The international community is preparing sanctions against supporters of Bosnian war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, officials said today during a visit by US special envoy Mr Pierre-Richard Prosper.
"We are prepared to use a variety of tools at our disposal . . . to bring him to justice," war crimes ambassador Mr Prosper told a press briefing after meeting international high representative to Bosnia Mr Paddy Ashdown.
Mr Ashdown said the two had agreed that it was time to turn the screws on the former Bosnian Serb president's secret support network.
"We intend now to formulate measures to begin to take action against . . . those who support the structure which is supporting Karadzic," he said.
Asked to spell out the measures under consideration, he replied: "If you can imagine it, we are thinking of it".
Mr Karadzic has been indicted for genocide and war crimes allegedly committed against Bosnian Croats and Muslims, notably the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo.
He is believed to be hiding in the mountainous southeast of Bosnia's Serb-run entity, protected by bodyguards, local villagers and businessmen connected to his Serbian Democratic Party.
Repeated NATO-led raids have failed to catch him, and authorities in the Serb-run Republika Srpska have denied knowing where he was since he disappeared from public life in 1996, a year after the end of the 1992-95 war.
AFP