I have always worked in a dignified and human manner towards people and my country I have been dignified and human in a war, too. I am not a criminal,” he said.General Strugar had advertised his willingness to surrender to The Hague in advance but because of a kidney ailment had spent weeks in hospital in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.Three others accused of masterminding the attack – Admiral Miodrag Jokic, Admiral Milan Zec and Captain Vladimir Kovacevic – have also been indicted by the court but remain at large, possibly in Serbia. If convicted they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.General Strugar’s surrender came just ahead of a visit to the Balkans by Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, who is expected to press the authorities in Serbia to extradite the other suspects during her visit to Belgrade today, as well as three former soldiers indicted for a 1991 massacre in the Croatian city of Vukovar.According to the indictment, between 1 October and 6 December 1991 about 1,000 shells fired by Yugoslav forces landed in the Old Town. A Unesco survey after the bombardment reported that more than two-thirds of the 824 buildings in the Old Town area had been damaged.

The cost of repairing the streets, squares, fountains, ramparts and gates was estimated at more than $9.5m (£6.6m).Ten years on, restoration work has still not been completed. Apart from the cost in human life, the bombing of the city dealt a shattering blow to Croatia’s tourist industry, one of the republic’s principal money-spinners and one that relied substantially on the foreign currency generated by visitors to Dubrovnik. The Croatian tourist industry, too, is only now emerging from the doldrums.Many people in Dubrovnik are pleased that the trial is about to start, even if they think it comes too late One doctor commented: “So much time has passed. It would have been much more effective if it had happened five years go.”But everyone in Dubrovnik will be pleased because somebody has to answer for the tragedy they caused.”. The voters of Berlin emphatically endorsed Klaus Wowereit, Germany’s most prominent gay politician, brushing aside his main challengers yesterday in the contest for the Mayor’s office.

The voters of Berlin endorsed Klaus Wowereit, Germany’s most prominent gay politician, in the contest for the Mayor’s office yesterday. Mr Wowereit’s Social Democrats won 29.7 per cent of the vote, up nearly eight points on two years ago, and thanks to a good showing by potential coalition partners, he can now govern the capital without the former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which secured nearly half the votes in the East. After last night’s victory, however, Mr Wowereit hinted that he preferred the PDS to a “rickety coalition” involving the Free Democrats and the Greens, who polled about 10 per cent each. “We need a stable government that will last five years,” Mr Wowereit said.The former communists put up a strong showing. Already the dominant party in the east of Berlin, the PDS further boosted their citywide support yesterday to 22.6 per cent, from 17.7 per cent in the last election in 1999. Gains were especially dramatic in the eastern districts, where some 48 per cent voted ex-communist.”It’s a clear signal for participation in government,” Gregor Gysi, the party’s mayoral candidate, told supporters.

“This election has changed Berlin.”The Christian Democrats, who had led the city government that was destroyed by sleaze scandals earlier this year, plunged a catastrophic 17 points to about 24 per cent, and only narrowly avoided the humiliation of coming third behind the ex-communists. It was the party’s worst setback in any regional election in postwar German history.Chancellor Gerhard Schr?’s Social Democrat party seized on its triumph in Berlin as popular vindication of its policies. But the results served to highlight the opposition’s enduring weaknesses rather than the government’s strengths.The Christian Democrats in the capital, already discredited by corruption and mismanagement, were badly served by a mayoral candidate who evolved from local nonentity to national laughing stock.Frank Steffel, the 35-year-old businessman chosen to head the campaign, spent much effort advertising the fact that he was happily married. But Mr Wowereit neutralised that line of attack by making public his own sexuality. His announcement that “I am gay, and that’s all right” proved to be the most memorable moment of the race.

He went on to run a bland campaign, waiting for his opponents to slip up.Mr Steffel duly obliged He confessed preferring Munich to Berlin. When eggs were thrown at a rally, he ducked behind Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian Prime Minister. At another meeting, he was overheard asking Mr Stoiber: “Did I speak too long?” That incident underlined the impression that Mr Steffel was merely a pawn in the broader power struggle between Mr Stoiber and Angela Merkel, the national leader of the Christian Democrats. When Mr Steffel admitted to having mouthed racist abuse in his youth, his election posters all over the city sprouted Hitler-style moustaches overnight.What little Christian Democrat strategy there was drew on voters’ fears of the resurgent ex-communists.