Extradition Causes Rift In Belgrade
Cabinet Members Quit in Protest
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Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 30, 2001; Page A01
BELGRADE, June 29 -- Yugoslavia's prime minister and five other top federal
officials quit today to protest former president Slobodan Milosevic's abrupt
extradition to face U.N. war crimes charges. The resignations forced the
dissolution of the cabinet and threatened to alter the direction and pace of
political reforms in the post-Milosevic era. But Western governments signaled their enthusiastic approval of the Thursday
night transfer of Milosevic, quickly pledging more than $1.28 billion in
reconstruction aid during a meeting in Brussels today. That was slightly more
than Yugoslavia had requested. All over Yugoslavia today, the gloves came off as the public and political
leaders began to digest the rapid-fire sequence of the extradition, carried out
by the government of Serbia, Yugoslavia's largest republic, in defiance of a
federal court order putting the extradition on hold. Thousands of Milosevic supporters rallied for a second night to protest,
parading in front of parliament with pictures of the man who had ruled the
country's communist party and government for more than a decade before being
ousted from office by a lost election and popular uprising last October.
Demonstrators beat several journalists. Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic, explaining his decision to quit, called
the extradition a "humiliation" and an assault on Yugoslav dignity. Critics saw
the transfer as a surrender to Western governments' demand for Milosevic in
return for aid. The resignation of Zizic, a member of a party based in Montenegro,
Yugoslavia's other republic, severs an important tie between the country's two
political units. Montenegro has flirted with declaring independence, a move
Western officials oppose as likely to foster other secessionist movements in the
Balkans. At the same time, the tumult has widened divisions in the 18-party Democratic
Opposition of Serbia coalition that forced Milosevic from power and took control
of the government. Today, factions were sniping at each other, raising doubts as
to how long the diverse group can stay together. Officials said it is unclear whether a new coalition will emerge from
political negotiations or whether the government will have to call new federal
elections this year. Serbian officials said the extradition plan was
approved at a closed meeting of Serbian government leaders that lasted 15
minutes and that its backers took various measures to counter possible
interference by security forces loyal to Milosevic -- including delaying an
official announcement until the helicopter carrying the former president had
left Yugoslav airspace. Whatever the price in domestic political accord, the extradition appeared to
reap immediate financial gains. Donor countries and organizations meeting in
Brussels just hours after Milosevic reached The Hague pledged $1.28 billion in
aid to the country. That exceeded the $1.25 billion that the European Commission
and World Bank had said was needed this year to begin repairing an economy
devastated by isolation, misrule and NATO's 1999 bombing campaign. The Bush administration, which had threatened to boycott the meeting if it
felt that insufficient progress was being made on the extradition, pledged
$181.6 million to the effort. Milosevic's transfer in particular heightened old tensions between the two
key figures of Yugoslavia's new political order, President Vojislav Kostunica
and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Kostunica, a popular nationalist, often favors caution and strict adherence
to law. Thursday he quickly condemned the extradition as illegal and complained
he hadn't been told about it. In private, he has characterized Djindjic as an
aggressive opportunist. Djindjic is an energetic, strongly pro-Western politician with fairly low
popularity ratings. He engineered the extradition and contends that there was no
choice but to send Milosevic out promptly. He has
said that Kostunica was informed in general terms of the plan. A
senior member of Djindjic's coalition complained recently that Kostunica
"doesn't understand the world and is afraid of it." Today, the two men's camps resumed the battle, accusing each other of
underhanded tactics in the hours leading up to Milosevic's departure. Officials close to Djindjic accused Kostunica's side of planting false media
reports in recent days about multiple arrests of Serbs indicted for war crimes
in order to stoke nationalist tensions that would undermine Djindjic. Djindjic's allies privately accused officials in Kostunica's political party
of trying to persuade the nation's Constitutional Court, which met in special
session, to rule against extradition. They acknowledged that they made their own
efforts to manipulate the decision, going so far as to urge one of the justices
to go on vacation at the seashore in Montenegro and thereby rob the court of its
quorum. Milosevic was arrested in April and imprisoned in a Belgrade jail, charged
with corruption and abuse of power under Yugoslav law. According to sources in
Belgrade, he had recently had difficulty confronting the reality of his
situation, veering between depression and defiance. At one point he despondently told a visiting court official that "no one can
help me" and at another used profanity to describe Yugoslav officials who would
"turn him in" to the tribunal. "I don't care" what they do, Milosevic is said to
have boasted to visitors three days ago. "In two years, they will all be here,"
a reference to his prison. These words today evoked laughter among some officials of the Serbian
government who helped plan and carry out the extradition. They exulted in what
one called the Serbian state security force's "elegant" implementation of a
secret plan. In recent weeks, Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer, had come around to the
need to extradite Milosevic but insisted that a law be passed authorizing it.
When parliament declined to do so, the cabinet last weekend passed a decree.
Milosevic's lawyer appealed the decree to the Constitutional Court. With the court, packed with Milosevic-era appointees, poised to rule against
the decree and Western pressures growing to authorize at least one extradition
before today's donor conference, Djindjic called a meeting Wednesday night of
the leaders of all 18 parties in last year's uprising to decide what to do. Serbian Vice President Momcilo Perisic said the group considered three main
options, including ratifying the decree in the Serbian parliament. But they
decided that further delay would give Milosevic's supporters and other opponents
of extradition time to rally public opinion. No official from Kostunica's party attended the meeting, and the participants
decided to extradite Milosevic even if the Constitutional Court tried to block
the decree. The next day, Djindjic and 14 other Serbian ministers convened a meeting at 4
p.m. in the main Serbian government building. Djindjic spoke briefly, urging
adoption of a decree authorizing extraditions to The Hague, which he draped in
legalisms. The decree never mentioned Milosevic by name. A representative of Kostunica's party objected to the decree. But he was
outvoted 14 to 1, according to accounts of the meeting. State security agents were dispatched to pick up Milosevic at the prison at 6
p.m. Initially, he rebuked them; but then he insisted on collecting and bringing
with him all the possessions in his cell, several officials said. He was driven
to a secret location in downtown Belgrade, where a police helicopter waited.
Before boarding, Milosevic was forced to listen while a tribunal official read
its 1999 indictment of him, a document that had been delivered to Milosevic in
prison but was never opened by him. The helicopter then took off.
Miroslav Antic,
http://www.antic.org/
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