War Crimes Tribunal Indicts 4 Bosnian Croats

The United Nations war crimes tribunal has indicted four wartime Bosnian Croat officials, who have agreed to surrender, a senior Croatian government official was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Deputy Justice Minister Jaksa Muljacic said all four would appear before the U.N. court Monday, the state news agency HINA reported.

Among the indicted are Slobodan Praljak, now a tobacco businessman, and Milivoj Petkovic, who still serves as chief inspector in Croatia’s armed forces. Both headed the Bosnian Croat militia during the 1993 war Croats waged against Bosnian Muslims in central and southern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The other two charged are Jadranko Prlic, former prime minister in the self-styled Bosnian Croat government, and Bruno Stojic, who was the defense minister.

The four are charged with persecution, murder and detention of Bosnian Muslims in prison camps during a drive to create a separate Croat state in Bosnia and annex it to Croatia proper, state television said.

The indictments come at a time when the Croatian government is trying to advance its bid for European Union membership by cooperating fully with the tribunal.

Croatia hopes to become a candidate for membership in June and start entry talks early next year, but its bid largely depends on meeting special political criteria designed to ease the effects of the Balkan wars that followed Yugoslavia’s disintegration in 1991.

Those include respect for ethnic minorities, cooperation with neighbors and full compliance with The Hague tribunal.