Far from lurking inconspicuously, Radovan Karadzic was giving public lectures on alternative medicine before audiences of hundreds.

He was hiding only behind an enormous beard, white pony-tailed hair topped with an odd black tuft and a new secret identity - that of Dr Dragan David Dabic.

Once a fatigues-wearing leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Karadzic was unrecognisable in a guise that was part-guru and part-Santa Claus.

His disguise was so effective that 'he happily, freely walked around the city', Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told reporters. 'The people who rented him the apartment did not know his true identity.'

Using false documents and false identities, the former psychiatrist worked as a doctor of alternative medicine in a Belgrade clinic for years. He even had a website on which he sold amulets.

'He said, when being introduced, 'My name is Dr Dabic, but call me David',' said Ms Maja Djelic, 28, a Belgrade resident who, like Karadzic, wrote for the magazine Healthy Life. Only that he used his false name.

'It was a brilliant camouflage,' said Mr Goran Kojic, editor of Healthy Life, who was shocked to learn the truth. 'He left a calm impression of a cultured man who was funny, eloquent. You'd want him to be your friend.'

Karadzic was so confident of his new identity that he reportedly was about to embark on a vacation at a spa for 10 days when he was captured.

A wartime friend of Karadzic's who did not want to be named, to avoid the attention of prosecutors, said the change in Karadzic was so complete, 'you could recognise him only if you know him by the sound of his voice'.

Karadzic's whereabouts had been a mystery since he went on the run, when Nato began to hunt for politicians and combatants charged by the war crimes tribunal in 1995. The United States set a US$5 million (S$6.8 million) bounty for his arrest, Kansascity.com reported.

Yet, he eluded the authorities for nearly 13 years after being indicted for the massacre of nearly 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in Srebrenica.

The killings were termed as an attempt to 'ethnically cleanse' large parts of the former Yugoslav republic of Muslims and Croats to create a Greater Serbia.

He was widely believed to be hiding in the Serb-dominated areas of Bosnia, sometimes disguised as an Orthodox priest and moving between monasteries and other hideouts. He repeatedly eluded peacekeeping troops who staged numerous raids in Serb enclaves in eastern Bosnia.

But on Monday, police officers zeroed in on him after a series of raids on the residences of friends and family.

They kept a close watch on Karadzic and followed him for half a day before swooping down on him as he rode a public bus.

The friend said he believed that the arrest was the result of a tip-off. There were rumours of the involvement of a foreign secret service in the operation, but this was vehemently denied by the Serbian government.

'We have waited for this for 13 years. Finally. Finally,' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels, Belgium. 'This is a very good thing for the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union.'

Karadzic has been questioned since but, so far, Serbian ministers said, he has remained silent.

The charges against him include genocide, and persecution and killing of non-Serbs.

He now awaits probable extradition to the international war- crimes tribunal in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Ratko Mladic, Karadzic's wartime military commander who was indicted together with him, remains at large.

NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, LOS ANGELES TIMES