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War crimes chief pressures Bosnia

mass grave
Mass gaves litter the Bosnia countryside -- a grim reminder of the war years  


By CNN's Alessio Vinci

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte has taken a break from the Slobodan Milosevic trial to persuade Bosnian leaders to help bring other war crime suspects to trial.

Del Ponte says she is frustrated and unsatisfied with Bosnian Serb officials because they are not co-operating sufficiently with the war crimes tribunal.

Her visit to Banja Luka -- the defacto capital of the Serb part of Bosnia -- came as Milosevic told the U.N. War Crimes tribunal in The Hague, that it was not a legal body.

Del Ponte says she has delivered 16 indictments to Bosnian justice officials here but so far the authorities have not arrested a single suspect.

On top of her list are Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader and his military commander Ratko Mladic

Both wanted on charges of genocide.

After Bosnia's split from Yugoslavia the country was split into a Muslim federation and a Serb administration called Republika Srpska.

Del Ponte said: "We for sure know Karadzic is here in Republika Srpska and I ask authorities to locate where he is."

The Republika Srpska prime minister, Mladen Ivanic, says he has no idea where Karadzic is.

"We don't know he is here, and I will ask anyone who knows he is here to give us some proofs and to check our readiness to do our job, he said.

Bosnian-Serb officials say they are doing all they can to cooperate and have recently issued a 30-day deadline to war crimes suspects to surrender.

After that, they will not get bail if arrested. But it's an offer unlikely to be accepted by Karadzic or Mladic.

For now, the job of arresting alleged war criminals in Bosnia is being carried out by NATO troops.

One of the reasons why Mladic and Karadzic have not been arrested may be because many people believe the two war- time leaders are still heroes. True defenders of the Serb people who would not get a fair trial at The Hague.

Local media say Karadzic is moving between Bosnia and Montenegro while western diplomatic sources, citing intelligence reports, say Mladic is often seen in Belgrade --- a claim strongly denied by Yugoslav officials.

Yugoslav foreign minister Goran Svilanovic said: Could anyone explain to me why Karadzic was not arrested and transferred to The Hague since there are something like 19,000 NATO troops in Bosnia?

S-for -- the NATO operation in Bosnia -- has put up wanted posters offering a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrests of both men.

But most of the posters have been removed by sympathisers.



 
 
 
 






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