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Serb prison camp commander arrested by Nato troops

Thursday 22 January 1998 19:02 EST
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Nato-led forces in Bosnia arrested a former Bosnian Serb prison camp commander, one of only seven men indicted for genocide, the international war crimes tribunal's most serious charge.

Goran Jelisic, who dubbed himself "The Serb Adolf" and was reported to have bragged about the number of Muslims he butchered during the Bosnia war, was picked up by S-For troops early yesterday in the eastern town of Bijeljina, in the United States-controlled sector. Nato would not comment on which troops conducted the operation, but diplomatic sources in Bosnia confirmed that US soldiers were involved. There were no casualties. The operation was the third in seven months in which S-For peacekeeping troops have actively detained suspected war criminals.

Mr Jelisic, 29, was charged by the tribunal last July for genocide during a campaign of "ethnic cleansing", or mass expulsion and murder, while he was in charge of the Luka prison camp, near Brcko in northern Bosnia, in May, 1992.

In the indictment, UN prosecutors said hundreds of Muslim and Croat men were systematically killed at the Serb-run Luka camp at the outset of the war. Nato said Jelisic had been indicted "for the murder of more than 16 persons, torture, theft, plunder and ordering the murder of many others". - Reuters

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