Goran Hadzic, the last major war crimes suspect from the Balkans war, has been arrested in Serbia.
The 52-year-old, who faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed during the 1991-95 war in Croatia, had been on the run for eight years. The charges against him include persecution, extermination, torture, deportation and wanton destruction, and the murder of hundreds of Croatians and non-Serbs.
Hadzic was the final senior commander of wartime forces wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), after Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander, was arrested in May.
According to the BBC, Serbian authorities detained Hadzic at Fruska Gora mountain, north of Belgrade.
Boris Tadic, the Serbian president, told a press conference on Wednesday that the arrest was the end of a "difficult" chapter for Serbia.
"This morning at 8:24am Goran Hadzic was arrested. With this Serbia ends the most difficult chapter in its cooperation with the Hague tribunal," he said.
The arrest is likely to boost Serbia's chances of gaining entry into the European Union.
"This is a further important step for Serbia in realising its European perspective and equally crucial for international justice," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and the bloc's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of Nato, also congratulated Serbian authorities for carrying out their international obligations.
ICTY prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the development marked the arrest of the last fugitive from the 161 people indicted by the tribunal.