LORD ASHDOWN BLASTS NATO OVER KARADZIC

MOSTAR, Feb 1 (Hina) - The international community's high representative to Bosnia criticised NATO for the first time in an interview for the British newspaper The Independent of Saturday, stating that in terms of arresting Radovan Karadzic the alliance was waiting for a "lucky break". #L# "This guy has been running around the hills for seven years and we haven't caught him," said Lord Paddy Ashdown, comparing NATO's attempts to arrest the Bosnian Serb wartime leader to waiting in vain for poisoned fruit to fall from the tree. "You sit around under the tree that the poisoned fruit is hanging on and hope for the lucky break, that it falls off and that we are in the right place to catch it." The Independent says that in his talks with NATO officials Ashdown had called for a more active policy with special units and much more resources to arrest Karadzic. Last year NATO troops looked for Karadzic three times, in eastern Bosnia close to the border with Montenegro. Lord Ashdown maintains much more can be done to arrest Karadzic by systematically severing the financial support to his associates. (hina) ha