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Bosnian war crimes suspect seized

Thursday, January 22, 1998 Published at 13:28 GMT
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image: [ Goran Jelisic was arrested in Bijeljina in north east Bosnia ]
Bosnian war crimes suspect seized
Nato-led forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina have arrested another war crimes suspect.

Goran Jelisic, a Bosnian Serb, was detained on Thursday in the town of Bijeljina, in north east Bosnia, by troops of the SFOR peacekeeping force.

According to the local media, Mr Jelisic was taken by the troops as he was leaving his apartment which is in Bosnian Serb territory.

Mr Jelisic has been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague for committing war crimes including crimes against humanity and genocide, the tribunal's most serious charge.

A spokesman for the tribunal told the BBC that they expected him to be transferred to the Hague during the course of the day.


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Mr Jelisic is accused of personal involvement in the murder of at least 14 Muslim prisoners when he was commander of the Luka camp near the Bosnian town of Brcko.

Muslims and Croats were being ethnically cleansed from the area at the time, and prosecutors say hundreds of Muslim and Croat inmates were killed at the camp which was one of the most notorious in the country.

The indictment alleges that Mr Jelisic used to introduce himself to the detainees as "the Serb Adolf" and that he said he had gone to Brcko to kill Muslims.

His arrest is the fifth to be made in Bosnia by the Nato-led soldiers since last July.

In December they detained two Bosnian Croats, and in July 1997 British soldiers went after two Bosnian Serb war crime suspects. One was shot dead during the operation.

Seventy four people have been indicted by the Hague tribunal and 20 are now in detention.

The majority of the remaining 54 suspects who are still free are Bosnian Serbs. The most well known is Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and his general, Ratko Mladic.


Relevant Stories

War Crimes Tribunal opens case against Bosnian Croat (06 Jan 98 | World)
Multi-ethnic police force in Bosnian town of Brcko (03 Jan 98 | World)
Nato plans to stay in Bosnia (03 Dec 97 | World)

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