(6 Jul 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat

NATO Secretary General Javier Solana announced on Tuesday that Radoslav Brdjanin, a lawmaker in the Bosnian Serb assembly who is indicted for war crimes, has been detained and is being taken to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Solana said in a statement the detention "will contribute to the continued consolidation of the peace in Bosnia."

The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (S-FOR) has a mandate in Bosnia to detain officials indicted for war crimes.

According to Bosnian Serb SRNA news agency, Brdjanin, who was not on the list of publicly wanted war crimes suspects, was arrested outside his apartment in the northwestern town of Banja Luka on Tuesday.

He was then transferred to a U-S military base in Tuzla before being flown to The Hague.

Brdjanin served in the wartime Bosnian Serb government of indicted war criminal Rodovan Karadzic as minister of urbanisation.

Brdjanin resigned from the hardline Serb Democratic Party founded by Radovan Karadzic in 1994.

He now heads a small party, the People's Party, in the Serb-ruled part of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, which has two seats in the Bosnian Serb assembly.

SRNA said Brdjanin might have been on the so-called sealed indictments list of the ICTY.

The U-N war crimes tribunal in The Hague issues indictments charging people with offences committed during ethnic conflicts throughout the former Yugoslavia, including one against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Many of the indictments, however, are kept secret until the accused is arrested in order to prevent defendants from fleeing.

In a statement in Banja Luka, the Serb Party of Independent Social Democrats said Brdjanin was taken into custody at 8 a.m local.

The party, led by pro-Western Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, issued a public protest against the action, saying arrests "under sealed indictments endanger" public safety.

Brdjanin is seen here in 1997, speaking following an attack on a British base.

Then, a group of Serbs threatened to attack British troops in Bosnia.

They announced they were forming a secret organisation called Black Hand which fought for Serbian independence before the First World War.

Brdjanin, then an opposition leader, said he believed the organisation was set up by criminals who wanted to save what they had earned in the war.

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть