Ratko Mladic Appears In Serbian War Court The world's most wanted war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic - wanted over the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995 - has appeared before a Serbian court. Mladic was arrested earlier today at a relative's home in the tiny village of Lazarevo in Vojvodina, a northern province of Serbia after 16 years in hiding. Serbian state television broadcast images of him in police custody in the Belgrade-based special war crimes court. The now 68-year-old was reportedly using the assumed name Milorad Komodic when he was detained - an anagram of his true identity. He will now be extradited to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he faces life imprisonment if convicted. That process could take up to a week. Confirming the arrest, Serbia's president Boris Tadic said it marked the end of a very difficult chapter in his country's history. He said: "Today we close one chapter of our recent history that will bring us one step closer to full reconciliation in the region. "I believe that all countries must be responsible for closing their own chapters. "All crimes have to be fully investigated and all war criminals must face justice. "We have ended a difficult period of our history and removed the stain from the face of Serbia and the members of our nation wherever they live." Mladic is accused of masterminding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead in 1995. The former general is also suspected of Europe's worst massacre since WWII, when his troops slaughtered 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. War crimes tribunal judge Fouad Riad said during Mladic's 1995 indictment in absentia that the court had seen evidence of "unimaginable savagery: thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered (and) children killed before their mothers' eyes. "These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history," he said. Mladic had been the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect still at large after the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in 2008. Sky's Europe correspondent Alex Rossi said the question in many people's minds would be why it had taken so long to arrest Mladic - who went on the run in the mid-1990s. "He has managed to evade capture for 16 years. Serbia, where he was arrested, is not a large place," Rossi said. "How did he hide? Who was sponsoring him? Who was helping him? Where parts of the state's apparatus shielding him from justice? "Those questions remain unanswered but nevertheless this is a major step from the Serbian government in its rehabilitation." Speaking at the G8 Summit in Deauville, France, Prime Minister David Cameron said the crimes Mladic is alleged to have carried out must not be forgotten. "He is accused of the most appalling war crimes - both in terms of what happened not only in Srebrenica but also in Sarajevo." He added: "There's a very good reason why the long arm of the international law has been looking for this man for such a long time." President Barack Obama, at the same summit, applauded Serbia's leader for his "determined efforts" to ensure Mladic faces justice. "Fifteen years ago, Ratko Mladic ordered the systematic execution of some 8,000 unarmed men and boys in Srebrencia. Today, he is behind bars," he said in a written statement. "While we will never be able to bring back those who were murdered, Mladic will now have to answer to his victims, and the world, in a court of law. "May the families of Mladic's victims find some solace in today's arrest, and may this deepen the ties among the people of the region," he said. British Defence Secretary Liam Fox added: "It is clearly one that has to be welcomed. "It gives the people of Serbia a chance to close, or at least begin to close, a very unhappy chapter in their history. "It's a reminder to all those who fly in the face of international justice that sooner or later they will be brought to book for their crimes." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ratko-mladic-arrested-serbian-police-103416678.html