Serbia Now Pressed To Find Karadzic's Commander

BELGRADE, Serbia — And then there was one.

The surprise capture of the former Bosnian leader Radovan Karadzic on U.N. genocide charges has raised expectations that fellow fugitive General Ratko Mladic — Mr. Karadzic's wartime military commander — could soon join him behind bars.

Serbian authorities made a startling disclosure yesterday in describing the arrest of Mr. Karadzic: They basically stumbled across him while searching for Mr. Mladic, a far more brazen figure who — up until a few years ago — reportedly made daring forays into downtown Belgrade.

Since 1995, both men have topped the U.N. war crimes tribunal's most-wanted list, and both had a $5 million State Department bounty on their heads.

They were indicted together for genocide and crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating the bloody siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia's 1992-95 war and the wanton slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Although Mr. Karadzic's arrest by Serbian security forces and his imminent handover to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, represents a huge step for the Balkan country, the international community wasted no time in clamoring anew for Mr. Mladic to be brought to justice.

NATO, the European Union, and New York-based Human Rights Watch all pressed Serbia to track down the elusive Mr. Mladic, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Serbia.