SARAJEVO, July 17 (Hina) - British SFOR soldiers noticed two persons inside their base in Banja Luka at 22.40 hours Wednesday night after three explosions had been heard. Warning shots were fired towards the persons and patrols had
been dispatched immediately. They had located and apprehended four men, SFOR spokesman, John Blakeley, said in Sarajevo on Thursday.
SARAJEVO, July 17 (Hina) - British SFOR soldiers noticed two persons
inside their base in Banja Luka at 22.40 hours Wednesday night after
three explosions had been heard.
Warning shots were fired towards the persons and patrols had been
dispatched immediately. They had located and apprehended four men, SFOR
spokesman, John Blakeley, said in Sarajevo on Thursday. #L#
The men were handed over to the local Serb police and the SFOR
military police immediately searched the base and found that the planted
explosive devices had not been lethal, nor had they been intended to
cause any major damage.
The incident was described by Blakeley as an isolated incident
after which additional security measures had not been taken.
UN spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko confirmed that International Police
Task Force (IPTF) representatives had been present at the four persons'
police interview Thursday morning, but refused to disclose the results
of the interview.
The OSCE office in Brcko (northern Bosnia) received bomb threats by
phone Wednesday night. OSCE spokesman David Foley said on Thursday that
four telephone threats had been placed to the office in short intervals
and that necessary precautions had been taken.
Foley stressed that no explosive device had been found on the
premises.
Incidents with representatives of international organisations or
their property in Bosnia-Herzegovina as targets are occurring on a daily
basis ever since SFOR troops had conducted an operation to apprehend war
crimes suspects in Prijedor.
Blakeley confirmed Thursday that the number of incidents was large,
but stressed that Bosnia was a big country and that there was no
evidence so far to suggest that the incidents were connected to or had
been caused by the events in Prijedor.
We still consider the situation in the country as fairly peaceful,
Blakeley said.
The Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Momcilo
Krajisnik, called on the Serb population through the Pale media
Wednesday evening not to cause incidents nor to provoke SFOR
representatives or representatives of any other international
organisations.
(hina) lm
171339 MET jul 97