BOSNIA/SERBIA: The former commander of a Bosnian Serb prison camp where hundreds of Muslims were slaughtered was arrested for war crimes late on Saturday.
Savo Todovic (52) ran the camp in the eastern town of Foca during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
As important as the arrest itself is who made it - this is the first time Bosnian Serb police have arrested a war crimes suspect. Until now, war crimes arrests in Bosnian Serb territory have been made by international forces.
This arrest marks the success of a mixture of encouragement and pressure from international diplomats designed to get Bosnia's Serbs to co-operate with the peace process.
Last summer the top western official in Bosnia, High Representative Mr Paddy Ashdown, sacked 60 Bosnian Serb officials for their refusal to track down war crimes suspects. And the refusal of the authorities to track down indictees has seen the entity starved of international aid.
Todovic turned himself in at a police station in the main city, Banja Luka, having been on the run since 1998. He was flown to the UN court in The Hague.
He is accused of 18 counts of war crimes, and blamed for selecting prisoners from among 760 under his control to be executed.
Prosecutors say he ruled over a brutal prison regime where murder, torture and beatings were a daily occurrence.
He is charged together with Foca detention camp commander Milorad Krnojelac, arrested in 1998 and since jailed for 15 years. A third indictee, former camp guard Mitar Rasevic, is awaiting trial. A total of 18 indicted war crimes suspects remain at large.