SARAJEVO, April 6 (Hina) - The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina will continue its search for war crimes suspects regardless of the wounding of two persons in last week's operation in Pale outside Sarajevo, SFOR
spokesman Dave Sullivan said in Sarajevo on Tuesday.
SARAJEVO, April 6 (Hina) - The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in
Bosnia-Herzegovina will continue its search for war crimes suspects
regardless of the wounding of two persons in last week's operation in
Pale outside Sarajevo, SFOR spokesman Dave Sullivan said in Sarajevo
on Tuesday.#L#
Sullivan told reporters that SFOR regretted the wounding of Serb
Orthodox priest Jeremija Starovlah and his son Aleksandar, adding that
the incident was a result of unfortunate circumstances.
According to the latest reports from Tuzla, where the priest and his
son have been hospitalised, their condition is still very serious
because they sustained grave head injuries.
It was earlier stated that the two sustained head injuries when SFOR
troops used explosive to blow up the door to their house which they
believed was where Radovan Karadzic was hiding.
The wounding of the priest and his son provoked strong reactions from
Bosnian Serb officials and high dignitaries of the Serb Orthodox
church in the country, who described SFOR as "an occupying force"
conducting repression against Serbs.
Sullivan said however that this would not affect SFOR's readiness to
bring to justice all war crimes indictees and continue taking action
against those helping them.
He recalled that all 29 indictees from Bosnia who were transferred to
The Hague had been arrested by SFOR, while the Bosnian Serb
authorities did not arrest any indictees.
If Karadzic remains at large, the authorities of Republika Srpska will
have to explain to their citizens why Bosnia-Herzegovina will remain
isolated from Europe, he said.
Over the last ten days, international representatives operating in
Bosnia, including Paddy Ashdown, have warned the authorities in Banja
Luka, especially the Serb Democratic Party, over lack of cooperation
with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Despite previous reports, it is possible that Bosnia-Herzegovina will
not be invited to join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme at a
summit in Istanbul in June, and that this will not happen as long as
Karadzic is on the run.
(Hina) rml