(2 Apr 1998) English/Nat
NATO troops swarmed around the houses and former offices in Pale of Bosnia's number one war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on Thursday.
At least 15 tanks and several other NATO vehicles, along with Italian and German troops from the Stabilisation Force (SFOR), inspected a former factory site which is now the base of the Serbian special police.
The size of the force sparked speculation that the troops were about to arrest Karadzic, but an SFOR spokesman said it was only a routine inspection.
SFOR deployed a complete battalion of men and equipment for its search in the Bosnian Serb hardline stronghold.
The troops surrounded government buildings and the Famos factory site.
The former factory is the operational base for Serbian special police and is also the last known hiding place of Bosnian-Serb strongman Radovan Karadzic.
Speculation quickly surfaced that SFOR troops were planning to snatch Karadzic.
Six NATO military vehicles were seen deployed on the road headed toward Karadzic's house.
He has been repeatedly urged to give himself up to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague which has indicted him twice for genocide and ethnic cleansing crimes committed during the war in Bosnia.
However, SFOR denied it was mounting a snatch operation.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"SFOR is carrying out a compliance inspection of the special buildings unit which is a unit of the Republic of Srpska special police based in Pale. We have a battalion of soldiers up there and they are inspecting the headquarters plus the forces who are based around the government buildings, their role is guarding government premises to ensure that they fully compliant with annex 1A of the Dayton peace agreement and with commander SFOR instructions to the party regarding special police."
SUPER CAPTION: Major Peter Clarke, SFOR
In the afternoon the Italian troops were reinforced by a contingent of Germans with additional heavy vehicles, blocking the road to the little mountain village and Serb hard-line headquarters.
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