Thousands of demonstrators from across Serbia and Bosnia have gathered in Belgrade to protest Radovan Karadzic's arrest and possible extradition.
Singing nationalist songs and waving posters of their "Serb Hero", the protesters criticized their government's plans to extradite Karadzic to the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugosalvia, which has filed 11 charges against him, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the rules of war.
He is also accused of masterminding the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and the more than three-year siege of Sarajevo, in which 10,000 people died.
The charges relate to Karadzic's actions during the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. Karadzic was arrested last week ending his 12 years as a fugitive.
Ultranationalist protesters also chanted anti-government slogans condemning the "betrayal" of Karadzic.
President Boris Tadic warned: "There is no sense protesting against the fact that in this country we are obeying the law."
According to an AP report, the police estimated the crowd to number 15,000, much less than expected by the organizer of the rally, Aleksandar Vucic of the Serbian Radical Party. Vucic has called for the ouster of Tadic's government.
Addressing the rally, he thanked the protesters and said that this shows "Serbia is not dead, although it is being killed by Boris Tadic. Thieves and bandits are ruling Serbia. We will fight for Serbia and Serbia will be free."
The Serbian court says they have not yet received any appeal from Karadzic's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic. The court says if no appeal is received, the authorities have the right to transfer him to The Hague at any time.
But Vujacic claims he sent the appeal by registered mail before a midnight Friday deadline.
FTP/HG