From: ICPJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subj: Yugo: Milosovic's Men Take Up Arms - Sunday Time >Date: 3/5/2001 6:57:25 PM Eastern Standard Time > >Ready for a fight: Milosevic supporters take to the streets in Belgrade as >guns are distributed to the party faithful > >Milosevic's men take up arms >==================== >Tom Walker > > SUPPORTERS of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, have armed >themselves and issued death threats to prosecutors as the Belgrade >authorities dither over plans to arrest him for alleged corruption and >involvement in the murders of opponents. > >Milosevic loyalists in the Socialist party have made direct appeals to >Vojislav Kostunica, his successor as president, and to Zoran Djindjic, the >Serbian prime minister, to leave their boss alone. At a stormy party meeting >on Thursday, guns were distributed as the faithful promised a showdown. > >"They're prepared to go to the extreme," said one official close to the >party. "These may have been only personal protection weapons, but they have >their people in the army and the police, and they can easily organise >something nasty." > >As tension rose last week in the Yugoslav capital, Kostunica called >emergency cabinet meetings at which he urged his colleagues in the coalition >government to show restraint. All senior politicians within the alliance >have been given special security after Dusan Mihailovic, the interior >minister, said he had received death threats. > >Friends of the Milosevic family say the former leader has been in bullish >mood since moving last week from the relatively unprotected surroundings of >his private villa in Tolstojeva Street, in the elite surbub of a Dedinje, to >a fortified residence in nearby Uzicka Street, which is linked to >underground tunnels. His wife, Mira Markovic, is said to be in "fury mode" >and the couple are showing few signs of wanting to submit themselves to >justice. > >It also emerged that the interior ministry had abandoned plans to send >investigators to Milosevic's residence amid doubts about the feasibility of >arresting or detaining him. > >The furore over Milosevic is straining Kostunica's fragile ruling alliance >to the limit. The anti-American president, an avowed opponent of the >International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, is >opposed by Djindjic and Vladen Batic, the Serbian justice minister. > >Both are said to favour the immediate arrest of Milosevic. Djindjic, the >wheeler-dealer of the Belgrade revolution that toppled Milosevic, has formed >an anti-riot unit ready to tackle any demonstrations. > >However, some cabinet ministers favour arresting other members of >Milosevic's inner circle before going for the former president himself. The >two most likely targets are Nikola Sainovic, a long-term adviser of >Milosevic, and Milovan Bojic, the former health minister. > >They have powerful connections in the police, and Sainovic is one of the few >apparatchiks with intimate knowledge of the Milosevic family's >finances.Kostunica's dilemma is complicated by Washington's insistence that >Yugoslavia will receive hundreds of millions of dollars of aid only if >Milosevic is arrested and transferred to the Hague by March 31. > >Some of Kostunica's more liberal aides have suggested that Carla del Ponte, >the tribunal's chief prosecutor, could be mollified if three senior Yugoslav >army officers wanted for alleged war crimes in the shelling of Vukovar, >Croatia, in 1991 were handed over. > >The "Vukovar three" - Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin - >are thought to be politically expendable, and justice ministry officials >believe their arrest would be a strong enough signal of co-operation to >persuade the West to turn the aid taps on. > >Del Ponte is not impressed, however. In a radio interview yesterday, she >dimissed Kostunica as a nationalist and man of the past who was extremely >unlikely ever to hand over his predecessor. "I've been reading for weeks >that Milosevic is going to be arrested and I don't really believe it," she >said. > >As the Kostunica cabinet deliberates, Milosevic's trusted friends have >appeared with demonstrators vowing to defend their mentor. Sinisa Vucinic, >the protest organiser, claimed thousands were preparing for an armed revolt. > >------------------------------------------------------- > > > >----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- >Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Received: from rly-xd02.mx.aol.com (rly-xd02.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.167]) >by air-xd03.mail.aol.com (v77_r1.21) with ESMTP; Mon, 05 Mar 2001 18:57:25 >-0500 >Received: from mandy.eunet.fi (mandy.eunet.fi [193.66.1.129]) by >rly-xd02.mx.aol.com (v77_r1.21) with ESMTP; Mon, 05 Mar 2001 18:56:46 -0500 >Received: (from daemon@localhost) > by mandy.eunet.fi (8.9.3/8.9.3-KJN-spamaway) id BAA17507 > for kominform-outgoing (origin [EMAIL PROTECTED]); > Tue, 6 Mar 2001 01:56:12 +0200 (EET) >Received: from scooby.lineone.net (scooby-s1.lineone.net [194.75.152.224]) > by mandy.eunet.fi (8.9.3/8.9.3-KJN-spamaway) with ESMTP id BAA17502 > for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (origin [EMAIL PROTECTED]); > Tue, 6 Mar 2001 01:56:10 +0200 (EET) >Received: from oemcomputer (host62-6-98-215.dialup.lineone.co.uk >[62.6.98.215]) > by scooby.lineone.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id XAA23391; > Mon, 5 Mar 2001 23:55:43 GMT >Message-ID: <00e501c0a506$a4ca92e0$2064063e@oemcomputer> >From: "Red Rebel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Yugo: Milosovic's Men Take Up Arms - Sunday Time >Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 23:55:48 -0000 >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >X-Priority: 3 >X-MSMail-Priority: Normal >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 >X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >____________ > ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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