HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Milosevic General Retains Job
By MISHA SAVIC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - The man who was Yugoslavia's top general under Slobodan Milosevic - rumored to be on a list of U.N. war crimes suspects - retained his job as head of the armed forces Wednesday despite expectations that he would be fired.
The Supreme Defense Council failed to reach a ruling on Nebojsa Pavkovic, the general under Milosevic when the former president ordered a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has demanded Pavkovic's removal.
But Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica maintains that Pavkovic deserves credit for refusing alleged orders to move against pro-democracy demonstrators whose massive street protests led to Milosevic's ouster in October 2000.
Kostunica, who chairs the Supreme Defense Council, refused Wednesday to vote on whether to fire Pavkovic.
In related news, Djindjic was quoted as saying Wednesday that most, if not all, Serb war crimes suspects indicted by the U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands would face trial next year.
More than a dozen war crime suspects who live in Serbia and have ignored international arrest warrants stood in the way of the political and economic recovery of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, Djindjic told the Beta news agency.
``If the accused think that there is no evidence against them, I see no reason why they should not surrender and relieve both themselves and the government from the enormous pressure'' from the United States and the European Union, Djindjic said. ``On the other hand, if there is evidence against them, why should anybody protect them?''
Milosevic was extradited to the tribunal in June. Pavkovic has said he is ready to answer to the U.N. war crimes tribunal if ordered to do so by the Yugoslav leadership.
AP-NY-12-26-01 1452EST
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