BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: SIXTY OFFICIALS SACKED FOR FAILING TO ARREST WAR CRIMES SUSPECT RADOVAN KARADZIC.
Record ID:
649127
BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: SIXTY OFFICIALS SACKED FOR FAILING TO ARREST WAR CRIMES SUSPECT RADOVAN KARADZIC.
- Title: BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: SIXTY OFFICIALS SACKED FOR FAILING TO ARREST WAR CRIMES SUSPECT RADOVAN KARADZIC.
- Date: 30th June 2004
- Summary: (W5) SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (JUNE 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV: WIDE OF CONFERENCE 0.06 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOSNIA PEACE OVERSEER PADDY ASHDOWN ADDRESSING NEWS CONFERENCE, SAYING: "So no, BiH (Bosnia-Herzegovina) has been denied membership of the PfP (Nato Partnership for Peace), not because they failed to reform, but for one simple reason, because a small band of corrupt politicians and obstructionists believe that helping Radovan Karadzic and other indictees evade justice is more important than security and prosperity of the country's ordinary citizens." 0.34 3. MV: JOURNALISTS 0.37 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOSNIA PEACE OVERSEER PADDY ASHDOWN ADDRESSING NEWS CONFERENCE, SAYING: "So my 10th measure is to remove these people from public and party positions. Most but not all, are SDS members. In all I am removing some sixty people today -11 will be removed indefinitely, forty eight may return to public life once Radovan Karadzic is in The Hague, and BiH and especially it's entity the RS (Republic of Srpska) is in full compliance with its international obligations under the ICTY." 1.18 5. GV: WIDE OF CONFERENCE 1.22 (W5) BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (FILE - OCTOBER 6, 2002) (REUTERS) 6. MV/PAN: OFFICIALS OF SDS (SERB DEMOCRATIC PARTY) CELEBRATING THE EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE 2002 GENERAL ELECTIONS 1.32 7. (SOUNBITE) (Serbian) DRAGAN KALINIC, NOW PARLIAMENT SPEAKER AND PRESIDENT OF THE SDS, WHO IS ONE OF THE OFFICIALS NOW SACKED, SAYING THAT THE SDS PARTY'S CANDIDATE MIRKO SAROVIC SEEMED TO HAVE WON THE PRESIDENCY AND THAT THE PARTY HAD ALSO DONE EXTREMELY WELL IN THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 1.41 8. GV: SDS MEMBERS GATHERED AROUND DESKS AT SDS HEADQUARTERS 1.45 (W2) MOUNT OZREN, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (FILE- 1991) (REUTERS) 9. MV/CU/MV: RADOVAN KARADZIC WALKING UP HILLSIDE WITH SERB SOLDIERS; KARADZIC AND BOSNIA SERB ARMY COMMANDER LOOKING AT FRONT LINE (4 SHOTS) 2.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SARAJEVO AND BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
- Country: Bosnia
- Reuters ID: LVA3NIFGES0Y4OKZ770GZS9F35D
- Story Text: Bosnia peace overseer sacks 60 officials for failing
to arrest war crimes suspect Karadzic.
Bosnia peace overseer Paddy Ashdown sacked 60
Bosnian Serb officials on Wednesday (June 30, 2004) over the
authorities' failure to arrest top war crimes suspect
Radovan Karadzic.
Those removed included Parliament Speaker Dragan
Kalinic, leader of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS)
founded by Karadzic in 1990, and Interior Minister Zoran
Djeric.
"I decided to remove these people from public and party
positions," Ashdown told a news conference.
"In all I am removing some 60 people today -11 will be
removed indefinitely, 48 may return to public life once
Radovan Karadzic is in The Hague, and BiH and especially
it's entity the RS (Republic of Srpska) is in full
compliance with its international obligations under the
ICTY," Ashdown said.
Ashdown has sweeping powers to remove officials seen as
obstructing the peace process under the 1995 Dayton accord
that ended Europe's worst conflict since World War Two. More
than 200,000 people died in the 1992-95 war, most of
them Muslims.
Ashdown said that it was Dragan Kalinic's
responsibility as leader of the SDS to prevent "fraud,
abuse and criminality" and to ensure that the party founded
by Radovan Karadzic was no longer financing him.
Bosnia's Serb Republic has been under growing Western
pressure to arrest Karadzic and other war crimes suspects
still at large. Karadzic is said to be hiding in remote
eastern Bosnia, protected by hardline loyalists.
Bosnian Serb officials insist they don't know the
whereabouts of Karadzic, twice indicted by the Hague war
crimes tribunal for genocide together with his military
commander Ratko Mladic, who is believed to be in
neighbouring Serbia.
They are accused for the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo and
the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys after
the fall of the eastern town of Srebrenica.
Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said
on Tuesday (June 29) Karadzic could be arrested as early as
this week.
Kalinic confirmed to the parliament of the Serb
Republic, one of Bosnia's two post-war entities that he had
been removed by the High Representative, saying: "I was
removed because of Radovan Karadzic."
SDS members of parliament left the assembly in protest
against the dismissal, saying they would not take part in
its work until further notice.
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