Peacekeepers seize illegal weapons in Serb-run part of Bosnia

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) Aug 22, 2003
Peacekeepers in Bosnia said Friday they had seized a significant amount of weapons left over from the country's 1992-95 war in the Serb-run part of northern Bosnia.

Soldiers from the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) seized 13 mortars, five rocket launchers, and 28 heavy machine guns from residents near the northern town of Gradiska on Wednesday, according to SFOR spokesman Sarto LeBlanc.

In another operation at a village near the northwestern town of Prijedor, SFOR seized 13.4 kilos (30 pounds) of TNT explosives, four hand grenades and 1,600 rounds of ammunition.

Peacekeepers have been trying to retrieve all illegally-held weapons left over from the war in the former Yugoslav republic since 1998.

Postwar Bosnia has two semi-independent entities -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

WAR.WIRE