War Crimes Suspects Are Flown to Hague

After months of secret negotiations with U.S. officials, one of the most notorious war crimes suspects to emerge from the Bosnian conflict surrendered Monday with nine of his comrades-in-arms, to await international trial.

Dario Kordic, the most senior Bosnian Croat leader under indictment, and nine other Bosnian Croats were taken by Dutch military aircraft from Croatia to The Hague, where they face prosecution for crimes against humanity and related charges stemming from the 1993 massacres of hundreds of Muslim civilians in Bosnia’s Lasva Valley.

The surrenders marked a long-sought breakthrough in the repeatedly stymied efforts of international officials to bring war criminals to justice, and they were expected to give a significant boost to the flagging Bosnian peace process.

Kordic was the most wanted Bosnian Croat suspect publicly named by the international war crimes tribunal formed to prosecute those accused of wartime murders, rapes and torture committed in the former Yugoslav federation. He is accused of masterminding the formation of paramilitary squads ordered to “kill, terrorize or demoralize” Muslims, according to the indictment.

Kordic, 36, lived openly and comfortably in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, and in Bosnia long after his indictment, thanks to protection from Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and other government officials who--until now--stubbornly resisted U.S. pressure.

“Those who surrendered today will be assured a fair trial and due process,” said Robert Gelbard, the U.S. special envoy to Bosnia, who brokered the hand-over. “Their willingness to appear voluntarily . . . is an example other indictees would be well advised to follow.”

In recent months, U.S. officials have stepped up their demands that Tudjman fulfill his part of the Bosnian peace accords that require him to hand over suspects indicted by the Hague tribunal. Washington blocked several loans to Croatia from international lenders.

The political and diplomatic screws were also being tightened. In September, Washington urged the Council of Europe to suspend Croatia’s membership.

Finally, the specter of a violent snatch by Western troops apparently drove seven of the Bosnian Croat suspects into secret negotiations to surrender in exchange for guarantees of a swift trial. Eventually all 10 agreed to go to The Hague in exchange for a promise that their prosecutions will begin within three to five months.

In Washington on Monday, the Clinton administration welcomed the surrenders and indicated that the United States will reward Croatia by supporting the government’s requests for financial assistance. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said that when the United States decides how to vote on Croatian requests to international financial institutions, “we will take this welcome event into account.”

Sources said Gelbard offered concessions such as speedy prosecution, although it remains unclear how the already overtaxed tribunal--with only two courtrooms--can handle a large trial caseload. Monday’s surrenders double the number of indictees in tribunal custody.

Almost all of more than 50 suspects still at large are Serbs--a fact that will put enormous additional pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The Serbs’ long-standing argument that the tribunal unfairly targets Serbs will be harder to sustain.

Milosevic refuses to hand over indicted former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, his military commander, Ratko Mladic, and other fugitives, including at least four who live in Yugoslavia.

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Gelbard, after watching the Bosnian Croats surrender at an Adriatic airstrip in Split, Croatia, flew later Monday to Belgrade, capital of both Serbia and the rump Yugoslavia, for talks with Milosevic. But the U.S. envoy said he failed to persuade Milosevic, who is reeling from election reversals over the weekend, to cooperate.

Milosevic’s handpicked successor for the Serbian presidency apparently lost a Sunday vote to an ultranationalist whom Gelbard on Monday night branded a backward fascist the United States will not be able to work with. A new election must be held, however, because of Sunday’s low turnout.

Most of the Bosnian Croats who surrendered Monday have lived openly in the same areas they are accused of “ethnically cleansing”--towns around the central Bosnian city of Vitez that were once Muslim. They are accused of the “systematic and wanton” bombing and torching of at least 14 Muslim villages in 1993 and of herding thousands of Muslims into detention camps, all under Kordic’s direction. Hundreds of people were killed, according to the indictment.

At the village of Ahmici, in an incident also included in the indictment, reports at the time said that 100 Muslim homes were torched by Kordic’s men. Many families were burned alive.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.