From: "Serbian News Network" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Kostunica Says He's Opposed to Extradition Of Milosevic Steven Erlanger New York Times Service Tuesday, April 3, 2001 BELGRADE President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia said Monday that his country should not extradite former President Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague to face war crimes charges, even if the United States again threatens to withhold foreign aid. . "It should never happen," Mr. Kostunica said in an interview. "I think that it's possible to do everything so that it should never happen." In the negotiations before his surrender to the police early Sunday morning, Mr. Milosevic sought and received written assurances that his arrest on domestic charges of corruption and abuse of power was not a precursor to a transfer to The Hague. . Mr. Milosevic's arrest was an important event, said Mr. Kostunica, who defeated him in elections in September. "Its meaning is to make public all the violations of the law and rights committed by the old regime led by Mr. Milosevic, so people can have a complete, clear picture. There will be no hide-and-seek, everything will come out," he said. "If we speak of the need for social catharsis, then the most important is this one." Speaking personally, he said, the arrest of Mr. Milosevic ends "a very painful period in our lives and in the lives of all these states, a period of lost years." He was reminded of a book by Borislav Pekic about his time in jail in the 1930s, called "The Years Eaten by Locusts," Mr. Kostunica said. . "I think about what this country might have been and the sort of lives we might have lived - it lasted too long," he said. And misguided Western policy, including sanctions and isolation, helped preserve Mr. Milosevic's rule, Mr. Kostunica said, not shorten it. . Mr. Kostunica criticizes The Hague as a political tribunal practicing selective justice, with shaky rules of law and biased against Serbia, with little inclination to indict Croat, Bosnian, ethnic Albanians or NATO leaders for war crimes. Still, Mr. Kostunica said, "one should make certain compromises" and cooperate with the tribunal. . Yugoslavia will investigate war crimes and help The Hague to do so, he said, and Mr. Milosevic should be brought to trial on war crimes charges, too - but before domestic courts. Officials of The Hague tribunal say that Yugoslavia, as a member of the United Nations, is obligated to turn over any indictees on its territory - including Mr. Milosevic. Any domestic trial on war crimes charges must still end with his extradition, Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor, has said. Mrs. Del Ponte said Monday that she was getting ready to sign a new indictment of Mr. Milosevic for the war in Bosnia, though she could use more time to prepare the case. Her aides say she expects him in The Hague this year. Mr. Kostunica said he also supported a draft law on cooperation with the tribunal that would allow the extradition of indictees, both Yugoslav citizens and noncitizens, after a rapid judicial procedure. . But the case of a former president is different, Mr. Kostunica argued, saying that most members of the democratic coalition that ousted Mr. Milosevic agreed. Even the Serbian prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, who was a strong supporter of the early arrest of Mr. Milosevic, has publicly opposed extraditing Mr. Milosevic to The Hague. "It's not legitimate," Mr. Kostunica said. "Other presidents are not being sent to The Hague. I must make some compromises, but there is a line I cannot cross. Even among those people in the Serbian and Yugoslav governments who don't think about legitimacy but about what might be politically useful, the prevailing view is that it would be unacceptable." He understood the view in Washington that the arrest of Mr. Milosevic just before the deadline last Sunday, in order to retain the flow of American aid, would prove that "pressure works." . "But that is incorrect thinking, even when Milosevic was in power," he said. . International pressure did not bring down Mr. Milosevic, but the Serbian people themselves, by their votes and demonstrations, Mr. Kostunica said. "If pressure did not work with Milosevic in power, and now he is no longer in power and we are having a horrible situation in Serbia, and what is the sense of such threats now?" . Mr. Kostunica described a bad economy and infrastructure, a ruined system of judicial and political institutions and an unstable regional environment. . The future of Yugoslavia is uncertain, with Serbia's tiny sister republic, Montenegro, pressing for independence, and what Mr. Kostunica has described as "dangers from all sides," including Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians militants are fighting for independence. . He wanted to work with NATO and the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, Mr. Kostunica said. . "But soldiers with arms should take some risks. It seems that only the lost lives of Serbs, Albanians and Macedonians are acceptable - but not the slightest scratch is acceptable for KFOR soldiers," the president said. He understands the fear Washington and the KFOR peacekeeping force have of becoming targets of Albanians in Kosovo, he said, as in Vietnam. "But more must be done, because NATO becomes responsible for what it has not done," he said. . An independent Montenegro would produce more regional instability, Mr. Kostunica said, noting that more refugees lived in Serbia - some 800,000 - than the 650,000 people who lived in Montenegro. But he strongly opposes a moratorium or delay on Montenegro deciding its future, saying that Serbia would suffer from any further period of uncertainty. . Yugoslavia does not need more pressure and conditions from the United States and the international community, he said, "but patience, to let us cope with these problems, especially when one considers that the stability of Yugoslavia and Serbia is very important for this unstable region." . What Yugoslavia needs "is something that from the beginning of the American republic is called self-rule and self-government," he said. "How can our people and courts become competent to deal with questions like war crimes unless you're given a chance?" . Even The Hague, he said, "in many ways has not the capacity to deal with these problems." . The strains continue in the victorious democratic coalition of 18 disparate parties known as DOS, Mr. Kostunica conceded. But he said that if clear decisions can be agreed on major issues like future Serbian-Montenegrin relations and the status of the Vojvodina region, the coalition could survive. "There are also differences on the issues of respect for the rule of law," he said, visible in the government conflict over the failed attempts to arrest Mr. Milosevic by storm. Corruption could also destroy the coalition, he said. "We fought against corruption and privileges in the old regime, but if this is repeated now, then it wouldn't be possible to keep DOS together," he said. But it is too early to make such judgments now, he said. http://www.iht.com/articles/15585.html Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/SNN/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
