Posted on 07/01/2005 3:06:12 PM PDT by Jomini
BANJA LUKA -- British intelligence has located alleged Bosnian Serb war criminal General Ratko Mladic in Bosnia's Republika Srpska and will launch a raid to capture him before the end of July according to a senior U.S. official just returned from the region. Mladic, along with former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, is among the world's most wanted men for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
"The Brits picked up his trail the end of last week and have him pinpointed in the R.S. mountains," said the official who asked not to be identified. "London is ready to send the SAS in for the snatch but Washington is wavering due to recent fallout from the Milan indictments. Blair is under pressure to act unilaterally and the word is he will go in soon."
(An Italian judge recently issued arrest warrants for 13 Americans accused of kidnapping a foreign national in Milan in 2003 and flying him to Egypt for interrogation within the American rendition framework.)
With the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in July the international community is under increased pressure to apprehend Mladic and Karadzic and have them stand trial. However the two suspects have remained at large for a decade despite several confirmed sightings in Bosnia, Serbia and Russia in recent years.
"Both of these guys (Mladic and Karadzic) have extensive influence within the R.S. organized crime structures. They get a cut of every illegal deal and this funds their evasion program. Washington argues that instead of going in with the guns and risking failure in a massive shootout, it would be best to eliminate the criminal elements that provide their funding," the official said.
Retired British Colonel David Evans disagrees. "The Republika Srpska is a transit point for smuggling in drugs and arms and operates a sophisticated money laundering operation within the framework of the Ivanic government. The international community does not have the manpower and funding resources to defeat this massive criminal enterprise. Let's send the SAS lads in and get it over with," he said from his Oxford home.
Ten years after the Dayton Accords Bosnia remains a divided country. In the Bosnian Serb Republic Mladic and Karadzic remain national heroes, men that stood up to the perceived Muslim onslaught years before the September 11 attacks against America. In both Pale, the wartime capital, and Banja Luka, the current government seat of the Republika Srpska, emotions run high against the International Community. Washington argues that a failed raid would destroy years of development work in the war-torn former Yugoslav entity.
The stakes will be high in the coming weeks. Unlike Iraq, in Bosnia it is the British that are pushing for the military option to capture Mladic and the United States voicing concern over the use of force. Should Blair, ever the statesman, decide to call in his political marker, the American president may have little choice but to override his State Department advisors and give his wartime ally the green light for the elite unit strike.
Colonel Evans believes this the likely outcome. "Mladic will be in the Hague by the start of August. We know where he is and he has no place to run."
J
Hey....This might be good news.But
" WHEN ARE WE GETTING AN EXIT STRATEGY ?"
Help me out here. I thought that massacre had been discredited, and our whole involvement in the area was a monumental historical blunder by the First Rapist.
What are the brits still doing there? Are Americans still there?
What kind of exit strategy is that? Is there an exit strategy in this other ROP conflict?
LOL.
For those that don't notice, that's Wes Clark wearing Mladics hat during an unauthorized visit with the enemy.
I wonder if they will manage to do more than beat up an innocent Serbian priest and his son as they did last time.
By the by, has a single narcoterrorist been put on trial for burning all of those Medieval Christian Churces in Kosovo yet?
Clinton left us in a quagmire, fighting on the wrong side.
Note the source of this article. Fusion rides again!
Mladic thank's Fusion for the head's up?
But I've said too much, yes?
I've heard that Ratko's men have orders by him to shot him before he ever gets captured and sent off to the Hague. Same for Radovan. They'll never take them alive, you can be sure!
The massacre occurred. Some of the Serb leaders have already confessed and been convicted in court. The Government of the Republika Srpska has confirmed the details and apologized. Mladic & Karadzic are wanted terrorists/war criminals by the Bush Administration with a $5 million dollar reward under the Rewards for Justice program and has maintained a small element of Intell & Special Ops forces in Bosnia looking for them. there has even been videotape broadcast of positively identified Serb forces shooting positively identifed bound prisoners in the back.
There's a good re-cap of this plus a challenge to the Serb culture of denial on the web-site of our Embassy in Belgrade. And poster Hoplite has put together a pretty good summary of the various testimonies & evidence on Srebrenica.
Indeed, it has! But, too much money, reputation and interests are involved, so they will wait few more years to admit the truth.
Key Srebrenica Witness Admits Lying
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/991985/posts
Srebrenica "massacre"
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/Bosnia/Srebrenica/
Srebrenica: Genocide, Hoax, or Strategic Failure?
The following interesting account, from former UNMO Deputy Chief Operations Officers of UNPF in Bosnia Carlos Martins Branco
http://balkanalysis.blogspot.com/2005/06/srebrenica-genocide-hoax-or-strategic.html
that vid is not sufficient in viewing the actual acts being claimed..do yu actually see those acts being commited from what has been released?
Those old basements? Why those churches just stepped on a land mine: besides, in our own country the local government would have them confiscated and have minimarts built on top of their land for tax revenue.
Fusion was a good source in his own right.
Unfortunately, you can't fault the Serbs for counterattacking to stop Oric massacuring innocent civlians, can you?
Fight for human rights, democracy and multi-ethnic Bosnia, Muslim way.
Or, if you like, killing Serbian prisoners, Izetbegovic speech praising Jihad, shooting at icons, destroying churches and villages
Warning!! Most of the footage is very graphic…
http://www.srs.org.yu/download/zlocin.wmv
http://rs-icty.org/glavna_galerija_video.htm
I believe mark prefers the Serbs as being the most passive of victims. He hates them because they refuse to play that role this time.
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