STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am not afraid of the Hague tribunal...that is no court but a political circus aimed at jeopardizing the Serb people....And let me tell you one thing - you are not takng me in, you are kidnapping me and you will answer for your crimes. Drop the buffoonery, let's hurry up." June 30, 2001 Report: Milosevic derides tribunal as a 'circus' BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) � Before boarding a helicopter to begin his trip to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands, Slobodan Milosevic reportedly said these words � possibly his last on Serbian soil: "Brother Serbs, now farewell!" Milosevic also derided the international court as a "political circus" and told tribunal officials who read him his rights, "You are kidnapping me and you will answer for your crimes," according to a copyright article published Friday in the weekly Nedeljni Telegraf. The weekly, believed to have close contacts with the Serbian security forces who organized Milosevic's removal to face war crimes charges in The Hague, published a detailed account of the former Yugoslav president's ride from Belgrade's Central Prison. Full-page photographs accompanying the article show a dark-suited Milosevic preparing to board a helicopter, followed by a man in dark glasses and jeans and five uniformed Serbian police, one carrying a small green suitcase and an overcoat. According to the newspaper report, Serbian justice officials arrived at the prison in mid-afternoon with a signed government order for Milosevic's extradition. The warden entered Milosevic's cell and told him to get packing. "And where am I supposed to go?" Milosevic asked. When told his destination, he said, "The Hague? Ridiculous!" and repeated the word to himself several times. Guards helped Milosevic pack as he changed into a white shirt and gray suit. All the while, he kept asking: "Am I really going to The Hague?" the article said. Milosevic, whom guards described as dignified but very perplexed, was put in a blue police van and driven in a four-car motorcade to a state security compound, where U.N. tribunal officials waited with two bodyguards and an interpreter. After shouting that he did not recognize the tribunal � set up to try suspects in a decade of conflicts he had a strong hand in starting � Milosevic heard his rights read out and settled down, taking off his jacket and smoking a cigarette he asked someone for. "I am not afraid of The Hague tribunal ... that is no court but a political circus aimed at jeopardizing the Serb people," Milosevic responded when court officials asked if he had anything to say after hearing his indictment. "And let me tell you one thing � you are not taking me in, you are kidnapping me and you will answer for your crimes," Milosevic added. The article said he then cut short a series of formal questions by saying, "Drop the buffoonery, let's hurry up." Outside by the helicopter, Milosevic turned to a small group of officers standing on the lawn of compound. "You have my congratulations on a job well done," he told them sarcastically. Before climbing aboard, Milosevic turned to his escorts and said, "Brother Serbs, today is St. Vitus Day," referring to a Serbian Orthodox religious holiday that also marks a historic defeat of Serb forces in Kosovo in 1389. The helicopter took off for the U.S. Army base in Tuzla, Bosnia, where a plane waited to take Milosevic to the Netherlands, where he is to be tried for crimes against humanity during his crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998-99. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
