THE HAGUE, April 5 (Hina) - Six Bosnian Croat wartime leaders charged with war crimes arrived at the detention centre of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday, tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told Hina by telephone.
THE HAGUE, April 5 (Hina) - Six Bosnian Croat wartime leaders charged
with war crimes arrived at the detention centre of the UN war crimes
tribunal in The Hague on Monday, tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told
Hina by telephone.#L#
Jadranko Prlic, former prime minister of the defunct self-styled
Croatian Republic of Herceg Bosna (HR HB); Slobodan Praljak and
Milivoj Petkovic, former commanders of the Croatian Defence Council
(HVO); Bruno Stojic, former HR HB defence minister; Valentin Coric,
former HVO Military Police commander; and Berislav Pusic, former head
of the HR HB Office for Detainees and Missing Persons; are charged on
the basis of individual and command responsibility with crimes against
humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of
the law and customs of war committed through the expulsion of
thousands of Muslims, destruction, killings, rape and deportation of
the Muslim population from the areas of Prozor, Gornji Vakuf,
Jablanica, Mostar, Ljubuski, Stolac, Capljina and Vares, as well as
with crimes committed against prisoners in a number of detention
centres, including Heliodrom, Dretelj and Gabela.
The six are most likely to make their first appearance in court at
1430 hours on Tuesday to enter their pleas. Landale said that the
exact time was expected to be set on Monday afternoon.
Asked to comment on the fact that the Croatian government ensured the
voluntary surrender of eight Croat indictees from Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina in less than a month, Landale said that the
voluntary surrender of the six former Bosnian Croat military and
political leaders was a positive sign of Croatia's cooperation with
the tribunal.
Retired Croatian Army generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac
voluntarily surrendered to the Hague tribunal on March 11.
(Hina) vm