Visa ban on two allies of Karadzic

TWO close allies of the world’s most wanted war criminal have been banned from entering the country.

The two, Milovan Cicko Bjelica and Momcilo Momo Mandic, are key right-hand men to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Karadzic led the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims and Croatians from the Balkan state during the 1992-1995 war.

Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic are top of the International Criminal Tribunal’s most wanted list.

They are accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ireland’s visa ban is part of an EU-wide move following a council meeting of foreign ministers on April 14 last.

“The General Affairs and External Affairs Council of the EU agreed to put in place a visa ban on certain individuals who assist indictees of the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague,” said a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

He said the decision was given legal effect in Ireland last week. “The names have been given to the Department of Justice.

"Our embassies abroad will be issued with them, and they will not be allowed get visas. It’s the same for other EU countries.”

He said once the list was in place other names could be added to it by the EU council.

A spokesman for the Council of Europe in Brussels said the travel ban was placed on those who were involved in the “evasion of justice”.

He said: “The common position requires Member States to take the necessary measures to prevent the entry or transit of specific persons who are engaged in helping persons at large to evade justice for crimes for which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has indicted them.”

The spokesman said the EU called on countries outside the EU to adopt the same position.

The EU envoy to Bosnia Paddy Ashdown has indicated that up to 100 people could be placed on the list.

The move is part of an ongoing effort to flush out Karadzic and Mladic.

The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, S-For, said the travel ban will tighten the net around Karadzic and other fugitive war criminals.

Karadzic is thought to be moving between eastern parts of the Serb republic and a neighbouring mountainous region in Montenegro. Mladic is thought to be shielded by the military in Serbia and Montenegro.

Karadzic and Mladic led the massacre of more than 6,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica on 11 July 1995.

They are also accused of the internment of thousands of non-Serbs in concentration camps as well as a systematic campaign of sniping at civilians in Sarajevo.