SFOR SAYS IT DOESN'T KNOW WHERE KARADZIC IS

MOSTAR, June 26 (Hina) - French units deployed as part of the NATO- led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina do not possess any information about the current whereabouts of a former war and political Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. We do not know where Karadzic is, read a statement issued by the SFOR Multinational Division south-east after HINA asked it to comment on a demand by an American envoy, David Scheffer, that French SFOR troops should arrest this notorious war crimes suspect. The response by the SFOR underlines that the mandate of the Stabilisation Force is not to search for war crimes in order to bring them to the court, but that their task is apprehend war criminals for Hague trials within their regular activities. It is clear that all war criminals should appear in The Hague, the statement added. U.S. official David Scheffer, who is investigating war crimes, last Thursday asked French soldiers in Bosnia to arrest Karadzic, adding that he knows, according to reliable U.S sources, that Karadzic is in eastern Bosnia, the zone of responsibility of SFOR Multinational Division South-East commanded by a French General and made up mostly of French troops. Scheffer voiced this demand in the Kosovo town of Djakovica. (hina) ms