MORNING NEWS 15.5.2002.
Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic and former JNA officer
Mile Mrksic have surrendered to the ICTY and have been taken
to custody at the Scheveningen prison. It is still not clear when they are to enter their pleas.
Martic has been indicted for the rocketing of Zagreb in 1995,
while Mrksic has been indicted for war crimes committed in Vukovar
in 1991.Prior to leaving Belgrade, Mrksic did not speak to the
press, while Martic said he was innocent and would be back soon
if the ICTY is a just court.
The ICTY spokesperson Florence Hartmann has stated that the
ICTY prosecution was very pleased with the arrival of the two
indictees, but is also expecting of Belgrade to send all of
the ICTY indictees to The Hague, including Veselin Sljivancanin
and Miroslav Radic.
Belgrade authorities have unsuccessfully attempted to capture
some 17 people over the past week that were all indicted by
the ICTY. All of the indictees could not be found at the addresses
the police were supplied with.
Commenting on the surrender of Mile Mrksic and Milan Martic
to the ICTY, the Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said that
he was pleased with the decisiveness of the ICTY to bring to
justice all criminals and added that he hoped Martic and Mrksic
would not be the only ones tried for war crimes committed in
Croatia. Martic’s indictment is expected to be extended to crimes perpetrated
by the so-called Knin police against Croatian civilians.
