Former Karadzic bodyguard detained
Nato peacekeepers today detained a former bodyguard of Radovan Karadzic, one of the UN war crimes tribunal’s most-wanted fugitives, the force said.
Mile Pejic, a wartime bodyguard to Karadzic, was detained “on the suspicion that he has been engaged in activities contrary to the Dayton agreement”, Nato said in a statement.
The Dayton peace accords ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
Karadzic has been sought by the UN court since 1995 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Pejic was apprehended in the north-eastern town of Bijeljina and was transferred to a secure location for further questioning, the statement said. His home was searched “for evidence of illegal activities affecting a safe and secure environment” in Bosnia, the force said. It did not elaborate.
Following the war, Pejic was a police officer in Bijeljina. Earlier this year, he was fired by the country’s top international administrator, Lord Ashdown.
Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, and his former military chief, General Ratko Mladic, were indicted together for their roles in atrocities that included the July 1995 Serb massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since the Second World War.
Both have been on the run since, despite numerous attempts to capture them.
