"GOOD NEWS," SAYS DEL PONTE AS SUSPECTED WAR CRIMINAL COMES TO FACE TRIBUNAL








THE HAGUE, MARCH 12 (from RIA Novosti's Andrei Poskakukhin) - "Good news--and important," said Carla del Ponte, prosecutor of the international tribunal for former Yugoslavia, as Blagoje Simic came of his own free will to face the tribunal.


	Simic, once mayor of Bosanski Samac, is accused of war crimes. He unconditionally surrendered to the tribunal without preliminary talks. His arrival came as a first hopeful sign of Belgrade's intention to cooperate with the tribunal, says Ms. del Ponte.


	Suspicions were harassing Simic as family man and physician to make him give up. He knows that his surrender puts a burden off his nation and its rulers. He is anxious to do away with the oppressive uncertainty of his situation, and is sure he will prove his innocence, says Igor Panteljic, his lawyer, who arrived with the suspect.


	Simic and another four men, now in the United Nations prison in The Hague, were indicted in July 1995. They are all accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and blatant violations of the Geneva conventions. The five were allegedly involved in ethnic purges in Bosanski Samac, 1992, with unlawful arrests, instances of maltreatment, and deportations.