Serbia's initial response to the arrest and revelations about the secret life of Radovan Karadzic was profound shock. His second life as Dragan Dabic quickly drowned out any more profound coverage of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.

"Radovan Betrayed," "Serb Thugs Arrest Radovan", "Treason," or "Lady Lover and Healer of the Famous" are typical of the screaming headlines that have accompanied the coup.
 
Few of the items in the popular papers spend more than a sentence reminding anyone that he is accused of masterminding the massacre in Srebrenica.
 
What they have been doing instead is fuelling the myth of Mr Karadzic as Serb war hero, witty and smart psychiatrist-turned healer who succeeded in defying the enemies of the Serb nation.
 
The interest in his love life and alleged companion Mila is fading away and now pages and pages are being dedicated to his religious lifestyle.
 
Tales are told about his visits to Orthodox monasteries in the province, brands of bottled water or preferred fruits and vegetables he bought in New Belgrade corner shops. "He reads the Bible, drinks mineral water and takes a few bites of food in the detention unit", reports one newspaper.
 
Dozens of people are coming forward to claim encounters with him – from the Orthodox Monastery at Mt Athos in Greece that houses Greece, Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia's oldest monasteries, to the ATM machine near the biggest open air market in downtown Belgrade.
 
"This amounts to the sightings of Elvis (Presley)," said one prominent journalist, Jaksa Scekic.
 
Analysts agree that most media are acting in the same manner as when former strongman Slobodan Milosevic died. Fascinated by his sudden demise in March 2006, they barely said what he did in the 1990s.

The admiration of Mr Karadzic goes back to the 1980s, when he was briefly engaged in psychologically preparing the footballers of Red Star Belgrade.
 
"It is undisputable that the sessions held by Mr Karadzic in 1983, when things were extremely bad for the club, helped it get back into shape", the prominent daily Politika wrote.

Acres of space is devoted to Svetozar Vujacic, Mr Karadzic's lawyer, and his statements on the personal defence his client will undertake.
 
"He'll defend the Serb cause before the war crimes tribunal and show that he did everything in his power to help the Serbs," Mr Vujacic said.
 
Only a few TV stations bothered to show war time footage of besieged Sarajevo or repeat the footage of massacre of Muslim boys after the downfall of Srebrenica, revealed and released in Serbia only 18 months ago.

The effect of the coverage is to play into the hands of the ultranationalists in Serbia, where the public remains deeply divided on the past decade's wars, while younger people are not even aware of what happened in the region at that time------The Independent

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