By Alen Mlatisuma
Associated PressOctober 18, 2001
A former Yugoslav army general charged with destroying much of an ancient town during the Croatian war plans to surrender to the U.N. war crimes court this week, his lawyer said Thursday.
Retired Gen. Pavle Strugar, 68, and three other former Yugoslav army and naval officers are accused of murder, plunder and the destruction of nearly 70 percent of Dubrovnik in an attempt to incorporate the 17th century town into Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.
The bombardment began after Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, setting off a decade of wars in the Balkans.
Strugar, who would be the first Yugoslav citizen to voluntarily surrender to the Netherlands-based court, has said he wants to prove his innocence in front of the tribunal.
"In contacts with the tribunal we agreed that, if nothing goes wrong, the transfer will be made on Sunday," lawyer Goran Rodic said.
Strugar, 68, said earlier this month that he was ready to surrender. He was later hospitalized with kidney problems and has so far spent 20 days in the hospital in Podgorica. Rodic said Strugar "insists" on going to The Hague as soon as possible, but the surrender might have to be postponed if doctors say the former general is unfit to travel.
Adm. Miodrag Jokic, 66, Adm. Milan Zec, 58, and Capt. Vladimir Kovacevic, 40, were named by the court as the other suspects along with Strugar. They are believed to be hiding in Serbia.
Strugar has lived in Podgorica, the capital of the smaller Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, since retiring from the Yugoslav army in August 1993.
During the siege that lasted until early December 1991, at least 43 civilians were killed and 563 buildings destroyed or damaged in the Old Town, formerly a U.N. World Heritage Site, the indictment said.
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