Two War Crimes Suspects To Surrender
Two key suspects of the U.N. war crimes court said Monday that they would surrender to the tribunal, just hours before a Yugoslav government deadline expired for 23 people to turn themselves in or face arrest.
Lawyers for former army commander, Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, and former Croatian Serb rebel leader, Milan Martic, submitted surrender papers to the Yugoslav Justice Ministry just before the midday deadline elapsed.
Ojdanic, who commanded the army during the 1999 NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, is charged by the court in The Hague, Netherlands, with alleged war crimes in Kosovo during a Serb crackdown in which 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were deported from their homes and thousands were killed.
"Martic...will face up to his responsibility and is willing to explain both to The Hague tribunal and his people everything that happened," lawyer Starhinja Kastratovic told the Tanjug news agency.
Martic was a leader of Serbs in Croatia, who rebelled when the republic seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991. As Croatian forces regained rebel-held territories, Martic allegedly ordered retaliatory missile fire against the Croatian capital, Zagreb, that killed several civilians in 1995.
Since his indictment by the U.N. court in 1995, Martic has been hiding in Bosnia and Serbia.
Vojislav Selezan, Ojdanic's lawyer, told The Associated Press that "the departure of my client to The Hague has been agreed," but that guarantees must be provided granting the former general freedom pending trial.
The federal parliament earlier this month passed a law regulating extraditions and other forms of cooperation with the U.N. court and granting privileges for those who surrender.
Government officials have published a list of 23 suspects wanted by the court. Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic suggested that all of them would be hunted down if they do not surrender.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic — the No. 1 war crimes suspect at large — and his top general, Ratko Mladic, are on the list, as is the current Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic. There was no sign that either Karadzic, believed hiding in Bosnia, nor Mladic, reported to be near Belgrade, planned to surrender voluntarily before the deadline expired.
Deputy federal justice minister Nebojsa Sarkic said Monday that after the deadline expired, the authorities will publish a list of those who say they will surrender voluntarily.