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Belgrade Moves To Transfer Milosevic To The Hague
BELGRADE, June 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Serbian government announced after a cabinet meeting Monday that the first legal steps towards the transfer of former president Slobodan Milosevic to the UN tribunal in The Hague have been taken.
Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac has submitted an official request to the Belgrade regional court for the transfer of the former leader, the government said in a statement carried by the Tanjug news agency.
"At a meeting of the government of the Republic of Serbia held Monday, it was noted that the procedure for cooperating with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) was launched in accordance with the decree by the federal government," the statement said.
It said Grubac instructed the Serbian justice ministry to follow up on his request.
Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic had said on Sunday that the handover of Milosevic could take between 10 and 23 days, taking account of likely appeals, "if the process begins tomorrow (Monday)".
One of Milosevic's lawyers, Veselin Cerovic, confirmed Monday that the request concerning his client had been sent to the Belgrade regional court.
He said Milosevic's defense team "is expecting to be called to the court session that will hear the extradition request. It will be a public session in which the prosecutor, lawyers and the accused will participate."
Cerovic said the session could take place "in the next three days."
"When this court makes a decision, the lawyers will have eight days to appeal before the supreme court, which in turn will be allowed 15 days to give its response," the lawyer said.
The Serbian government's announcement came a day after a decree adopted by the Yugoslav government went into force, allowing for the extradition of war crimes suspects such as Milosevic, who would be the first former head of state to stand trial for war crimes in the UN court.
Milosevic's lawyers Monday appealed against the decree, insisting such a move would violate his constitutional rights, and demanding that Yugoslavia's Constitutional Court bar execution of the decree until its legality is affirmed, ITN News reported.
Veselin Cerovic, one of Milosevic's lawyers, told AFP that the defense team had filed a legal challenge with the court to the constitutional validity of the decree.
"We demand orders based on the (U.N. war crimes tribunal) indictment not be executed before the decree is proclaimed valid," said Cerovic.
This would have the effect of halting the process for Milosevic's extradition, he said.
"The defense thinks this behavior is in contradiction with the federal constitution and criminal law of this country," Cerovic said.
He insisted that Milosevic's constitutional rights would be violated if he were transferred to the ICTY, since the top Yugoslav court bans extradition of Yugoslav citizens to foreign courts.
However, reformers in Belgrade have argued that the ICTY is not the tribunal of any particular country and therefore must be recognized because Yugoslavia is a member of the United Nations.
Although support among Serbians for Milosevic's extradition has been rising, the risk of Yugoslavia's failure to cooperate with the tribunal still provokes warnings from the international community - Yugoslavia could lose billions of dollars in foreign money, ITN News said.
The outcome of an approaching donors conference, to be held this Friday in Brussels, Belgium, will depend on Yugoslavia's cooperation with the tribunal, and ITN News said that efforts at improving relations with the U.N. have increased in anticipation of the conference.
However in Washington, senior U.S. officials said the United States is not yet convinced Belgrade has met its conditions to attend the conference.
U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia William Montgomery was to meet with Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic to deliver the message that Washington must see more evidence of cooperation with the tribunal before participating in the conference set for Friday in Brussels, they said.
One senior State Department official said a decision on attending the meeting would be made on or by Wednesday, giving Belgrade 48 hours to take steps beyond a weekend decree that could allow Milosevic to be sent to The Hague.
"We want to go to the donors conference, we want to help Yugoslavia, but I don't know that we've seen anything yet that would allow us to do that," the official told AFP.
Milosevic is wanted by the ICTY, which was established in 1992, for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1998-1999 crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The former president has been in jail since April 1 on accusations of corruption and abuse of power, and investigations have already expanded to explore allegations that he covered up the atrocities committed by his troops in Kosovo, according to ITN News.
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