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Three Bosnian Muslim Officers To Face U.N. War Crimes Court
SARAJEVO, Aug 3 (News Agencies) - Three senior Bosnian Muslim officers charged with murdering Croats during the Bosnian war were headed for The Hague Friday to be turned over to authorities from the U.N. war crimes tribunal, a lawyer told the French news agency AFP.
Retired generals Mehmed Alagic and Enver Hadzihasanovic, and Brigadier Amir Kubura "decided to surrender to the tribunal voluntarily and they are on their way to The Hague," Asim Crnalic, a defense lawyer representing Alagic told AFP.
The three "boarded a helicopter in the headquarters of SFOR [NATO-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia]" near the Sarajevo airport, said Crnalic, who accompanied his client to the base.
Crnalic said that he did not know in which direction the helicopter flew after leaving the SFOR base.
An SFOR spokesman in Sarajevo, Captain Andrew Coxhead, said he was not aware of any details of the transfer of the three.
But a source close to the Muslim-Croat government, who insisted on anonymity, said that the three "were most likely" taken to the SFOR base in the northern town of Tuzla from where they would be flown to The Hague.
Meanwhile, the Muslim-Croat Federation government in Sarajevo issued a statement confirming that the three were on their way to The Hague.
"The Supreme Court of the Muslim-Croat federation has decided to cease the detention ahead of extradition" for Alagic, Hadzihasanovic and Kubura "as the three decided to voluntarily turn themselves in," the statement issued by the Muslim-Croat federation government said.
Alagic, Hadzihasanovic and Kubura headed towards Sarajevo airport from where they have left for The Hague with the assistance of SFOR, the statement said.
Shortly before 5 p.m. (10 a.m. EST), the three officers were seen leaving the Supreme Court building in the center of Sarajevo, accompanied by their lawyers.
They were taken in separate police cars in the direction of the Sarajevo airport. Crnalic said they would board a flight for the Netherlands in the afternoon.
The three officers were indicted by the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of murder allegedly committed during the Bosnian war by foreign Muslim fighters under their command, a U.N. tribunal official said.
They were wanted in connection with "murders, inhumane treatment causing great suffering, wanton destruction and illegal detention," ICTY spokesman Jim Landale said.
Most notably, the officers were in command of "Mujahadeen, or holy war fighters," Landale said.
Alagic, who was on trial for corruption by local authorities, was a commander of the 7th Corps of the Muslim-led army during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He was detained in the western town of Sanski Most early Thursday.
Hadzihasanovic was a commander of the 3rd Corps, while Kubura had been commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade, based in the central town of Zenica.
The three had been named under sealed indictments, which Bosnian Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said were given to the foreign ministry four days ago.
On Friday, the president of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, Mirko Sarovic, said that the arrest of the Bosnian Muslim officers charged with war crimes might positively affect the attitudes of Bosnian Serbs to The Hague tribunal.
Many Bosnian Serbs have expressed their contempt for the international court due to what they felt was a bias against Serbs in judging crimes committed during the Balkan wars.
Sarovic said on television that a change of attitude by his people "would depend on the number of suspects and persons arrested by the ICTY charged with crimes against the Bosnian Serb populace."
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, the two men most wanted by The Hague, are said to be in hiding in Republika Srpska. They have been indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their alleged role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when more than 7,000 Muslims were murdered.
Sarovic said it was very important that in its investigations and indictments the ICTY in future observes a balance between all parties involved in the 1992-95 conflict, whether Muslims, Serbs or Croats.
The Dayton peace accords that ended Bosnia's war left the country divided into two entities - the Serbian Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation, with a central presidency, parliament and government.
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