Snowmail: how Karadzic evaded justice - until now

Last Modified: 22 Jul 2008
By: Jon Snow

On tonight's show...

Despite two war crimes indictments, Radovan Karadzic, former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, a man accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, was working quietly as a practitioner of alternative medicine in a Belgrade clinic.

Gone is the distinctive bouffant hair, replaced by a white-haired, white-bearded old man, more Gandalf than Goering as war crimes defendants go.

Now he's in custody, about to face trial, with the charges focusing on the shelling of Sarajevo and the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica.

Our coverage tonight includes rare pictures of that event, which may one day form part of the evidence when the former psychiatrist and poet appears in the dock in The Hague.

We have an important interview from Belgrade and we hope our correspondent, Jonathan Miller, is there now.

Karadzic's arrest is a massive moment for Europe. It leaves only two significant alleged mass murderers at large, the most prominent, General Mladic, must follow for the slate to be cleaned enough and for events to move further. And further, as David Miliband tells us tonight, involves full European membership for Serbia within five to 10 years.

It's time too for those of us who covered Bosnia to reflect. The arrest of Radovan Karadzic brings back the almost guilty contact one had with the man. One fears to scour the library in case some civil exchange is recorded as having passed between us.

The truth is that of all those accused of genocide and war crimes, Karadzic was one of the most accessible. He would regularly ring you up to offer himself for interview and only the unavailability of a studio or some such inconvenience would save you from it.

Iraq: the end of an era

It is a huge news day in truth. Gordon Brown has announced a major change of policy on the Iraq war and all the implications are that Britain's present occupation will end in the New Year to be replaced by the very smallest presence for military training.

Gary Gibbon assesses whether there is any political kudos left in finally detaching ourselves from the Iraqi adventure.

The new Arab militant weapon

There has been a new bulldozer attack in Jerusalem. The bulldozer is the current weapon of choice for Arab militants.

This kind of attack poses particular difficulties in that bulldozers are in plentiful supply in Israel and the occupied territories, where some at least are deployed in Palestinian house clearances and construction of the Wall.

In this case only the driver was killed and Reuters reports 16 people have been injured.

Pioneering prostate cancer cure?

Finally, there's a potentially huge breakthrough in treating prostate cancer. The drug in question is in trials at the moment and if these prove that the drug is effective, it may take three years for it to come to the market.

Our science correspondent Tom Clarke is on the case. It raises questions over whether our present drug testing rules are flexible enough to cope with developments like this.