BOSNIA: NATO TROOPS SWOOP ON REMOTE VILLAGE IN SEARCH TARGETING THOSE WHO HELP SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT RADOVAN KARADZIC

Record ID: 648535

  • Title: BOSNIA: NATO TROOPS SWOOP ON REMOTE VILLAGE IN SEARCH TARGETING THOSE WHO HELP SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT RADOVAN KARADZIC
  • Date: 15th August 2002
  • Summary: (U7) CELEBICI VILLAGE, BOSNIA (AUGUST 14, 2002)(REUTERS) 1. AV GERMAN SFOR TROOPS IN VILLAGE WITH HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD (3 SHOTS) 0.26 2. SLV GERMAN SFOR TROOPS; SLV GERMAN TROOPS PATROLLING ROAD 0.35 3. SLV ENTRANCE TO SFOR HEADQUARTERS IN VILLAGE 0.48 4. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) COMMANDER OF GERMAN BATTLE GROUP, COLONEL STELTZ SAYING "We had some evidence on a network supporting indicted war criminals in Bosnia and the main purpose of this operation is top find out more details and evidence on the information we already had. It is not intended to get the war criminals into custody, but as I have already mentioned to collect more information on the supporting structures." 1.25 5. SLV GERMAN APC HIDDEN IN BUSH WITH SOLDIERS WATCHING FROM IT; GERMAN APC ON ROAD; AV HELICOPTER FLYING OVER AREA (8 SHOTS) 2.28 6. GV OF VILLAGE 2.41 (U7) FOCA, BOSNIA (AUGUST 14, 2002)(REUTERS) 7. SLV FRENCH CHECKPOINT AND SOLDIERS ON DUTY (5 SHOTS) 3.14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CELEBICI AND FOCA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
  • Country: Bosnia
  • Reuters ID: LVAHVH6AYAZ9BPSLP6NTO422TH2
  • Story Text: NATO troops swooped on a remote Bosnian village on
    Wednesday (August 14) in a search targeting people who help
    Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, seeking to tighten
    the net around one of the world's most wanted men.

    Residents of Celebici, where the NATO-led
    Stabilisation Force (SFOR) tried to catch the wartime Bosnian
    Serb leader earlier this year, said dozens of armoured
    vehicles blocked roads to the village near the mountainous
    Montenegrin border.

    Karadzic, twice indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal
    for genocide during the 1992-95 war, is widely believed to be
    hiding in eastern Bosnia or in his native Montenegro, Serbia's
    smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation.

    But SFOR said the force was not looking for Karadzic this
    time, as it was in two failed raids in Celebici in February
    and March.

    " We had some evidence on a network supporting indicted
    war criminals in Bosnia and the main purpose of this operation
    is top find out more details and evidence on the information
    we already had. It is not intended to get the war criminals
    into custody, but as I have already mentioned to collect more
    information on the supporting structures," Colonel Steltz,
    Commander of German Battle Group said.

    Human rights activists and Bosnian Muslims have criticised
    NATO for failing to capture Karadzic and his wartime military
    chief Ratko Mladic. In July, peacekeepers swooped on
    Karadzic's family house in the mountain town of Pale near
    Sarajevo.

    Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic are indicted
    for the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in
    the eastern town of Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

    Karadzic is the U.N. court's most wanted war crimes
    suspect but he remains popular among nationalist Serbs,
    especially in eastern Bosnia still politically controlled by
    hardliners.

    U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte has said she
    wants him to face a joint trial in October with his wartime
    associates Biljana Plavsic and Momcilo Krajisnik. SFOR
    detained Krajisnik in April 2000 and Plavsic surrendered early
    last year.

    Local media said troops had detained an armed postal
    worker in Celebici for several hours.

    A Serb police chief in the nearby town of Foca told
    Reuters that the peacekeeping force had notified him about
    increased activities of German and French troops in the area.


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