Serb Ex-President Milan Milutinovic to Face U.N. Tribunal

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) — Despite poor health, former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic will soon be handed over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands, the Serbian prime minister said Thursday.

Milutinovic has agreed to turn himself in to The Hague court, which charged him with war crimes during a government crackdown against Kosovo Albanians in 1999, Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic told The Associated Press.

"Milutinovic's departure to The Hague will be voluntary," Djindjic said. He said Milutinovic will travel to the Netherlands "in the next few days" without state security escorts.

Also Thursday, newspaper reports quoted Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic as saying he and Milutinovic had agreed on the terms of the former president's surrender.

Svilanovic said that he hoped the U.N. tribunal will set Milutinovic free pending the start of his trial partly because of his poor health. Milutinovic has had two heart surgeries in recent years.

Though regarded as a figurehead, Milutinovic was a member of the inner circle of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Any testimony he might offer could prove damaging to the former Yugoslav leader, who is facing charges of genocide and other war crimes before the U.N. court.

Milutinovic, who was Serbia's president from 1997 until last month, has denied he had any role in war crimes in Kosovo, saying that during his presidency he didn't have control over the Serb-led security forces in the southern Yugoslav province.

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No matter how much some FReepers want to believe a whole lot has changed in US policy towards Serbia, the surrender of Serbia's ex-President Milutinovic to the Hague Tribunal puts the boot to that lie.

The Hague Tribunal has been getting nothing short of a pounding from Milosevic, but Carla del Ponte and the rest of the "show trial crew" claim they're ready to make a case against a man who was little more than a
figurehead in the Serbian government?

In the pre-NATO bombing period, Milan Milutinovic hosted a number of talks in Pristina to confer with seperatist Albanians and prevent war, but the latter refused to attend all but the first meeting (probably under the direct instructions of Richard Holbrooke and Madeleine Albright). Now he's indicted for "war crimes" while the Albanians have been granted control of the greatest part of southern Serbia by NATO.

With Serbia's territorial integrity under direct attack from Albania which was used as a launching pad for terrorist aggression, as well as from within Kosovo itself, Milutinovic was bound by the consititution to defend the country and send in the army. While almost every tin-pot dictator in the world is protected by the International Court of Justice's ruling of immunity for state leaders,
an exception is specifically made for, and only for, Serbian leaders.

The anti-Serbian defamation and aggression continues.

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