"I have to express my satisfaction that this criminal has finally been captured and that he will stand trial. Of course, we in Croatia are exceptionally sensitive to this given all the things this man did in Croatia," Karamarko told reporters after a meeting with Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, who is in an official visit to Croatia.

"I am prejudging, of course, but Hadzic is responsible for many crimes, many negative processes and events which took part in Croatia and I am truly satisfied with the fact that he has finally been arrested," Karamarko said.

Reporters also asked the Israeli Minister, as a politician from a country with great experience in searching for war criminals, to comment on Hadzic's arrest. Aharonovitch said there can be no end to the search for war criminals and that time cannot heal crimes they committed.

I can only hail and bless the fact that the prosecution of such criminals continues, Aharonovitch said, adding that he personally can sympathise because his entire family was killed during the Holocaust.

It is important that war criminals face justice for the crimes they committed, Aharonovitch said.