A Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect indicted for torture and rape detonated a hand grenade and killed himself as peacekeepers tried to arrest him, NATO said yesterday Four German soldiers were wounded in the explosion, two of them seriously. A German Defence Ministry spokesman said their condition was not considered life-threatening.
NATO-led Stabilisation Force (Sfor) troops drove into the eastern town of Foca late on Thursday to arrest Janko Janjic (43), who has been indicted for crimes against humanity, including torture and rape, by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"During the course of the arrest, Janjic detonated a hand grenade, which killed him," a NATO statement said. A relative of Janjic's suffered minor injuries. "Sfor soldiers did not fire their weapons," the statement said, adding that it "deeply regrets the loss of life".
Janjic became the third war crimes suspect to die during a Sfor arrest attempt. In 1997, ultra-nationalist Serb police chief Simo Drljaca was shot by British special forces in the town of Prijedor. French soldiers shot Dragan Gagovic in Foca, a Serb nationalist haven, in 1999.
The German Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, said German peacekeepers had played a "significant role" in the operation. Sfor, which has so far arrested 21 indicted war criminals, declined to comment.
Janjic, known as "Tuta", had been indicted for crimes committed during the first year of Bosnia's 1992-5 war.
He was a sub-commander of military police and a paramilitary leader in the Foca area when he allegedly participated in the torture and rape of many Bosnian Muslim women, NATO said.
In a statement, the war crimes prosecutors' office in The Hague praised the courage of the peacekeepers who took part in the arrest attempt.
"We share a sense of regret that this attempt ended in tragedy. It is regrettable that Janko Janjic, who had previously threatened to kill himself and others should an arrest attempt be made, chose to exercise this option, thus endangering the lives of Sfor soldiers as well," it said.
Janjic had offered to detail his alleged crimes to a US camera crew in 1997 and in the CBS programme Public Eye he told a hidden camera: "Yes, for 5,000 deutschmark I will tell everything. How I slit throats, killed them and dug their eyes out . . . you can tape me."
Foca has been on the black list of the international community because it is believed to harbour several indicted war criminals, including Radovan Karadzic.