Peacekeepers expel police

Sarajevo - NATO-led peacekeeping troops yesterday expelled Croatian police from a disputed border town they had occupied since the Bosnian war, returning it to Bosnian control. The international Stabilisation Force (SFOR) said the operation in the town of Martin Brod, requested by the West's top peace envoy to Bosnia, the Spanish diplomat, Mr Carlos Westendorp, was completed without incident. It said the territory was now under the jurisdiction of police of the Muslim-Croat Federation, which makes up half of post-war Bosnia. In Zagreb, the Croatian President, Mr Franjo Tudjman called an urgent meeting of the country's top security council, which warned that such unilateral and hasty SFOR action could have "unforeseeable harmful consequences", Hina news agency said. In Amsterdam, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia charged two Croatians, Mr Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic (52) and Mr Vinko "Stela" Martinovic (35), with crimes against humanity for helping direct a murderous ethnic cleansing drive against Bosnian Muslims.