Bosnia police raid home, office in war crimes hunt
12 Feb 2007 15:34:23 GMT Source: Reuters
(Updates with raid over, Bajic quotes) BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Police in Bosnia's Serb Republic on Monday raided the business and home of a Bosnian Serb banker suspected of helping suspected war crimes fugitive Stojan Zupljanin remain at large. The police searched the Banja Luka home of Radovan Bajic and the offices of NLB Razvojna Banka, where he is the manager, said regional Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tamara Despenic. She said the operation was carried out on orders of the Bosnian state court and that police confiscated computers and diskettes but made no arrests. "There is a ... suspicion that Bajic is a member of the support network which helps Zupljanin through financial and other means," Despenic said. Bajic did not comment on the allegations of his involvement in the support network, but said he was not related to the Zupljanin family. He said he believed the main reason for the raid was a 300,000 Bosnian marka ($204,220) loan his bank had given to a company run by Zupljanin's son in 2004, before a Serb-American businessman sold it to Slovenian NLB banking group. "It is in our interest that everything regarding the loan and details of the raid be transparent," he said. Zupljanin is among six remaining Serbs or Bosnian Serbs wanted by the United Nations international war crimes tribunal to stand trial. He was charged in 1999 for crimes against Muslims and Croats in western Bosnia early in the country's 1992-95 war.
