Berlin — Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect was discovered yesterday to have been living in disguise as an alternative health care guru.

Radovan Karadzic, who faces multiple counts of genocide for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was discovered in the Serb capital Belgrade, dispensing advice on “bioenergy” and meditation before his arrest on Monday.

Sporting hippy hair, a ponytail, and a dense white beard, he wrote a column in the Serb magazine Healthy Life, submitting articles and attending editorial conferences. He even handed out business cards and had his own Web site advertising health treatments and products.

Magazine colleagues described him as a “bohemian” and unrecognizable as the fugitive wanted for Europe’s worst post-war atrocity at Srebrenica in 1995 when 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred. “He came regularly and talked with me and it never dawned on me in the least that it was Radovan Karadzic,” Healthy Life’s editor, Goran Kojic, said. “We never spoke about politics.”

Mr. Karadzic was famous for his thick grey hair during his time as Bosnian Serb leader. Some reports suggested he had shaved it off to escape detection. Instead, he transformed his trademark mane into a near-perfect disguise that allowed him to wander the streets of Belgrade.

Mr. Karadzic lived under the name Dragan Dabic, renting an apartment in a Belgrade suburb. “He used a false identity and was very convincing in trying to hide his identity,” the Serbian minister, Rasim Ljajic, said.

“He walked around freely, even appeared in public places. The people who rented him the apartment did not know his true identity,” Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said.

His arrest bolstered the status of Serbia in Europe with national leaders flocking to hail a new era in the Balkans.

However, riot police were forced into action in Belgrade last night when ultra-nationalist Karadzic supporters protested, throwing stones and fireworks at security forces.

The protesters shouted “betrayal” and chanted the names of Mr. Karadzic and his military leader, Ratko Mladic, who is still on the run.

Details of the former Bosnian Serb leader’s capture were still hazy but the arrest was greeted abroad as a clear break with the country’s nationalist past.

The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, who mediated between warring factions in the Balkans in the 1990s, said his capture was “late, late, late, but good, good, good.”

In France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said: “Finally. Finally. This is a very good thing for the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union.”