Carla Del Ponte: Last visit sparked government crisis

On what was her first visit to the region, Mrs Del Ponte spoke with survivors of crimes allegedly committed by Serb forces during the bitter ethnic fighting that accompanied Croatia's breakaway from the Yugoslav federation in 1991.

Last year Mrs Del Ponte handed over indictments for two Croatian generals accused by the Hague tribunal of crimes against Serbs, sparking a political crisis that almost brought down the government.

The BBC's Alix Kroeger says many Croatians find it impossible to accept that their side committed atrocities, and Mrs Del Ponte is trying to assuage fears the tribunal is anti-Croat.

Bloody siege

In the eastern city of Erdut, Mrs Del Ponte visited what was once the site of the training camp and prison run by the feared Serb paramilitary leader Arkan.

She also went to the site of a mass grave in the nearby village of Borovo Selo, where the remains of 24 Croatian civilians have been exhumed.

She then travelled on to the shattered city of Vukovar for talks with Croatian officials.

The city fell to the Yugoslav People's Army in November 1991 after a two-month siege in which an estimated 1,100 people died.

One of three retired Yugoslav army officers indicted for war crimes at Vukovar has said he will surrender voluntarily to The Hague tribunal.

Vukovar - on Croatia's eastern border with Serbia - had a large Serb population, and was a key location in efforts to create a Greater Serbia.

Our correspondent says by focusing on Vukovar, where most of the dead were Croats, Mrs Del Ponte will make it harder for Croatia's nationalists to claim that the tribunal has an anti-Croat bias.