The Hague indicts Croatian Serb

Goran Hadzic was a central figure in the breakaway Krajina Serb republic

A former Croatian Serb leader, Goran Hadzic, has been indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity.

The Serbia and Montenegro foreign ministry said it had received the indictment on Tuesday but the tribunal wanted it kept secret for 72 hours.

Mr Hadzic, 46, was a central figure in the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina from 1992 to 1993.

He is charged with the murder of hundreds of Croatians and non-Serbs.

Mr Hadzic faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including persecution, extermination, torture, deportation and wanton destruction for his involvement in atrocities committed by Serb troops in Croatia during the 1991-95 war.

The indictment also alleges that Mr Hadzic was responsible for the deportation of 20,000 people from the town of Vukovar after it was captured.

The Croatian Serb rebellion, which was backed by the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, was eventually crushed by Croatian forces in 1995.

Mr Hadzic is reported to be living in Serbia, where Belgrade authorities are under pressure to hand over Serb war crimes suspects still at large, including wartime Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.