BELGRADE, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Former Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir, who was charged with genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, was arrested Thursday afternoon on the Bosnian side of the Bosnia-Serbia border, the official Tanjug news agency reported. 

    Tolimir, 58, was arrested in a joint operation of the Serbian and Bosnian Serb republic police forces and is considered the third most wanted war crimes suspect still at large in the Balkans after Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his commander Ratko Mladic.

    The "arrest took place on the Bosnian side, where Serbian police do not have access," Tanjug said, citing sources at the Serbian Interior Ministry, adding that Bosnia's Serb republic police was in charge of the entire case.

    Serbian television station B92 said Tolimir was tracked down and detained in Bosnia close to the Serbian border at 2:45 pm (1245 GMT).

    "The operation lasted for two hours at the border of Serbia and Republika Srpska," Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's official in charge of cooperating with The Hague tribunal, told Serbian state-run RTS television.

    This is the first time since the end of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia that Bosnian Serb Republic police arrested a Hague war crimes indictee.

    In February 2005, Tolimir was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in and around Srebrenica and Zepa in 1995.

    During the war in Bosnia, Tolimir was one of the closest associates of Mladic and was in charge of the intelligence and security affairs at the Bosnian Serb republic army headquarters. He is considered the main organizer of a network of people who are helping Mladic remain in hiding.

    Unofficial information said Tolimir was transferred to Banja Luka in the early evening hours on Thursday where ICTY officials were reportedly already present. His transfer to the UN detention unit in The Hague is expected within 24 hours.

    Olga Kavran, the spokeswoman for the chief UN war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, said they were informed of the arrest by Bosnian Serb republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and preparations for Tolimir's transfer to The Hague were under way.

    Tolimir is one of the six war crimes suspects at large out of the 161 persons indicted by the ICTY. The other five ICTY indictees remaining on the run are Karadzic, Mladic, former Croatian Serb official Goran Hadzic, former Serbian police commander in Kosovo Vlastimir Djordjevic and former Karadzic aide Stojan Zupljanin.