YUGOSLAVIAN READY TO FACE HAGUE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL








BELGRADE, 12 March. /RIA Novosti correspondent Sergei Ryabkin/. Yugoslavian citizen Blagoje Simic, who has been accused by the international tribunal based in the Hague of involvement in war crimes committed in Bosnia, has flown to Dutch capital. The 41 year-old Simic, who was formerly the town governor of Bosanski Samac, is the first Yugoslavian citizen to voluntarily give himself up to the tribunal.


	Simic told journalists at the airport that he was "absolutely convinced of [my] innocence" and that he could prove it. According to him, he wants to be rid of this burden, free his family and also the whole of the Yugoslavian and Serbian people.


	Simic, who was accompanied by his lawyer, said that he had not been pressured into making his decision to come voluntarily to the Hague.


	The tribunal has charged Simic with crimes against humanity in 1995, along with violations of the Geneva convention and the rules of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tribunal alleges that he took part in the ethnic cleansing of Bosanski Samac in 1992.