As soon as word reached Louise Arbour of a civilian massacre in Kosovo in January, she arranged to travel to the Serbian province to investigate.

Having won the first conviction for genocide in Rwanda and secured dozens of arrests for Balkan war crimes, the United Nations' chief war crimes prosecutor is viewed as a formidable foe. Her tactics, particularly sealing indictments prior to arrest, have earned her few friends in Belgrade.

This may explain why Yugoslav authorities denied the 51-year-old French-Canadian judge admittance to Kosovo when she attempted to enter the province to investigate the scene of the massacre near the village of Racak.

Arbour declines to reveal whether Yugoslav President President Slobodan Milosevic is on her wanted list of war criminals.

Her standard response: "Our policy is to pursue cases that lead us to the highest military and political level."