Germany to Extradite Accused Serb : Balkans: Suspected of being murderous prison guard in Bosnia, he faces war crimes tribunal.

Germany agreed Friday to extradite a Bosnian Serb accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity, clearing the last legal hurdle before he can become the first defendant in an international war crimes trial in nearly half a century.

Germany said it will extradite Dusan Tadic, 38, to The Hague, where he has been indicted by the United Nations’ War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslav federation.

Tadic entered Germany claiming to be a refugee from the war-ravaged former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Police in Munich arrested him after other refugees, Bosnian Muslims, said he had killed at least 32 people and tortured 61 others at the notorious Omarska detention camp in northwestern Bosnia.

German authorities believe that Tadic, a karate instructor in prewar times, was the Omarska guard who made international news in 1992 by reportedly beating three Omarska prisoners unconscious, tossing them into a ditch filled with motor oil, then ordering a fourth prisoner to bite off their testicles.

Tadic has denied being present at the camp, which was discovered and publicized by international journalists in August, 1992.

The Omarska prisoners had been brought to the camp, situated in a former iron mine, after the Bosnian Serb-led “ethnic cleansing” of the predominantly Muslim town of Kozarac. Survivors of the fighting in Kozarac have also alleged that Tadic helped torch Muslim homes and that he organized gang rapes of Muslim women.

Germany charged Tadic with genocide, aggravated assault and murder. But his extradition had been held up because Germany had no law covering Tadic’s unique legal situation as a non-German accused of committing crimes against humanity outside Germany.

And delicate historical and diplomatic considerations appear to have made German officials less than eager to rush legislation through.

During World War II, a German-backed fascist regime in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia was responsible for murdering tens of thousands of Serbs, who doggedly resisted the Nazis.

And, because the world’s most recent international war crimes trials were established to prosecute Germans at the end of World War II, this country has been notably shy about accusing other countries’ citizens of crimes against humanity.

But the upper house of the German Parliament approved the necessary extradition law late in March, clearing the way for Friday’s announcement.

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Tadic is one of 22 suspects who have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. He is the only one to be taken into custody so far.

Officials said prosecutors in Munich, where Tadic is jailed, will decide when he will be extradited.

Many of the other suspects are believed to be at large in the Serbian rebel-held territories of Bosnia, where they are virtually impossible to apprehend.

The tribunal, set up by the U.N. Security Council in May, 1993, is not authorized to convict anybody in absentia.

Thus, Tadic will be the first defendant in an international war crimes trial since the late-1940s trials of German and Japanese wartime leaders, convened in Nuremberg and Tokyo.

If convicted, Tadic could be sentenced to life in prison. There is no death penalty under the rules of the U.N. tribunal.

Convicting him of genocide will require proving not only that he committed the many murders and assaults with which he is charged, but also that he committed them with the intent to destroy Bosnian Muslims as a group.

Tadic’s trial is considered a test case that will help determine the effectiveness of the U.N. tribunal, as well as the willingness of the international community to bring war criminals from the former Yugoslav federation to justice.

There have been calls to reach higher up into the Bosnian Serb leadership, prosecuting not only guards such as Tadic but ranking military officers and even leading civilian politicians.