Bosnian Croat Suspect Agrees to Surrender to War Crimes Tribunal

A top Bosnian Croat, Dario Kordic, has agreed to surrender to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak said Sunday.

Kordic joins nine other Bosnian Croats who announced through one of their lawyers Friday that they would leave for The Hague as a group today to face charges stemming from the 3 1/2-year war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which ended in 1995.

“After we got the guarantees from the United States, we sent messages to all indictees through all possible channels, and 10 of them, including Dario Kordic, have responded. . . . I think this act has come at a right time,” Susak told state television.

The television report said all will plead not guilty on all charges.

Kordic has been accused in the massacre of Muslims in central Bosnia.

Susak is the most powerful man in Croatia after President Franjo Tudjman and is widely believed to wield considerable influence over hard-line Bosnian Croats in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia, where he was born.

With two Croats already in The Hague, the surrender would leave at large only one senior Croat who has been indicted for alleged war crimes, Ivica Rajic. Most of the other suspects, including 57 Bosnian Serbs and three Muslims, have yet to appear before the tribunal.