Belgrade 'will not send more accused to war tribunal'

Die Times von London ^ | December 09, 2002 | John Phillips

[Voronin]

Belgrade 'will not send more accused to war tribunal'
From John Phillips in Belgrade

BELGRADE will no longer hand over alleged war criminals to a United Nations tribunal because the court has reneged on guarantees for those who surrendered voluntarily, the Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, told The Times yesterday.

He said that they would now be tried only in local courts and not at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which sits at The Hague.

He also said that Belgrade’s co-operation with the West in the event of an attack on Iraq would be “less enthusiastic” than in other former communist countries and denied reports that he knew of recent illegal exports of arms and missile technology to Baghdad that may have been used to help in developing weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Kostunica, 58, said that he favoured greater co- operation between Belgrade and the war crimes tribunal, but said that “co-operation should not be one-sided”.

He said: “I think that the Hague tribunal is one-sided. Some people who have been indicted have been given guarantees. That is something that has not been respected and, after that, I say that no one is going to appear before the Hague tribunal voluntarily.” Mr Kostunica did not name the accused war criminals concerned. But he indicated that in future other alleged war criminals at large in Yugoslavia, such as Ratko Mladic, wanted for the alleged murder of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War, should be tried only in local courts in Yugoslavia and not at The Hague.

Diplomatic sources in The Hague said that when the President accused the tribunal of not respecting guarantees, he was referring to the cases of four men the Yugoslav authorities had persuaded to surrender on condition that they would be released on bail.

Two of them are senior associates of Slobodan Milosevic, the former President who is standing trial at The Hague for alleged genocide in the former Yugoslavia. Requests for the release of Nicola Sainovic, the former Yugoslav Vice-President, and General Dragoljub Ojdanic, the former Yugoslav Armed Forces Chief of Staff, were rejected by the court earlier this year after objections by prosecutors, the sources at The Hague told The Times. The tribunal has also refused to release Milan Martic. the former leader of the breakaway Croatian Serb republic, and General Mile Mrksic, both of whom also received guarantees that they would eventually be released from prison if they turned themselves in, the sources said.

Western diplomats in Belgrade say they are certain that General Mladic is in hiding in Serbia under Yugoslav Army protection, but President Kostunica denied that. Belgrade had shown its intention to cooperate with the tribunal by extraditing Mr Milosevic to The Hague, he said, and most documents that the tribunal has requested from the authorities had been handed over.

Mr Kostunica also criticised Carla del Ponte, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor. “The general attorney is bringing a sort of instability in the country,” he said.

On Iraq, Mr Kostunica strongly denied that he knew of illegal deals with Baghdad. “When I was informed, I really did everything,” he said. “I met officials in the federal Government and initiated a state commission of inquiry, which is much broader than a federal commission. I talked to the public attorney of Serbia and the attorney of the VJ Army (Yugoslav Army).” Belgrade had co-operated “very successfully” with Washington over the affair, he said.

Mr Kostunica said that he was pleased that the US State Department had denied allegations by the International Crisis Group, a non-governmental organisation, which claimed that Yugoslavia was a hub for material enabling Baghdad to develop weapons of mass destruction.

“I consider this was one of my successes on the eve of the elections,” Mr Kostunica said.

Vojislav Kostunica topped the poll in presidential elections in Serbia for the second time yesterday, but the process failed again because of low turnout, independent observers said. About 45 per cent voted, similar to that in October, which also failed to reach the required 50 per cent. Mr Kostunica said that he would not recognise the outcome of the poll. His party said that the electoral roll had been inflated with bogus names.

[Voronin]

Quite a few interesting tidbits in here, though the ICG stuff is the clincher for me.

VRN

[Voronin]

PING!

VRN