BOSNIA: Tipsters Help Embassy Track Karadzic

(5/3/2002)SARAJEVO (March 5) - Telephone tipsters are helping NATO track the whereabouts of Radovan Karadzic, the U.N. war crimes tribunal's No. 1 suspect still at large, an alliance official said Monday. The U.S. State Department's offer of a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the former Bosnian Serb leader has prompted 300 to 500 calls to the U.S. Embassy since mid-January, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. NATO troops raided several villages in eastern Bosnia last week but failed to capture Karadzic, who has widespread support among ordinary Serbs who see him as a war hero and a patriot. Meanwhile, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia said Monday it was investigating allegations that a French army captain tipped off Karadzic's inner circle that last Thursday's arrest attempt was under way. NATO "has seen the reports and is currently investigating them," said Capt. Angela Johnson, a spokeswoman for the force. However, she and alliance officials in Brussels, Belgium, expressed skepticism over the reports, which originated over the weekend in the German newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. "We have no information at this time that suggests they are true," Johnson said. "If the reports are proven to be correct, appropriate action will be taken." Asked about the allegations during a visit to Germany, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said, "The report came as a complete surprise and complete speculation," but he, too, pledged an investigation. NATO has vowed not to let up until Karadzic - indicted by the tribunal in 1995 for genocide in the slayings of thousands of civilians during Bosnia's war - is in custody. The tribunal also is pressing for the arrest of Karadzic's wartime military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, who has also eluded capture. Karadzic apparently was alerted to Thursday's raid in the remote village of Celebici because "he was gone by the time we got there," the NATO official said. Troops questioned a number of people in the area about Karadzic's whereabouts. "We think that we were very close," he said. Bosnian Serb officials have done little to cooperate with the tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, and many Serb peasants in the rugged corner of Bosnia where he is suspected to have his hide-out have vowed to do whatever it takes to thwart his arrest. Radio and television stations in the Bosnian Serb republic, which together with a Muslim-Croat federation makes up postwar Bosnia, have refused to air ads calling for information on Karadzic and Mladic. Local media reported that some Bosnian Serb lawmakers drank cocktails in their offices to celebrate NATO's failure to arrest him.

//Shqiptarja.com

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