War crimes suspect blows himself up during Nato raid

A Bosnian Serb suspected of atrocities who vowed he would never be captured alive blew himself up with a grenade as Nato troops tried to arrest him early yesterday. The explosion wounded four of the soldiers. It was the first time that Nato troops, sent to Bosnia after the 1995 Dayton Agreement, havesuffered casualties making an arrest on behalf of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

A Bosnian Serb suspected of atrocities who vowed he would never be captured alive blew himself up with a grenade as Nato troops tried to arrest him early yesterday. The explosion wounded four of the soldiers. It was the first time that Nato troops, sent to Bosnia after the 1995 Dayton Agreement, havesuffered casualties making an arrest on behalf of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Janko Janjic, 43, also known as Tuta, was indicted in 1996 for multiple rape during the height of the Bosnian war. A raid on his home began shortly after midnight in the town of Foca, 25 miles south-east of Sarajevo. During the raid Janjic threw a hand grenade, was critically wounded and died shortly afterwards.

Foca is in an area under the command of German Nato troops, but the nationality of the wounded soldiers was not revealed. A spokesman at Nato headquarters in Brussels said they did not fire their weapons during the incident.

Janjic, a former car mechanic who became a Serb military police commander in Foca, ran the Buk Bijela detention centre, where "women were interrogated and sexually assaulted throughout July 1992", according to the indictment papers issued by the tribunal. He was wanted for war crimes committed in the 10 months to February 1993.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the tribunal, said Janjic had boasted that he would never surrender. He had threatened to throw grenades at journalists who tried to interview him.

In 1997, Janjic told a CBS journalist with a hidden camera that he would speak about his alleged atrocities in exchange for payment. "Yes, for 5,000 Deutschmarks I will tell everything. How I slit throats, killed them and dug their eyes out ... and you can tape me," he said.

The chief prosecutor in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, said her prosecutors would not be deterred by the casualties suffered yesterday. "We recognise that the application of justice to a region that is still not at peace continues to be a dangerous business. The events of last night only underscore the necessity that those who are publicly accused must voluntarily surrender at the earliest possible date."

Janjic was one of eight Bosnian Serbs indicted on rape charges in Foca. Three of the eight are already on trial, three are still at large, and two arenow dead. The tribunal had ruled earlier this year that the case was strong enough for the defence to answer.