YUGOSLAV CITIZEN SURRENDERS TO HAGUE TRIBUNAL








THE HAGUE, March 12, 2001. /Andrei Poskakukhin, RIA Novosti Correspondent/. Former mayor of the Bosnian city of Samac, now ordinary citizen of Yugoslavia Blagoje Simic volunteered to come under the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia (ITFY). This is the first-ever occasion of a Yugoslav citizen surrendering to the ITFY jurisdiction.


	He flew from Belgrade to Amsterdam's Airport Schiphol Monday afternoon and was then sped away to the UN jail in the Hague.


	The International Tribunal accuses Simic of war crimes he allegedly committed during the armed conflict in Bosnia. Simic, however, said he had travelled to the Netherlands to prove his innocence.


	The ITFY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte is expected to make a statement commenting on the issue Monday.