DEL PONTE DEMANDS TOUGH ACTION TO ARREST WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS IN BOSNIA - MEDIA

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - During her brief visit to Sarajevo on Tuesday, Hague war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte did not meet Bosnian government officials or media representatives, which has given rise to speculation in the media about the reason of her unannounced visit. According to some media, she asked the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) to continue tough action to track down war crimes suspects.#L# All Bosnian media reported on Wednesday that Del Ponte had met only the SFOR chief commander, US General Virgil Packett, and that she even bypassed the international community's high representative to the country, Paddy Ashdown. "The prosecutor met General Packett and they discussed the apprehension of war crimes indictees," the Banja Luka-based newspaper Nezavisne Novine quoted SFOR spokesman Dave Sullivan as saying. Spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor Florance Hartmann, who was mainly unavailable for comment on Tuesday, was even more reserved. She said that it was "a working meeting", but declined to reveal any details as to its subject. Before Del Ponte's arrival, media assumed that she was coming to criticise the Bosnian Serb government for lack of any serious cooperation with the Hague tribunal. Bosnian state television BH TV 1 and the Muslim-Croat Federation's FTV television network claimed that the real purpose of the prosecutor's visit was fresh indictments to be issued against senior Muslim wartime political and military officials. Ejup Ganic, a wartime member of the Bosnian Presidency, General Rasim Delic, the Bosnian Army commander, and General Sakib Mahmuljin, the commander of the Bosnian Army Third Corps, were cited as potential indictees. Citing an unnamed source from the tribunal, the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje said on its front page on Wednesday that Del Ponte had visited Sarajevo to support SFOR in its efforts to arrest war crimes suspects, particularly Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. Oslobodjenje said that Del Ponte's meeting with General Packett should be seen as additional support to SFOR to continue the hunt for Karadzic regardless of negative responses from Serb politicians and the Serb Orthodox Church following last week's raid in Pale when a Serb priest and his son were injured. The Dnevni Avaz daily, quoting anonymous Bosnian intelligence sources, wrote on Wednesday that Karadzic had indeed been in Pale last week visiting parish priest Starovlah at his home, which was established by tapping the priest's phone. According to this source, Karadzic managed to evade the attempted arrest thanks to information and logistical support from the Bosnian Serb intelligence service, whose agents transferred him out of Pale towards Zvornik before the SFOR raid. (Hina) vm