BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: Former commander of Bosnia's Muslim forces Gen Rasim Delic surrendered to the UN war crimes tribunal yesterday. He arrived at The Hague, Holland, just hours ahead of a bitter wartime enemy from the Bosnian Serb top brass, Gen Radivoje Miletic.
Bosnian television showed Gen Delic smiling and waving to hundreds of supporters who gathered at Sarajevo airport to see him off, and who accused the UN of trying to attach to the Muslim community an unfair amount of blame for Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
The prime minister, Adnan Terzic, joined Muslim officials and war veterans to bid farewell to a man who is widely regarded as a hero in his homeland.
"My fellow fighters, thanks for coming and don't worry. Justice wins," Gen Delic told the throng before heading for his plane.
He is accused of allowing foreign fighters under his command - some of the hundreds of mujahideen who came to Bosnia to fight Serb and Croat forces - to murder Bosnian Croats and rape and execute Bosnian Serbs at the Kamenica prison camp. Gen Delic denies the charges.
There was no grand farewell in Belgrade for the departing Gen Miletic. The chief of operations under Bosnian Serb commander Gen Ratko Mladic, Gen Miletic is charged with two former comrades, Gen Milan Gvero and Gen Zdravko Tolimir, for their alleged part in the genocide of more than 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995.
Gen Gvero surrendered last week. The Serbian government is believed to be negotiating the surrender of Gen Tolimir, as it comes under growing pressure from the US, UN and EU to capture suspected war criminals ahead of this year's 10th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica.
Top diplomats have warned Bosnia and Serbia that they face international isolation and financial hardship unless they move swiftly to capture fugitives, and that they can forget talk about EU and Nato membership while suspects are still at large.
UN prosecutors believe that Gen Mladic and his Bosnian Serb political ally Radovan Karadzic are on the run in Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia and in Serbia-Montenegro, and receive help from senior military and political figures.
Chief prosecutor at The Hague tribunal Carla del Ponte, said recently that if Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica and his security services decided to arrest Gen Mladic "we could take delivery of him in a matter of hours".
"I will wait until the end of the year and if they have still not been arrested, I will release documents and all information I possess about these 10 years of fruitless pursuit in the hope that someone will be able to analyse and understand this fiasco," Ms del Ponte said last week of the hunt for war crimes suspects.
Mr Kostunica denies knowledge of Gen Mladic's whereabouts and says the voluntary surrender of suspects is the only way to safeguard the stability of Serbia-Montenegro.
Montenegro's leaders, tired of Belgrade's spats with the West, have stepped up a drive for independence from their current union with Serbia.
The prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, said that he was sick of "wasting time" with Belgrade.
Mr Terzic insisted that most of the war crimes suspects thought to be on his territory were hiding over the border.
"Serbia-Montenegro is holding us back and preventing us from going forward. Serbia-Montenegro represents a black hole on the map of European integration."