Bosnian Serb arrested over Srebrenica massacre

SARAJEVO - NATO-led peacekeepers late yesterday arrested a Bosnian Serb indicted by a UN war crimes tribunal for alleged involvement in the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica.

Dragan Obrenovic, who was commander of a Bosnian Serb army brigade at the time, was under "sealed indictment," meaning the charges against him had not been made public to avoid alerting him to his possible arrest.

Florence Hartman, spokeswoman for the tribunal prosecutors' office, said Obrenovic had been arrested by the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) near Zvornik, in Bosnia's Serb republic near the border with Yugoslavia.

He was flying to The Hague on Sunday night and was expected to be brought before the court in the next few days.

Hartman said he was charged with complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violations against the laws and customs of war. The indictment was issued on April 9.

Obrenovic was allegedly involved in the killing of thousands of Muslims in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, Hartman said. The Srebrenica massacre is regarded as Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

Bosnian Serb forces are alleged to have killed up to 8,000 Muslims in and around the town. The biggest mass grave of the Srebrenica victims was found around 50 km away near Zvornik. Obrenovic was chief of staff of the Zvornik Brigade.

"Prosecutor Carla del Ponte welcomes the arrest by SFOR. We have not had any arrests since June last year," Hartman said.

"We hope that this will lead to other arrests in the next weeks. There are still some 10 fugitives in the Bosnian Serb entity," she added, speaking by telephone.

The entity was legalized in 1995 along with a Muslim-Croat federation as part of the agreement that ended three and a half years of war in the former Yugoslav republic.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said Obrenovic's arrest, for crimes committed between July and November 1995, was a warning to those with guilty consciences that it was time to hand themselves in.

The two men considered most responsible for the Srebrenica massacre - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic - are still at large and believed to be in Bosnia's Serb republic, where the political party founded by Karadzic still plays a leading role.

Bosnian Serb police in Zvornik said Obrenovic had been "abducted" on Sunday in the nearby town of Kozluk. "Three armed men and one woman abducted Major Dragan Obrenovic, who was commander of Zvornik, today," said a statement by the police, read to Reuters by Kate Frieson, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Bosnia.

According to the Zvornik police report, the "abductors" were driving a Skoda car and there was one VW Golf in the convoy.

Bosnian Serb television said Obrenovic was arrested by Hague-based tribunal officials. Hartman said tribunal officials never made arrests since it was not their job.

Obrenovic's lawyer Krstan Simic told the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA that he was shocked to hear of the arrest on the "greatest Christian holiday" - Easter - and that if Obrenovic had known he was indicted he would have surrendered voluntarily.

Hartman said Obrenovic's indictment was linked to the trial of Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic, charged with genocide in Srebrenica.

A tape of an alleged telephone conversation between Krstic and Obrenovic had played a very important role in Krstic's trial last year, she said.

During the recording, Krstic is alleged to have told Obrenovic: "Kill all of them one by one," which the prosecution believes is a reference to the extermination of Muslim soldiers and civilians during a mopping up operation after the fall of the enclave.

- REUTERS

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