By Lisa McAdams
Sarajevo, 16 September 1996 (RFE/RL) - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic voted Saturday in Bosnia's first post-war national elections, confirmed international police chief Alex Ivanko.
According to preliminary reports from U.N. electoral officials, the indicted war criminal voted near Pale yesterday afternoon, Ivanko said Sunday.
Ivanko said he had no information on voting, or attempts to vote, by other indicted war criminals. Indicted war criminals have been prohibited from campaigning in the election but were eligible to vote, even though they faced the possibility of arrest by IFOR.
RFE/RL's correspondent in Sarajevo reports that Ivanko said that since the information regarding Karadzic did not come from the international police task force (IPTF), NATO was not alerted.
At an earlier IFOR briefing, Admiral T. Joseph Lopez said all troops were instructed to detain any indicted war criminals and turn them over to authorities who would send them to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
IFOR's commander, Lt.-Gen. Sir Michael Walker, later said if IFOR were given a clear direction to hunt down indicted war criminals, it would do so. However, Walker said his forces do not, currently, have that mandate.
16-09-96