Military

DATE=12/16/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=US / BOSNIA SANCTIONS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-321198

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: US Joins in Coordinated Moves on Balkans War Crimes Fugitives

INTRO: The international community Thursday announced new measures against Bosnian Serb officials for failing to hand over indicted Balkans war crimes figures to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. They include targeted sanctions by the United States. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: The coordinated action by the United States, the International High Representative for Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, and European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia reflects international frustration that key Balkans war crimes figures remain at large.

Mr. Ashdown, international overseer of the 1995 Dayton accords on the Balkans conflict, that ended the Balkans war, announced the firing of six Bosnian Serb police officers and three other officials for failing to arrest war crimes suspects or obstructing the process.

The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Douglas McElhaney, appearing with Mr. Ashdown at a Sarejevo news conference, said U.S. financial and travel sanctions were being imposed against Bosnian Serb political parties and officials.

European Union peacekeepers, meantime, raided an underground bunker complex once used by former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.

Ratko Mladic, along with wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in the Balkans conflict. They are the most prominent of several war crimes figures still at large.

At a news briefing here, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States is committed to do everything it can with its international partners to locate the fugitives, and to isolate those who seem to be supporting and hiding them:

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"The essence of this is that we are acting in concert with these other entities. We are acting to impose restrictions on the Serbian party leadership that we think had been colluding with Mladic, Karadzic, these kind of people, to protect them."

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The U.S. sanctions include a travel ban against the leadership of two major Bosnian- Serb political parties, the Party for Democratic Progress and the Serb Democratic party, or S.D.S., which was founded by Radovan Karadzic.

The measures also freeze any assets the parties may have in the United States and bar Americans from financial dealings with them. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department added three companies and six individuals to a financial blacklist of persons and entities deemed to be impeding implementation of the Dayton accords.

Mr. Ashdown has the power to remove local officials who are not cooperating with the U.N. Balkans war crimes tribunal. The officials he fired Thursday included several local police chiefs in the semi-independent ethnic-Serb republic in Bosnia.

Mr. Ashdown told reporters in Sarajevo that Ratko Mladic had been seen less than six months ago at the Han-Pijesak bunker complex raided by the European Union troops Thursday.

The E.U. force commander reported no arrests at the site, but said the facility was inspected and will be closed down. It was the first operation of its kind by the European Union contingent since it took over peacekeeping duties from NATO troops earlier this month. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/KL