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Ratko Mladic hunt: Arrest reported in Serbia Ratko Mladic arrested: Bosnia war crimes suspect held
(40 minutes later)
  Ratko Mladic, wanted by UN prosecutors for war crimes during the Bosnian civil war, has been arrested in Serbia after a decade in hiding.
A man said to strongly resemble fugitive Bosnian war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is undergoing identity tests after being arrested in Serbia. Serbian President Boris Tadic confirmed the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb army chief at a news conference.
Respected Serbian broadcaster B92 reported the arrest and said the suspect had been using the name Milorad Komadic. Gen Mladic is accused of a key role in the massacre of at least 7,500 men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
A family friend quoted by Reuters said the detainee was Gen Mladic. He was the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect at large since the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in 2008.
Gen Mladic was Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's army chief throughout the Bosnian war. President Tadic said work was under way to extradite Gen Mladic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
He is the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect at large since the arrest of Mr Karadzic in 2008. The detention, he said, had closed one chapter in Serbian history, bringing the country and the region closer to reconciliation.
Serbian President Boris Tadic is due to make a statement shortly. It had also opened the doors to membership of the European Union, he added.
Gen Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military leader, is wanted by the Hague Tribunal on genocide and war crimes charges. Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the arrest, saying it finally offered "a chance for justice to be done".
An interior ministry official confirmed to Reuters that a suspect was being held. Assumed name
"He has some physical features of Mladic, we are analysing his DNA now," the official said on condition of anonymity. Gen Mladic was said by Serbian media to have been arrested in Vojvodina, a northern province of Serbia, in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The man was arrested in Serbia on an anonymous tip-off, he added. President Tadic would only confirm he had been arrested "on Serbian soil".
Top suspect He was reportedly using the assumed name Milorad Komodic.
A high official of the Serbian intelligence service BIA contacted by AFP news agency would not confirm the news. Gen Mladic was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 1995 for genocide over the killings that July at Srebrenica - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II - and other crimes.
"I don't have any information about this - go see what Tadic says," Jovan Stojic said. Having lived freely in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, he disappeared after the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2001.
Serbia's war crimes prosecutors also refused to confirm or deny that Gen Mladic had been detained, the Associated Press news agency reports. Speculation mounted that Gen Mladic would soon be arrested when Mr Karadzic was captured in Belgrade in July 2008.
Gen Mladic has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal over the massacre of at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from the town of Srebrenica in 1995. Just before news of Thursday's arrest, UN war crimes chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz accused Serbia of failing to do enough to find Gen Mladic.
Having lived freely in Belgrade for some time, he disappeared from view when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001. "The capture is the biggest obligation of Serbia," he said in a report sent to the UN Security Council.
Speculation mounted that he Mladic would soon be arrested when Mr Karadzic was captured in Belgrade in July 2008. "Until now efforts by Serbia to detain fugitives have not been sufficient."