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Fugitive Serb general surfaces in Russia
16 Jun 2004 14:51:44
GMT
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(Adds Serb prosecutor comment
paragraphs 11,12 )
BELGRADE, June 16 (Reuters) - One of four Serb generals indicted for war
crimes during the Kosovo war has surfaced after three years in hiding, saying in
a letter from Russia he was prepared to stand trial in a Serb court but not in
The Hague.
Vlastimir "Rodja" Djordjevic said he fled the country in 2001 after the
ouster of Slobodan Milosevic because the new rulers wanted to arrest him and
make him testify against the former Serbian leader at the United Nations war
crimes tribunal.
In a 10-page letter written to Nedeljni Telegraf weekly from Russia, the
Interior Ministry police general accounted for his actions during the turbulent
years under Milosevic. He said he had no jurisdiction in Kosovo during the 1999
NATO air war.
He also denied cutting a deal with prosecutors at the U.N. tribunal.
"Any reports about my having made deals with The Hague tribunal and our
authorities to testify and avoid my responsibility are completely false," the
letter said.
"Also false are reports that I fled with a bag full of cash, that I
bought a flat, or that I have links with the members of the Milosevic family in
Moscow or with the Russian mafia or our mafia."
The United Nations last year indicted Djordjevic along with former army
chief of staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, former corps commander Vladimir Lazarevic and
former public security head Sreten Lukic.
The indictment says the four "planned, instigated, ordered, committed and
otherwise aided" crimes during Serbia's bid to crush ethnic Albanian separatist
guerrillas in 1999 during a 78-day NATO bombing campaign to drive Serb forces
out.
Djorjdevic has been linked to the cover-up of some 800 ethnic Albanian
corpses, which were transported in freezer trucks from Kosovo and buried in four
mass graves in Serbia. The post-Milosevic government discovered the mass graves
in 2001.
He denied any involvement in the operation.
Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, whose office is
investigating the cover-up, said he had immediately ordered a check of the
letter's authenticity.
Vukcevic said his court had traced some 200 bodies identified so far to
places in Kosovo and was probing the military, paramilitary and police units
deployed there at the time for possible perpetrators of the crimes.
Djordjevic's readiness to appear before domestic courts is along the
lines of what the other three generals have said. The three, who openly live in
Serbia, insist they observed all international conventions and did nothing
wrong, but were prepared to face a Serbian court.
The authorities have said their arrest could be destabilising for the
country, which sees the U.N. court as biased against Serbs and have urged them
to surrender voluntarily.
