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Smith Hints Politics to Blame for Freedom of Bosnian War Criminals
Outgoing NATO commander says there is no question Karadzic, Mladic and other indicted war criminals must eventually stand trial before the tribunal in The Hague
U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith, speaking before flying out of Sarajevo on his way to retirement, recalled again that NATO's peace force had never had a mandate to hunt down and arrest people indicted by a U.N. tribunal. Smith was asked whether NATO was also restrained by political concerns that moves to detain indicted Serb leaders could damage NATO's image of impartiality towards Bosnia's factions and stoke Serb disturbances endangering elections.
"Those issues you mentioned are obviously of concern to a lot of people," he told a reporter at a farewell roundtable discussion with invited media at his Sarajevo headquarters. "I wouldn't argue with those reasons. Obviously there are going to be tremendous repercussions across the board," Smith said of any attempt by NATO to take Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and army chief General Ratko Mladic into custody. Both have been indicted twice by the war crimes tribunal.
"You have to look whether the net result is good or bad," he said. "It's not a simple process when you start down that path. It's not like knocking on the door and handing someone a warrant and saying, 'Come with me'," he added. Karadzic and Mladic have kept largely out of sight in their heavily guarded compounds.
IFOR succeeded with flying colours in separating and demobilising Bosnia's ethnic nationalist armies. But it has been criticised by Bosnia's Muslim-led central government and political analysts abroad for not hunting down those indicted for war crimes, most of them Serbs. Smith reiterated that IFOR, whose mission in Bosnia will expire in December, was authorised by NATO's civilian policymaking council to apprehend those indicted only if it encountered them in the course of routine patrolling.
He did not expect this policy to change in the near future, citing concerns by international civilian agencies involved in Bosnia's post-war reconstruction that manhunts for indicted war criminals could jeopardise their work. Smith, a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, said there was no question Karadzic, Mladic and other indicted must eventually stand trial before the tribunal in The Hague.
"The entire Serb population is basically getting a bad rap because they are being painted with that black tar brush saying they are all guilty. They're not, there are good people in this country...," he said. "So it's to their benefit to get the people responsible for atrocities (removed) to remove this blight from the Serb population and get on with this peace.
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SARAJEVO, July 30 (Reuters) - The outgoing NATO commander in Bosnia suggested on Tuesday that indicted war criminals were still free in part for political reasons, including fears of Serb unrest before crucial post-war elections in September.
Smith, 57, will be succeeded on Wednesday by U.S. Admiral Joseph Lopez as commander of the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia as well as of NATO forces in southern Europe and of U.S. naval forces in Europe.
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