Bosnia to seek extradition of former leader

Bosnia will ask Britain to extradite former Muslim leader Ejup Ganic following his arrest in London for war crimes.

SARAJEVO, March 2, 2010 (AFP) - Bosnia will ask Britain to extradite former Muslim leader Ejup Ganic following his arrest in London for war crimes, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Ganic was arrested and detained at Heathrow airport on Monday on a Serbian arrest warrant.

Belgrade says the wartime member of the Bosnian presidency is wanted for the killing of 18 soldiers and officers in an attack on a Yugoslav army convoy in May 1992.

But Bosnia said he should be sent there and not to Serbia.

"The prosecutor's office of Bosnia-Hercegovina believes it is the only one authorized to deal with war crimes committed in Bosnia-Hercegovina involving suspects that are citizens of Bosnia," Boris Grubesic, a spokesman for the prosecution, told the SRNA news agency.

Bosnia is also investigating the allegations against Ganic, he said, adding: "Due to that we will file a request for Ganic's extradition to Bosnia for further proceedings."

According to a provisional extradition request from Serbia, Ganic and 17 others are suspected of involvement in an attack on a Yugoslav army convoy in Sarajevo at the start of Bosnia's war in May 1992.

Sources close to the investigation in Serbia told AFP that 18 soldiers and officers of the Yugoslav army were killed and 22 wounded in the attack in breach of the Geneva conventions. Other Serbian sources spoke of a total of 41 casualties.

A top Bosnian official on Tuesday slammed Ganic's arrest.

Zeljko Komsic, the Croat chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, said the arrest warrant represented "Serbia's aggressive relations towards Bosnia-Hercegovina," according to SRNA.

"Just when we tried to improve ties with Belgrade... then Belgrade makes such a move that worsens relations to a great extent."

Ganic -- a Muslim member of Bosnia's presidency during the 1992-1995 war and the former president of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina -- has been remanded in custody is due to appear in court again on March 29.

Bosnia's inter-ethnic war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives. During the conflict Belgrade politically and militarily backed ethnic Serbs.