The charges faced by Croatian wartime commander Bobetko Agence France Presse

The charges faced by Croatian wartime commander Bobetko
Agence France Presse - April 29, 2003 Tuesday 1:36 PM Eastern Time

THE HAGUE, April 29 - Janko Bobetko, the Croatian wartime army commander who died on Tuesday, had been indicted by the UN war crimes court for his alleged role in a bloody campaign against a rebel Serb-held area in 1993.

Bobetko, 84, was accused of having personal responsibility for the killing of 100 Serb civilians by Croatian forces in an area known as the Medak pocket during Croatia's 1991-1995 war of independence from the former Yugoslavia.

The UN war crimes court in The Hague charged Bobetko with five counts of persecution, murder, plunder and the wanton destruction of towns or villages, but he never faced trial because of his ill health.

According to the court indictment, at least 100 Serbs were killed and others subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment -- their fingers were cut off, their bodies tied to a car and dragged along the road or they were beaten.

The Medak pocket in central Croatia was held by rebel Serbs who had proclaimed their own republic in the region between Bosnia and the Croatian coast.

In September 1993, Croatian forces led by General Rahim Ademi, also indicted for war crimes, seized the region and went on the rampage in Medak, killing dozens of Serb civilians and torching villages.

Serb residents were "terrorised" into leaving their homes by the Croatian forces who among other atrocities publicly burned alive a Serb woman while mocking her, according to the indictment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The Croatian forces also destroyed 164 Serb homes and another 148 buildings.

"Janko Bobekto, by virtue of his high-ranking position as chief of the main staff of the Croatian army, played a central role in developing, planning, authorising, ordering and executing the military operation in the Medak pocket," according to the indictment.

The general was also charged with having command responsibility for the atrocities, meaning Bobetko had reason to know that Croatian forces were committing crimes but did not act to stop or punish the perpetrators.

For reasons of Bobetko's ill health, the tribunal put a freeze on Bobekto's arrest warrant earlier this year.