Claim Doing So would Contradict Constitution
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian Serbs are willing to cooperate with war crime investigations by an international tribunal but will not allow their leaders to be extradited, officials say. The leaders in question, Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, have been indicted for war crimes and genocide by the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands. Neither is in custody. Asked if the two would be extradited, Momcilo Krajisnik, a senior Karadzic aide, said his government will cooperate “only according to our constitution, which stipulates that our citizens can be tried only by our courts.”
Krajisnik was speaking with the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Serbian-language service. Rajko Kasagic, a more moderate Bosnian Serb official, also told reporters Friday in the Serb stronghold of Pale that extradition “contradicts our constitution.”
European Union Commissioner Hans van den Broek said in Washington that the time is overdue for Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to resolve the war crime issue.
“Milosevic made a deal that he was going to get rid of Karadzic and Mladic” when he signed the U.S.-brokered agreement last year to end the war, van dan Broek said. He called it “absolutely unacceptable” that the accord is being “hampered, undermined, not to say sabotaged, by people like Karadzic who are still walking around free.”
Van dan Broek advocated withholding reconstruction aid and possibly reimposing wartime sanctions to pressure Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to fulfill their promises. Tudjman has allowed only one indicted Croat to turn himself in to the tribunal, while a Tudjman ally is among several indicted Croats who remain free.
The commissioner, who oversees EU foreign policy, spoke Thursday during an appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Serb defiance contrasts with a newfound willingness by Bosnia’s predominantly Muslim government to cooperate.
On Thursday, Bosnian authorities arrested two Muslims sought by the tribunal — the first time indicted Bosnians have been detained by their own government. The pair, Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, are accused of atrocities against Bosnian Serb inmates of the Celebici prison camp in the Konjic area of central Bosnia in 1992, tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier said.
Indicted with them were Zejnil Delalic, a Muslim who allegedly coordinated the activities of Bosnian Muslim and Croat forces in the Konjic area and had ultimate control over Celebici, and Zdravko Mucic, a Bosnian Croat who prosecutors claim was the camp’s commander. Delic and Landzo are charged with murdering and torturing Serb inmates. Delic also is charged with raping two women.
In one incident, Delic and Landzo allegedly beat a man for days with a bat and cable as well as torturing him “using objects including pliers, lit fuses and nails,” according to the indictment. The victim endured the torture for several days before dying. Mucic is in custody in the U.N. court’s holding block. He denies the charges. Delalic is in custody in Germany and is expected to be transferred to The Hague within days.
Indictment Against Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic The War Crimes Tribunal
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