BELGRADE (AFP) - Stone-throwing hooligans clashed in Belgrade Tuesday with Serbian riot police who replied with rubber bullets and tear gas after a rally against Radovan Karadzic's looming war crimes transfer.

The violence erupted at the end of the ultra-nationalist protest rally in Belgrade's main downtown square, which drew more than 15,000 hardliners opposed to the arrest a week ago of the Bosnian Serb genocide suspect.

Karadzic, in custody in a Belgrade prison cell after his arrest in the capital on July 21, is fighting a legal battle against his transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

But rumours swirled in Belgrade that his transfer would happen in the coming hours, although this could not be confirmed.

Once he arrives in The Hague, Karadzic is to be tried for some of the bloodiest atrocities in Europe since World War II, namely the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.


At the end of the rally organised by the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, around 100 hooligans, most of them drunk teenagers, broke away and swarmed on the riot police, hurling stones and firecrackers at them.

They continued to hurl whatever they could get their hands on at the security forces despite calls for them to refrain from doing so by Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic during his closing speech.

"Do not do it, children, we did not gather for that, we do not want to destroy Belgrade, but rather Boris Tadic," he said, referring to the pro-Western Serbian president his party accuses of treachery over Karadzic's arrest.

The riot police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, driving back and trying to disperse the youths, many of them in hooded sports tops, into streets surrounding the Republic Square.

Many were injured, among them 13 police and 15 civilians, including a Spanish journalist.

After almost half an hour of skirmishes, the rioters were dispersed, and an eerie calm returned to downtown Belgrade with police still holding cordons to prevent hooligans from regrouping again.

The streets where the clashes took place were covered with debris and broken glass, while a pile of plastic beer bottles were seen laying in front of the police.

Another anti-riot unit was positioned in front of the McDonalds restaurant in central Belgrade avenue Terazije, which was virtually destroyed in rioting in February against Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Then, 150,000 demonstrators protested Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in a demonstration that sparked attacks on Western embassies, rioting and looting that left one youth dead.

The rally on Tuesday had began around three hours before the unrest with Serbian nationalist songs played as the crowd chanted Karadzic's name.

In his speech, Nikolic said Tadic "must not decide who will be free and who will be in prison, not for a month, not for a day."

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