[ALBSA-Info] UN tribunal asks Milosevic handover by end of year

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

UN tribunal asks Milosevic handover by end of year

By Caroline Jacobs
  
THE HAGUE, April 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations war crimes tribunal urged 
Yugoslav authorities on Sunday to transfer former president Slobodan 
Milosevic to the international court by the end of the year. Milosevic, 
arrested in Belgrade in the early hours of Sunday morning, is charged by the 
tribunal with crimes against humanity in connection with alleged massacres 
and expulsions of ethnic Albanians from the province in 1998-99. 

At home, he faces charges of abuse of office. 

"We are asking immediately for a commitment from the Yugoslav state to 
transfer him to The Hague," Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for the tribunal's 
chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, told Reuters. "They (Belgrade) have to 
respect the international arrest warrant against him." 

"I believe that within a few months, I would say in the course of this year, 
Milosevic should be transferred to The Hague," Del Ponte said in an interview 
with Swiss radio published in an Italian daily on Sunday. 

The Yugoslav government has not recognised the authority of the tribunal, 
which has jurisdiction over individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes 
and crimes against humanity in the territory of former Yugoslavia after 
January 1991. 

Belgrade's new reformist authorities are now drafting a law that contains 
provisions for cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
Former Yugoslavia. 

But Hartmann said there was only a small chance that the federal parliament 
would pass the law as the governing coalition lacks a majority in the 
chamber. 

Del Ponte said in the interview that she had not yet received any assurances 
about Milosevic's transfer. She quoted both the Yugoslav federal and Serbian 
republic justice ministers as saying, 'Not now, because (first) we want a 
trial for the crimes committed in our territory'. 

"At The Hague, he is charged with crimes against humanity and these are very 
serious charges in comparison to the ones he faces in Belgrade," she said. 
"If they ... delay the transfer of Milosevic, (del Ponte) will address the 
U.N. Security Council in New York in May (about the delay)." 

Del Ponte's New York visit is part of a bi-annual meeting she has with the 
Security Council. She regularly informs member states about cooperation with 
the tribunal. 

"It is not only a legal obligation of Yugoslavia, but also a moral obligation 
that Milosevic is linked with war crimes and that he has to face a trial for 
the war in Yugoslavia and for crimes and offences against ethnic groups," 
Hartmann said.