Ex-Yugo Army Officer to Be Transfered to Hague Court

17/05/2003| IslamWeb

Former Yugoslav army officer Miroslav Radic, indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes committed in 1991 in the Croatian town of Vukovar, will be transfered to the Hague - based court later Saturday, his lawyer told AFP. "I can confirm" that Radic will travel to Amsterdam aboard a commercial flight scheduled for 7:00 am (0500 GMT), Borivoje Borovic said by phone. "Today (Saturday) he will be transfered after he voluntarily surrendered" last month, Borovic said. Radic and two other officers of the former Yugoslav army, Veselin Sljivancanin and Mile Mrksic, are accused of the massacre of more than 200 civilians in Vukovar in November 1991. More than 200 patients and civilians at the Vukovar hospital were killed during a brutal three-month siege of the eastern Croatian town by rebel Serbs backed by the then Yugoslav army. Mrksic surrendered last spring to the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Sljivancanin is still in hiding. Borovic said that Radic would be escorted by Serbian police in accordance to the transfer procedure. "I am an optimist and I believe that this is a case in which the prosecution will give up charges," Borovic told reporters at the airport shortly before aboarding the flight. Radic surrendered a few weeks after Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said several suspects had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the Vukovar massacre. "The participation and the responsibility for the massacre in Vukovar are almost entirely elucidated," Mihajlovic said on April 9, adding "new elements" had been uncovered in the case of the three. Mihajlovic said the investigation had shown some "local elements beyond control" were behind the crime and urged the two officers to surrender, promising "state protection and aid" to prove their innocence. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Croatian soldiers lead a march through Vukovar to mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of the town, once the prosperous Danube port on its eastern border, which became a symbol of the country's independence from former Yugoslavia (AFP)