NALETILIC'S OPERATION POSTPONED UNTIL ARRIVAL OF MEDICAL MATERIAL

ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - An operation which Mladen Naletilic Tuta was to undergo on Wednesday has been postponed as necessary medical material is still kept at the customs. The operation of his right coronary artery will be performed as soon as the material arrives at the hospital, the Zagreb-based clinic where Naletilic is being treated, reported today. He should have had this operation in December last year, but the surgery had to be delayed due a virosis from which he suffered at the time. Naletilic has been accused by the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of war crimes he committed as the commander of the so-called convicts' battalion in the Mostar area (Bosnia-Herzegovina) under control of the Croat Defence Council (HVO). The indictment alleges that he committed crimes against humanity, violated the Geneva Convention and breached war laws and customs in 1993. After Croatia's Supreme Court ruled in favour of Naletilic's transfer to the Hague, his extradition was postponed due to his poor health condition. A doctors' team of the ICTY examined Naletilic in November last year and confirmed that he was in poor health state. (hina) ms