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NATO Denies Report That Tip-off Blocked Karadzic Arrest VOA News 4 Mar 2002 16:46 UTC 
NATO is denying reports that an information leak from a French officer foiled last week's attempt to capture former Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.
Alliance Secretary General George Robertson in a statement called the reports in German and British newspapers pure speculation.
Earlier, NATO officials said they were investigating reports that a French officer serving with alliance-led forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina had tipped off Bosnian Serb security police of a pending operation last Thursday. NATO forces twice launched operations around Celebici, near the town of Foca aimed at capturing Mr. Karadzic, but failed to arrest the former Bosnian Serb leader.
The newspapers quoted intelligence officials as saying they monitored a telephone conversation in which the French officer told the Serbs they should pay attention to the area around Foca. The officer is reported to have said Foca is always of interest to NATO, but stressed that it was of particular interest that day. Serb police are reported to have alerted Mr. Karadzic, who was hiding in the area at the time.
The French military's traditionally close ties to the Serbs are reported to have undermined several NATO operations in the former Yugoslavia.
Last December, a French court convicted army major Pierre-Henri Bunel on treason charges for tipping off Serbian authorities about NATO plans ahead of the Kosovo conflict.
Mr. Karadzic has evaded capture since the Hague tribunal indicted him on charges of war crimes and genocide committed during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990's.
The Hague tribunal indicted Mr. Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic, for the shelling of civilians in Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict. Other charges include their role in the disappearance and presumed killing of thousands of Muslim men and boys after Serb forces captured the enclave of Srebrenica in July, 1995.
Humanitarian groups say the Serbs massacred as many as 8,000 Muslims captured in Srebrenica, although the bodies of only about 4,000 have been recovered.
Some information for this report provided by AFP.
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