The Hague - A Bosnian Muslim captured by Nato peacekeeping forces in Bosnia was transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday, as the alliance's secretary-general warned that other suspects in the former Yugoslav republic now have "no place to hide".
Naser Oric, who headed Muslim forces in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica - but whose alleged crimes were not connected to the 1995 massacre that occurred there - arrived at the court's detention facility early on Friday, a court spokesman said.
Oric is charged with "violations of the laws or customs of war, to include murder, cruel treatement, wanton destruction and plunder" committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, the Nato-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) said earlier.
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The tribunal had previously kept his indictment secret, as it often does with suspects which it fears might seek to evade arrest.
'You have only two choices: turn yourself in with dignity, or justice will be brought to you' In Brussels, Nato Secretary General George Robertson said the capture of Oric - which took place near the town of Tuzla - should serve as a warning to other fugitives to the court, and notably to the Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
"SFOR's detention serves as a warning. There is no place to hide for anyone accused by the Tribunal of these horrific crimes," Robertson said in a statement.
"I call on all remaining fugitives, in particular Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, to surrender to the Tribunal," he added.
"You have only two choices: turn yourself in with dignity, or justice will be brought to you. The net is closing."
Bosnian Serbs claim that Oric was responsible for the killing of over 1 000 Serb civilians in the villages surrounding Srebrenica during the war, which lasted from 1992 to 1995.
He left Srebrenica before July 1995, when Serb forces surrounding the town committed the worst single massacre of the war, killing about 7 000 Muslim civilians. - Sapa-AFP
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