(10 Jul 1997) English/Nat
NATO-led troops seized one Bosnian Serb and killed another on Thursday in their first direct move to arrest war crimes suspects.
NATO has identified the two men as Simo Drljaca, a former police chief in the northwest Bosnian town of Prijedor, and the local hospital chief Mico Kovacevic.
The Prijedor region was the site of some of the worst camps for non-Serbs at the start of the Bosnian war in 1992.
The northwest Bosnian town of Prijedor where Simo Drljaca was the police chief at the start of the Bosnian war in 1992, and Mico Kovacevic was in charge of Prijedor hospital.
NATO officials announced on Thursday that they had arrested Kovacevic, and shot and killed Drljaca in the process of making an arrest on suspicion of war crimes.
Prijedor was the site of some of the most notorious Serb prison camps.
In Sarajevo on Thursday, UN Representative to Bosnia, Mohammed Sacirbey told what he had heard about the NATO operations.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We do have information that arrest action was started, that there was a gun battle, that one of the war criminals was killed, but that others were in fact arrested, and that there were fortunately only minor wounds to those who were involved from the NATO, from the British side, in the arrests."
SUPER CAPTION: Mohammed Sacirbey, U.N. Representative for Bosnia
But Sacirbey said it was important that the former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and his war time army commander General Ratko Mladic were also arrested.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"For the whole country, I'm afraid Karadzic and Mladic are the keys, and unless they are removed from the scene I'm concerned that the situation would not improve but could in fact deteriorate. None the less, let's express our thanks, our satisfaction, that someone had the courage, particularly the British forces here, the special forces, and of course there was the political wisdom to move ahead with this crucial step. Without the arrest of war criminals there is no peace in Bosnia."
SUPER CAPTION: Mohammed Sacirbey, UN Representative for Bosnia
A spokesman for the International High Representative to Bosnia praised the NATO operations to arrest the suspected war criminals.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well I mean the High Representative's position has always been that all indicted war criminals belong in front of The Hague. We have long been saying, and particularly recently, that the presence of indicted war criminals specifically, and people like Radovan Karadzic, have actually poisoned the atmosphere in terms of the peace implementation process, and so therefore any moves by NATO or by the international community in general to remove these people from the scene is extremely welcome."
SUPER CAPTION: Simon Havelock, Spokesman for Carlos Westendorp, International High Representative to Bosnia
Bosnian Government spokesman Mirza Haric urged NATO to continue arresting suspected war criminals.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It is extremely important that international troops in Bosnia Herzegovina have accepted their responsibility for the arrest of the war criminals and second element, very important, is that no casualties have been reported. Therefore I think that they should continue doing the job as long we do have reports of war criminals being on the territory of Bosnia Herzegovina."
SUPER CAPTION: Mirza Haric, Bosnian Government spokesman
A NATO spokesman explained what had happened during the operations.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Chris Riley, NATO spokesman
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