RADIC LIKELY TO BE EXTRADITED TO HAGUE NEXT WEEK - SERBIA MINISTER

BELGRADE, May 10 (Hina) - Former officer Miroslav Radic, charged with war crimes in eastern Croatia's Vukovar in 1991, could be turned over to the U.N. tribunal at The Hague next week, Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's minister for ethnic communities and national minorities, said on Saturday, Radio B92 reported. #L# The procedure envisaged by the law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal in the case of Radic, an ex-officer of socialist Yugoslavia's army (JNA), is in the final stage, Ljajic said, adding it should be completed by the end of next week. The minister did not rule out that two other indictees might also be extradited to the Hague court next week -- Jovica Stanisic, the former chief of Serbia's state security, and Franko Simatovic aka Frenki, the founder and ex-commander of the special operations units, the so-called Red Berets. Stanisic and Simatovic were arrested in March. They are suspected in connection with war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. Former JNA officer Mile Mrksic, the second accused of the Vukovar crimes, voluntarily surrendered to the Hague tribunal last spring. The third indictee, Veselin Sljivancanin, is still at large, despite Belgrade's appeals that he turn himself in. (hina) ha