Former HVO commander Ivica Rajic, who had been living in the Croatian coastal town of Split in an apartment provided for him by Croatia's defense ministry, was handed over to officials of the U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands on Tuesday, ending his eight years in hiding from war crimes charges.

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Agence France-Presse
June 24, 2003 Tuesday

Bosnian Croat war crimes suspect transferred to UN court

STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG

THE HAGUE, June 24 (AFP) - Bosnian Croat wartime militia leader Ivica Rajic, charged with atrocities against Muslim civilians during the war in Bosnia, was handed over to the UN tribunal on Tuesday after almost eight years on the run.

Rajic, 45, who had been in hiding since the war crimes tribunal issued an indictment against him in August 1995, was arrested in April in the Croatian coastal town of Split, where he had been living under a false identity.

"The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirms that Ivica Rajic was transferred to the detention unit," the court said in a statement after he was flown to the Netherlands from Croatia.

Prosecutors at The Hague-based court charge that Rajic led a Bosnian Croat armed forces unit known as the HVO that attacked and razed the Muslim village of Stupni Do in central Bosnia in October 1993.

"When the attack was completed at least 16 members of the civilian population had been killed. The village was almost completely destroyed and the inhabitants who had not been killed were forced to flee," the indictment says.

The ICTY has charged Rajic with three counts of war crimes: wilful killing, destruction of property and a deliberate attack on the civilian population.

Bosnian Croats and Muslims, although allies against Bosnian Serbs during most of the 1992-1995 war, fought each other for 11 months of the conflict.

Croatia's former ruling nationalists offered military and political support to secessionist Bosnian Croats who wanted the Croat-dominated part of Bosnia to become part of Croatia.

After the war, which left the country divided into two semi-independent entities -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb-run Republika Srpska -- several Bosnian Croat war crimes suspects took refuge in Croatia.

They lived there under the protection of the former nationalist regime which gave many of them false identities. Croatian journalists reported that Rajic's apartment in Split was given to him by the Croatian defence ministry.

he pro-European coalition that took power in Croatia in January 2000 pledged to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal, with the government seeking to become a member of the European Union as early as 2007.

Rajic's arrest and transfer to the UN court comes amid increasing pressure from the international community and the court to do more to round up war crimes suspects.

Croatia's top fugitive suspect, retired general Ante Gotovina, is still at large after going into hiding when his indictment over his alleged role in atrocities in 1995 was made public two years ago.

Gotovina, 48, is accused over the massacre of 150 Serb civilians during a military operation in southern Croatia to reconquer Serb-held territory.He says he fled to collect evidence to prove his innocence and has said he is ready to speak with UN investigators.

The indictment against him and a number of other top Croatian officers have sparked outrage in the country as many see them as heroes and symbols of the country's fight for independence from the former Yugoslavia.

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The Associated Press
June 24, 2003 Tuesday

Bosnian Croat accused of war crimes is extradited to UN war crimes tribunal

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) -- A Bosnian Croat suspected of committing atrocities against Muslim civilians during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia was extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal, where he will face trial, police reported Tuesday.

Ivica Rajic, 45, who holds both Croatian and Bosnian citizenship, was arrested in Croatia in April, eight years after the court in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an indictment against him for allegedly ordering the slaughter of over a dozen Muslim civilians in a central Bosnian village.

Rajic was put on a commercial passenger flight bound for Amsterdam and handed over to U.N. officials, a statement issued by the tribunal said.

As a local commander of the Bosnian Croat militia, Rajic allegedly ordered an attack on the village of Stupni Do on Oct. 23, 1993, which left at least 16 Muslim civilians dead and the village of 260 a burnt-out ruin.

Zagreb's district court ruled in late April in favor of Rajic's extradition, but the transfer was suspended, pending his appeal to the Supreme Court. Rajic's attorneys had insisted that he should be tried in Croatia, even though the country is obliged to extradite suspects to The Hague.

The Supreme Court rejected the plea earlier this month, ruling that Rajic must be extradited. Croatia's pro-Western government has been making efforts to cooperate with The Hague court despite fierce protests from nationalists and war veterans.