STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ["I'm glad for the people down there in Yugoslavia that they've finally got him here," said Guus, whose cafe close to the prison gates was doing a good trade with journalists. "And, of course, it's good for business."] As Milosevic moves in, meet the neighbours By Alastair Macdonald THE HAGUE, June 29 (Reuters) - He won't be dropping round to borrow a cup of sugar any time soon, but Slobodan Milosevic's new neighbours are mostly pretty glad he moved in on Friday. "I'm glad he's here to face justice," said one of them, a Dutch housewife sweeping in famously meticulous fashion outside her neat brick terraced house on Pompstationsweg (Pumping Station Road), The Hague. As dawn sunshine and the cry of seagulls greeted the former Yugoslav president's first day in international custody, other neighbours were out walking dogs, jogging or pedalling to work. The back gardens on Pompstationsweg are dominated by the matching brick wall of the Scheveningen prison compound, where Milosevic, 59, was flown in by helicopter in the early hours after being handed over in Belgrade to face war crimes charges. "I really believe in this justice system," said the woman, who did not want to give her name after a day spent amid a scrum of international media around the jail, which sits in a quiet suburb of the seaside town that houses the Dutch government. "I'm glad for the people down there in Yugoslavia that they've finally got him here," said Guus, whose cafe close to the prison gates was doing a good trade with journalists. "And, of course, it's good for business." The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague indicted the fallen Serb leader in May 1999 for his role in atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in January to May of that year. MEMORIES OF HITLER "It's good he's here," said another neighbour, 80-year-old pensioner Jacques de Boer, as took out his rubbish and tidied his flowerbed. "I remember Adolf Hitler. This one's just like him." Memories of what Hitler's occupying German forces did to the Netherlands are kept alive in Scheveningen by memorial plaques on the walls of the prison, which was used between 1940 and 1945 to house Dutch opponents of the Nazi regime. So packed was it with leading figures in the pre-war Dutch state under the royal house of Orange that it was known as "The Orange Hotel." Many were tortured and died in custody. Milosevic, the first head of state ever to face an international court for war crimes allegedly committed in office, faces four counts, including three of crimes against humanity, relating to events in Kosovo. Prosecutors have said they are preparing two new indictments against the former Yugoslav leader concerning the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia, where the term "ethnic cleansing" became part of Europe's vocabulary. It was not yet clear whether he would face a first hearing at the tribunal, a few miles away, on Friday or whether it might not happen until after the weekend. Tribunal officials have given few details of Milosevic's movements in detention but have confirmed he underwent an initial medical examination after arriving in the early hours of Friday morning. SATELLITE TELEVISION Television pictures of his arrival showed the white-haired former president being led by two guards across a yard in the Scheveningen jail to the tribunal's detention centre. Another 38 people being tried for crimes in the former Yugoslavia already occupy the special U.N. unit in the Dutch jail. Milosevic, ousted in a popular uprising last October, will find facilities a step up from the cell at Belgrade Central prison, where he had been held on local corruption charges since April. It will be a far cry from the luxury of the presidential palace, but his 15 sq. metre (150 sq. foot) room will have en- suite shower, satellite television and a coffee-maker. For much of the day he is likely to be able to mix with other prisoners, many of whom choose to make their own, Balkan-style meals. If convicted, Milosevic faces life behind bars, possibly in one of the other Western countries which has put prison facilities at the tribunal's disposal. For the time being, not everyone on Pumping Station Road is happy. "It's terrible all this fuss. The helicopters woke my kids up last night," said one householder. "I'm moving out." Others, though, thought the fallen dictator would fit in just fine with the well-ordered life of Dutch suburbia. "I think he'll be a very good neighbour," said the housewife sweeping up. "At least he'll be very quiet." 05:27 06-29-01 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
