SFOR CONFIRMS ARREST OF BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT BRDJANIN

SARAJEVO, July 6 (Hina) - NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Tuesday arrested Bosnian Serb Radoslav Brdjanin, suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, an SFOR spokesman told the Sarajevo correspondent of Hina. He was apprehended in Banja Luka and this operation was carried out on grounds of an indictment of the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal in the sector controlled by British SFOR soldiers. The operation proceeded without victims and Brdjanin will be immediately sent to The Hague, the spokesman Gordon Welsh said. His apprehension was ordered by the NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and the commander of the Western Alliance in Europe, General Wesley Clark. Radoslav Brdjanin, who is currently a deputy to the Bosnian Serb entity's parliament, is accused of having taken part in or having stimulated persecutions and abuse of the non-Serb population in the Banja Luka area while he was the commander of the so-called crisis committee from 1 April to 31 December 1992. Brdjanin planned and ordered forcible expulsions and violence against Bosniaks (Moslems) and Croats and other non-Serb ethnic groups who lived in that part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is indicted on charges of being directly responsible for killings, physical abuse and holding civilians in concentration camps and their forcible deportation. By participating in such acts or by failing to prevent them, Brdjanin is suspected of having committed crimes against humanity, the SFOR spokesman added. (hina) ms