Foreign Secretary proud of British soldiers

Robin Cook pays tribute to the SFOR mission

Cook Praises British Military Action in Bosnia

Reports say that the first suspect, Simo Drljaca - a former police chief in the north-western town of Prijedor- was killed after he shot the British soldier.

One of the camps where atrocities were committed by Bosnian Serbs

The second suspect, hospital director Milan Kovacevic, was arrested. He will face trial at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

The Foreign Secretary said he was proud of the courage shown by the British soldiers in what was clearly a dangerous mission. He expressed his support for efforts to bring war crimes suspects to trial, as part of the task of reunifying Bosnia after the war.

Thursday's mission could mean that other indicted war criminals, like Radovan Karadzic, will also be arrested

In a statement to the House of Commons, the Defence Secretary, George Robertson, hailed the "courage and professionalism" of the soldiers involved in the operation. Mr Robertson said that Serbian leaders had not "been left in any doubt about the resolve of Britain and our allies to bring to justice those accused of such terrible acts".

The Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, recounted that Drljaca had once threatened to shoot him when he tried to visit the notorious Omarska concentration camp, where hundreds of Bosnians were killed and tortured. In his diary, Mr Ashdown described Drljaca as a man with "narrow cold eyes...Just the kind of man who could have sanctioned what went on at Omarska."

George Robertson details the atrocities committed in Prijedor