SARAJEVO, Jan 12 (Hina) - The two-day search operation carried out in Pale near Sarajevo by members of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina was launched following information that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic may be hiding in the area, the SFOR Command in Sarajevo said in a statement on Monday.
SARAJEVO, Jan 12 (Hina) - The two-day search operation carried out in
Pale near Sarajevo by members of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in
Bosnia-Herzegovina was launched following information that former
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic may be hiding in the area, the
SFOR Command in Sarajevo said in a statement on Monday.#L#
On Friday evening, the SFOR obtained information which led it to
believe that Karadzic could be in Pale, reads a written statement by
the chief SFOR commander, US General Virgil Packett, which was sent to
the media in Sarajevo.
Gen. Packett said SFOR troops were sent that same night to Pale, after
which they were joined by Bosnian Serb police forces.
He said this was the first truly joint search for persons suspected of
war crimes carried out by SFOR and local police and that the police
had acted professionally and given a positive contribution to the
operation.
The SFOR command confirmed that the operation was completed on Monday
afternoon and that information collected during the search would
enable new operations aimed at bringing war crimes suspects to
justice.
SFOR also confirmed it had detained one person suspected of helping
runaway suspects.
The identity of that person was not made public, but it was noted that
the person was being interrogated at a safe location.
Local media reported earlier that SFOR had detained Dusan Bato Tesic,
a former policeman who was probably part of the network of persons
harbouring Karadzic.
(Hina) rml sb