PERISIC: I WILL VOLUNTARILY SURRENDER TO HAGUE

BELGRADE, Nov 29 (Hina) - Serbian vice premier Momcilo Perisic said on Thursday he would voluntarily surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) if the ICTY requested his extradition. "If I become a 'patient' of the Hague-based tribunal I will resign to the duty of Serbian vice premier and I will voluntarily surrender to the ICTY. And as for Croatians, they have sentenced me to 20 years in prison, but there is no chance that I will report to Croatia and assume responsibility for what I have been accused," Perisic told local television station "Palma plus" from Jagodine. The interview was cited by Belgrade-based news agency Beta. In 1988 Perisic was the Yugoslav Army Chief-of-Staff and at the beginning of the war in Croatia he was commander of the Yugoslav Army artillery centre in Zemunik near the southern Croatian town of Zadar. Croatia indicted Perisic for crimes against civilians. He was appointed one of seven Serbian vice premiers as the president of the Movement for Democratic Serbia, one of the ruling DOS coalition parties. In Zoran Djindjic's government, Perisic is in charge of national security issues. (hina) it sb