SARAJEVO, Jan 10 (Hina) - Spokesman of the Office of the High Representative for the implementation of the peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colum Murphy, said in Sarajevo on Friday that the politics of the international
community regarding the apprehension of war criminals remained unchanged and that it would persist in its request that they be brought to justice.
SARAJEVO, Jan 10 (Hina) - Spokesman of the Office of the High
Representative for the implementation of the peace agreement
in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colum Murphy, said in Sarajevo on
Friday that the politics of the international community
regarding the apprehension of war criminals remained unchanged
and that it would persist in its request that they be brought
to justice. #L#
Commenting a letter forwarded to UN Secretary-General by
the President of the Serb entity, Biljana Plavsic, which said
that under no conditions would Serbs extradite Karadzic and
Mladic to the Tribunal in the Hague, Murphy stressed that her
explanations for such a stance were unacceptable, her
arguments false and utterly inaccurate.
In her letter dated 2 January, Plavsic said that the
existence of the International Tribunal in the Hague was not
legitimate, justifying the statement with the fact that it had
been established by the UN Security Council whose basic task
was to maintain peace and remove war threats.
As there were no longer such threats in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, the further sustenance of the International War
Crimes Tribunal was not justified, Plavsic maintained.
UN spokesman in Sarajevo Aleksandar Ivanko on Friday
confirmed the existence of the letter, but said that neither
the UN nor the International Tribunal wanted to comment on it
for now.
Murphy stressed that Bosnian Serbs in fact recognized the
International Tribunal, but the Plavsic's letter was just an
attempt to provide legal arguments against the extradition of
Karadzic and Mladic.
The fact that they had legal arguments proved that they
recognized the Tribunal, Murphy said.
Besides legal arguments, Plavsic's letter also contained
a direct threat to the international community. She said that
Pale would not extradite Karadzic and Mladic as such an act
could cause "mass military and civilian uprising".
The Stabilization Force (SFOR) headquarters in Sarajevo
refrained from commenting on the threats, saying that the
contents of Plavsic's letter were unknown to them.
(hina) lm mm
101409 MET jan 97