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THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
                     (San Francisco, California)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                  February 26, 1998

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

Surrender of Bosnia War Criminal

We welcome the surrender of another indicted Bosnian Serb War Criminal February 24.

This is the third indictee to surrender in less than two weeks, bringing to 26 the number of indicted war criminals to face justice before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, fully half of whom chose to surrender. We hope other surrenders will follow.

These surrenders take place against a backdrop of dramatic progress in Bosnia, a trend which accelerated after the President's visit to Bosnia in December. The new pro-Dayton Government in Republika Srpska has done much to overcome hardline obstruction -- including setting the stage for the recent surrenders of indicted war criminals as well as a series of other very welcome developments such as resolution of long-standing disputes over a common flag, currency, license plate, and passport; resumption of inter-Entity mail deliveries and telecommunications; and initiatives on refugee returns in both Entities.

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