Global Policy Forum

By Marlise Simons

The Bosnian Serb government, which has until now refused all cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal here, said today that it was willing to arrest indicted suspects, though some legal hurdles have to be surmounted. Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic of the Bosnian Serb republic, who arrived today for a visit to the tribunal, said his government was "ready for extradition" of suspects on the tribunal's wanted list.

Mr. Ivanic's surprising announcement appeared to be closing the net around the two most wanted Bosnian Serbs, Dr. Radovan Karadzic, the wartime political leader, and his senior military official, Gen. Ratko Mladic. Beside Slobodan Milosevic, those two men have long been the most notorious suspects sought by the tribunal, which has indicted them on charges of genocide and other crimes in the Bosnian war. Their arrests are not imminent, not only because the legal framework is not in place for their capture, but also because their whereabouts are unknown, Mr. Ivanic said.

The Bosnian delegation arrived a day after Mr. Milosevic's first appearance in court, where he scoffed at the judges who will eventually decide his fate. Tribunal officials insisted that the official visit of the Bosnian Serbs, which begins on Thursday, has been the subject of long negotiations and that the date was fixed more than two months ago. But Mr. Ivanic said today, "The fact that Mr. Milosevic is here is a completely new situation."

Earlier in the day, a spokeswoman for the tribunal's prosecutor said the Bosnian Serb republic was the "last safe haven" in the Balkans for indicted war crimes fugitives. "More than 20 indicted fugitives are living there," she said. "And the authorities know where some of them are."

At a brief news conference after his arrival, Mr. Ivanic said his government presented a draft law on Tuesday that set in motion the process to turn over indicted suspects. He described legal steps that sounded similar to those that preceded the handover of Mr. Milosevic to The Hague. In the last week, Bosnian press reports have said that Mr. Ivanic had been in touch several times with Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic of Serbia, the official who arranged Mr. Milosevic's handover. Mr. Ivanic said that after the draft law had been accepted, it would require approval from the Supreme Court to go into effect. "Then I think, practically, there is no alternative but to do the job," he said. "That means to arrest the people."

With Mr. Milosevic, who is behind bars awaiting trial before the tribunal here, the focus of the chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has clearly shifted to others who have long been wanted in connection with a variety of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

After her meetings with the Bosnian Serbs, Mrs. Del Ponte is to travel Friday to Zagreb, Croatia, where she is to see Prime Minister Ivica Racan to try to speed up arrests of indicted suspects there.

The Croatian news media today reported that part of the agenda would be to determine the fate of several top Croatian officials whose indictments may still be secret. Mrs. Del Ponte's office declined to specify the purpose of her trip.

Croatia, which has been under strong political and economic pressure from the West, has pledged to improve its rather slow cooperation. Zagreb has handed over some suspects. But it has not arrested any of the top military or political officials whom the tribunal wants to try on war crimes reportedly committed in the 1990's wars that broke up Yugoslavia.

The reports from Croatia suggest that the prosecutor will demand the arrests of three Croatian generals. Two are suspected of being responsible for killing hundreds of Serbian civilians in a military operation in 1995.

According to Mrs. Del Ponte's office, 38 suspects who have been indicted on war crimes charges remain at large. Of those, 25 have been publicly indicted. They include Croats, Serbs and Bosnian Serbs. An additional 13 indictments exist, but remain sealed; the names of those charged are not known.