Posted on 04/07/2006 11:36:27 PM PDT by LjubivojeRadosavljevic
SARAJEVO, April 7 (Reuters) - The police director of Bosnia's semi-autonomous Serb Republic resigned on Friday under pressure from U.N. Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte who is unhappy with his work, the republic's prime minister said.
Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told a news conference in Banja Luka that the resignation of Dragomir Andan followed del Ponte's complaints that he was not doing enough to hunt down war crimes fugitives.
"The main reason is that Republika Srpska has the obligation to cooperate with the Hague tribunal," Dodik said, confirming media speculation that Andan had been under pressure to resign.
The Sarajevo-based Dnevni Avaz daily quoted unofficial sources as saying del Ponte was unhappy with Andan's level of cooperation and requested his dismissal in a letter to Bosnia's international peace overseer Christian Schwarz-Shilling.
Dodik said he had also received del Ponte's letter.
The Serb Republic's Interior Ministry announced Andan's resignation on its Web site.
"Republika Srpska Police Director Dragomir Andan filed a request on April 7 to the prime minister and interior minister to be dismissed from his duties as police director," a ministry spokesman said in a statement.
Dodik said he accepted Andan's resignation.
Andan, 55, became police director in March 2005. Newspapers in the Muslim-Croat Federation, the other half of Bosnia, have accused him of taking part in atrocities during the 1992-95 war.
They say he had a close relationship with Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, twice indicted for genocide and the most wanted man on the Hague's list. Andan has denied all the reports, saying he was an ordinary soldier at the time.
Andan launched a large police hunt for Mladic in January near the fugitive's wartime base in eastern Bosnia but failed to find him.
Del Ponte says Mladic is sheltered by hardliners in Serbia or in the Serb Republic. Delivering him to the court is a key condition for both Serbia and Bosnia to make progress on the path to eventual European Union membership.
Maybe Carla del Ponte should run for office and take control of Bosnia. She ostensibly seems to know more about BiH than anywone else who resides there.
Good for him.
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