From: "Miroslav Antic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: "STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN!" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 17:08:20 -0500 ----------------------------------------- Monday January 15 12:03 PM ET Kostunica Won't Meet U.N. Prosecutor By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - President Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites), a strong critic of the U.N. war crimes tribunal, will not meet its chief prosecutor during her visit to Belgrade later this month, the Yugoslav leader's associates said Monday. The Netherlands-based tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, is to visit Belgrade on Jan. 23 to demand the Yugoslav government's full cooperation, including the arrest and extradition of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites), indicted for war crimes in Kosovo, and other suspects. An associate of the Yugoslav president, Aleksandar Popovic of the Serbian Democratic Party, told Belgrade media that the reason the two would not meet is because The Hague court represents a ``political'' instrument. ``The Hague tribunal is a political tribunal. ... Its prosecution is politically oriented,'' the Beta news agency quoted Popovic as saying. Another Kostunica associate, Milorad Jovanovic, told The Associated Press that the Yugoslav leader meets only ``dignitaries of similar capacities,'' meaning other statesmen and officials - a rank del Ponte does not hold. The obvious implication of del Ponte being ``not important enough'' to meet with Kostunica represented a direct snub to The Hague court. Kostunica's office would not comment. In an interview this weekend, Kostunica said he would not extradite his ousted predecessor and other war crimes suspects to face trial at an international court in The Hague because it would be illegal. According to Kostunica, the Yugoslav constitution does not allow extradition of Yugoslav citizens to a foreign court. His comment was the latest in a series of conflicting signals from Yugoslavia's new pro-democracy leadership on the sensitive issue - and it was contradicted by the country's justice minister, Momcilo Grubac, who said the extradition ban doesn't apply because The Hague court is a U.N. body. Kostunica, who took office last October after Milosevic was driven from power after losing elections, has refused to surrender indicted suspects, calling the war crimes tribunal a tool of American foreign policy. But he later agreed to cooperate and allow prosecutors to open an office in Belgrade. The office reopening would not automatically mean accepting the demands of the court, Kostunica said, reiterating instead the possibility that war crimes suspects, like Milosevic, be tried in Yugoslavia, in cooperation with The Hague tribunal. Email this Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/SNN/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
