NATO Arrests Bosnian Serb War Crimes Suspect

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina – NATO peacekeepers on Monday arrested a former Bosnian Serb major indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Momir Nikolic, an army major during the 1992-1995 war, was arrested by mask-wearing individuals in his house near the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac at noon, Bosnian Serb police officials said.

Confirming the arrest, SFOR, the NATO-led Stabilization Force, said Nikolic was "being processed for immediate movement to the Hague," the Dutch city where the U.N. war crimes tribunal is located.

The statement said Nikolic was indicted for alleged war crimes in the Srebrenica region, where about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serb troops in 1995.

Nikolic "contributed to the opportunistic killing and systematic execution of Bosnian Muslim men while attempting to ethnically cleanse the Srebrenica enclave area," the statement read.

He is accused of genocide, forcible transfer and inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, and murder as a violation of the laws or customs of war.

Mane Curic, the police chief in nearby Zvornik, said that 18 masked foreigners -- wearing civilian clothes -- had arrested Nikolic in the village of Repovac, near Bratunac.

They rang the door bell, and when Nikolic came out, the officers drove off with him in a convoy made up of two vans and a passenger car, Curic said.

There were no reports of injuries.

Bosnian Serb authorities have for years refused to cooperate with the U.N. war-crimes tribunal, indirectly protecting suspects indicted by the court in The Hague.

Under international pressure, authorities last year passed a law on cooperation with the tribunal, but have not made any arrests so far.

Bosnian Serb authorities last month announced that if suspects surrendered within 30 days they could await trial at home instead of immediate extradition. The offer expired on Sunday, but no suspects came forward.