IFOR TROOPS REFUSE TO ARREST CROATIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

SARAJEVO, Nov 9 (Hina) - The Human Rights Watch on Saturday quoted a NATO officer in Bosnia-Herzegovina as saying that IFOR troops could have arrested Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic, indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but refused to do so. The human rights organization said in a statement released in Sarajevo that IFOR troops had been present at a rally in the northwestern Bosnian town of Banja Luka which was also attended by Milan Martic. The IFOR troops failed to take action in the belief that they would be overstepping their authority, the statement said. Another source told the Human Rights Watch that Martic had been seen in Banja Luka four days ago and that he was living in a building only a hundred metres away from the IFOR civil affairs office in the town's centre. The statement stressed that IFOR troops passed by Martic's house every day. Martic was indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for war crimes against the civilian population after he had ordered missile attacks on the Croatian capital Zagreb in May 1995 which killed five people and wounded about 200. (hina) vm jn 091503 MET nov 96