2 Indicted on War Crimes Extradited to The Hague

Two Muslim prison camp officials accused of murdering and raping Bosnian Serb inmates were extradited Thursday to stand trial before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The Bosnian government transferred Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo to the Netherlands, marking the first time that a signatory of the Dayton, Ohio, peace accord has extradited suspects indicted on war crimes charges.

The agreement requires the former warring parties to surrender war crimes suspects for trial. Serbia refuses to hand over its nationals. Croatia arrested an indicted suspect last weekend but has not yet extradited anyone.

So although the U.N. court has indicted 57 people, only a small number of suspects are in custody in The Hague. Delic and Landzo make nine. The two will enter pleas Tuesday at separate arraignments, the tribunal said.

The extradition came as a North Atlantic Treaty Organization conference opened in Florence, Italy, to review the progress of the peace accord and to decide whether to extend the peace mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina into next year.

Troops with the NATO-led peace force escorted the two suspects to the Sarajevo airport. Bosnian officials said both men have criminal records, and both were convicted by a Bosnian military court in the wartime murder of a Muslim man.

During the war, Delic was a deputy commander of a government prison camp in Celebici, in southern Bosnia. Landzo was a guard. Former Bosnian Serb prisoners have accused them of numerous murders and rapes at the camp during 1992.

Landzo and Delic were indicted March 22 along with two others, a Muslim and a Croat, for their alleged roles at Celebici. The other suspects--Zejnil Delalic and Zdravko Mucic--are already in tribunal custody. Delalic and Mucic pleaded innocent.