In the statement, which was carried by all Bosnian electronic media, McNair said the indictment referred to former Bosnian Presidency member Ante Jelavic, former president of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina Ivo Andric Luzanski, former federal defence minister Miroslav Prce, former senior officials of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Marko Tokic and Zdravko Batinic, Petar Milic of the Croatian Christian Democrats, and retired General Dragan Curcic, former deputy commander of the federal army.
The officials are charged with declaring Croat self-governance in Croat-dominated parts of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and with threatening the constitutional order, while Jelavic, Prce and Curcic are also charged with the attempted disbanding of the federal army.
Under the indictment, the accused tried to change the country's constitutional order and carve out a part of Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory.
Jelavic and Prce were previously indicted for abuse of office in the case of Hercegovacka Banka from Mostar and are in a prison near Sarajevo awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin on September 23.
Other indictees are at liberty.
McNair is also presiding over the trial of Jelavic and Prce in the case of Hercegovacka Banka, but he did not say if he intended to join the two trials.
The project of Croat self-governance was launched after national parties lost the general elections in Bosnia in 2000 and the Social Democratic Party-led opposition formed a wide coalition which took over authority.
Ministerial posts belonging to Croats, including the post of defence minister of the Croat-Muslim federation, were allocated mostly to members of the New Croatian Initiative led by Kresimir Zubak.
Claiming that they were the only ones with the right to represent the Bosnian Croat people, HDZ officials called on Croats to demonstrate disobedience to entity and state authorities, which included the instruction to Croat members of the federal army to abandon their units.
In an extremely tense atmosphere, direct conflicts between HDZ supporters in the army and army members loyal to the newly-elected authorities were narrowly avoided.
The project of Croat self-governance was thwarted by a decisive action of international representatives and Jelavic was removed from his post in the state presidency.