Bosnia: Bosnian Serb Parliament Adopts War Crimes Law

Banja Luka, 2 October 2001 (RFE/RL) -- The Bosnian Serb parliament has adopted a law that will enable the arrest and transfer of suspects to the United Nations war crimes tribunal. The law was adopted today with 42 lawmakers voting for and nine against the measure. There were 25 abstentions.

The Bosnian Serb government has been the last regional authority in former Yugoslavia refusing to hand over war crimes suspects to the UN court in The Hague.

The two most-wanted war crime suspects, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic, are both believed to be hiding on Bosnian Serb territory.

The Bosnian Serb parliament approved the bill in the first reading last July.

The Republika Srbska and the Croat-Bosnian Muslim Federation make up postwar Bosnia.