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Yugoslavia Arrests U.S. Diplomat and Ex-Army Boss March 15 � BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslavia arrested a U.S. diplomat who was meeting a Serbian government official in a restaurant on Thursday night and held him for 15 hours, a U.S. embassy spokesman said on Friday. The army's Milosevic-era chief-of-staff Momcilo Perisic, who is now a Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, was also arrested on Thursday night by military security, his chief of staff said. It was not immediately clear if Perisic was the Serb official in the restaurant and local media offered no immediate clue as to why the former general was being held. The military court and Yugoslav government were expected to issue statements later. "An American embassy official in Belgrade meeting with a Serbian government official in a public restaurant last night was arbitrarily arrested and held incommunicado for 15 hours," embassy spokesman Paul Denig told Reuters. "He has been released to the embassy and the embassy is protesting the fact that he was arrested and detained," Denig said. He refused to give further details. Perisic was army chief of staff until November 1998 when Slobodan Milosevic fired him after he criticized the then president's policies in Kosovo. Milosevic is facing war crimes charges in The Hague. "The army security service arrested General Momcilo Perisic some time last night and he is still detained," Nebojsa Mandic, the head of Perisic's office, told Reuters by telephone. Perisic told Reuters in 1999 he had warned Milosevic that he should avoid a war with NATO that the army could not win. Milosevic disagreed and fired him shortly before NATO launched its air war. Perisic later founded his own party, the Movement for Democratic Serbia, joined the DOS coalition that toppled Milosevic in 2000 and in January 2001 became a deputy prime minister in the Serbian government. Croatia has indicted Perisic for war crimes and tried him in absentia for shelling the Adriatic city of Zadar, where he was a Yugoslav army commander in 1991 at the start of the Croatian war. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1996. Croatia wants him removed from power and says his continued presence hinders a thawing in relations between the former foes. The U.N. war crimes court in The Hague has not published any charges against Perisic. Perisic is an ally of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. The army, which made the arrest, is under the control of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who is engaged in a power struggle with Djindjic. � __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
