And this time, there seems no doubt about the perpetrators. From the UN News Centre:

A security officer working with the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has been assaulted by Sudanese Government military personnel, the mission reported today.

The security officer was forced into a vehicle yesterday and taken to a military intelligence office after he had gone to the market in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, to investigate a road accident. After his release he was taken to a UNAMID hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, on the potentially not unrelated topic of ICC action in Sudan, Joshua Keating at FP Passport reports that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vocally defended his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir. Another recent would-be protector of Bashir is Russia's UN ambassador, who explained his reasoning thusly:

"I think the Security Council has this responsibility," he said. "We respect the independence of the prosecutor and the ICC. However, there is a responsibility for the Security Council, and it cannot walk away from this responsibility."

Unless this responsibility is to undermine the ICC--which it most explicitly is not--then the Security Council should avoid prematurely calling for a one-year suspension of the ICC's jurisdiction in Darfur until after a robust and even-handed debate on the matter. The Security Council itself recommended that the ICC investigate Sudan just two years ago, so to back off on that decision so soon after a major breakthrough in the Court's work would appear a bit rash.

Sudan's most recent proposal to try suspects--and determine which suspects to try--on its own does not seem entirely credible.

These have been a rough couple of weeks for suspected war criminals. First, Sudanese President Omar el Bashir finds the International Criminal Court's sights set on him. Now, one of the world's most wanted men is arrested by Serbian authorities. Halleluja!

Radovan Karadzic, indicted war criminal, was arrested yesterday outside Belgrade. He is awaiting extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague.

Karadzic was the political mastermind behind the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans in the 1990s. He is also alleged to have orchestrated the Srebrenica massacre, in which 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed in a few short hours after Dutch UN peacekeepers were over run by the Bosnian-Serb militia. Karadzic's partner in crime, General Radko Mladic directed the Srebrenica killings. He remains at large.

Karadzic has been on the run for thirteen years--and it was always suspected that Serbian authorities were protecting him. So why was he nabbed yesterday? It seems that a combination of international pressure and internal politics made the arrest possible. In June the coalition backing the moderate and pro-west Serbian President Boris Tadic won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections over hard line nationalist elements. Tadic quickly moved against the hardliners, purging them from positions of influence in the government. The move against Karadzic can be seen as a kneecapping of Tadic's political opposition and shows just how politically marginalized the hardliners really are.

Second, the international community--chiefly the European Union and the United States--have made Serbian cooperation with the ICTY the sin qua non of relations with Serbia. The pull of the European Union--and the recognition that unless Serbia cooperate with the ICTY it will never enjoy benefits of membership--was the larger force reason behind Karadzic's arrest. With yesterday's arrest, Boris Tadic showed the international community he can deliver. (To be sure, Mladic still remains at large. But with the veil of government protection now firmly cast off, one wonders for how long.) The international community should respond in kind -- and I suspect they will.

Rich Byrne has more.

>>Serbia - The wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, who is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, was arrested in a Belgrade suburb yesterday (the Guardian has his rap sheet). On the run since 1996, Karadzic had been practicing alternative medicine in the open under an elaborate disguise. He had been under surveillance for a week after a tip from a "foreign intelligence agency." He will be taken the the UN war crimes court in the Hague. Karadzic's arrest was one of the preconditions for Serbian advancement toward EU membership.

>>Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's ruling party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change begin negotiations today in Pretoria on a power-sharing deal. All parties signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday that committed them to two weeks of talks. It was the first time that Tsvangirai and Mugabe had met face-to-face in a decade. The NY Times thinks more pressure need be put on China, Russia, and South Africa by President Bush.

>>China - Two public buses exploded yesterday morning in Kunming, killing at least two. It is not yet known whether the perpetrators are foreign or domestic. Many residents received a text message prior to the blasts warning them off public buses.

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Africa

• Sudan - AU rejects Bashir Darfur charges
• Congo - Congo prisoners 'starve to death'
• Sierra Leone - S Leone pledges cocaine crackdown

East Asia

• China - Bid to reach trapped China miners
• China - 2 Die in Bus Blasts in Southwest China
• China - China Begins Pulling Soldiers Out of Quake Zone
• Thailand - Thai-Cambodia spat trumps ASEAN talks with big powers
• Thailand - UN help sought over temple row
• South Korea - S Korea faces another 1997, warns minister
• Myanmar - Burma cyclone 'caused $4bn in damage'

Europe

• France - Sarkozy victory as reforms are approved
• Spain - Spanish Police Arrest 8 in Basque Group Crackdown

Middle East

• Iraq - Iraq rolls out the red carpet for Obama
• Iraq - Iraq Points to Pullout in 2010
• Iraq - British troops in Iraq are set for smooth withdrawal
• Israel - Israeli, Palestinian presidents talk peace
• Israel - Final quizzing of Olmert witness
• Iran - Iran Offers 2 Pages and No Ground in Nuclear Talks
• Syria - Syria Moves Ahead in Recognizing Lebanon

Russia and Former Republics

• Russia - Russia Scorns Methadone for Heroin Addiction

South Asia

• India - India vote debate adjourned over bribery charges
• India - Upstart Party Gains Power as Major Vote Nears in India
• Pakistan - Court in Pakistan Muzzles Disgraced Nuclear Scientist
• Pakistan - Unilateral Action by U.S. a Growing Fear in Pakistan
• Nepal - Nepal Maoists to shun government
• Sri Lanka - Tigers call Colombo summit truce