The UN chief prosecutor, Ms Carla del Ponte, has signed a new indictment against the former Yugoslav leader, Mr Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia, her deputy said yesterday.
The deputy prosecutor, Mr Graham Blewitt, said the indictment did not include a charge of genocide, the tribunal's gravest crime, but declined to detail which charges it did contain. He said the indictment would be made public once it had been confirmed by a tribunal judge.
Mr Milosevic is already charged with crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in Kosovo. He has been in a Hague cell awaiting trial since his extradition from Belgrade in June.
Serbia and Croatia fought a war in 1991 following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. A civil war involving Serbs, Muslims and Croats raged in Bosnia from 1992-95 to 1995.
Meanwhile, Croatian police have arrested six former military policemen suspected of torturing prisoners in the Adriatic city of Split. The public prosecutor's office in Split confirmed yesterday the six had been arrested and were being questioned.
Jutarnji List daily newspaper reported that police were hunting down two more suspects in connection with the same deeds - torture and murder of Serb civilian and military prisoners in the Lora army prison in 1992.