From: "Miroslav Antic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yugoslav president gives up on war crimes law Belgrade - The most powerful political group in Yugoslavia, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), apparently conceded defeat to its tiny partners in the Yugoslav government coalition Wednesday and gave up on a federal law that would allow the extradition of war crime suspects. Statements from top DOS officials seemed to indicate uncertainty over the next step, with three options still in play - concessions to the partner, the Montenegrin Socialist People's Party (SNP); a Serbian instead of federal law; and cooperation with the war crimes tribunal without any law. The bill, originally scheduled for debate in the Yugoslav parliament Thursday, will probably be withdrawn amid clear warnings from the SNP that it would not give it the necessary support, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica told reporters in Budapest. Kostunica hinted that the Serbian government might be forced to deal independently with the tribunal in The Hague as well as take responsibility for extraditions. "It is important that we have a legal basis for the cooperation with The Hague tribunal" said Kostunica, who was in Budapest on a one-day visit to Hungary. "Because of the current difficulties, we are thinking of some sort of initiative ... by the Serbian government [allowing] cooperation with the Hague tribunal to go on," he added. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, one of the most influential leaders in the 18-party DOS coalition, said the bill should not enter into debate without support secured in advance. He told reporters that the legislation might be transferred to the Serbian level but the proposal still has no majority support within DOS. "The debate in both parliamentary chambers would "most probably" be postponed until Friday, giving judicial committees another day to find an agreement, Federal Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac told the Beta news agency late Wednesday. He refused to say outright if the bill had definitely. "Consultations between DOS and SNP are still under way," Grubac Said. "Nothing has been decided yet." Chairman of the lower parliamentary chamber, DOS' Dragoljub Micunovic, told Beta that no announcement would be made before Thursday, with the debate still officially set to begin at 11 a.m. Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic hinted at a possible concession to the SNP, in which the law would be a federal one, but the decision on possible extraditions would be transferred to the Yugoslav republics, Serbia and Montenegro. The SNP, which used to be allied with former president Slobodan Milosevic - the main target of the war crimes tribunal - has been stubbornly against the legislation, fearing that if it supports the bill, it would lose its support among hardline voters. But Federal Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said Tuesday that it would be better to give up on the law entirely because the U.N. statute that established the war crimes tribunal and Yugoslav membership in the United Nations secured the legal grounds for the extraditions. Such a move would not only bring about Serbian cooperation with the tribunal, but also would force Serbia's government to work with President Milo Djukanovic's future administration in Montenegro, which was still not in place nearly two months after April elections. Any delays might prove painful for impoverished Yugoslavia because the West was demanding clear signals that Belgrade will work with the tribunal before it continues to provide urgently needed aid. The international donors conference for Yugoslavia on June 29 in Brussels would be the key indicator, politicians and analysts have said. The United States has yet to decide whether to take part in the donors conference as it waits for the fate of the troubled bill, and some of the other big donors, like Canada and Japan, are expected to follow its lead. Meanwhile, Milosevic proclaimed from prison that he was the "moral winner" over DOS. In his first interview since his April 1 arrest on corruption charges, he said DOS, which he termed the "extended arm of NATO", had pursued him because of his fight against the West - "because I stopped NATO", he told the weekly Nedljeni Blic, referring to the aerial campaign the alliance undertook to force Belgrade into accepting a peacekeeping presence in Kosovo two years ago. The corruption investigation was completed last week, and the case was turned over to prosecutors, who have yet to decide on pressing charges against Milosevic, but the focus is on the indictment the Hague tribunal raised against him in May 1999. Milosevic and four other officials of his regime were charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed by security forces under their command in the Kosovo war (2001/06/21,10:50) Copyright(c) Deutsche Presse-agentur All rights reserved Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
