Captured: last Balkan war fugitive

The last remaining fugitive wanted by the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal was arrested today after eight years on the run.

Goran Hadzic, the former leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs during the bloody ethnic war, is accused of crimes against humanity and the murder of hundreds of people.

The 52-year-old was seized in Serbia near his family home near Fruska Gora mountain, north of Belgrade.

Serbian president Boris Tadic confirmed the arrest at a news conference. During the 1991-1995 conflict Hadzic led troops opposing Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia. In 2004 he was indicted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including "extermination, murder, torture ... wanton destruction".

It is claimed he tried to drive out non-Serbs from territory controlled by his forces. He is held responsible for the 1991 massacre of almost 300 men in Vukovar by Croatian Serb troops, and the deportation of 20,000 from the town.

His arrest follows that of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic in May, and ex-Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic in 2008.