NATO'S Secretary-General, Mr Javier Solana, yesterday warned indicted Bosnian war criminals that they would be delivered to the international tribunal in The Hague if they refused to give themselves up.
The stark warning, during a visit by Mr Solana to Bosnia, came as a Bosnian Croat seized by NATO forces on Thursday and brought to The Hague pleaded not guilty at the tribunal to charges of standing by while a subordinate raped a Muslim woman.
It also coincided with the tribunal ordering the immediate release of three Bosnian Croats for lack of hard evidence. They were among 10 indicted war criminals who gave themselves up in October following intense US pressure on Zagreb.
"The obligation to turn in indicted war criminals is a political responsibility of the parties. If the parties do not collaborate with the international tribunal, SFOR will do their job, like we did two days ago," Mr Solana told reporters during a visit to Bosnia.
In a lightning night raid on Thursday Dutch troops of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia (SFOR) captured two Bosnian Croat war crimes suspects. Mr Vlatko Kupreskic, indicted for one of the most notorious massacres of the Muslim-Croat war which erupted in central Bosnia in 1993, was wounded in the operation.
Mr Kupreskic (39) is accused of taking part in a massacre of civilians, including women and children, at the village of Ahmici in April 1993. He is expected to appear before the tribunal as soon as he has recovered from his injuries.
The other man, Mr Anto Furundzija, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges linked to the "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims in central Bosnia in 1993.
The tribunal said Mr Furundzija (28) commanded a paramilitary unit known as "the jokers", and failed to intervene when a prisoner was raped while he conducted an interrogation.
At the same time the tribunal ordered the immediate release of Bosnian Croats Mr Marinko Katava, Mr Pero Skopljak and Mr Ivan Santic. The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Ms Louise Arbour, said that after reviewing the evidence she had concluded that the case against them was not strong enough to go to trial.
Messrs Skopljak and Santic had been accused of mistreating Muslim prisoners, while Mr Katava had been accused of taking part in the massacre at Ahmici.
The action to snatch Mr Furundzija and Mr Kupreskic was the most dramatic involving suspected war criminals since British troops seized a Bosnian Serb and killed another in Prijedor in July.
Both actions came amid international criticism that the NATO-led peace force was not doing enough to apprehend indicted war criminals, as was laid down in the 1995 Dayton peace accord that ended the 3 1/2-year Bosnia war.
"This action by SFOR stands as a warning to all those indicted for war crimes who are still at large that they too will be held accountable. They should take steps immediately to surrender themselves voluntarily," Mr Solana said after the action.
Bosnia's most notorious indicted war criminals, the former Bosnian Serb president, Mr Radovan Karadzic, and the former army chief, Gen Ratko Mladic, are still at liberty in the Bosnian Serb republic, heavily guarded by loyal militias.
The issue of handing over Mr Karadzic is a highly sensitive one among the Serbs, and Western diplomats fear it could spark retaliation.
As of Thursday of this week, the tribunal had publicly indicted 78 suspects - 57 Serbs, 18 Croats and three Muslims.