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Belgrade: Wednesday was a historic day for many whose beloved were killed in the Balkan bloodshed of the 1990s.

The last major suspect for war crimes, Goran Hadzic, was arrested from outside a village in northern Serbia after seven years in hiding.

The 52-year-old was the last of the 161 people indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against humanity.

Goran, a Croatian Serb, was picked up in Fruska Gora national park about 40 miles north of Belgrade. One official said, "He had changed his appearance and had fake papers on him."

"We have closed a burdensome page of our history," said Serbian President Boris Tadic.

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said, "The arrest of Hadzic is good news for humanity and the whole world, but first and foremost for us in Croatia."

The International court had issued an indictment charging him for involvement in criminal action which was led by Slobodan Milosevic in Croatia from June 1991 to December 1993 with goal of forced and permanently elimination of non-Serb population in one third of the territory of Croatia, and persecution and murders of Croats and other non-Serbs among which are atrocities committed in Vukovar.

Vukovar, in particular, is the place where he ordered the massacre of at least 250 Croats.

Hadzic had lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until July 2004 when The Hague sent an arrest warrant to Belgrade. He was tipped off by nationalist hardliners and fled immediately.

Goran is expected to be extradited to The Hague "within days".

The arrest has paved the way for Serbia which aims to enter the European Union.

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