[ALBSA-Info] Tribunal Shares Thoughts on Arrest

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Tribunal Shares Thoughts on Arrest

  
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The arrest of former Yugoslav President 
Slobodan Milosevic brought him one step closer to an international trial to 
answer for the persecution and murder of ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo 
war, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said Sunday. 

Although Yugoslav authorities planned to charge Milosevic for corruption and 
actions that led to the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation, the tribunal 
said Belgrade has ``a binding legal obligation'' to hand him over to The 
Hague to stand trial for war crimes. 

``We hope his arrest is a step closer to bringing about his surrender to the 
tribunal,'' said spokesman Jim Landale. 

So far, the tribunal has received no information to contradict Yugoslavia's 
public position that Milosevic would not be extradited before being tried at 
home for corruption. 

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has said the war crimes charges take 
precedence over Milosevic's alleged domestic crimes. But she has left the 
door open for parallel trials. 

In a statement three weeks ago, Del Ponte said the president of the tribunal 
could consider allowing anyone indicted war crimes suspect ``to stand trial 
before a local court pending the start of a trial before the tribunal.'' 

But that could happen only after he surrendered to The Hague, she said. 

Milosevic was indicted in May 1999 on four counts of crimes against humanity 
and violation of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war in connection 
with the Serb campaign against Kosovo earlier that year. 

The indictment said Milosevic ``planned, instigated, ordered, committed or 
otherwise aided and abetted in a campaign of terror and violence against 
Kosovar Albanians,'' in which hundreds were murdered and 740,000 were 
persecuted or displaced from their homes. 

Del Ponte has said her prosecutors also are investigating Milosevic's actions 
during the Balkans wars of the early 1990s, and she may expand the indictment 
against him to include charges of genocide. 

The tribunal had hoped the U.S. deadline of March 31 for Yugoslavia to 
cooperate with the tribunal would ``focus minds in Belgrade'' about handing 
over the ousted president to The Hague, Landale said. 

But he had no comment on whether Washington should sever its aid program to 
Yugoslavia if Milosevic is not handed over. 

``It's up to them. We carry on doing our work and hoping that the Yugoslav 
authorities cooperate with the tribunal,'' he said.