Bosnian Serb general to surrender
Former Bosnian Serb general Vinko Pandurevic, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for alleged genocide during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, will surrender to the court, the Serbian government said.
Pandurevic announced his decision after talks earlier on Sunday in the Serbian capital with Serbian Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic, a government statement said.
“After the talks with minister Stojkovic, General Vinko Pandurevic decided to volontarily surrender to The Hague to help his people,” the statement added.
Pandurevic, who is wanted over his role in the 1995 massacre of some 8000 Muslims by Serb forces in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, will travel to The Hague on Wednesday accompanied by a Serbian government minister, according to the statement.
The general will also be accompanied by Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Darko Matijasevic, the Bosnian Serb government said.
Decision welcomed
The Bosnian Serb authorities said they had negotiated Pandurevic’s surrender jointly with Belgrade and welcomed his “moral and responsible decision in the interest of Republika Srpska (Serb-run entity) and Serbia-Montenegro”.
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Six Bosnian Serbs have turned |
“The governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia will continue with their intense cooperation on fulfilling their international obligations to The Hague tribunal,” a government statement issued in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka said.
It added that the Bosnian Serb government will give guarantees for Pandurevic’s provisional release pending trial, as well as financial and other help to his family.
During Bosnia’s war Pandurevic, 45, was lieutenant-colonel and commander of a brigade of the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik. He was promoted to general in 1997 but retired a year later.
Bosnian media recently reported that Bosnian Serb police had tried to negotiate Pandurevic’s surrender but the talks failed.
Six Bosnian Serbs have given themselves up to The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia since the beginning of the year.
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“The governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia will continue with their intense cooperation on fulfilling their international obligations to The Hague tribunal” Serbian government statement |
Still at large
Two – Gojko Jankovic and Savo Todovic – surrendered in the Bosnian Serb entity, while the others gave themselves up in Serbia.
According to recent reports in The Guardian and The New York Times, Pandurevic is one of several Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives who had been living in Russia under the protection of that country’s intelligence services.
The two most wanted Bosnian war crimes indictees, former Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his ex-military commander Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
Bosnia was split into two highly autonomous Serb and Muslim-Croat entities after the 1992-95 war, which claimed some 200,000 lives.