General to face war crimes body

Gen Ojdanic said his decision was a "legal obligation, just like it was when I had to defend the country against the (NATO) aggression"

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A former Yugoslav army commander and a war crimes suspect has said he will surrender to the U.N. tribunal "in a peaceful and a dignified manner."

General Dragoljub Ojdanic commanded the army under Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic during the 1999 NATO air strikes against the country.

He is one of the top suspects listed by the Serbian government to be extradited to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Ojdanic told the Vesti daily newspaper on Sunday that he had decided to surrender following the Yugoslav parliament's decision last week to adopt a law allowing the arrest and extradition of war crimes suspects to The Hague.

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"They can arrest me right now, but there is no need for that because I'm not escaping or hiding," Ojdanic said.

"My departure to The Hague is now my legal obligation, just like it was when I had to defend the country against the (NATO) aggression."

Ojdanic's family told The Associated Press in a statement last week that he would surrender once the law was adopted.

Ojdanic said that he was already preparing his defence in front of the U.N. court with his lawyer.

"I expect that I will be summoned either by a domestic or The Hague court at any moment. This is not a surrender because I was neither hiding nor escaping."

The Hague court indicted Ojdanic for alleged crimes against humanity during the 1999 Kosovo war, when about 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were driven from their homes and hundreds were killed by Serbian security forces.

Ex-Serbian interior minister Stojiljkovic shot himself

His statement came after former Serbian Interior Minister and war crimes indictee Vlajko Stojiljkovic died after shooting himself in the head outside the Yugoslav parliament hours after deputies voted in favour of the law on Thursday.

Stojiljkovic's suicide and his note blaming Yugoslavia's leaders for his act raised fears that other suspects might follow suit.

Ojdanic, however, said his intention was to obey the law.

"The appearance before the Hague tribunal is my legal responsibility which has been requested by the state and the people, in the same way as they requested that I defend the country from the aggression," he said.

"The law has been passed...it has come into force and I am now studying it with my lawyer."

Milosevic is on trial after Serbian reformists who toppled him in 2000 transferred him to The Hague last June.