SARAJEVO, Dec 16 (Hina) - Investigators of the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are staying in Banja Luka where they are holding talks with officers of the Army of the Bosnian Serb entity who
might be witnesses to crimes committed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Bosnia said on Thursday. The UN spokesman Douglas Coffman told reporters in Sarajevo that the arrival of the ICTY investigators had been organised with the full consent and cooperation of the authorities in the Republic of Srpska. Investigators are questioning potential witnesses to war events in Bosnia, said Coffman declining to give more details about the exact nature of the investigation in that north-western Bosnian city. The Bosnian Serb entity's Justice Minister Milan Trbojevic told Banja Luka media last week that the Republic of Srpska had already dr
SARAJEVO, Dec 16 (Hina) - Investigators of the Hague-based
International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are
staying in Banja Luka where they are holding talks with officers of
the Army of the Bosnian Serb entity who might be witnesses to crimes
committed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a spokesman for the
UN Mission in Bosnia said on Thursday.
The UN spokesman Douglas Coffman told reporters in Sarajevo that
the arrival of the ICTY investigators had been organised with the
full consent and cooperation of the authorities in the Republic of
Srpska.
Investigators are questioning potential witnesses to war events in
Bosnia, said Coffman declining to give more details about the exact
nature of the investigation in that north-western Bosnian city.
The Bosnian Serb entity's Justice Minister Milan Trbojevic told
Banja Luka media last week that the Republic of Srpska had already
drawn up a draft bill on the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
Since the end of the war 1995 up to now Bosnian Serb authorities have
persistently rejected any possibility of cooperation in arrests of
war crimes suspects, and to date Bosnian Serb war criminals have
been apprehended by the international force in Bosnia, SFOR.
"If anybody should arrest Serb suspects, it is better that this is
done by Serb police," Trbojevic said in an interview with the Banja
Luka-based 'Nezavisne Novine'.
According to Thursday's issue of the Sarajevo-based daily
'Oslobodjenje', a job which is being done by the ICTY
representatives in Banja Luka is connected with crimes committed in
the Bosnian eastern town of Srebrenica in the summer 1995.
According to that paper, six officers of the Bosnian Serb army have
been called for questioning. One of those possible witnesses is
Milorad Pelemis who is believed to be the commander of a special
military unit that carried out mass killings of Moslem (Bosniak)
prisoners after the Moslem-populated enclave of Srebrenica fell in
the hands of Bosnian Serbs, the Oslobodjenje daily claimed.
Pelemis, along with another four men, was arrested by Yugoslav
police two weeks ago.
The Yugoslav information ministry accused Pelemis and the other
apprehended men of having been organised in a group called "Spider"
that was planning an assassination against the incumbent President
of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro), Slobodan Milosevic, by order of
French secret police.
According to comments that appeared in the media after the
apprehension, Milosevic's secret police was actually trying to
eliminate undesirable witnesses to th Srebrenica tragedy when some
7,000 people were killed by the Serb armed forces. Witnesses are
believed to be able to show that responsibility for such war crime
should be traced to Belgrade.
(hina) ms