A Bosnian Serb indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Savo Todovic, surrendered to the Bosnian Serb authorities on Saturday and was immediately being transferred to the UN prison in The Hague, the Srna news agency quoted government officials as saying. "Today, on the territory of the Republika Srpska, Savo Todovic, originally from Foca (in eastern Bosnia), indicted by the UN war crimes court, surrendered voluntarily to the interior ministry," a Bosnian Serb police official told the agency.
"The operation to transfer him to the tribunal in The Hague is under way," the source said, adding that the Bosnian-Serb interior minister, Darko Matijasevic, was accompanying him personally.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has charged Todovic with crimes against humanity and war crimes for the killing, torture and inhuman treatment of mainly Muslim prisoners at the Foca concentration camp, where he was deputy commandant from 1992 to 1993.
According to the indictment, Todovic, 52, was in charge of selecting detainees for killings, beatings, interrogations, forced labour, solitary confinement and exchanges. He was also responsible for the punishment of the detainees.
The Foca camp was the main prison for men on the Bosnian Serb side during the civil war in the province and, according to the indictment "Most, if not all, detainees were civilians who had not been charged with any crime." It said they were "mostly Muslim men from 16 to 80 years' of age, including mentally handicapped, physically disabled and seriously ill persons."
The Bosnian Serb administration has been under strong international pressure to start co-operating with the Hague tribunal, after allowing some of the most brutal alleged criminals of the war walk free.