SARAJEVO, April 1 (Hina) - Top Bosnian Serb officials have slammed an operation which NATO-led peace keepers carried out in Pale, outside Sarajevo, in the night between Wednesday and Thursday in search of war criminal Radovan
Karadzic. On the other hand the international community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, has said that this operation was necessary given that local Serb authorities were persistent in refusing to meet their obligation to cooperate with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal.
SARAJEVO, April 1 (Hina) - Top Bosnian Serb officials have slammed an
operation which NATO-led peace keepers carried out in Pale, outside
Sarajevo, in the night between Wednesday and Thursday in search of war
criminal Radovan Karadzic. On the other hand the international
community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown,
has said that this operation was necessary given that local Serb
authorities were persistent in refusing to meet their obligation to
cooperate with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal.#L#
The Serb member of Bosnia's three-man Presidency, Borislav Paravac,
the chairman of the Serb entity's parliament, Dragan Nikolic, and the
entity's Prime Minister, Dragan Mikerevic, on Thursday arrived at Pale
with the explanation that they wanted to see the consequences of last
night's operation of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR).
Addressing people who staged a rally protesting against the injuring
of a local Orthodox priest and his son in the operation, Paravac said
he would insist on an urgent session of Bosnia's presidency following
these events.
Kalinic labelled the latest SFOR action as the most brutal act of
violence so far, adding that this, together with the recent events in
Kosovo, "increased the feeling of frustration among Serbs".
Bosnia's Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, who is also of Serb ethnic
background, told a news conference in Sarajevo that the conduct of the
international peace-keepers was absolutely unacceptable.
In the northern city of Tuzla Ivanic visited the injured priest and
his son. Doctors told him that their conditions were very grave.
A spokesman for SFOR, Dave Sullivan, said the priest, Jeremija
Starovlah, and his son sustained injuries in the blast of a device
planted in order to break into their house as SFOR had very reliable
information that Karadzic had been there.
High Representative Ashdown voiced regret at the wounding of
civilians, but added this would not have happened if Bosnian Serb
authorities had done their job.
This was not an attack against the Republic of Srpska but against war
criminals and those who help them, the Briton said.
In this context he stressed that for nine years local Serb authorities
had not helped to arrest any person indicted for war crimes. That's
why this must be done by SFOR, he added.
Alluding to a recent statement of the priest Starovlah that it was the
duty of every Orthodox priest to harbour Karadzic, Ashdown said this
behaviour was a direct violation of international law which gave SFOR
reason to act.
(Hina) ms