Peter Biles on the background to the arrest

General Radislav Krstic was arrested in Bosnia under a secret International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia indictment.

The process prevents suspects having prior warning of their arrest.

The general is charged with committing genocide during and after the capture of the UN-declared safe haven.

Jacky Rowland reports from Srebrenica

The town was overrun by Bosnian Serb militia in 1995. As many as 8,000 Muslim men are believed to have been killed between July and November that year.

The general is indicted as the Commander of the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army.

Crimes against humanity

Women were allowed to go, their menfolk disappeared

As well as the genocide indictment, the general faces five other charges arising from events at Srebenica. These are brought both in respect of his personal involvement in the alleged crimes, and in respect of his responsibility for the actions of soldiers under his command.

Charges against the general include:

• Complicity to commit genocide
• Extermination, a crime against humanity
• Murder, a crime against humanity
• Violation of the laws or customs of war
• Persecutions, a crime against humanity.

General Krstic is the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb officer currently in custody. The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour, described him as a very significant military leader.

Troops of the Nato-led SFOR stabilisation force are preparing to transport him to the Hague.

Louise Arbour: A very significant indictee

His arrest was announced by Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana.

"Persons indicted for war crimes who are still at large should realise they, too will be brought to justice," said Mr Solana.

So far the Tribunal has convicted one suspect for the killings at Srebrenica: Drazen Erdemovic, an ordinary soldier who had confessed to his crimes.

General Krstic has been accused of having planned the killings on the instructions of the Bosnian Serbs' military commander, General Ratko Mladic. He was promoted by General Mladic to the post of commander of the Drina Corps only a week after the Srebrenica killings.