Bosnian Serb Arrested, Sent to The Hague

A former Bosnian Serb police commander was flown to The Hague on Monday, hours after his arrest by NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia, to stand trial on charges of enslaving and raping Bosnian Muslim women during the 1992-1995 war.

Radomir Kovac, 38, was detained early Monday in his apartment in Foca in southeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said German and French troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led Bosnian peace force played a “key role” in the operation.

According to Foca’s police chief, the troops blocked the street outside Kovac’s house and used explosives to enter his apartment. Both Kovac and his wife, Slavica, were arrested, but she was later released.

Kovac will answer two counts of crimes against humanity when he makes his initial appearance--probably later this week--before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

The 1996 Foca indictment was the first to focus on rape as a war crime.

Kovac is one of eight Serbs accused of raping and torturing Muslim women in Foca during the war. Kovac was a sub-commander of the Bosnian Serb military police and the paramilitary leader in Foca, 30 miles southeast of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.

According to Jim Landale, a spokesman for the tribunal, Kovac is charged with running an apartment building where rapes are alleged to have taken place and with participating in the rapes.

Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor at the tribunal, welcomed the third such detention in seven weeks and praised the “professionalism and commitment” of those involved.

Dragoljub Kunarac, also accused in the Foca indictment, already is in custody in The Hague. He pleaded guilty to rape last year but later reversed his plea.

A third suspect, Dragan Gagovic, was shot dead by French troops in January during an arrest attempt.