|
U.N. War Crimes Tribunal Indicts Former Bosnian Serb President
THE HAGUE (News Agencies) - The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia formally indicted former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic on Wednesday after she surrendered to the court, a court spokesman said here.
"I confirm that Ms. Plavsic was the object of a sealed indictment and has surrendered this morning to the tribunal," spokesman Christian Chartier told a press conference.
Plavsic, the first woman to be indicted on charges stemming from the Bosnian conflict, was charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity dating back to 1991 and 1992, the spokesman said.
During that period, she was a close ally to then-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who remains at large despite a similar long-standing indictment.
Plavsic, president from 1996-98, is the highest-ranking politician to face charges brought by the tribunal, set up to track down and prosecute perpetrators of atrocities committed during the conflict that led to the former Yugoslavia's break-up.
Plavsic, 70, is set to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the first time on Thursday at 1000 GMT, the spokesman added. She is expected to enter a plea at that time.
The former biology teacher was on the ICTY's secret list of suspects. Those on the list are only revealed once they have been arrested and indicted.
Carla del Ponte, the ICTY's chief prosecutor, said the indictment was issued under seal on April 7, 2000, for crimes committed jointly with former Bosnian Serb assembly leader Momcilo Krajisnik.
Krajisnik, who has been in ICTY custody since April, is accused of being responsible for genocide committed against Bosnia's non-Serb population.
Del Ponte said she would seek a joint trial for Plavsic and Krajisnik.
Plavsic reportedly flew to The Hague on Tuesday, according to friends and officials in her party.
She surrendered freely and willingly, said Del Ponte, who appeared at the press conference along with Krstan Simic, Plavsic's chief attorney.
The NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia hailed Plavsic's surrender on Wednesday, with a SFOR spokesman calling it a "courageous decision".
She was reportedly told of her indictment last month by the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, the daily Nezavisne Novine reported Wednesday.
Many considered Plavsic lucky to have escaped indictments similar to those leveled against Karadzic and former Bosnian army commander Ratko Mladic for so long, as she was part of the Bosnian Serb high command from the earliest stages of the 1992-95 conflict.
An ultranationalist who openly accepted ethnic cleansing during the conflict, Plavsic trod a more moderate line after she was elected president of the Bosnian Serb entity, one of two Bosnian government bodies, in 1996.
She later condemned Karadzic as corrupt and began cooperating with the West, a stance that won development aid for Bosnian Serbs and made her a key contact for international negotiators.
Plavsic slowly disappeared from public life after an ultranationalist candidate defeated her in elections held in 1998. She gave up her seat in the Bosnian Serb parliament on December 14th.
Karadzic and Mladic - along with ousted hardline Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic and former Yugoslav defense minister Dragoljub Ojdanic - are wanted by the ICTY on war crimes charges but are still at large.
"I call upon Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and all other persons similarly indicted to adopt the same course" as Plavsic and surrender, del Ponte said.
|
