IFOR REPS REBUT U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

SARAJEVO, June 5 (Hina) - IFOR spokesman in Sarajevo Simon Haselock on Wednesday refuted that IFOR troops in Bosnia had received new orders which could increase the possibilities of them apprehending war crimes suspects. The conclusion that the expansion of IFOR patrols could lead to the apprehension of war crimes suspects was on Tuesday declared by the U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. Major Haselock reiterated that IFOR had received no new orders as regarded the apprehension of war crimes suspects and said that they could be apprehended only when IFOR troops were performing their regular tasks on the field. Haselock also refuted the possibility that Tuesday's incident near Sarajevo had been connected with attempts to apprehend a person suspected of war crimes by the government of Bosnia- Herzegovina. Members of the IFOR military police on Tuesday stopped a vehicle near Serb-held Lukavica, in which was a Slavko Aleksic, who had commanded Serb troops in the suburb of Grbavica during the war and who had been labeled by the local non-Serb residents as main perpetrator of mass exile, robbery and murders of the non-Serb populace in the area. Haselock said that the military police had wanted to confiscate weapons in possession of Aleksic's driver - a hand grenade and an automatic pistol - because movement in the separation zone was prohibited to armed persons. The Serb police had prevented this and a large number of civilians gathered in front of the police station in Lukavica, which is why a special unit of the French IFOR troops had to assist the eight American and Italian military police officers. The driver ran away through a window of the police station in Lukavica and the Serb police handed over his weapons to IFOR after being asked to do so several times. Haselock said that Aleksic was on a list of war crimes suspects of the International Tribunal in The Hague. (hina) lm jn 051530 MET jun 96