GANGS dealing in prostitution and people-smuggling will find themselves in the sights of a new European Union military force when it takes over from Nato in Bosnia this week.

Major-General David Leakey, the British commander who will be in charge of the 7,000-strong European Force (Eufor), told The Times that organised crime was now the main stumbling block towards creating a proper democracy in the former Yugoslav republic.

Organised criminals who traffic in drugs, people and arms and are linked to political parties are also seen as the biggest obstacle to Bosnia’s chances of becoming a member of the EU. There is concern that Islamic militants are using Bosnia as an arms market and a recruiting ground for terrorist campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

With the takeover by the EU of all peacekeeping functions in Bosnia this Thursday, General Leakey said that there would be a more co-ordinated attempt to rid the country of endemic corruption and tribal divisions, as well as to maintain the peace that has been guaranteed by Nato since 1995. The EU is already the biggest investor in Bosnia.

“The networks of criminals pervade Bosnian society and my aim will be to provide the security environment in which the police can act against these people,” General Leakey said.

People-trafficking and prostitution are two of the biggest moneyspinners for criminals and the threat that they pose has spread from Bosnia to the rest of the region. It has been estimated that up to 100,000 women and children have been victims of the traffic in human beings in recent years, passing through Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. The women come from Bosnia itself, but also from countries such as Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.

Speaking from Sarajevo, where he has been setting up his headquarters since October, General Leakey said: “Nato succeeded in bringing stability to Bosnia in the nine years it was responsible for security in this country. What we now want to do is to move Bosnia further away from Dayton and closer to Brussels, but that means tackling the organised crime networks.”

He likened Bosnia to Northern Ireland, where tribal politics continued to play a large role, despite the cessation of violence. He said: “Bosnia looks like a normal democratic country in which the population is mostly contented. But underneath the crust of normality, tribal warfare is still there. There is no appetite for bloodshed, but it’s difficult to break down the divisions. This is where the EU and the inter- national community come in.”

General Leakey said that since Eufor was part of the EU family — unlike Nato — there would be more help to prepare Bosnia for eventual entry into the EU. However, organised criminals and the long-running problem with indicted war criminals still on the run in Bosnia had to be dealt with, he said, if Bosnia was going to make it into the EU.

General Leakey said that co-operation from the authorities in Bosnia was going to be vital if the last 20 indicted war criminals were to be captured, the most important of whom are Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, the former head of the Bosnian Serb army. Both have been indicted for war crimes, including genocide.

In July Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the former Liberal Democrat leader and now the international community’s High Representative in Bosnia, dismissed 60 officials in the Serbian Democratic Party, the ruling party in the Serb half of Bosnia, accusing them of sheltering and funding Dr Karadzic.

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