Bosnian Serb ex-police chief to go to Hague

A Bosnian Serb former police chief charged with complicity in genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre will surrender to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Bosnian authorities said yesterday.

Bosnian Serb president Dragan Cavic told reporters in Banja Luka, the capital of Bosnia's Serb Republic, that Ljubomir Borovcanin had decided to surrender to Serbian authorities in Belgrade.

"This is a voluntary decision by Mr Borovcanin," Mr Cavic said. "I do not have all the information but I can say that his transfer will happen in the next few days."

He will be the sixth suspect to surrender this month as Serbia and Bosnia's Serb Republic strive to improve their image and their record of cooperation with The Hague in order to get closer to European Union and Nato membership.

The Bosnian Serb government said in a statement Mr Borovcanin would leave for The Hague on Friday. The government would also pledge to the tribunal that he would not run away if granted bail while awaiting trial, which could take months.

Dozens of Bosnian Serbs have been indicted for war crimes but the Serb Republic has yet to arrest a single suspect wanted by the UN tribunal. Recently, however, it has encouraged them to surrender, either to Belgrade or Banja Luka.

Mr Borovcanin's 2002 indictment says that "through his acts and omissions", he planned or instigated the murder of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected enclave as part of a Serb campaign to "ethnically cleanse" the area.

"I welcome this decision, which is a demonstration of patriotism, and I appeal to all others to follow the example of those who have decided to ease the political burden on the Serb Republic," Mr Cavic said.

Belgrade's willingness to cooperate with The Hague is key as it waits for the European Union's verdict on a feasibility study for Serbia's eventual EU membership, due next month.

For Bosnia, the issue of war crimes fugitives is preventing the launch of talks on a "Stabilisation and Association Agreement" with the EU and has kept the country out of Nato's Partnership for Peace programme.

Most Bosnian Serb indictees have surrendered to authorities in Serbia, and praise has gone to Belgrade rather than Banja Luka. Mr Borovcanin will be only the fourth to give himself up in the Serb Republic since the end of the 1992-1995 war.