ASHDOWN CRITICISES REPUBLIKA SRPSKA GOVERNMENT

BANJA LUKA, April 3 (Hina) - Since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, the authorities of Republika Srpska have not arrested a single war criminal or ended a chain of financing the support to Radovan Karadzic, international community's High Representative Paddy Ashdown told Banja Luka's daily Nezavisne Novine on Saturday.#L# Ashdown says that a recent incident in Pale in which Karadzic's son and a Serb Orthodox priest were seriously injured in a failed attempt to arrest Karadzic, would have never happened if the authorities in Republika Srpska acted in line with their duties and in accordance with international laws and extradited war crimes indictees. Since the signing of the Dayton Agreement 15 people have been extradited to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal but only owing to the operations launched by international forces, Ashdown said. In those nine years, the Republika Srpska government has not arrested a single war criminal or took measures against companies financing Karadzic, he added. The High Representative said Croatia was an example of good cooperation with The Hague, stressing that the government of the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina had also invested efforts into bringing war criminals from that entity before the tribunal in The Hague. (Hina) it