SARAJEVO, July 5 (Hina) - NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia is willing to help Bosnian Serb authorities in apprehending the two most wanted war crimes suspects still at large, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, an SFOR
spokesman said on Thursday. The SFOR is willing to support all international community activities in that direction, John Ruth told a news conference in Sarajevo commenting on Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic's statement that the entity's authorities were unable to arrest and extradite by themselves people like Karadzic and Mladic. Ivanic, who is in a three-day visit to the Hague war crimes tribunal, told reporters the Bosnian Serb police did not have data that would back claims that Karadzic and Mladic were hiding in the Republic of Srpska (RS). He said that even if police had such data, the entity's authorities could not carry out the arrests without SFOR's a
SARAJEVO, July 5 (Hina) - NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in
Bosnia is willing to help Bosnian Serb authorities in apprehending
the two most wanted war crimes suspects still at large, Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, an SFOR spokesman said on Thursday.
The SFOR is willing to support all international community
activities in that direction, John Ruth told a news conference in
Sarajevo commenting on Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic's
statement that the entity's authorities were unable to arrest and
extradite by themselves people like Karadzic and Mladic.
Ivanic, who is in a three-day visit to the Hague war crimes
tribunal, told reporters the Bosnian Serb police did not have data
that would back claims that Karadzic and Mladic were hiding in the
Republic of Srpska (RS). He said that even if police had such data,
the entity's authorities could not carry out the arrests without
SFOR's assistance.
The obligation to extradite war crimes suspects will become
unequivocal for the Banja Luka authorities once the RS parliament
adopts a law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, which is
expected soon.
In the wake of last week's extradition of Yugoslavia's former
President Slobodan Milosevic, the media in Bosnia are full of
rumours and announcements of the impending arrest of the Bosnian
Serbs' former political and military leaders.
According to some media, Karadzic is mulling a voluntary surrender
to the Hague tribunal in exchange for a mild sentence. His wife
Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, however, countered this by saying
Karadzic's opinion of the tribunal today was the same as before and
that there was no chance of his changing it "now or ever."
(hina) ha sb