Gaza, 04/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten commented in Gaza, where he was on visit, on the arrest of Momcilo Krajisnik, who was the right arm of the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and who is under custody at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for war crimes. Mr Patten welcomed the arrest and said:
"Peace in South East Europe can only be built on freedom and justice for all. Over four years since the Dayton/Paris agreement, this arrest is a timely reminder to the whole region that justice has a long memory - a memory that becomes, if anything, sharper with time. After the recent extradition of Mladen Naletilic, "Tuta" , from Croatia, this arrest demonstrates once again that the International Criminal Tribunal is ethnically blind - targeting not one ethnic group or another, but those individuals, whatever their ethnicity, whatever their status, who have a case to answer in law".