Riot police break up Belgrade demo by pro-Karadzic hardliners

Riot police dispersed Tuesday a group of about 100 hardline nationalists gathered in central Belgrade to protest against the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, witnesses said.

Mostly members of of the ultra-nationalist right-wing organisation Obraz, the protestors shouted "Betrayal" and chanted the names of Karadzic and his military leader Ratko Mladic, who is still on the run.

They threw fire-crackers and stones at the policemen, who pushed them towards the central pedestrian street Knez Mihailova. No one was injured in the skirmishes, local media reported.

Dozens of anti-riot policemen were deployed along the main avenues and central square in Belgrade to prevent demonstrators from gathering again.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw opposition leader Aleksandar Vucic of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical party and Karadzic's brother Luka Karadzic among some fifty protestors gathered in the pedestrian zone and cordoned off by the police.

Overnight Monday, some 50 ultra-nationalists gathered in front of Belgrade's war crimes court to protest Karadzic's arrest. Again, they were later dispersed by the police.

Serbian authorities on Monday announced that 63-year old Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men who stands indicted for genocide, had been arrested thirteen years after the charges were brought against him.

He is expected to be transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in the coming days.

(Agencies)