Military

DATE=10/18/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=YUGOSLAVIA / MILOSEVIC EXTRADITION

NUMBER=5-47184

BYLINE=EVE CONANT

DATELINE=BELGRADE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: After 13 years in power, the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milosevic was brought to an end with an almost-bloodless popular uprising. But the question of his fate still hangs over the Yugoslavia's new leadership. European countries and the United States say they want Mr. Milosevic brought to justice in an international court for war crimes. But average Serbs and members of Yugoslavia's new leadership say it is more important to bring the ousted leader to trial in his own country. Correspondent Eve Conant reported from Belgrade.

TEXT: Even out of power, Slobodan Milosevic is still causing problems for Yugoslavia.

The federation's budding relations with the international community are hampered by the fact Slobodan Milosevic is a wanted man in the West. Prosecutors and Western leaders alike want him extradited to The Hague for alleged war crimes committed in Kosovo. Until that is done, key financial sanctions that are strangling Yugoslavia's economy will remain in place.

Political analyst Bratislav Grubacic says Serbs want to see Mr. Milosevic on the stand for crimes committed against them, not outsiders. He says this is partially due to the fact that the Milosevic regime controlled most news media in Yugoslavia, and therefore most Serbs don't know, as he says, "the full scale of the crimes which were committed in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.

/// GRUBACIC ACT ///

Serbs do not see Milosevic so much

responsible for the war crimes being

committed in previous wars. But they see

that Milosevic did a lot of bad things to

Serbs, particularly for leading Serbia into

three wars, which the Serbs lost.

Particularly, Serbs are very angry with

Milosevic on the level of corruption, on the

level of destroying state and state

institutions, [and] devastating the economy.

Maybe he can be tried for ordering some very

shady assassinations. And finally he can be

tried, as the last thing, for election fraud,

which he committed after the elections on the

24th of September.

/// END ACT ///

On the streets of Belgrade, there is little sentiment for extraditing Mr. Milosevic. Even President Kostunica has said the Yugoslav federation has larger problems to face than dealing with the U-N's war-crimes charges against Milosevic. In part, his comments could serve to appease Mr. Milosevic and ensure a permanent transfer of power. However, as the days go by, there are hints from the new leadership that Mr. Milosevic could face trial in a domestic court.

Many average Serbs agree their former president should be tried, but some, like 63-year-old Radomir Zivotic, say there is no reason the West should be involved in the process.

/// ZIVOTIC SERBIAN ACT WITH TRANSLATION ///

No way. Why should Milosevic go to the West

to go on trial, especially to The Hague,

which is obviously a political tribunal. He

should be tried in his own country, by his

own people, after a proper criminal

investigation.

/// END ACT ///

Nineteen-year old Milica Acimovic sips coffee at a small café in front of her Belgrade university. She says the crimes committed by Slobodan Milosevic did not target Americans or other Europeans, but Serbs, and therefore Serbs should be the people to judge him. She does not trust an international court to understand what crimes Slobodan Milosevic carried out against his own people.

/// ACIMOVIC ACT ///

If courts would punish him here the right

way, the way he deserves to be punished, then

I think he should be tried here. But I'm not

sure about The Hague. I don't know much

about that court and I don't really trust

that court.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// A 70-year-old Belgrade resident, Branko (who would not give his last name), says it is Western leaders who need to be tried, not Mr. Milosevic.

/// BRANKO SERBIAN ACT W/ TRANSLATION ///

Milosevic was someone who worked in the

interests of his own people and defended his

own country. I believe Clinton is the one

who should go The Hague. He was the one who

was bombing this tiny country in such an

extreme way last year.

/// END OPT ///

Mladjan Dinkic is a top economics adviser to President Kostunica. He announced recently that charges of electoral fraud are being prepared against Mr. Milosevic for trying to overturn Mr. Kostunica's victory in the September 24th elections.

/// DINKIC ACT ///

Fifteen-thousand people signed this charge

against Mr. Milosevic and all members of this

Federal Election Committee. This is a very

serious charge and the best lawyers made it,

so we hope that the justice system will do

its job. But I give him very little time to

think about this, because he has two

solutions. One solution is to leave the

country as soon as possible and the second

solution is to ... go in front of a Serbian

court.

/// END ACT ///

Ambassador to Yugoslavia William Montgomery tells

V-O-A the United States government will show retraint for now in urging President Kostunica to extradite Mr. Milosevic.

/// OPT MONTGOMERY ACT ///

Let's just re-establish relations. There are

all sorts of issues we have to deal with, and

that's one of them. Let's just take it one

step at a time. We have a president that's

in office, but they're still trying to form a

government. They don't have a prime

minister. They don't have a government to

deal with yet. So there's a number of steps

down the road.

/// END ACT /// /// END OPT ///

But international prosecutors are not backing away from the Milosevic problem. A spokesperson for Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal, says the tribunal's objective is to extend the indictment against Mr. Milosevic to include war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia in the mid-and early 90's.

/// REST OPT ///

For now, Mr. Milosevic and four members of his cabinet stand accused of atrocities committed against ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo. But if charges against him are broadened further, and if international pressure picks up, it will become more difficult for President Kostunica to say there are greater priorities for the new government to deal with than extraditing Slobodan Milosevic. (Signed)

NEB/EC/KL/WTW