Croatia extradites army chief

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatia has extradited a former Bosnian Croat military policeman to The Hague on charges he allegedly ordered a 1993 massacre of Muslim civilians.

Vowing to prove his innocence, Pasko Ljubicic agreed to surrender to the U.N. war crimes tribunal a month ago after a year in hiding.

He is indicted for crimes against humanity -- the murder and persecution of Muslims during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.

Ljubicic, 35, was taken into custody by the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Wednesday.

His lawyer Tomislav Jonjic said Ljubicic felt confident that he could refute all the charges levelled against him.

EXTRA INFORMATION Yugoslavia in transition

The Hague tribunal indicted him over his alleged role in atrocities against Muslims in central Bosnia, where he commanded a military police battalion.

The main charge involved a brutal raid on the village of Ahmici in April 1992.

In the raid at least 113 civilians -- including dozens of women and children -- were murdered and their houses burned down, leading the Muslim-Croat conflict to escalate.

Ljubicic went into hiding for more than a year after Zagreb authorities issued an arrest warrant for him and three associates on suspicion of taking part in the Ahmici massacre.

The warrant was based on documents found in archives of Croatia's late president, Franjo Tudjman.

The Associated Press reported that this indicated a conspiracy under the former leader to help key suspects in the Ahmici slaughter by giving them false identities.

Ljubicic's three associates remain at large.

Only family and close friends were allowed access to Ljubicic at the Zagreb airport to bid him farewell, due to tight security measures.

The U.N. indictment against Ljubicic was made public shortly after three Bosnian Croats were acquitted by the tribunal in the Ahmici massacres.

Brothers Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic and their cousin, Vlatko Kupreskic, had been in the tribunal's prison for four years.

Croatian newspapers have speculated that the case against Ljubicic could also vindicate his superior officer, Bosnian Croat Gen. Tihomir Blaskic, who was sentenced to 45 years by the tribunal in March 2000.

He was the most senior military officer involved at Ahmici and he has appealed against his sentence.

Blaskic suggested at his trial that Ljubicic's unit violated his commands and committed atrocities he learned about only much later.

The tribunal, established in 1993 to try those responsible for atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, has indicted more than 100 people.

Sixty-one have appeared before the court, and 31 are still at large. There are also an unknown number of secret indictments.