SFOR READY FOR NEW ACTIONS TO CAPTURE WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS

( Editorial: --> 9345 ) SARAJEVO, Dec 18 (Hina) - A Stabilisation Force spokesman in Sarajevo confirmed on Thursday that SFOR troops had arrested two Bosnian Croats wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Peter Clark said the operation in Vitez to capture Anto Furundzija and Vlatko Kupreskic was approved by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and General Wesley Clark, the commander of allied forces in Europe. No SFOR troops were injured during the operation, but Kupreskic tried to resist arrest by shooting at SFOR troops using an automatic pistol. Fire was returned and Kupreskic was injured in the shoulder, leg and arm. He received medical assistance in an SFOR hospital and was in a stable condition, Clark said. The SFOR spokesman said Furundzija had already been flown by a NATO plane to The Hague, while Kupreskic will be sent there when his health condition allows it. This is expected to be some time today. Clark said the Vitez operation was carried out in accordance with the current mandate of NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that troops performing the action were part of the Multinational Division South-West, which is under British command. We expect that the parties who signed the Dayton agreement will fulfill their obligations and deliver war crimes suspects. If they fail to do this, SFOR is prepared to undertake actions similar to the one in Vitez, said Clark, emphasising that the general feeling of the international community was that the delivery of suspects was critical to consolidating peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Sarajevo, United Nations spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko said the tribunal in The Hague welcomed the SFOR action. According to Ivanko, Furundzija had been on the so-called "sealed" list of suspects since November 1996 and the indictment was read out to him this morning on the plane headed for The Hague. Furundzija was commander of a special unit of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) called "The Jokers", whose members are suspected of committing crimes in the Lasva Valley of central Bosnia. Furundzija himself is suspected for incidents of rape and the beating of prisoners. An indictment against Kupreskic was raised on 10 November 1995. Together with seven other HVO soldiers, Kuprekic is suspected of committing war crimes during attacks on Ahmici, Vitez and eight more villages in the Lasva Valley. Kupreskic is charged with the killing of Fata Pezer and the injuring of her daughter, Dzenana Pezer. The international High Representative's Office spokesman Simon Haselock said Carlos Westendorp, the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, welcomed the capture of two more war crimes suspects. (Hina) jn mb 181947 MET dec 97