A Bosnian Serb arrested yesterday arrived in the Netherlands to answer charges of war crimes. Mr Stevan Todorovic (40) landed at the Valkenburg military air base at around 2.30 p.m. (1.30 p.m. Irish time) and was immediately transferred to the special UN detention unit in Scheveningen, a Dutch military spokesman said.
He will join 25 other indictees currently held by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which sits in The Hague.
A date for his initial appearance, during which Mr Todorovic will enter a plea, will be set today, a spokesman for the ICTY said.
The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) arrested Mr Todorovic in northern Bosnia, where SFOR troops are under the operational command of US forces.
In the indictment against him, Mr Todorovic is said to have become Serb chief of police in Bosanski Samac in northern Bosnia in the first days of the war.
He is charged with five counts each of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva convention and violations of the customs or laws of war.
Meanwhile, the newly-elected moderate ethnic Serb member on Bosnia's three-person presidency, Mr Zivko Radisic, vowed yesterday to boost the peace process and encourage recovery of the country's war-devastated economy.
Mr Radisic, who defeated the hardliner, Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, in the general election this month, said the 1995 US-brokered Dayton peace accord was a good foundation for the country's future and its Serb, Croat and Muslim ethnic groups.
In the general election, Mr Alija Izetbegovic was re-elected to the Muslim presidency seat while the HDZ party leader, Mr Ante Jelavic, defeated the Western-backed incumbent, Mr Kresimir Zubak, in the race for the Croat seat.
In a setback for the West, however, a hardline nationalist was elected president of the Serb Republic. Mr Nikola Poplasen heads the Bosnian wing of the party of ultra-nationalist Serbian deputy prime minister, Mr Vojislav Seselj.
Mr Poplasen, who defeated the candidate of the Sloga coalition, the western-backed incumbent president, Ms Biljana Plavsic, said on Saturday he would try to form a coalition of all Serb parties.