1 The Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal is expected to issue indictments Monday against a string of suspects allegedly involved in three notorious concentration camps run by Bosnian Serbs.
2 Without giving details, the United Nations court has scheduled a news conference for Monday promising 'an important public announcement.'
3 A source close to the tribunal, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the indictments for the Prijedor region of northwestern Bosnia were ready.
4 In Prijedor were located the Serb-run Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps where in 1992 guards regularly carried out mass executions and tortures, according to a statement cited at a hearing in November.
5 Tribunal officials have repeatedly pledged to issue indictments before the end of February. In January, spokesman Christian Chartier confirmed that the Prijedor probe was complete.
6 Indictments would keep the tribunal on course toward its goal of beginning by spring the first international war crimes trials since the Tokyo and Nuremberg trials after World War II.
7 The indictments expected Monday from the Prijedor investigation will likely target a number of suspects. But the only one named so far is Bosnian Serb Dusan Tadic, who is accused of involvement in murders and torturing of prisoners in the camps.
8 Tribunal prosecutors have asked for the surrender of Tadic, now in a German jail awaiting passage of a German law allowing his surrender to the Hague court. Passage is likely by mid-March.
9 Witness reports cited alleged Tadic forced a prisoner to drink motor oil and then bite off the testicles of three detainees who had already been beaten unconscious by Tadic and others. The three prisoners subsequently died.
10 The tribunal is patterned on the Nuremberg and Tokyo courts which tried Nazi and Japanese war criminals. But unlike them, it does not have its suspects under lock and key.
11 It's likely that many suspects the tribunal indicts will remain in the former Yugoslavia and never come to trial.
12 Earlier this month, the tribunal's judges issued a public statement voicing concern at the lack of indictments issued.
13 Monday would be only the second time the tribunal has issued an indictment since it was established by the Security Council in 1993.
14 In November it indicted Bosnian Serb Dragan Nikolic, who is accused of running the notorious Susica camp near the eastern Bosnian city of Vlasenica in 1992.
15 Nikolic has still not been traced and is believed to be somewhere in Serb-controlled Bosnia.
16 His case highlights the problems faced by the tribunal in getting suspects to court.
17 The tribunal has no powers of extradition and depends on the cooperation of other countries for the surrender of suspects.
18 If a state refuses to comply with one of the tribunal's international arrest warrants, the case will be referred to the U.N. Security Council which can issue sanctions against the government.
19 But Serbian authorities in Bosnia and Belgrade refuse to recognize the tribunal's jurisdiction in the on-going conflict.
20 In addition to problems with some authorities in the former Yugoslavia, the tribunal has had to fight an apparent lack of wider international support.
21 The United Nations recently defered granting the tribunal's full-year budget request, instead granting dlrs 7 million for three months -- a quarter of the dlrs 28 million requested for 1995.

In Prijedor were located the Serb - run Omarska , Keraterm and Trnopolje camps where in 1992 guards regularly carried out mass executions and tortures , according to a statement cited at a hearing in November .
carried out mass executions and tortures ,
Why were the camps carrying out executions?