Divided by war's scars in Srebrenica, Bosnia

Srebrenica stands as the deadliest atrocity in Europe since World War II, and is the single most egregious war crime for which Karadzic has been indicted by the international tribunal in The Hague. Arrested this week after more than a decade in hiding, he is expected to be sent to the court in the Netherlands within days.

Today, Srebrenica shows small signs of recovery. Though the town sits in the middle of Bosnian Serb territory, several thousand Muslims have returned; the mayor is a Muslim, as are other city officials. But the death and destruction allegedly wrought by Karadzic's design left an enduring trauma.

As in much of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the prewar coexistence that Karadzic sought to wipe out has not been revived, and may never be.

"I'd say [Serbs and Muslims] are living parallel lives," Mayor Abdurahman Malkic said Wednesday in an interview at City Hall. "Maybe one day we will be a mixed community again, but I think that would be in the very distant future, unfortunately."

The capture of Karadzic, Malkic said, was bittersweet: excellent news that will "take us closer to the truth and to justice," but painfully long overdue.

Srebrenica operates under an unwritten code of ethnic politics and socialization. Muslim-owned coffee bars bear signs in green lettering over umbrellas advertising Sarajevo mineral water; the signage on Serb-owned businesses is more likely to be written in Cyrillic letters. Most (but not all) of the patronage is along ethnic lines.

Contact between Muslims and Serbs is largely superficial, the necessities of commerce, and there are no deep ties. Although there are no overt hostilities, several townspeople said, there is disdain.

"As a Serb you cannot go to their cafes," said Momir Djokanovic, 46, who was sitting with a rather forlorn group of Bosnian Serb pensioners having their morning coffee and brandy on the terrace of a community center.

"It isn't anything they say, it's their demeanor," he said. "If you ask a Muslim if we can ever live together again, they will say it can happen. If you ask a Serb, they will say it can never be."

For Djokanovic and other Serbs here, the arrest of Karadzic was a demoralizing blow, a betrayal by Serbian authorities in Belgrade.

In Belgrade, more details emerged Wednesday of Karadzic's public life on the lam. Disguised by a bushy white beard and long white hair, Karadzic -- calling himself Dragan "David" Dabic and acting as a bohemian New Age healer -- frequented a bar in his suburban neighborhood of anonymous 1970s high-rise apartment buildings.

The tiny, cramped bar, called Crazy House, is decorated with pictures of Karadzic; his former army commander and fellow war crimes fugitive, Gen. Ratko Mladic; and their now-deceased paymaster, Slobodan Milosevic.

"Dabic" stopped by regularly, proprietor Misko Kovijanic told journalists. He would order sljivovica, the fiery plum brandy favored in this part of the world, and listen to nationalist songs routinely belted out by patrons. The songs were often accompanied by music from a gusle, a single-string lute-like instrument common in Karadzic's native Montenegro.

At the next-door market, he was also a regular customer, purchasing yogurt, 5-liter bottles of water and a cheap red wine called Bear's Blood.

It was also revealed that the name Karadzic was using belonged to a real person. B-92 TV reported that Dragan Dabic was born in Bosnia and died in Sarajevo in 1993. Karadzic was issued identity papers in Dabic's name at a police station 25 miles outside Belgrade, B-92 said, suggesting a certain level of official complicity in his ruse.

Karadzic's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, said Wednesday that his client would defend himself before the war crimes tribunal, much as Milosevic did before dying of a heart attack in custody in The Hague. Karadzic has gotten a haircut and shave and now looks like his former self, minus a few pounds, Vujacic said.

Vujacic said his client acknowledges that war crimes were committed but says he had nothing to do with them.

Karadzic never disputed having sent his army into Srebrenica. But he claimed the operation was designed to take control of an enclave that was being used as a staging ground for attacks on Serb civilians in other villages.