SPOKESMAN: SFOR HAD RELIABLE INFORMATION THAT KARADZIC WAS IN PALE

cije/savezi SARAJEVO, April 1 (Hina) - The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) were in possession of very reliable information on Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic being in Pale outside Sarajevo in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, which is why they launched an operation to search the house of a local Serb Orthodox priest, SFOR spokesman Dave Sullivan said in Sarajevo on Thursday.#L# We received very reliable information that the war crimes suspect was in that building at Pale, Sullivan told reporters, confirming that the person in question was Karadzic. Although Karadzic was not found, the latest operation accomplished its objective because SFOR is now a step closer to the former Bosnian Serb leader, indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Sullivan said. He expressed regret at the wounding of two civilians during the operation - Serb Orthodox priest Jeremija Starovlah and his son Aleksandar. Sullivan said the two sustained injuries in an explosion which occurred when SFOR troops used explosive to blow up the door to the priest's house. An SFOR helicopter took the priest and his son to a hospital in Tuzla. Starovlah said in an interview with a Montenegrin paper last week that "it is the duty of every Serb to help Karadzic". The statement was carried by Sarajevo media after which the priest denied having made it and claimed that he had last seen Karadzic in 1997. Sullivan said that SFOR would not give up efforts to bring war crimes suspects to justice and recalled that the international community was doing the job which local authorities did not want to do. The operation would not have been launched if the local authorities adequately cooperated with the Hague tribunal, Sullivan said. (Hina) rml sb