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US backs Belgrade on Milosevic; court flap looms
The United States rewarded Belgrade on Wednesday for starting moves to transfer Slobodan Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal, but a top Yugoslav court could still throw a spanner in the works.
The United States rewarded Belgrade on Wednesday for starting moves to transfer Slobodan Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal, but a top Yugoslav court could still throw a spanner in the works.
The US said it would attend a donors' conference for Yugoslavia on Friday at which Belgrade hopes to raise nearly $1.3 billion to revive an economy in tatters after a decade of wars, corruption and mismanagement under Milosevic. The tribunal indicted Milosevic, then president of Yugoslavia, in May 1999, accusing him of responsibility for mass killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province. Prosecutors also plan to charge him with war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia.
The United States, whose presence at the donors' conference was widely seen as crucial to its success, had made clear it would attend only if it saw signs of progress in Yugoslavia's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal based in The Hague.
It said it was now ready to pledge substantial amounts of aid but would hand over the money only when Belgrade had fulfilled its promises to cooperate with the tribunal -- shorthand for handing over suspects like Milosevic.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the decision followed "Belgrade's commitment to transfer indicted war criminals to the Hague and fulfill all legal obligations to the tribunal." Bureau Report
The US said it would attend a donors' conference for Yugoslavia on Friday at which Belgrade hopes to raise nearly $1.3 billion to revive an economy in tatters after a decade of wars, corruption and mismanagement under Milosevic. The tribunal indicted Milosevic, then president of Yugoslavia, in May 1999, accusing him of responsibility for mass killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province. Prosecutors also plan to charge him with war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia.
The United States, whose presence at the donors' conference was widely seen as crucial to its success, had made clear it would attend only if it saw signs of progress in Yugoslavia's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal based in The Hague.
It said it was now ready to pledge substantial amounts of aid but would hand over the money only when Belgrade had fulfilled its promises to cooperate with the tribunal -- shorthand for handing over suspects like Milosevic.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the decision followed "Belgrade's commitment to transfer indicted war criminals to the Hague and fulfill all legal obligations to the tribunal." Bureau Report