Showing posts with label shoot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoot. Show all posts

Monday, August 1, 2011

Why Mladic didn't shoot

30 July 2011 Last updated at 23:16 GMT Nick Thorpe By Nick Thorpe BBC News, Lazarevo, Serbia Nenad Stocovic in the garden of house where Ratko Mladic was arrested Nenad Stocovic tends peppers in the Mladic garden - but says he did not know he was there "I could have killed 10 of you if I wanted..." Ratko Mladic told the Serbian policemen who came to arrest him. "But I didn't want to. You're just young men, doing your job."

Speaking in a BBC interview, Nenad Stocovic, a next-door neighbour who was with Gen Mladic for four hours during his arrest in the village of Lazarevo on 26 May, has given more details of the events of that morning.

It was a momentous day, when one of the world's biggest manhunts came to an end, and the man accused of committing genocide in Bosnia began his journey to face justice in The Hague.

It was 0500 on a Friday morning. Nenad Stocovic had come down to the garden adjacent to where, as it would turn out, Ratko Mladic was staying with his third cousin, Branko.

Nenad came to water his peppers - "the elephant's ear variety" he tells me proudly, showing the size and shape with his hand. "When suddenly there were policemen everywhere, four in uniform, about 10 in plainclothes."

"'Did someone get killed?' I asked them, 'or have you come to buy a pig or a sheep from Branko?'"

His request to leave quietly was rejected by the tall policeman in charge.

Two pistols

"They had no body armour, no helmets, no long-barrelled guns... but they seemed afraid. And they were surprised when they found him."

Continue reading the main story
If we had known, we would have made sure he was moved to a safer house... where the police would never have found him”

End Quote Nenad Stocovic Ratko Mladic was sitting in the front room, wearing a tracksuit. His first words to the police were: "I am the man you are looking for." He seemed relieved to be have been discovered, Mr Stocovic tells me.

During the hours which followed, they asked him to sit first outside in the yard of the house, then back inside the room. Three other houses in the village were searched simultaneously.

The tip-off - if that was what brought the police here - appears to have been that Gen Mladic was in the village, not which house he was in. The other houses searched all belong to other, distant relatives of the general.

"The police were polite at all times," Mr Stocovic continues, "treating him almost like a father."

Gen Mladic's two pistols, one American made, with three clips of ammunition, 54 bullets, the other a Yugoslav Zastava 765, were found in a drawer of the closet.

Ratko Mladic, soon after his arrest Ratko Mladic seemed relieved to have been discovered, Nenad Stocovic said

"When the police inspector asked about it, he said the pistol was a gift of a volunteer in our army."

This was far from Gen Mladic's first visit to the village, but definitely the first time it had been searched by the Serbian authorities, in his 16 years on the run.

Around 10 years ago, Gen Mladic came here often, to stay with Branko, and kept his bees near the railway station.

"He walked openly in the streets, everyone knew who he was," Mr Stocovic explains.

"Once I told one of his bodyguards that his gun - a Heckler and Koch - was showing, protruding from under his jacket.

"'It is meant to be,' he said, coolly."

That was the period when either the political will to arrest him did not exist, or when the price - the potential loss of the lives in the police operation; or a nationalist backlash - was deemed too high.

Another bodyguard stood at the edge of the field at that time, and a third, in a white shirt, in the road. It was clear they wanted people to know they were there - 10 years ago.

Paralysis

Under arrest this time, Gen Mladic was not handcuffed, and the police complied with his request not to lay hands on him or shackle him in any way.

House where Ratko Mladic was arrested Police had never searched the house before, despite its connection with Mladic

Mr Stocovic and Branko helped him put on a feather jacket, before they took him away. The paralysis in one of his arms made it hard to dress.

"Which one of you is the American?" the general asked the police - little surprise that after 16 years on the run, he could only imagine being taken into custody as part of a Western conspiracy.

Another interesting detail is that Gen Mladic's son Darko had visited Lazarevo very recently, on 6 and 7 May, to celebrate the family's patron saint - St George.

For a village so closely connected to the Mladic family, and where he was known to have visited, it seems astonishing that the Serbian authorities had never searched it before.

"Did you really not know that Mladic was in the village?" I asked Mr Stocovic, in conclusion.

"If we had, we would have made sure he was moved to a safer house, not connected to his relatives, where the police would never have found him," he replies.

Before I go, he says he has a message for the journalists of the world.

"You can help us a lot, but you can also do us a lot of damage. All I ask is that you tell the truth. Only the truth will extinguish the fires. This is the message of a self-educated man."


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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Karachi 'shoot on sight' orders

8 July 2011 Last updated at 12:07 GMT Pakistani protesters burn material in the middle of a street in a violence-hit western neighbourhood of Karachi on 8 July 2011 Violence has raged in Karachi for three days Security forces in the Pakistani city of Karachi have been ordered to shoot on sight to stem violence in which 80 people have been killed since Tuesday.

The violence is widely blamed on armed gangs from rival political parties.

Pakistan's biggest city is virtually shut down. Many shops, schools and offices are closed and there is hardly any traffic on the streets.

Most people are staying at home fearing more violence. The government says it has deployed an extra 1,000 troops.

Continue reading the main story Shahzeb Jillani BBC News, Karachi

Karachi is arguably one of South Asia's most violent cities. It is not only the largest city and port of Pakistan, but also a major industrial and commercial centre.

The city is plagued by extortion rackets, land-grab mafia and armed groups fighting turf wars for their share of its resources.

The level of violence this week has not been seen for some time. Targeted killings and drive-by shootings are widely blamed on armed gangs linked to the city's main political parties.

There were always fears that with last week's resignation from the government by the city's main political party - the MQM - increased violence and instability would bring Pakistan's economic capital to a grinding halt.

Karachi's main political party, the MQM, which resigned from the government last week, has called for a day of mourning.

"People are stuck at home; their food and rations are finishing," Karachi resident Mohammad Shahid said. "Where is the government? Where is the police?"

Sharjeel Memon, the provincial information minister, said: "We have issued orders to the security forces to shoot anyone involved in violence on the spot.

"In addition to the police and Rangers, another 1,000 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary will be deployed in the city to control the violence."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that most of those who had died were innocent people. "Very few are politically affiliated people," he said.

He added that 89 people had been arrested for involvement in the violence.


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Saturday, June 18, 2011

S Korean troops shoot at airliner

18 June 2011 Last updated at 04:21 GMT Map showing location of Gyodong South Korean troops have fired at a passenger jet after mistaking it for a North Korean aircraft, South Korean media report.

Soldiers on Gyodong island, off South Korea's west coast, fired 99 rifle rounds at the Asiana flight, which was out of range and landed undamaged.

The incident took place on Friday close to the tense border between the Koreas.

The airliner, which had 119 people on board, was descending at the time to Seoul's Incheon International Airport.

According to South Korea's main news agency, they fired 99 rifle rounds at the plane, but the aircraft was out of range, and landed unharmed.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, in Seoul, says the West Sea - which contains the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea - has been especially tense since two attacks on South Korea last year.

Relations between the two nations have been frosty ever since, with North Korea recently vowing to break ties with the South in retaliation for what it called "psychological warfare" against it.

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