FRIDAY, January 23, 1998

G.I.' s in Bosnia Make Their First Arrest of a War-Crimes Suspect

By MIKE O' CONNOR

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jan. 22 - American soldiers made their first arrest of a war crimes suspect in Bosnia today. The soldiers leapt out of two unmarked vans and grabbed Goran Jelisic, a former detention camp commander who called himself the Serbian Adolf, as he left home. They put him in one of the vans and drove away without incident, according to witnesses.

Mr. Jelisic, a Bosnian Serb who commanded a detention camp where hundreds of Muslims and Croats were said to have been slain in 1992, was indicted on a charge of genocide. He was detained in the northeastern city of Bijeljina, where residents say it was widely known that he had been indicted, though he made no attempt to hide. He owned a small store and was the bodyguard of a senior official of the political party dominated by Bosnian Serb hard-liners, residents say.

He was described as a coarse man and a bully. "No one is crying for him today," said Dusan Tuzlancic, a cafe owner in Bijeljina.

The fact that he was easy to find raises questions about how hard anyone has been looking for him in the two years since the war ended. Dozens of foreign officials and United Nations police monitors live or work in Bijeljina. The streets there are often patrolled by NATO soldiers.

But a spokesman for NATO forces in Bosnia said today that it was only recently that they learned where Mr. Jelisic was. "Once we identified him, and we were certain he did not know he had been identified by us, it gave us the chance to carry out an operation that had minimum risk to us and no risk to civilians," said Maj. Peter Clarke, the NATO spokesman.

In the past, American officers have said that going after war crimes suspects was dangerous and that they were under orders to keep risks to their soldiers at an absolute minimum.

Under the strictest interpretation of the NATO operations mandate, the peacekeeping troops were permitted to arrest a war-crimes suspect if they came across one in their normal duties and the tactical situation al. lowed it. The interpretation of the rules has since changed, and, once having come across war-crimes suspects, NATO may now mount an operation to detain them. In recent months, British and Dutch troops have brought in suspects, but Americans have not.

American troops and international officials working in Serbian-controlled areas of Bosnia were warned to be alert for possible retaliation from Bosnian Serb nationalists.

After British soldiers detained one war-crimes suspect and shot another to death last July, NATO bases as well as the offices and homes of foreign officials were attacked with gunshots and small explosive devices. NATO officers said the attacks were organized by Bosnian Serb leaders. There were no serious injuries.

In a statement today President Clinton congratulated the American troops, saying he welcomed the arrests and encouraged NATO forces in Bosnia to capture more of the war crimes suspects.

Twenty-one war crimes suspects have been arrested or have surrendered to face trial at the international criminal tribunal, a United Nations body based in The Hague. More than 50 others, including some whose indictments have not been made public, are still free. Most are thought to be in Bosnia.

American and other diplomats say some of the suspects at large, especially the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, have considerable political power and are an obstacle too stable peace.