Zagreb - Croatia took its first concrete steps yesterday towards improving strained relations with the UN war crimes tribunal by handing over an ailing Bosnian Croat warlord.
Mr Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic was flown to The Hague in a special plane equipped with medical facilities. The previous government delayed the extradition for months, citing Mr Naletilic's poor health, but apparently fearing his potentially damaging testimony about Zagreb's role in the 1993-94 Muslim-Croat war. Mr Naletilic was charged in December 1998 by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia with the murder, persecution and torture of Muslims in southern Bosnia.