(25 Aug 1999) Natural Sound
Austrian police have arrested the top Bosnian Serb military commander on U-N charges of persecuting Bosnian Croats and Muslims in a bloody 1992 ethnic purge.
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal says General Momir Talic, the chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb army, was arrested in Vienna.
Chief prosecutor Louise Arbour says Talic is charged with crimes against humanity.
The general will be the highest-ranking Serb military official ever to be tried by the tribunal.
Austrian authorities made the arrest on Wednesday morning after being tipped off by the tribunal that Talic was in the country attending a military conference.
The U-N court did not release further details of the arrest, but said Talic would appear before a court in Vienna before being handed over to U-N custody in The Hague.
The tribunal said Talic's indictment had been kept secret to give authorities a chance to arrest him.
Seen here in 1995 with Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Talic is charged with ordering, implementing and supporting a bloody campaign to expel some 100-thousand Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the area he commanded in northwest Bosnia.
Tribunal prosecutors allege that Serb forces under the command of Talic terrorised Muslims and Croats into fleeing those areas, and that those who didn't leave were driven out by force.
Hundreds were killed in the area, where the largest number of mass graves have been found.
Details of the indictment are to be made public later on Wednesday.
But prosecutors say that, if convicted, Talic would face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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