NATO engage ground troops to get info on Karadzic for UN Court

AFP ^ | Wednesday August 14, 11:42 PM | AFP

[Destro]

Wednesday August 14, 11:42 PM

SFOR engage ground troops to get info on Karadzic

NATO-led peacekeepers in Bosnia launched a massive operation in southeastern Bosnia to pursue information on a network of supporters protecting the country's most wanted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

"Today SFOR (Stabilisation Force) soldiers...began ground and helicopter patrols in southern Republika Srpska (Serb-run half of Bosnia) to pursue information SFOR has received concerning Radovan Karadzic's support network," Scott Lundy, a SFOR spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.

The network includes Karadzic's bodyguards and family members, he added.

"We are trying to get more information related to them, because it would help us in our further efforts" to arrest the former Bosnian Serb leader.

"Although the focus of the operation is not an attempt to apprehend Radovan Karadzic, SFOR remain capable of apprehending him should the opportunity present itself," Lundy added.

Witnesses told AFP that a dozen of SFOR vehicles Wednesday blocked the remote southeastern village of Celebici where SFOR had attempted twice to arrest Karadzic earlier this year.

SFOR put up barbed wire and parapets at the entrance to the village, while telephone lines were cut off, witnesses said.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic, who was twice indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in 1995 for genocide and war crimes his troops allegedly committed during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, still remains at large enjoying support of the local population.

SFOR has received "a large quantity of information concerning Karadzic's base of operation" in the area following its failed bids to arrest him on Febraury 28 and March 1, the force said in a statement.

A NATO source said that at that time Karadzic's local alert network helped him escape SFOR troops in Celebici, near the border with Yugoslav republic of Montenegro.

"SFOR considered this information significant enough to warrant additional ground and helicopter patrols," it added.

SFOR commander, US general John Sylvester, on Wednesday morning informed RS President Mirko Sarovic on the operation in the Serb-controlled area.

SFOR expect to gather more information "looking on the ground and speaking to the local population," Lundy said, adding that SFOR might also search houses if necessary.

"We want to do it in a fair and open way...We recognize that the population is very sensitive to the whole issue," he said.

[Destro]

SFOR put up barbed wire and parapets at the entrance to the village, while telephone lines were cut off, witnesses said.

No wonder the US is against the World Court! Look what our own soldiers do in the service of the UN Court!

What puzzles me is why we do it to others when we don't want it done to us?

Yugoslav Leader Opposes Deal with U.S. on New Court Double Standard

[Destro]

bump

[A. Pole]

SFOR put up barbed wire and parapets at the entrance to the village, while telephone lines were cut off, witnesses said.

Changing a village into a camp?

[Destro]

I prefer the term "concentration camp" or "stockade" myself in describing the current state of that Serb village.

[norton]

Someone might remind (US) general Sylvester that the last time Serb civilians were rounded up, interrogated, and such, all done in order to locate and punish partisans, the soldiers were very, very, German.

Wonder if that has anaything to do with the nifty helmits our guys area wearing these days?

Fascist envy?

[Destro]

I guess that is why the US General in command of SFOR sent in German troops, norton. The Germans have experience cutting off Serb villages with barbed wire and parapets, while telephone lines are cut off. All in the service of the UN Court that the Bush Administration claims to oppose yet supports for others.

German soldiers of the NATO-led peacekeeping force guard the entrance to their camp in the Bosnian-Serb village of Celebici, near Foca, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Sarajevo, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002. NATO troops blocked roads in eastern Bosnia Wednesday and flew helicopters over an area where the most-wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic, is believed hiding. (AP Photo/Sava Radovanovic)

A German NATO-led soldier guards the entrance to a German peacekeepers camp in the Bosnian Serb village of Celebici, near Foca, some 80 kilometers, 50 miles southeast of Sarajevo, Wednesday Aug. 14, 2002. SFOR soldiers began ground and helicopter patrols in the southern part of the Bosnian Serb controlled half of Bosnia to pursue information SFOR has received concerning the Bosnian Serb war leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. (AP Photo/Sava Radovanovic)

[bob808]

The network includes Karadzic's bodyguards and family members, he added.

They can't get Karadzic, so now they go after his civilian family and friends. Just like when they couldn't get the VJ in Kosovo, so they go after civilians and infrastructure. What slimeballs...

[norton]

Slimeballs,,,

Appropriate...

Mild....

trying to be polite I assume...

OK.

I still like fascist better.

[crazykatz]

I think it like a strange re-play of WWII...Germans....barbed wire....hunting for Serbs....taking civilians in for "questioning....JUST SURREAL.

[crazykatz]

Good post...thanks for posting.

[Destro]

If looks could kill!

A Bosnian Serb woman looks toward a German NATO-led soldier in the Bosnian Serb village of Celebici, near Foca, some 80 kilometers, 50 miles, southeast of Sarajevo, Wednesday Aug. 14, 2002. SFOR soldiers began ground and helicopter patrols in the southern part of the Bosnian Serb controlled half of Bosnia to pursue information SFOR has received concerning the Bosnian Serb war leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. (AP Photo/Sava Radovanovic)

[norton]

Really quite amazing that so few are willing to draw the comparison....

Al Capp was more right than he knew:
"We have met the enemy and he is us"

[crazykatz]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think Radovan is NOT even in Bosnia. I just don't think either the General or the President is STILL there.

All this "hunting" by nato/un is just for show anyway. Got to please those muslims...gotta' give 'em what they want...or they might get mad...and they might do something mean...like fly airplanes into American buildings.....hey, WAIT a minute......