SHOCKING Development in the Balkans<gggggg>
dailynews.yahoo.com
U.S. Links Belgrade Aid, Milosevic Arrest - Report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has told the
Belgrade government it should arrest and imprison former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) by
the end of March if it expects American aid to continue, The
New York Times reported on Saturday.
The demand for Milosevic's arrest was included in a three-page
list of demands delivered last week by the U.S. ambassador to
Belgrade, William Montgomery, to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica (news - web
sites), Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic of Serbia and other senior officials, the newspaper said.
Belgrade was also asked to assist in transferring at least one person indicted on war crimes
charges to the international tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites) and to cooperate with
the tribunal on ''international charges against Milosevic,'' according to the report.
The State Department declined to confirm that the Bush administration had asked Belgrade
to take action against Milosevic.
``We are looking at all aspects of Belgrade's cooperation with the Hague tribunal, as well as
other issues relating to democracy and human rights in Serbia,'' a State Department official
said.
The U.S. Congress had already set a deadline of March 31 for Yugoslavia's new democratic
government to show a clear sign of cooperating over Milosevic, who is under indictment by
the tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, if it is to receive the balance of $100 million in U.S.
aid. About half of that aid has not yet been disbursed.
The latest demands ratchet up the pressure on Belgrade to act swiftly against Milosevic to
avoid a suspension of aid.
President George W. Bush (news - web sites) must certify to Congress by the March 31
deadline that Yugoslavia is cooperating with the U.N. tribunal on international war crimes in
the former Yugoslavia.
Belgrade has indicated that the net is closing in on Milosevic and that he may soon be brought
to trial in Serbia. But it has balked at Western demands that he be handed over to the war
crimes tribunal.
Djindjic suggested on Friday that his government might try Milosevic in Belgrade but urged
the international community to respect Serbia's desire to try the former strongman in its own
courts rather than deliver him to the tribunal.
The Times said Washington had not insisted in its latest demands that Milosevic be
transferred immediately to The Hague. But official U.S. policy remains that he should at some
point face charges before the international tribunal for Serbian actions and war crimes
allegedly committed before and during the 1999 Kosovo war. |
