Balkans suspects shun deadline

Wanted: Karadzic is one of 17 war crimes suspects to have ignored the deadline

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Only six of 23 war crimes suspects named on a 'most-wanted' list by the Belgrade government have agreed to surrender to the jurisdiction of the U.N. tribunal in The Hague.

The government had set a deadline of midnight on Monday (2200 GMT) for the suspects, who are accused of atrocities during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, to turn themselves in or face arrest.

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Tuesday: "I contacted the federal justice minister and his deputy and I have been told that six people have so far reported to the ministry.

"I hope that some of these people will be transferred to The Hague over the next few days."

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Among the six is believed to be General Dragoljub Ojdanic and former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic.

Ojdanic, commander of 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.

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."

Ojdanic has said it is his "legal obligation" to surrender to The Hague tribunal

The list of 23 -- 10 Yugoslav citizens, the rest are from Croatia or Bosnia -- also includes Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.

On Monday, supporters of Karadzic launched his latest literary work -- a light comedy play they said proves he is alive and cracking jokes despite being on the run with a $5 million bounty on his head.

The play penned by Karadzic, a former psychiatrist who dabbled in poetry before the Bosnia civil war, is set in the garden of a ramshackle Bosnian cafe and has five characters -- a waiter, a would-be leader, an image-maker, a representative of the international community and a behind-the-scenes voice of a Muslim who advises the latter.

Entitled "The Situation, A Light Comedy," mocks "the manipulators of today's humankind," said Zarko Komanin, a writer who presented the book at the Belgrade launch.

Karadzic's brother Luka, told Reuters he was "proud and happy" about the new book, but said the pressure on Karadzic was much greater than before.

"It's normal that we are concerned for his safety," he said. "His security is doing its utmost to prevent any contacts with head-hunters, and it is doing so successfully."