ARBOUR: ALL WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS WILL BE ARRESTED

SARAJEVO, May 9 (Hina) - Louise Arbour, the Chief Prosecutor of the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), on Saturday urged the apprehension of all war crimes suspects, and stressed it would be an important signal to those who are committing violence in Kosovo. Responsible for crimes in Kosovo might draw very important conclusions if war crimes suspects in Bosnia were arrested, Arbour told a news conference in Sarajevo. The ICTY Chief Prosecutor arrived in Sarajevo after she had led talks in the NATO headquarters and the capitals of most important western countries where she sought additional support to efforts of this international court to capture war criminals. On Saturday Arbour held a meeting with the Bosnian Serb entity's Vice President Mirko Sarovic and top officials of the Interior Ministry in the Republic of Srpska. She asked them to cooperate better with the Hague-based Tribunal. At the news conference she declined to give details about the talks but said Bosnian Serb officials had shown a significant level of realism. Sarovic and other leaders were informed that th ICTY would certainly continue with its work and existence. I reiterated that there were three ways of bringing suspects to justice - local authorities can arrest them, NATO-led Stabilisation Force can do so or they can surrender -, Arbour said adding that an SFOR operation was the least desirable way but may be undertaken in case there is no other option. According to Arbour, insufficient efforts of the SFOR to capture most wanted war criminals can be attributed to a lack of the political will or operational possibilities, or due to the combination of these two factors. She stressed that arrests should be made now, notwithstanding the Kosovo crisis. She explained, in response to a reporter's question, that no military or political official had the immunity from the criminal prosecution in case his personal or commanding responsibility for war crimes was proved. Commenting on the verdict in the case of Bosnian Croat Zlatko Aleksovski, Arbour said the Tribunal's ruling would be probably appealed, but the final decision should be made after the completion of the whole procedure in June. Aleksovski was sentenced on Friday to two and a half years in prison by the ICTY for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the Lasva River valley. He returned to Zagreb on Saturday after the ICTY released him because he had already spent three years in prison. (hina) ms,