An ethnic Serb, Nikola "Nicholas" Ribich was born in Alberta, Canada and fought in the Bosnian Serb Army for several years. In 1995, he took four United Nations peacekeepers hostage and used them as a human shield to try to force a halt to the ongoing bombing of Bosnia by NATO forces.
He was the first Canadian to be prosecuted for a hostage-taking committed outside the country.[1][2]
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Ribich travelled to Serbia in 1992, ostensibly because he "want[ed] to fight Muslims".[2]
On May 24, 1995, British General Rupert Smith, leading a United Nations contingent, warned both the Bosnians and Serbs in Pale to cease street fighting and shelling, or risk an air strike from NATO aircraft. The Serbian faction ignored the warning, and was hit by a retaliatory airstrike which dropped two bombs on their base ten kilometres south of the city the next day.[2]
The day after the bombs were dropped, Ribich and other Bosnian Serbs walked into the United Nations office with AK-47s and took several staff members hostage, including Russians Capt. Zidlik and Capt. Pavel Teterevsk, and Canadian Capt. Patrick Rechner. They demanded that Major Guy Lavender phone Smith, and subsequently warned the General that bombing of Serb targets had to cease or the hostages would be killed.[2][3]
The hostages were taken to the Serbian base south of the city, where Rechner was handcuffed to a lightning rod outside a warehouse being used to store mortar rounds. Ribich then allegedly phoned the United Nations and warned that "The three UN observers are at the site of the warehouse. Any more bombings, they'll be the first to go.".[2]
The prisoners were noted to have been "treated well" during their confinement,[4] and were voluntarily returned to the United Nations office on June 18.[2]
In 2000, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police traced Ribich down to his new home in Germany, and he was arrested in February. Nine months later, he was extradited to face charges in Canada,[1][5] where he was defended by lawyer D'Arcy DePoe.[6]
His trial began in October 2002,[2] However, the trial unraveled three months later when judge Douglas Cunningham declared a mistrial after only nine days of testimony.[2]
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