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In his televised appearance on July 3 before the tribunal, where he stands accused of inciting the mass murder of Albanians in Kosovo, Milosevic refused to accept a defense lawyer, and accused the "illegal tribunal" of seeking "to justify NATO crimes in Yugoslavia."

Although several thousand supporters staged protests in Belgrade, an early July opinion poll by Yugoslavia's Social Science Institute suggested 71 percent of citizens supported the handover.

Croatia's premier, Ivica Raczak, said his government had agreed to hand over the generals despite "certain reservations" about the Hague tribunal's "interpretation of history," adding that Croatia would have faced economic sanctions for failing to cooperate.

"Many people doubt [the generals] will get a fair trial," Peterlin said. "They feel the tribunal is too concerned with political deliberations about the character of war, and not enough with criminal justice."

The generals will be the first Croatian citizens to face formal tribunal charges.

The Croatian president, Stipe Mesic, defended the extraditions in an July 8 national TV statement. He said his country could not be "held hostage by those whose blood-stained hands cast a shadow over Croatia's good name."

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

Croatia's government faces continuing demands to stop cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Republic of Croatia's official site includes general information on the country, as well as politics, culture, and history sections.

PBS' Online Newshour examines Milosevic's arrest and trial.

Jurist legal education network also has extensive articles and legal documents in the Milosevic case.

For more articles, see Yahoo's full coverage on Yugoslavia and Croatia.

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45