Posted on 04/18/2002 3:38:55 PM PDT by Spar
Friday April 19, 2:42 AM
US warns Bosnian Serbs their fate is tied to war crimes fugitives
A US envoy warned Bosnian Serb leaders that their republic will remain poor and isolated as long as wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic remain on the run.
Karadzic and Mladic are wanted for trial before the UN tribunal in The Hague for genocide and war crimes during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.
In talks here with Bosnian Serb President Mirko Sarovic and other leaders, US envoy Pierre-Richard Prosper delivered the message that there would be no improvement in the lives of Bosnian Serbs unless they cooperated with the tribunal and turned over the wanted men.
"The people of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb republic) will continue to suffer as long as there is lack of cooperation," said Prosper, the US ambassador at large for war crimes issues.
"As long as the indicted war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and others continue to remain at large there will not be economic and political progress in Republika Srpska," he said.
Prosper urged Bosnian Serb leaders to speak out publicly on the need to turn over Karadzic to the war crimes tribunal in order to free the Bosnian Serbs of the "burden" the former leader has imposed on them.
Karadzic and Mladic top the most wanted list of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) based in The Hague.
Prosper said he warned Bosnian Serb leaders that "they are at risk of being left behind, they are at risk of becoming irrelevant because the region is moving without them."
The Bosnian Serb republic is the only part of former Yugoslavia that has not arrested a single war crimes suspect yet.
In Sarajevo earlier, Prosper said that the United States will work hard with NATO forces to arrest Karadzic and Mladic who are said to be moving between Bosnian Serb territory and Yugoslavia to avoid arrest.
US troops are part of the 18,500-strong NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) deployed in Bosnia, which has arrested 24 war crimes suspects since the end of the 1992-95 war.
US troops participated in SFOR's two failed attempts to nab Karadzic in southeastern Bosnia earlier this year.
There are more than 20 fugitives, mainly Bosnian Serbs, accused of war crimes during the Bosnian conflit and believed to be hiding in the RS or in neighbouring Yugoslavia.
Prosper said the US would continue to offer rewards of up to five million dollars (5.6 million euros) for information leading to the arrest of war crimes suspects, notably Karadzic and Mladic.
"We are also prepared to offer relocation of any person and their immediate family who is willing to provide assistance in this regard," he said.
Besides a poster campaign offering the reward, Washington has also run advertisments and airdropped leaflets in the Serb parts of Bosnia to encourage local residents to help in the effort to turn over the wanted wartime leaders.
Prosper said that Bosnian Serb leaders recognized that the tribunal would not shut down until Mladic and Karadzic are in the dock.
War crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Wednesday that she had information indicating that Karadzic would be handed over to The Hague by October.
Del Ponte pressed Yugoslav authorities on Thursday to turn over Mladic who is said to be hiding in Belgrade under military protection.
To suffer in dignity is the birth right of Christians. Resist being stamped with the mark of the beast for the sake of a few pieces of sliver.
Besides that, the very existence of muslim "Bosnia" (that nest of terrorists, money launderers, and islamic subversives) puts both our European allies and ourselves in mortal danger!!!! It's HIGH TIME for us to do a TOTAL change of policy in the Balkans!!!
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