Former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic, a close ally of wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, has given herself up to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Ms Plavsic (70), who was one of the top Bosnian Serb figures during the 1992-5 conflict but broke ranks with hard-liners in the summer of 1997, was an ultra-nationalist who openly accepted ethnic cleansing during the Balkan conflict.
She took a more moderate line after she was elected president of the Bosnian Serb entity in 1996.
She later condemned Dr Karadzic as corrupt and began co-operating with the West, winning development aid for the Bosnian Serbs and making her a key point of contact for international negotiators.
Ms Plavsic slowly disappeared from public life after she was beaten by an ultra-nationalist candidate in elections in 1998. She gave up her seat in the Bosnian Serb parliament on December 14th.
A diplomatic source in Sarajevo said Ms Plavsic had left for The Hague in the capacity of a person indicted for crimes on the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina, but could not elaborate on the details of her stay in The Hague or the course of the proceedings.
AFP