Serbian special forces arrested a top war crimes suspect wanted in connection with a massacre of 200 civilians in Croatia in 1991 early Friday after a night of violent clashes between police and hardline nationalists.
Former Yugoslav army colonel Veselin Sljivancanin, one of the so-called Vukovar Three indicted over the killings, was seized at his Belgrade home shortly after midnight following a tense 10-hour standoff.
His arrest -- after several years in hiding -- came just two days before the expiry of a US ultimatum for Belgrade authorities to arrest suspected war criminals as a condition for the unlocking of US$110 million dollars (92 million euros) in aid.
The arrest of Sljivancanin, regarded as the top suspect over Vukovar, was a key condition set by the US for the renewal of financial assistance to Serbia and Montenegro, and officials in Washington said US Secretary of State Colin Powell was now likely to give a go-ahead to the aid in a decision to be announced tomorrow.
Serbian special forces braved a pitched battle waged by hardline supporters trying to prevent the former military officer's arrest.
An anti-terrorist unit smashed down the door to Sljivancanin's apartment after police used tear gas to break up demonstrations outside.
In scenes not seen since the massive popular uprising against then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, people pelted police with stones and water-filled plastic bottles and tear gas, set garbage bins ablaze and damaged cars.
More than 50 police officers were injured, one seriously, Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said, adding that there had been no arrests among protesters, although a local doctor said eight demonstrators had been slightly injured.
Press reports said the 50-year-old retired colonel, who was taken away in handcuffs to a central Belgrade prison, was picked up as he was preparing to celebrate his birthday.
"Sljivancanin arrested on his birthday," ran the headline in private newspaper Blic.
According to the country's law on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague, the extradition procedure could take up to 10 days.
Welcoming his detention, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said "Sljivancanin belongs to a circle which left its stamp of crime on our territory. It was logical that he should end up in The Hague, where, we expect, he would receive the just punishment."
"There are more of those who are guilty for the atrocities in Vukovar and I guess in time they, too, will answer," Danijel Rehak, who heads an association of former Croatian detainees in Serbian camps, told reporters.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said Powell would say Serbia is cooperating with the UN court, which has repeatedly complained that Belgrade has flouted its demands to bring in fugitive war crimes suspects.
"[Powell] is weighing his options right now, he hasn't seen all the paperwork yet but it is going home with him tonight and the arrest will make it easier for him to certify," one official told reporters.
Sljivancanin's arrest leaves Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander Ratko Mladic as the two top fugitives indicted by the UN court for war crimes during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Ever since reformists took over from Milosevic -- who is now also on trial at The Hague -- Belgrade has been under international pressure to arrest and deliver its war crimes suspects.
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