin* No wonder they had to make sure they had the right guy.

[jlsigman.livejournal.com]

He also kinda looks like how Sadam Hussein looked like before the end. Yeesh...

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

What kind of alternative medicine, I wonder, and was he any good at it? Some sorts of alternative medicine are very hard indeed to practice.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

The press conference wasn't very clear. The NYT story I was looking at this morning suggests that he studied medicine in college, and apparently also psychiatry.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

On another forum, someone was wondering which woo variant it was, too. There seems to be a Central European loving for homeopathy, which might reach down into the Balkans too.

It was at that point that someone else posited that he might therefore be a genocidal homeopath.

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

"The arrest of Mr Karadzic and other indicted war criminals is one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards European Union membership.

A new European-leaning government took office in Serbia about two weeks ago.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Mr Karadzic's capture demonstrated the government's political commitment to EU membership. "

The cynic in me goes 'How very convenient, how long have they had their eye on him for real' but then I can have be like that at times.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

I think the cynicism's justified, to a certain extent.

Apparently, though, according to Sky's foreign affairs guy -- who genuinely appears to have his head screwed on straight, a rarity over there -- a surveillance / infiltration group who were trying to get into the support network surrounding/protecting the other still-missing most-wanted guy (Mladic?) stumbled across Karadzic's protectors / facilitators in the process. Turns out they were able to lay hands on Karadzic first after spending a short time making sure they had the right man.

But with the change of government, certainly things have started moving in different directions. It was already starting, considering that the EU had laid down the rules of engagement for getting into accession talks as you mention above -- not to mention that there would be No Reconstruction Aid forthcoming until there started to be some movement on this end of things.

It'll be interesting to watch how the story continues to unfold. Already some more news footage has turned up of Karadzic attending an alternate health conference. He looks a little less Dumbledore-ish in that, but you still wouldn't readily recognize the man under the facial foliage.

[whl.livejournal.com]

I'm behind on the current story, but I was immediately reminded of a recent BBC "From Our Own Correspondent" broadcast; there's a transcript here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7477912.stm).

While the writing is a little uneven (the piece starts out in a flashback, and then goes back and forth in time a bit, accidentally creating the impression that the 2005 event is repeated more recently), it seems he was recognizable enough in 2005 that people spotted him dining out, but had reason to be fearful of doing anything with the information.

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

Goodness, it's Santa Karadzic.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thus vindicating all of the "Dumbledore is really EEEVVUL" theories that are one of the reasons why HP fandom is such a snakepit.

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

It's called hiding out in plain sight. You can do it in the States as well and you don't really need a disguise. One infamous crime-lord elluded police for years, by moving three doors down the road and under an assumed name.