Justice Louise Arbour, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), welcomes the detention by SFOR of Radoslav Brdjanin, charged on the basis of both individual and superior criminal responsibility pursuant to Articles 7(1) and 7(3) of the Statute of the Tribunal, with persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, a crime against humanity. In his position as President of the "Autonomous Region of Krajina" (ARK) Crisis Staff he is alleged to be responsible, in concert with others, for the major ethnic cleansing operations conducted in the Sanski Most and Prijedor regions in 1992. This indictment was the subject of a non-disclosure order, which expired with the arrest of the accused. Justice Arbour has issued the following statement:

"I am grateful to the SFOR troops for their continued assistance in the execution of the outstanding arrest warrants issued by ICTY. I wish to stress again that the primary responsibility is for states to discharge their international obligations and to arrest indicted accused on their territory.

During my last visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in May this year, I met with Mr Sarovic, Vice President of the Republika Srpska (RS), with the Minister of Justice, Mr Trbojevic, as well as with the Minister of Interior, Mr Novic. I raised on that occasion the imperative of a more cooperative stance on the part of the government of the RS towards the issue of arrest. More specifically, I informed them I would be willing to share with them the identity of some of the accused presently indicted under sealed indictments should they demonstrate their willingness to execute ICTY arrest warrants, which they can do by arresting the many indictees who remain at large under well publicized indictments, some dating back to 1995.

I regret that there has been to date no progress on that issue, and I hope to have the opportunity to raise it again at a meeting that I have requested with the two ministers during my visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina next week. In the meantime, I will continue to seek and make use of sealed indictments. They have proven their value many times."