Bosnia's Muslim leadership called on the country's Serbs yesterday to hand over Serb war crimes suspects following the detention of three Muslim generals to face trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"I appreciate that the authorities of the Muslim-Croat federation acted in accordance with The Hague's request" for the three generals, said Mr Beriz Belkic, the Muslim member of Bosnia's joint presidency.
"I hope that the Republika Srpska authorities will start acting in the same way," he said.
Retired generals, Mr Mehmed Alagic and Mr Enver Hadzihasanovic, and Brig Amir Kubura of the Bosnian Muslim army surrendered to local authorities on Thursday after being served warrants from the UN tribunal. The three are due to be extradited to the court in the coming days.
The three will face trial on charges of war crimes against Bosnian Croats committed mainly by foreign Islamic "Mujahideen" fighters, the UN tribunal said yesterday.
The men are the most senior Bosnian Muslims yet charged with war crimes by the UN court, which has now indicted senior figures from all three of Bosnia's ethnic groups for wartime atrocities.
Their arrest has piled pressure on post-war Bosnia's Serb entity, Republika Srpska, which is widely believed to be sheltering several of the court's most-wanted suspects, notably the war-time Bosnian Serb leader, Mr Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Mr Ratko Mladic.
A spokesman for Mr Wolfgang Petritsch, the international mediator tasked with implementation of the peace accords which ended the 19921995 Bosnian war, hailed the Bosnian Muslims move and said the Serbs must do likewise.
"This is the type of action the Office of the High Representative wants to see from Republika Srpska authorities," said Mr Oleg Milisic. "Republika Srpska is well behind this type of co-operation the most notable cases are being Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic."
The UN spokesman in Sarajevo, Mr Stefo Lehmann, added: "I hope that this would set an example to Bosnian Serb authorities."
Both Mr Karadzic and Gen Mladic were indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Their alleged crimes include the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when more than 7,000 Muslims were killed by Serb forces.
On Thursday, the UN tribunal convicted a Bosnian Serb general, Radislav Krstic, of genocide for his role in the Srebrenica killings.
The conviction made it more likely that Mr Karadzic and Mr Mladic, Krstic's superiors during the war, would be found guilty of genocide if they face trial.