Posted on 07/02/2002 10:30:00 AM PDT by Destro
Tuesday July 2, 10:00 PM
NATO troops ransack home of fugitive Karadzic
By Zeljko Debelnogic
NATO troops ransack home of fugitive Karadzic - NATO troops broke into and ransacked the family home of fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on July 2. Karadzic has been on the run since NATO airpower ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war. REUTERS/Danilo Krstanovic
PALE, Bosnia (Reuters) - NATO troops ransacked the empty home of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on Tuesday in what appeared to be a token raid to prove their mission was not compromised by a U.S. veto of the U.N. mandate for Bosnia.
They forced open the gate of the 15-room house, blew one door open, shot-gunned another of glass, ripped up parquet flooring, tore the backs off icons, took the hard disk from a computer and threw Karadzic's camouflage uniform on the floor.
The Karadzic home in the mountain village of Pale, once the "capital" of the breakaway Bosnian Serb Republic which he led, has stood empty behind its high garden walls for six years.
"They could have done it in a more proper way. They have met me on several occasions," Karadzic's wife Ljilana said, surveying the damage. "They could have asked for the keys."
"It's quite clear that Radovan cannot hide under the carpet or behind the paintings," she added.
The pre-dawn raid by helicopter-borne French troops of the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) apparently yielded little.
An SFOR statement said the house was "suspected of being associated with an illegal smuggling network", adding the detail that it was "also associated with Radovan Karadzic".
"Forged documents were identified and seized. A small number of firearms were also found and seized to ensure the safety of SFOR soldiers and other personnel in the area," it said.
"This operation highlights SFOR's active role to disrupt particularly dangerous criminal activities and smuggling rings (and) is consistent with SFOR's legal mandate established under the Dayton Peace Accords..."
CRUDE P.R. EXERCISE?
The operation came as SFOR's future was thrown into doubt by the U.S. veto of a fresh United Nations peacekeeping mandate for Bosnia, in a move to force its demand for immunity for U.S. troops from the newly established International Criminal Court.
NATO says there is no danger to SFOR because it is mandated by the Dayton accords. But if the U.N. mandate is not renewed by Thursday, German forces in SFOR may no longer have the necessary legal basis their country requires for serving abroad.
"This looks like a P.R. exercise and an understandable one," said Mark Wheeler, Bosnia chief for the International Crisis Group. It was a bid to show that "SFOR remains on the job".
Armoured vehicles and soldiers in balaclava helmets stormed the house in the wooded hills above Sarajevo as helicopters hovered overhead. The raid lasted nearly two hours.
"I heard some noise around 3:20 this morning," the lone guard Rade Glavonjic told Reuters. "I saw two soldiers. When I opened the door two of them approached me, took my hand and pulled me to the ground and put the handcuffs on me."
The officer introduced himself as a Frenchman and insisted there were some weapons in the house, he said. "I saw them taking away two parcels from the house to their car."
OLD VIDEOTAPES
"They took some pictures, floppy disks, some videotapes of celebrations," Ljiljan Karadzic said. "They tried to break into the attic but they could not do so as it was closed. We are building a new floor."
Karadzic, who tops the Balkan war crimes wanted list, has been on the run since NATO airpower ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war and the alliance deployed its ground forces in strength throughout the country in January 1996.
SFOR has drawn fire constantly for failing to nail Karadzic and his onetime military commander Ratko Mladic, also charged with genocide for the long siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995.
SFOR troops last tried to seize him in February and March, pouncing on locations in remote eastern Bosnia. But they found nothing and later quietly paid for the damage they caused.
His wife met senior SFOR officers last month to accept a written appeal to Karadzic to surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
In a written reply to the SFOR commander, U.S. General John Sylvester, she said her husband was not interested in his offer of a meeting either face-to-face or through an intermediary, and was in no mood whatsoever to give himself up to the West.
I am disgusted and ashamed of my country's actions in Bosnia.
SFOR is our nation's tool and this is how we use it? When did we become Redcoats?
They do this kind of rampage as a token for the press?? Is any of our rights safe from these "Jack Booted Thugs"?
Serbs feel the boot now - Americans will feel it tomorrow..and we will have deserved it.
Disgusting. Pathetic. Shameful.
It is a disgrace that NATO has nothing better to do than to damage Christian symbols -- at a time when the Christian world should be uniting against the Islamic menace.
By sending our troops to Bosnia (and by other "allied" nations doing the same), we are propping up a "state" that was established for the purpose of serving as a forward base for the islamic conquest of Europe. In effect, we are supporting islamic supremacists!!!! Tearing up holy icons is all part of the "deal"!!!
It's time to bring our troops home, and re-deploy them for the real defense of America, NOT for the support of our enemies!!!!
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