NALETILIC EXTRADITED TO INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

ZAGREB, March 21 (Hina) - Mladen Naletilic Tuta, indicted of war

crimes against Moslems during Croat-Moslem conflicts in Bosnia-

Herzegovina, was extradited to the Hague-based International

Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday. Croatian Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic reported at 10:30 Tuesday Naletilic had left for The Hague in a special aeroplane. Ivanisevic handed him an enactment on extradition in a detention hospital in Zagreb after which Tuta was transported to the airport in an ambulance accompanied by special police. Having received the extradition enactment, Naletilic's defence attorney Kresimir Krsnik told reporters he had filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court for a a postponment of the extradition. In December 1998 the ICTY raised an indictment against Naletilic, charging him with crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the

Geneva conventions and war laws and customs while he was commander of the so-called Convicts' Battalion in the region controlled by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993. The ICTY requested Croatia to extradite Naletilic who was at the time undergoing court proceedings in Croatia for other crimes. The extradition was consented to by Croatian authorities. The Croatian Supreme Court confirmed the finality of the decision on extradition on October 15, 1999, but the then Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic postponed Tuta's extradition due to his health. Naletilic underwent two surgeries of the aorta. At the end of last month a team of doctors sent by the ICTY, on their

second visit to Croatia, confirmed Naletilic was capable of travelling to The Hague under medical observation.