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Milosevic To Be Arrested Before March 10th
BELGRADE, Feb 28 (News Agencies) - Senior members of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party (SPS) met Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic late Wednesday to call for a halt to moves against their leader, a party official said.
"We asked Mr. Djindjic to stop the campaigns aimed at scaring people to clear the way for the arrests of those whose only guilt is to have defended their people," said Zivorad Igic, the party's deputy president.
"It is unacceptable and illegal that some government ministers are accusing and condemning when the country's courts still haven't discussed the matter," he added.
"That is how we see the attacks against Milosevic."
Djindjic had admitted to the SPS delegation that he had trouble controlling the statements of some of his ministers, said Igic.
About a hundred Milosevic supporters demonstrated in front of the Serbian parliament building but dispersed after the SPS delegation had emerged from the meeting.
Earlier Wednesday, Beta news agency quoted an unnamed source close to Serbia's reformist leadership as saying that the authorities would move to arrest Milosevic no later than March 10th to answer charges of corruption and murder.
"Milosevic will not be detained just for breaking laws when he bought his house, but for more serious criminal acts, mostly linked with financial improprieties, but also for the disappearance and murder of people," the source told Beta.
Also Wednesday, Serbia's deputy prime minister, Zarko Korac, denied a report in the independent daily Blic that quoted him as saying a legal investigation had been opened into Milosevic, Beta reported.
"The sensationalist stories in the press do not do anything for the independence of the courts or that of the finance investigators," said Korac.
Serbia's Justice Minister Vladan Batic meanwhile announced that an investigation had been opened into the disappearance last August of the former president of Yugoslavia, Ivan Stambolic, Beta reported.
Stambolic, once Milosevic's mentor, was pushed from power in 1987 by his protégé, and in the years leading up to his disappearance, had become increasingly critical of him.
A lawyer representing his family has said they believe that he was abducted for political reasons. He disappeared on August 25th last year while out for his morning jog in the woods near his home.
And the Tanjug news agency reported that the Belgrade district prosecutor on Wednesday ordered police to investigate claims and press reports that Milosevic sold 173 kilos of gold in Switzerland last year.
Unconfirmed press reports said that, between September 21 and November 2, 2000, Milosevic sent the gold to be sold in Switzerland.
The proceeds were paid into the accounts of certain companies from Greece and Cyprus, said the reports.
Milosevic was ousted from office in October following a popular revolt over his refusal to concede electoral defeat to Vojislav Kostunica.
Kostunica has said that Milosevic will stand trial in his homeland but has refused to turn him over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague to answer charges of crimes against humanity.
Speculation that Milosevic would soon be arrested increased over the weekend after the arrest on Friday of his former secret police chief, Rade Markovic.
On Tuesday, Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic promised a series of "surprise" arrests of officials of the former regime.
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