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More then 40 Hurt as Clashes Erupt at Karadzic Rally

29 July 2008  More then 40 people have been injured as Serbian riot police were firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the sidelines of a huge rally protesting the arrest of top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic in the capital.

The injured were nine police officers and seven demonstrators according to reports. Ambulances could be seen at the site.

Police are firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the stone-hurling and flare-throwing protesters. The protesters are smashing shop windows.

Up to 16,000 people are believed to have turned out for the rally and thousands of riot police were deployed in Belgrade as busloads of protesters poured into the capital.

The protest, being organised by the nationalist Radical Party, is also being backed by the Democratic Party of Serbia - the party of former Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as well as hardline nationalist movements including Obraz and Movement 1389.

Aleksandar Vucic, a Radical Party leader called for Tadic's government to be overthrown.

"Thank you for showing that Serbia is not dead, although it is being killed by Boris Tadic," Vucic told the crowd. "Thieves and bandits are ruling Serbia."

"We will fight for Serbia and Serbia will be free," he added, to thunderous applause and chants of "Uprising, Uprising!"

Luka Karadzic told the crowd his brother should be tried in Serbia, and not at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

"It is still not too late to prevent Karadzic's extradition to The Hague," he said.

A stage was set up in Republic Square emblazoned with the words 'Freedom of Serbia' and several party officials addressed crowds over what they see is the repression being led by the new government.

Pro-European President Boris Tadic of Serbia warned the demonstrators to remain peaceful.
"Everyone has the right to demonstrate, but they should know that law and order will be respected," Tadic said Tuesday.

In February, the last time Serbian nationalists held a mass rally against Western countries, the US Embassy was partly burned and protesters looted and smashed shops and McDonald's restaurants in Belgrade. Those protesters were angry that the United States had recognised Kosovo, formerly a Serbian province, as an independent country.

In many ways, the protest backing Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, is a test case for Tadic's government, which is much more pro-Western than the one that controlled Serbia during the US Embassy attack.

Karadzic faces 11 charges at the war crimes tribunal, including genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide. He is accused of masterminding the 1995 slaughter of up to 8,000 Bosniak (also known as Bosnian Muslim) men and boys in Srebrenica and the more than three-year siege of Sarajevo, which left 10,000 people dead.

Karadzic is awaiting extradition the tribunal at The Hague although his lawyer claims he has sent an appeal by registered mail before a Friday evening deadline. But the postal service said it did not have it.

Under Serbian law, if the appeal is not filed, or if it is sent by mail but does not arrive, the court's investigative judge can rule to extradite Karadzic to The Hague tribunal in the Netherlands without considering Karadzic's objection.