Croatia to aid war crimes court

Croatian newspapers: "Milosevic Extradited to The Hague"

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatia has arrested nine war crime suspects and pledged to help the United Nations tribunal.

Croatia had not turned over any political or military leaders before now saying it would be politically dangerous to bring indictments against Croats before the main Serb war criminals were arrested.

The arrests come after the extradition to The Hague of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told Reuters: "Milosevic's extradition to The Hague is a strong impetus not only for Yugoslavia to carry on the process of democratisation, but also a signal to other countries in the region... with a serious pro-European agenda.

"You may be assured the government of Croatia will fulfil its international commitments."

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica criticised Croatia on Thursday for arresting the Serbs on genocide charges and described the move as political persecution.

A statement from Kostunica's office said it was particularly worrying that such arrests often coincided with the visits of representatives of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Reuters reported.

But Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said the visit on Friday of Carla Del Ponte, the U.N.'s chief war crimes prosecutor, had not prompted the arrests.

Del Ponte visited Zagreb on Friday and went straight into talks with Racan.

Her officials denied she had brought any indictment papers with her, but indicated there were "other ways and means" to deliver such documents.

No Croat from Croatia proper has been indicted by the tribunal, but tribunal prosecutors have been investigating the slayings of hundreds of Serbs following Zagreb's 1995 offensive to recapture lands seized by Serb rebels during the 1991 six-month war.

Picula told Reuters Del Ponte and Racan would probably seek to speed up the process of tracking down and extraditing war criminals and added that the Croatian judiciary itself would also want to play an active part.

"We want to remove all black stains from our own war," he said.