[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic Immunity Proposal Knocked

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic Immunity Proposal Knocked

By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - War crimes tribunal officials on Wednesday 
denounced a proposal by a U.N. human rights envoy to grant immunity to 
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic if he agrees to step down. 

Jiri Dienstbier, the U.N. human rights representative in the former Yugoslav 
republics, has suggested that dismissing the U.N. war crimes indictment 
against Milosevic might serve the interest of Balkan stability. 

Milosevic, who has refused to accept defeat in the Sept. 24 elections, has 
been indicted for war crimes in Kosovo that triggered NATO's 78-day bombing 
campaign last year. 

Dienstbier told reporters in Prague after returning earlier Wednesday from 
Belgrade that punishing Milosevic should not take precedence over ``the 
future of 10 million Serbs and probably the whole Balkans.'' 

``The only possible deal, and the most important thing for Mr. Milosevic, is 
to have guarantees that if he leaves power, he will not be prosecuted and 
will not spend the rest of his life somewhere in prison,'' the former Czech 
foreign minister said. 

Jim Landale, a spokesman for the tribunal's 14-judge panel, called the 
reported comments ``extremely disturbing.'' He stressed that the indictment 
could only be withdrawn by a judge at the request of U.N. Chief Prosecutor 
Carla Del Ponte. 

``It is not possible for anyone to negate an indictment by the tribunal - no 
individual, no state, no group of states,'' Landale told a news conference. 

Del Ponte's spokesman, Paul Risley, noted her repeated refusal even to 
consider dropping the indictment. 

On the contrary, he said, she is working to expand the indictment to include 
charges of war crimes allegedly committed earlier during the ethnic conflicts 
in Bosnia and Croatia. Del Ponte also has said she plans to charge Milosevic 
with genocide, the most serious crime under international law. 

Risley said the new indictment is intended ``to underscore the severity of 
the tribunal's view of Slobodan Milosevic as an actor in the conflict that 
was created in Yugoslavia.'' 

Wolfgang Petritsch, the top U.N. official in the former Yugoslav republic of 
Bosnia, insisted that Milosevic should not be treated any differently from 
the other 26 publicly accused war crimes suspects still at large. 

``The rule of law must apply to everybody - whether we like it for political 
and tactical reasons, or not,'' Petritsch told reporters after meeting with 
tribunal President Claude Jorda. 

``Nobody has the right to really suggest that there is now a political 
opportunity to waver from this principle,'' he added. 

The officials also backed Washington's calls for Russia to hand over 
Milosevic if he should show up in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin 
has invited Milosevic and his challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, to Moscow for 
talks to resolve their dispute over the election, but Milosevic refused the 
mediation offer. 

``He is a fugitive from this court,'' Risley said. ``Any country that 
Milosevic may travel to would be requested to make the arrest of a 
fugitive.'' 

Under the U.N. Security Council resolutions that established the tribunal in 
1993, Russia is ``legally obliged to detain and transfer any individual who's 
indicted by the tribunal to The Hague,'' Landale said. 

Milosevic has called a runoff election for Sunday despite international 
support for the opposition claims of victory. 

In Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the court's deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt 
said Milosevic may face more war crimes indictments besides the one for 
Kosovo 

He said tribunal investigators have been gathering evidence of atrocities 
committed during wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and ``it is highly 
likely that indictments will be coming out in respect of those later this 
year or early next year.''