HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[It is interesting to note that Milan Babic was never indicted by the ICTY, who unlike Milan Martic, could really be accused of being a nationalist in the Auntonomna Pokrajina Srpske Krajine (APSK) and then latter the Republika Srpske Krajine (RSK) leadership. Martic's only crime it seems was to have been more loyal to Milosevic than the Western intelligence services that probably tried to buy him off.]
War Crimes Suspects May Surrender
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Six Serbs indicted by the U.N. war crimes court said they were ready to surrender to the tribunal as a government deadline expired for 23 suspects to turn themselves in or face arrest, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.
Among the six who agreed to surrender are three top suspects: former Yugoslav army commander Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, former deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic and former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic.
The 17 other suspects listed by the tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, declined to surrender by a Monday deadline and now face possible arrest and extradition, the ministry said in a statement.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - the No. 1 war crimes suspect at large - and his top general, Ratko Mladic, are among the 17, as is current Serbian President Milan Milutinovic.
Karadzic is healthy and busy writing books at an undisclosed location, including a book of poetry for children and his entire wartime correspondence, his friends and associates said Monday in Belgrade.
Miroslav Toholj, former information minister in the Bosnian Serb wartime government, presented one Karadzic book, ``Sitovacija'' (The Situation), which he described as a ``light, amusing stage play'' that ``ridicules global manipulators.''
Under a threat of U.S. economic sanctions, 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, including the possibility that they would stay free pending their trials.
Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said Tuesday that the guarantees will be given only after the suspects turn themselves in to The Hague tribunal.
Ojdanic, who commanded the army during the 1999 NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, and Sainovic, a security adviser to then-President Slobodan Milosevic, were charged by The Hague court along with Milosevic with war crimes in Kosovo during a Serb crackdown in the province. About 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were deported from their homes and thousands were killed.
Milosevic, who was extradited to The Hague last June in a handover that his allies called illegal, has been indicted on 66 counts of war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
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.
The other three men who agreed to surrender are former army officers Mile Mrksic and Vladimir Kovacevic, and former Bosnian Serb prison guard Momcilo Gruban.
The Justice Ministry said did not specify a timeframe for the surrender. But Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said some of the six could be heading to The Hague ``in the next few days.''
The general secretary of Milosevic's Socialist party, Zoran Andjelkovic, confirmed Tuesday that Sainovic, a ranking party official, will surrender to The Hague. He added that Sainovic is doing this under the ``government pressure.''
04/23/02 10:42 EDT
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