[ALBSA-Info] Kosovo scents 'Scam', Bosnian Serbs cry 'Shame'

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Kosovo scents 'Scam', Bosnian Serbs cry 'Shame'

By Shaban Buza and Maja Zuvela
  
PRISTINA/SARAJEVO, March 31 (Reuters) - Moves to arrest Slobodan Milosevic on 
Saturday left Bosnian Serbs crying "Shame," while Kosovo Albanians said the 
dramatic events were a smokescreen to prevent his handover to international 
justice. 

The fate of the former Yugoslav President drew sharply conflicting responses 
across the Balkans that mirrored the ethnic enmities stoked by the decade of 
wars for which the West holds Milosevic responsible. 

Bosnian Serbs, whose fight to carve out an ethnically pure Serb state was 
backed by Milosevic before he distanced himself from them in 1995, said the 
arrest move was a capitulation by the reformist Belgrade authorities to 
international pressure. 

"We have started to look like some South American country where presidents 
are arrested and replaced like ordinary thieves," said Mileva Arantinovic, 
51. 

In the Bosnian Serb wartime capital of Pale, near Sarajevo, there was 
sympathy for Milosevic, who faces charges of crimes against humanity that 
were committed in the name of the ethnic separatism many there still believe 
in. 

"I think the attempt to arrest him is a shameful act by the Yugoslav 
government," said one local Bosnian Serb pensioner. 

Milosevic is indicted for the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 
1998-1999 but is also likely to face charges from the United Nations war 
crimes tribunal over his responsibility for wars in Bosnia and Croatia as old 
Yugoslavia broke up. 

Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, who 
were based in Pale, have also been indicted and are still at large. 

HATRED 

Many Croats, Moslems and Albanians hate Milosevic for the death and 
destruction wrought by armies under his control that fought to create a 
"Greater Serbia" at the expense of other Balkan peoples. 

In the Kosovo capital Pristina ethnic Albanian parties dismissed the failed 
attempts by Belgrade security forces to detain Milosevic as a "trick" to 
deflect Western pressure for him to be handed over to the U.N. tribunal in 
the Hague. 

"These latest games in Serbia do not correspond with formal declarations by 
the Belgrade government that they will cooperate with the Hague Tribunal," 
said Naim Jerlius, vice-president of the LDK, the party of moderate leader 
Ibrahim Rugova. 

"This attempt to arrest Milosevic by (Yugoslav President Vojislav) 
Kostunica's government is an attempt to maintain the democratic image of this 
regime by appearing to fulfil the demands of the international community," 
said Jakup Krasniqi of the PDK party of former Albanian guerrilla leader 
Hashim Thaci. 

Serbia's Interior Minister has said Milosevic was now under house arrest and 
the effort to seize him overnight was to make him face charges locally, not 
to extradite him to the Hague. 

Others in the region gave credit to the reformist Serbian government, which 
took power in the wake of Milosevic's ouster last October, for taking the 
necessary first step. 

"The Belgrade authorities want to arrest Milosevic for his criminal 
activities and election fraud, for tactical reasons, so they can use it and 
then hand him over to the Hague tribunal," Croatian President Stipe Mesic 
told HINA agency. 

"Milosevic needs to be discredited in Serbia first, because he still has a 
numerous following," added Mesic. 

Others were more suspicious. 

"It seems to me as if the authorities wanted to appear as if they are serious 
about taking him in: 'Look, we tried but it is just too complicated'. But, in 
fact they want him to escape or get killed," said a 34-year-old professional 
in Zagreb. 

"It all looks so sloppy. I can't believe that they could not have carried it 
out properly," he added. 

"The faked arrest of Milosevic was just an attempt to fictitiously show the 
world that Yugoslavia is ready to cooperate with the international community 
in order to prevent sanctions," said a 52-year old Sarajevan professor. 

The arrest attempt came just before the expiry of a deadline set by U.S. 
legislation for President George W. Bush to declare whether Yugoslavia is 
cooperating with the U.N. tribunal or face U.S. economic sanctions and a 
withholding of $50 million in aid.