Reuters AlertNet Lite - Karadzic hiding in Bosnia and Serbia

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Karadzic hiding in Bosnia and Serbia - del Ponte

01 Dec 2006 13:30:22 GMT
Source: Reuters

SARAJEVO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Stojan Zupljanin are hiding in Bosnia and Serbia, a Bosnian newspaper quoted chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte as saying.

"They are in the RS (Bosnian Serb Republic), in the border zone between the RS and Serbia," Del Ponte said, according to Friday's edition of the Dnevni Avaz daily.

The paper said she made the assertion to Bosnia's tripartite presidency at a meeting on Thursday.

The European Union Force (EUFOR) and NATO have been saying for several years that they do not know where Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic is hiding.

Del Ponte once again criticised them for not doing enough to find Karadzic, who along with his wartime army commander General Ratko Mladic, are the top fugitives sought by the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague.

The two leaders and Zupljanin are among six Serb war crimes suspects from Bosnia and Serbia still on the run.

"It's a pity nobody's doing anything about it," Dnevni Avaz quoted the prosecutor as saying.

EUFOR's Italian commander, Maj.-Gen. Gian Marco Chiarini, said in an interview due to appear on Saturday that his soldiers searched for Karadzic at several locations last week but could not find him.

Karadzic and Mladic were indicted twice for genocide, for the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo and the July 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica. Mladic is believed to be in Serbia, sheltered by sympathizers in the military and intelligence branch.

Zupljanin was charged for crimes against non-Serbs in western Bosnia early in the war.

After a Thursday screening of a documentary film about her, when she met families of some war victims, Del Ponte said she did not know Karadzic's exact whereabouts.

"If I knew where he is I would tell that to those who can apprehend him, and if he is in Bosnia I would tell EUFOR," she said. "But it looks like they are not looking for him either."

Chiarini told Dnevni Avaz his troops have acted on every piece of intelligence received about the fugitives "and that was the case last week".

"I can't tell you about details. We checked some areas in Bosnia where, according to our information, Karadzic could have been hiding. Unfortunately, we did not find anything," he said.

He said EUFOR, which uses intelligence sources and sophisticated electronic equipment such as thermal cameras in the search for war crimes fugitives, did not know where Zupljanin was either.

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Last updated:Tue Jan 9 22:10:23 2007