ZAGREB, April 4 (Hina) - Six former political and military officials of the so-called Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, whom the Hague war crimes tribunal indicted for crimes against humanity, violations of the law and customs of
war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will on Monday morning leave Croatia aboard a regular international flight to Amsterdam, where they will voluntarily surrender to representatives of the tribunal.
ZAGREB, April 4 (Hina) - Six former political and military officials of
the so-called Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, whom the Hague war
crimes tribunal indicted for crimes against humanity, violations of
the law and customs of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva
Conventions during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will on Monday
morning leave Croatia aboard a regular international flight to
Amsterdam, where they will voluntarily surrender to representatives of
the tribunal.#L#
Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Milivoj Petkovic, Slobodan Praljak,
Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic will be escorted by a member of the
Interpol office in Zagreb and their attorneys. After they surrender to
the Dutch police and representatives of the tribunal at Amsterdam's
Schipol airport, the indictees will be taken to the tribunal's
detention centre of Scheveningen. The date of their initial appearance
before the tribunal will be probably set during the day. According to
the tribunal's practice, initial appearances are usually made a day or
two after the arrival at the detention centre.
On April 2 the tribunal revealed the indictment against the six in the
part which refers to former Croatian Defence Council (HVO) commanders,
General Slobodan Praljak and General Milivoj Petkovic, and the former
prime minister and defence minister of the Croatian Republic of Herceg
Bosna, Jadranko Prlic and Bruno Stojic respectively. The part of the
indictment referring to the former commander of the HVO's Military
Police, Valentin Coric, and the former head of the Office for Missing
and Imprisoned Persons, Berislav Pusic, is still sealed.
Prlic, Stojic, Praljak and Petkovic are charged on the basis of
individual and command responsibility with 26 counts of expulsion,
destruction, killings, rape, and deportation of Muslims from the areas
of Prozor, Gornji Vakuf, Jablanica, Mostar, Ljubuski, Stolac, Capljina
and Vares. They are also charged with crimes against prisoners of war
in the prison camps Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela and others.
The indictment reads that the crimes were committed as part of a joint
criminal enterprise to expel Muslims and other non-Croats from the
area of Herceg Bosna with the aim of establishing a Great Croatia. The
prosecution maintains that former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman
and his closest associates Gojko Susak, Janko Bobetko and Mate Boban
were also involved in this enterprise.
(Hina) rml