[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic Extradition Seen Possible

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic Extradition Seen Possible

By KATARINA KRATOVAC
.c The Associated Press
  
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - A law now in the works would provide for 
extraditing suspects - like Slobodan Milosevic - for trial by the U.N. war 
crimes tribunal, Yugoslavia's president said Tuesday. 

In a further tightening of the vise around the former Yugoslav president, a 
key Milosevic associate was arrested and another was reported to have fled 
the country. 

Milosevic has been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged 
atrocities in Kosovo, and the Netherlands-based tribunal has asked that he be 
extradited to face trial. 

Despite the new law, which would remove the ban on extradition of Yugoslav 
citizens, President Vojislav Kostunica suggested he remained opposed to 
Milosevic's immediate extradition. 

``The law will take up the question of extradition but that will not be its 
most important part, nor will extradition solve everything,'' Kostunica said. 

Kostunica has said the first priority is for Milosevic to be tried at home 
for misdeeds during his 13 years in power. ``Justice is better achieved when 
leaders of a country ... are held responsible by their own people,'' he said. 

Still the new law opens the way for possibly delivering Milosevic to The 
Hague once he has been tried in Serbia on charges that could range from 
corruption to war crimes. Kostunica associates noted the new law would be 
ready within five months. 

The law also appears to answer U.S. concerns. The United States has urged 
Kostunica's administration to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and 
gave them until March 31 to make good on the issue or risk losing financial 
aid worth around $100 million. 

Kostunica said cooperation did not necessarily mean extradition. 

``Nowhere has it been specified what exactly is supposed to happen by March 
31 - what is important is that cooperation starts,'' Kostunica said. ``The 
process must begin and there should be no preconditions, neither by Europe 
nor Washington.'' 

Also Tuesday, the parliament of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, adopted a 
law stripping former Serbian presidents of their dozens of bodyguards, 
leaving them with only one protector. 

Milosevic was Serbia's president until becoming Yugoslav president in 1997, 
yet the law does not immediately make him more vulnerable, since he still has 
federal protection. 

Socialist and Radical party legislators allied with Milosevic denounced the 
move. ``It is the preparation for what will happen to Milosevic,'' said 
Tomislav Nikolic, a Radical deputy. ``Kidnapping, arrest will be the result 
of the new law.'' 

Dragoljub Milanovic, former director of the state-run television, was 
detained Tuesday on suspicion of failing to protect 16 of his employees who 
died when NATO bombs hit the Yugoslav TV headquarters in April 1999. 

The victims' families have demanded Milanovic be charged with murder, 
claiming he wanted his employees to die so he could use their deaths to heat 
up the propaganda war against NATO. 

Milanovic went on a hunger strike to protest his detention and denounced his 
arrest as ``national shame.'' 

Banker Miodrag Zezevic - suspected of embezzling $75 million - was reported 
by local media to have fled the country to Hungary. Police officials, 
speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested evidence indicated he had left 
but could offer no details.