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Peacekeepers Making No Real Effort to Get Karadzic: Prosecutor
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| Nato-led peacekeepers hunting for the war crimes suspect. |
THE
HAGUE, Aug 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Chief UN war crimes
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte Friday, August 23, 2002, accused the
NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia (SFOR) of not making a
"real effort" to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic.
"SFOR
has to stop doing public relations operations. I am really angry. SFOR
needs to make a real effort. I am sure that they can arrest him,"
Del Ponte told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I
am sick and tired of reading media reports that they are trying to
catch him," Del Ponte said. "They should stop reporting
about their efforts and report only his arrest on the day he is
captured.
"Otherwise
they should keep quiet."
Del
Ponte said she has been waiting seven years for Karadzic's arrest
since two indictments charging him with genocide were made public
1995.
Speaking
in her office in the Hague, Del Ponte said she knew why he had not
been arrested but added, "I cannot tell you."
Karadzic's
military right-hand man General Ratko Mladic is also still at large
but she said he was currently in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(FRY).
"I
know where he is and I gave Belgrade this information but he is still
on the run," according to Del Ponte.
"He
is being protected by the army and those responsible for the
army," she explained. "He is still running and with good
reason because nobody is looking for him."
Del
Ponte insisted that the UN war crimes court, said to have to wind up
its work in around five years, would sit until the Bosnian Serb former
leaders had been caught.
"This
tribunal will not close its doors before Mladic and Karadzic are
brought here," she said.
On
Friday, August 16, NATO said it was closing in on the UN's most wanted
war crimes suspect, Karadzic, after a military sweep through
southeastern Bosnia but there was still no sign of the elusive Serb.
NATO
forces mounted a two-day search in the area near Celebici village, one
of Karadzic's suspected hideouts, and officials claimed that troops
from the alliance gained new information about the support network
said to be keeping him on the run.
"This
week's operation sheds more light into the dark corners of the network
and has drawn us a better picture of his movements, the help he gets
and those who help him," said U.S. General John Sylvester, who
commands the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR).
SFOR
troops made two failed attempts to capture Karadzic this year in
Celebici, which lies in the Serb-run half of Bosnia near the border
with the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro.
NATO
sources blamed earlier failures to capture Karadzic on a local alert
network helping the war crimes suspect, who still enjoys wide support
among local Serbs.
"Now
we'll decide when and where to exploit this new information,"
Sylvester said.
Asked
whether it was enough to lead to his arrest, SFOR spokesman Scott
Lundy said: "We have to wait and see".
"We
are closer" to capturing Karadzic, he added.
The
elusive wartime Bosnian Serb leader, indicted by the UN war crimes
tribunal for genocide and war crimes during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia,
is believed to be constantly surrounded by a ring of die-hard
bodyguards, occasionally moving to Montenegro to evade arrest.
SFOR
said the latest operation was aimed at locating people who
"shelter, feed, alert, guard and move" Karadzic, and at
checking possible hideouts and road routes used by the fugitive.
The
force said it was working on a large quantity of information received
following the earlier Celebici raids about Karadzic's "base of
operation" in southeastern Bosnia.
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