[ALBSA-Info] Police surround Milosevic home

[Iris Pilika]

Police surround Milosevic home

Milosevic has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal sitting in The Hague
March 30, 2001
Web posted at: 1903 GMT


BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Riot police have surrounded the home of former 
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, sparking speculation that his arrest 
is imminent.

The police presence arrived on the eve of a deadline set for Yugoslavia to 
cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal that has indicted Milosevic.

A police van, several other vehicles and an ambulance were seen on Friday in 
a residential area where Milosevic lives.

Milosevic's Socialist party informed the Serbian parliament of the 
appearance of the vehicles in Belgrade's Dedinje district and its deputies 
left the assembly in protest.

The Socialists' parliamentary leader told parliament the development was a 
prelude to an arrest attempt on Milosevic.

CNN producer Predrag Bambic, reporting from the scene, said the whole area 
is sealed off by specially trained and equipped riot police.

But he added: "For the moment, there is no official explanation as to what 
is going on."

He said about 100 Milosevic supporters are gathered in the area chanting 
"Slobbo," "Serbia," and "Kosovo."

Milosevic was last seen in public last Saturday, when he left his home to 
greet his supporters who had staged a rally to mark the two-year anniversary 
of the NATO bombing.

Yugoslav leaders earlier expressed confidence that they have done enough to 
meet Saturday's deadline for cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

But they refused to say whether former president Slobodan Milosevic would be 
arrested before then or any time soon.

Legislation from the U.S. Congress sets down a range of obligations 
Yugoslavia's reformist leaders must fulfil by March 31.

If Belgrade is not complying by the deadline, Washington will freeze around 
$50 million in aid payments set aside for Yugoslavia this year.

It will also oppose loans to the Balkan state from international financial 
institutions.

"Whether Milosevic will be arrested today, tomorrow, on March 31, or on 
April 1 or 2, depends on the police and the judiciary and it will happen 
when they issue such an order," Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said.

Vladan Batic, justice minister of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, 
took a similar line. He said he did not even know how far an investigation 
against Milosevic had gone. "I would not interfere with the work of the 
judiciary," he said.

The U.S. legislation also requires an end to illegal support to the Serb 
part of Bosnia, and respect for minority rights and the rule of law.

"Our authorities have broken ties with Milosevic's regime and so I believe 
we deserve the trust that we can establish a state based on the rule of 
law," Zivkovic said.

Baltic said he also hoped for Washington's understanding, adding that both 
Yugoslavia and Serbia had already passed some of the most important tests.

"A draft law on cooperation with The Hague is ready, awaiting further 
procedure," he said.

Most leaders in the DOS reform alliance that runs Serbia and dominates the 
Yugoslav government want Milosevic tried at home for crimes committed 
against his own people.

They argue that the country's constitution bans the extradition of Yugoslav 
citizens to the tribunal that indicted Milosevic in 1999 for war crimes 
committed in Kosovo.

At home, Milosevic has been under investigation over an illegal purchase of 
a house. A number of his close associates have been arrested and the DOS 
hopes they will come out with crucial evidence that will eventually put the 
former president behind bars.

Batic added that Serbia's Supreme Court had scheduled a public hearing for 
the end of April to review the cases of 143 ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo 
town of Djakovica, whose convictions have been widely condemned as 
groundless.

Yugoslavia has already pardoned or released some of more than a thousand 
ethnic Albanians sentenced on different accounts. But since charges of 
terrorism were not covered by a recent amnesty law, they have to be 
addressed by appeals hearings.

The U.N. tribunal's chief prosecutor said last week that Yugoslavia has 
begun co-operating with it.

Carla del Ponte was commenting on the decision by the Yugoslav authorities 
to hand over an indicted war crimes suspect -- the first time they have done 
so -- last week.

"It is true that the co-operation with Belgrade has started," said del Ponte 
on Monday, at the start of a three-day visit to Bosnia.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.



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