By Helen Fawkes
BBC News, Belgrade
Just when you thought Radovan Karadzic's secret life on the run could not get any more bizarre, a man who claims to have saved him has emerged.
"When he came he looked like a tramp.
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Karadzic 'worked in Serb clinic' ... like he wanted to kill himself or somebody else. We helped him not to do that," says Mina Minic, a self-styled guru of alternative health.
''He had long hair arranged in a ponytail, a simple coat and most importantly he looked like anything other than Radovan Karadzic."
Surrounded by metal contraptions, Mr Minic holds up two silver-coloured metal pipes that look like they have been bent into the shape of flowers.
Mr Minic, who comes from Russia but now lives in Belgrade, specialises in channelling what is known as bio-energy.
He has a large collection of weird-looking metal objects which he apparently he uses to transfer energy from the universe to people.
It was in 2005 that he first met the war crimes suspect, although by then he was using a fake identity.
"He came to me not as Radovan Karadzic but as a Dragan Dabic,'' says Mr Minic.
The fugitive signed up for a course with Mr Minic in the Serbian capital.
''He got a diploma so he could work and open his own practice,'' he says.
The pair became friends and Mr Karadzic even occasionally stayed at the home of the alternative health guru.
He offered to write a book dedicated to Mr Minic's unconventional theories.
Mr Minic was so pleased with his student that he gave him the name David.
Mr Karadzic then changed his assumed name to Dragan David Dabic.
The real Dabic
Meanwhile, 30 miles away in northern Serbia, the real Dragan Dabic had no idea that one of the world's most wanted men had stolen his identity.
It turns out that Mr Dabic is a 66-year-old former construction worker living in the small town of Ruma.
He enjoys the simple pleasures in life, growing tomatoes in his garden and making traditional brandy. He does not have a computer or a mobile phone.
Since the arrest of Radovan Karadzic on Monday he says his life has become a nightmare.
"Now when I walk on the streets all the people I grew up with, worked with say 'hello Karadzic, hello doctor'. People say I'm popular now but I don't need that kind of popularity. It's making me and my family nervous," he says.
Mr Dabic showed the BBC his ID card. Apart from the picture, it is identical to the identity card for Dragan Dabic that Mr Karadzic was using.
''I was surprised how he could get my ID," says the real Dragan Dabic. "It was with me at all times. I didn't give it to anybody, and I didn't know him at all. I only saw him on TV during the war."
It has been reported that the fake ID was issued in 2000, while the late president Slobodan Milosevic was still in power.
The fugitive clearly had friends in high places.
The discovery of the real Dragan Dabic could prove to be a significant lead in the hunt for the support network that helped Radovan Karadzic evade arrest for more than a decade.
(BBC)
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