Covert op planned to transfer Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic will be transferred covertly to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague in a bid to avoid media attention and planned protests by nationalist supporters.

The former Bosnian Serb leader, who was arrested last week in Serbia after 11 years on the run, faces charges of genocide during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

He is now being held in a Belgrade prison awaiting extradition.

There are dozens of options for moving him unobtrusively, involving disguised vehicles, secret exits, dawn transfers and decoy motorcades to fool TV crews staking out the prison, court and airport.

"Only ten people in Serbia know exactly what will happen," one senior government source said. Another said it would not be a public spectacle. "It will be done as discreetly as possible."

Karadzic has been indicted for planning the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, where more than 11,000 people died from shelling, sniper fire, malnutrition and illness.

Little is known about his early years in hiding. Reports, never confirmed, spoke of Orthodox priest disguises and remote monastery hideouts, a secret life under the protection of hardline nationalists in the army and police.

For the past several years he had been living under an assumed name in the Serbian capital, posing as an alternative healer and hiding his famous face behind long hair, thick glasses and a beard.

Many nationalists see him as a hero attacked by anti-Serb propaganda, and have planned a mass protest on Tuesday against his extradition and trial.

The country's new pro-Western government, sworn in earlier this month, is keen to get him to The Hague as soon as possible to avoid tension and protracted protests.

But the timing partly depends on an appeal filed by Karadzic's lawyer.

Serbian officials say the appeal is a gesture with no chance of success and could only delay, not stop, the process.

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