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US suspends aid to Serbia and Montenegro

A Bosnian Serb wears a Radovan Karadzic mask during a protest near the local church in Pale, 20km east of Sarajevo, on Thursday, the day after NATO special forces raided a house while searching for the ex-Bosnian Serb leader. PHOTO: EPA

As the US suspended aid to Serbia and Montenegro for not cooperating with a war-crimes tribunal, NATO troops raided a church and rectory in search of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic but failed to find the world's most sought after war-crimes suspect.

A priest known as a Karadzic supporter was wounded in the Thursday raid, as was his son. The two were in critical condition with fractures and head wounds, said Amra Odobasic, a spokeswoman for the Tuzla Clinical Center.

Outraged at the action, 3,000 people protested outside the church, carrying banners reading: "Nobody will arrest a Serb." They lit candles and prayed for the two men wounded in the sweep. Many wrapped themselves in Serbia's flag.

Canadian Captain Dave Sullivan, a spokesman for Bosnia's NATO-led peacekeepers, said the two -- identified as Jeremija Starovlah, 52, and his son Aleksandar, 28 -- were wounded by small explosives used for opening doors during raids.

Starovlah had told a newspaper last week that it was the duty of every Serb cleric to help Karadzic evade arrest and prosecution before the UN war-crimes tribunal.

Sullivan confirmed that the pre-dawn sweep was an attempt to capture Karadzic, indicted by the UN tribunal in The Hague on suspicion of war crimes. Pale was Karadzic's headquarters during the Bosnian war -- Europe's worst bloodshed since World War II. His wife and daughter still live there.

"This operation forms part of a sustained campaign against persons indicted for war crimes," Sullivan said. "They can run, but they can't hide."

In the raid, British peacekeepers backed by local police sealed off the area surrounding the church and rectory, and bursts of machine-gun fire were heard along with an explosion. The raid shattered windows and left a hole at the entrance of the church.

NATO has tried unsuccessfully several times to arrest Karadzic, believed to be on the run inside the Bosnian Serb half of Bosnia.

The indictment against Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, his fugitive wartime general, accuses them of being "criminally responsible for the unlawful confinement, murder, rape, sexual assault, torture, beating, robbery and inhumane treatment of civilians."

Among actions the two are accused of masterminding is the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe's worst slaughter of civilians since World War II.

AID STOPPED

The US temporarily suspended at least US$26 million in aid to Serbia and Montenegro because of inadequate cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, US officials said on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell determined he could not certify Belgrade was cooperating with the tribunal, which tries people accused of war crimes in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Under US law, his decision automatically triggered the suspension of US aid to Belgrade, in what appeared to be a symbolic blow to the government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a longtime critic of the UN tribunal.

The US has long demanded that Belgrade cooperate fully with the tribunal, including by arresting and handing over fugitive former Bosnian Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

US officials stress that Powell could certify Belgrade is cooperating at any time, thereby releasing any suspended aid.

US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said that about US$43 million of the US$100 million in aid allocated to Belgrade this year had already been spent, leaving about US$57 million that could be subject to the suspension.

However, he said that US aid for humanitarian purposes, for Kosovo and for the promotion of democracy were all exempt from the suspension.

A State Department official who asked not to be named said at least US$26 million would be suspended, but that the figure could increase depending on how much of the remaining US$30 million is exempt.
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