THE HAGUE, March 11 (Hina) - The Office of the Prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday welcomed the voluntary surrender of indicted Croatian generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, praising the Croatian
government and the accused for assistance in resolving the case quickly.
THE HAGUE, March 11 (Hina) - The Office of the Prosecutor of the UN war
crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday welcomed the voluntary
surrender of indicted Croatian generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac,
praising the Croatian government and the accused for assistance in
resolving the case quickly.#L#
Prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann welcomed the moves by the
Croatian government, saying that she expected Croatia to proceed
equally in meeting the rest of its commitments towards the tribunal.
Asked whether the surrender of Cermak and Markac would change the
overall assessment of Croatia's cooperation with the Prosecutor's
Office, Hartmann avoided a direct answer by saying that progress had
been made and that the surrender was an encouraging step.
This issue is settled. I expect Croatia to proceed with all other
requests made by the tribunal, she said briefly, referring to General
Ante Gotovina who has been on the run since mid 2001.
On March 8, the tribunal made public an indictment against Cermak and
Markac and an amended indictment against Gotovina.
Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told Hina that Cermak and Markac had
arrived at the tribunal's detention unit in the Scheveningen district
of The Hague on Thursday afternoon, and that their initial appearance
before the court was scheduled for 1430 hours on Friday.
Landale also welcomed the voluntary surrender of the accused generals
and said he expected the process of cooperation between the tribunal
and Croatia to continue.
(Hina) vm sb