Croatian army general surrenders to war crimes tribunal

A Croatian army general flew to the Netherlands today to surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal and face charges that he oversaw a wartime campaign that left dozens of Serbs slain and their homes reduced to ashes.

General Rahim Ademi is the first Croat to face accusations stemming from the 1991-95 Serbo-Croat war. Wearing his military uniform decorated with medals, Ademi, his wife, Anita, and his lawyer took a regular Croatian Airlines flight to Amsterdam.

He was to be taken from Amsterdam’s airport to the tribunal based in The Hague.

Because he decided to surrender voluntarily, Ademi boarded the flight without handcuffs or a police guard. His two daughters were at the airport to bid him farewell.

‘‘I am proud of my role in the war,’’ he said before he left. ‘‘I am not afraid of The Hague court’s accusations I have done nothing wrong in the war and I will prove it there. My conscience is completely clear.’’

The tribunal indicted Ademi along with another high-ranking Croatian officer and demanded that both suspects be handed over for trial. Croatia’s pro-Western Government agreed to comply, but its decision triggered fierce protests by veterans and nationalists who supported the late President Franjo Tudjman, who see Croatian fighters as heroes and patriots, not criminals.

The second suspect - widely believed to be retired General Ante Gotovina has indicated a refusal to surrender, and his loyalists have threatened unrest if he is arrested. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, but he remains at large.

Although the tribunal’s indictments of the two remain sealed, the charges against Ademi are believed to stem from a 1993 government offensive in south-western Croatia, an operation aimed at regaining territory seized by Serb rebels during the 1991 independence war.

Under pressure from the West, Croatian troops withdrew from the recaptured territories soon afterward.

The United Nations later charged that retreating Croatian forces burned down villages, set thousands of Serb homes ablaze and killed about 70 Serb civilians, describing the brutal operation as a ‘‘scorched-earth campaign.’’

Ademi, a Croatian citizen of Kosovo Albanian origin, was in command of that military operation.

Faced with Western Government demands to punish the perpetrators, Tudjman suspended Ademi at the time - effectively putting the blame on him. In recent interviews, Ademi has claimed he was a commander in a purely formal sense and that other military officers were actually in charge.

The Government, pleased by his surrender, promised to provide files that could help his defence before the tribunal, which was set up by the UN Security Council to bring to justice those who committed atrocities in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and its aftermath.

Many Croats have struggled to come to grips with the indictments of military leaders they believe saved the country from Serb forces who indiscriminately shelled villages and cities, killed thousands of civilians and expelled many more from their homes.