Plan your Karadzic tour in Belgrade (News Feature)

By Ksenija Prodanovic Jul 29, 2008, 10:28 GMT

Belgrade - War crimes supect Radovan Karadzic's undercover hangouts and the place he was captured will soon be featured in a Belgrade city tour, a local company said Tuesday.

Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader wanted on war crimes charges, astounded the world with his fake identity as an alternative healer, long white beard and daring trips to Croatia and Austria during 12 years on the run.

Now, the Vekol tourist agency says journalists and foreign tourists are eager to see the sites he frequented before Serb authorities arrested him on July 21.

'We plan to organize the tour shortly, maybe even next week. The demand is huge and people are really interested,' Vekol spokeswoman Dragana Tubic told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Most of the tour involves New Belgrade, a sprawling area of socialist-era housing projects across the river from the old part of the city.

Visitors will be brought to see the bar Luda Kuca (Crazy House) where Karadzic, aka Doctor Dabic, played gusle, a traditional Montenegrin string instrument.

Also featured will be a grocery shop where he bought bread and wine, the place he was taken from the bus and arrested, and restaurants where he ate pizzas and pancakes, Vekol says.

Tourists will also be able to buy old copies of Healthy Life magazine, for which Karadzic wrote under his alias.

'We already organize a Tito tour and a Tesla tour and they are extremely popular among foreign guests. I believe this one will be popular as well,' Tubic said.

Josip Broz Tito led the old communist Yugoslav federation from the end of World War II until his death in 1980. He was the best-loved and most flamboyant leader in Yugoslav history.

His tour features an actor playing the part of Tito, a ride on his extravagant official train and a dinner with late leader's favorite wines and dishes. The (Nikola) Tesla tour is based on the life of the famed electrical inventor and scientist of Serb origin.

Other Belgrade tourist groups offer tours keyed to the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and around the places in Belgrade destroyed during NATO bombing raids on Yugoslavia in 1999.

Milosevic was president of Yugoslavia during the 1990s and helped foment the country's bloody breakup. He died in The Hague while awaiting trial on war crimes charges.