Balkans' 'most-wanted' to give up

Ojdanic will give himself up to The Hague tribunal, his lawyer has said

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Two of the 23 Yugoslav suspects wanted by the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague have said they will surrender to the tribunal.

General Dragoljub Ojdanic and former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic were on a list released by the Yugoslav government as the most-wanted war crimes suspects sought by The Hague.

Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic suggested that all of them would be hunted down if they did not surrender before the deadline, which runs out this week.

Ojdanic, who commanded the army during the 1999 NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, is charged by the tribunal with alleged war crimes in Kosovo.

Martic allegedly ordered retaliatory missile fire against the Croatian capital, Zagreb, that killed several civilians in 1995. Since his indictment by the U.N. court in 1995, Martic has been hiding in Bosnia and Serbia.

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Strahinja Kastratovic, the lawyer for Martic, said on Monday that his client "wants to surrender to his state and to go to The Hague."

"Martic ... will face up to his responsibility and is willing to explain both to The Hague tribunal and his people everything that happened," Kastratovic told the Tanjug news agency.

Vojislav Selezan, Ojdanic's lawyer, told The Associated Press that "the departure of my client to The Hague has been agreed."

Ojdanic told a newspaper earlier this month: "My departure to The Hague is now my legal obligation, just like it was when I had to defend the country against the (NATO) aggression."

The federal parliament recently passed a law regulating extraditions and other forms of cooperation with the U.N. court and granting privileges for those who surrender.

The list of 23 suspects -- 10 Yugoslav citizens, the rest are from Croatia or Bosnia -- wanted by the tribunal includes two of the world's most wanted men, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.

Belgrade passed its cooperation law after the United States froze about $40 million worth of aid and suspended support for international loans to Yugoslavia.

Within hours of the law being passed, former Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic -- also wanted for Kosovo war crimes -- shot himself in the head on the steps of the parliament building. He later died from his injuries.