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Leading
Bosnian war crimes suspect arrested |
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June 26, 2000
SARAJEVO, (AP) - NATO-led peacekeepers Sunday arrested a leading Serb war crimes suspect accused of massacring Muslim and Croat prisoners while he commanded the notorious Keraterm prison camp during the Bosnian war.
Dusko Sikirica, 36, was indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague in July 1995 for crimes against humanity, war crimes and other offenses.
A NATO statement said he was arrested early Sunday and will be sent to The Hague as soon as possible. There were no NATO casualties during the operation, the statement added.
Yugoslavia's private news agency Beta said British troops made the arrest about 2:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) at Sikirica's home in the Bosnian Serb town Prijedor.
The Bosnian Serb interior ministry said armed men drove in four vehicles to Sikirica's home, broke down the door, shoved the suspect to the floor, bound and dragged him away. Sikirica's wife and two children were in the house at the time but were not injured.
The 1995 indictment said more than 3,000 Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats were held at a former ceramics factory at Keraterm, where detainees "were killed, sexually assaulted, tortured, beaten and otherwise subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment."
In one incident, guards systematically machine-gunned inmates in one room in July 1992, the indictment said. When guards learned that a few prisoners had escaped the carnage, 20 detainees were selected and summarily executed, the indictment said.
The tribunal prosecution argued that as camp commander, Sikirica was responsible for all actions taken by his subordinates. "He is one of the main figures, responsible for war crimes in Keraterm," said Amor Masovic, head of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons. "Justice is slow but attainable."
Sikirica is among several leading Bosnian Serbs arrested in recent months by NATO, which has come under criticism for allowing indicted suspects to remain free years after Bosnian war ended in 1995.
Gen. Momir Talic and Radoslav Brdjanin, a former Bosnian Serb deputy prime minister, were arraigned in The Hague in January. On April 3, Momcilo Krajisnik, a close ally of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested by French NATO troops at his home in eastern Bosnia.
Less then two months ago, NATO troops arrested Dragan Nikolic, a Bosnian Serb charged with war crimes allegedly committed when he commanded a nearby prison camp at Susica during the Bosnian war. However, the two prime suspects, Karadzic and his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
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