[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Arrest of Milosevic Predicted (AP, Feb. 7, 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010207/aponline090259_000.htm

Arrest of Milosevic Predicted 

By Dusan Stojanovic
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001; 9:02 a.m. EST

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Increasingly it seems less a case of whether
Slobodan Milosevic will stand trial and more of when, where and for
what. 
    Less than four months after a brief popular revolt forced him to
acknowledge electoral defeat and step down from office, Yugoslavia's new
pro-democracy government appears close to taking action against the
former president. 
    Over the past week, he has been put under 24-hour police
surveillance. His arraignment - and arrest - is expected by the end of
this month. And faced with the possible loss of more than $100 million
in financial aid from the United States, impoverished Yugoslavia is
looking hard at extraditing Milosevic to stand trial at the U.N. war
crimes tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands. 
    The United States told Belgrade it must start cooperating with The
Hague court by the end of March, or risk losing the vital financial aid. 
    But most new Yugoslav leaders remain opposed to the idea of
extradition, with some arguing that the law does not foresee delivering
a citizen to a foreign court. In reality, the fear is that extradition
would make a martyr out of Milosevic in the eyes of many Serbs who
consider the court an anti-Serb instrument of the West, and who still
fault the West for the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that forced
Milosevic to give up Kosovo. 
    Still, with the former leader accused of a wide range of wrongdoing
beyond his alleged involvement in Kosovo atrocities, the dilemma is not
whether he should stand trial. The question is should he be tried at
home or in The Hague, and should the charges be corruption, complicity
in political assassinations and abductions during his 13-year tenure, or
alleged atrocities in Kosovo. 
    One solution being pushed in Belgrade is a trial within the country,
but on all charges, including those raised by the U.N. tribunal and with
tribunal input 
    "Milosevic's place is in jail," says Interior Minister Zoran
Zivkovic. "It would be just for him to stand trial here because he
committed all those crimes here." 
    "Our prosecutor should accept The Hague's indictment, add the local
charges, and trigger the proceedings in front of our courts," Zivkovic
told The Associated Press. "The war crimes definitely existed ... and
there is no dilemma who is responsible: Milosevic as the former supreme
commander." 
    During her visit to Belgrade last month, chief U.N. prosecutor Carla
Del Ponte insisted The Hague tribunal has priority over local Yugoslav
courts and that Milosevic must be extradited. New Yugoslav leaders
insisted the country's constitution bans extradition of citizens. 
    But Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav
republic, suggests that Washington, previously a vehement supporter of
Milosevic's extradition, is now amenable to compromise. 
    On return from Washington on the weekend, Djindjic suggested that
Secretary of State Colin Powell was sympathetic to arguments that
Milosevic be tried in Serbia. 
    "We want all those who committed crimes to be held responsible, we
want them to answer before our institutions ... to give chance to our
courts because they are competent," Djindjic said. "My impression is
that we have secured an understanding in the State Department." 
    Still, The Hague option remains. The Serb parliament next week is
expected to appoint new prosecutors and judges, replacing those picked
by Milosevic. A new law allowing cooperation with The Hague tribunal
will be put in place. 
    "The law will eliminate the obstacles for Yugoslavia's cooperation
with The Hague tribunal," said Momcilo Grubac, the new justice minister.
He, however, did not specify whether the law will allow extradition. 
    In any case, Djindjic said during his visit to Washington last week
that an investigation against Milosevic would start "within a few days"
and the former leader will be put on trial "in two weeks." 
    Zivkovic said that Milosevic, who lives in a government villa in
Belgrade under military and police guard, was placed under 24-hour
surveillance - not house arrest - "to prevent him from fleeing the
country, even though I doubt any other country would accept him." 
    "We also want to prevent possible adventurers from snatching
Milosevic in order to pick up a $5 million reward," offered by the
United States to those who help hand over Milosevic and other suspects
to the war crimes tribunal, he said. 
    Milosevic, meanwhile, appears oblivious, continuing a daily routine
that includes visits to his Socialist Party headquarters in Belgrade and
chairing party meetings. His shrunken camp of supporters remain defiant. 
    "We will never recognize The Hague tribunal, the new Gestapo," says
Milosevic lieutenant Branislav Ivkovic. "There can be no trial against
the man who defended the country and its every citizen." 
    But the new leadership sees it differently. 
    "Milosevic must answer for the evils he had done," says Yugoslav
Information Secretary Slobodan Orlic. "He has to be arrested and tried
... and that process has to start very soon." 

© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press


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