Global Policy Forum

A Croatian general has arrived in the Netherlands to surrender to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. General Rahim Ademi has said he will co-operate fully with the tribunal, where he will make his first court appearance on Thursday.

The charge sheet against him covers crimes against humanity and violations of the rules of war alleged to have taken place during the so-called Homeland war between the Croatian army and ethnic Serbs. The general is one of two officers whose extradition the court has requested from Croatia under sealed indictment. He will be the first Croatian to appear before the tribunal.

Military dress

General Ademi boarded a scheduled flight from Zagreb to Amsterdam on Wednesday morning dressed in full military regalia and accompanied by his wife and lawyer. His two daughters were at the airport to say goodbye. "I am going to The Hague voluntarily and with a clear conscience, because I did not order any atrocities during the Homeland war," he told reporters as he left.

A Dutch police car and two vans with tinted windows met his plane as it arrived at Schipol airport to take him into custody at the Scheveningen remand centre, where former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is being held.

'Innocent'

General Ademi will plead not guilty to the charges of alleged atrocities committed during Croatia's 1993 operations, led by General Ademi, to recapture areas taken by rebel Serbs. The Hague charge sheet specifically accuses him of murder, persecution and the plunder of property. But the general denies any wrong-doing. "I am proud of my role in the war," he said, adding, "I took care of civilians and prisoners of war".

Croatian authorities are trying to hunt down the second Croatian indictee, widely believed to be General Ante Gotovina. He is thought to be charged with killing hundreds of Serbs during the Croatian war.

Divisive issue

The war crimes issue has split Croatian opinion and sparked a revolt by nationalists in parliament against Prime Minister Ivica Racan's pro-Western government. Observers say General Ademi's voluntary surrender may help ease pressure on the government which faced, and survived, a no-confidence vote earlier this month. But many Croats still find it hard to believe any ill of the men who led the four-year war against Yugoslav-backed Serb rebels following Croatia's 1991 declaration of independence.