OPERATION IN PALE "REGULAR INSPECTION" - SFOR

( Editorial: --> 4174 ) ZAGREB/SARAJEVO, Apr 2 (Hina) - The deployment of large troops of the NATO-led Stabilisation Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina noticed Thursday in the area of Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale, in the vicinity of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's house, has nothing to do with the arrest of persons accused of war crimes but is a regular inspection of the Bosnian Serb special police force, SFOR representatives stated Thursday. SFOR spokesman in Sarajevo Major Peter Clark answered Hina's inguiry about the movements of SFOR units around Pale by saying that they were regular and previously fully agreed inspection activities. Major Clark stressed that was in accordance with the second part of the Dayton peace agreement, Article 1 Provision 8, which regulates military issues and details the control of special military and police units. This has been done in other parts of the Bosnian Serb entity as well and is now being done in Pale, Clark said. This was confirmed by SFOR's spokesman in Zagreb, Lt. Col. Hans Joachim-Becker. According to Reuters, an unnamed diplomatic official at NATO confirmed that the deployment was an inspection and not an attempt to arrest Karadzic. The source at NATO however said there was an unusually large number of armoured vehicles and soldiers for that kind of activity. AFP earlier reported there were in the Pale area between 400 and 500 SFOR soldiers and 100 armoured vehicles backed by helicopters. (hina) ha 021400 MET apr 98