HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[Who will it be this year: Mladich, Karadjich, Tomich, Pavkovich, Milutinovich, the Vukovar Three???? Your guess is as good as mine, but its certain that one of them will probably be in the custody of NATO butchers and their DOS quislings before April Fool's day...]
Serb PM Backs Handing Over Suspects
By KATARINA KRATOVAC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia's prime minister, facing a weekend deadline to hand over war crimes suspects, said Friday that some could be arrested and extradited to the U.N. tribunal within days - and emphasized that failure to comply would come at a crippling cost for Yugoslavia.
The U.S. Congress has given Yugoslavia until Sunday to cooperate with the Netherlands-based war crimes court or risk losing $120 million in aid.
``If we do not cooperate, we could face international isolation and U.S. sanctions, literally within days,'' Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic warned.
Djindjic's comments suggested Serbian police may be preparing to arrest some of 15 indicted war crimes suspects living in Serbia, the dominant of the two republics in Yugoslavia, though he said Sunday should not be a hard deadline for delivering suspects to the court in The Hague.
Acting on a similar ultimatum last year, the Serbian government arrested former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and sent him to the tribunal, where he is being tried for atrocities Yugoslav and Serb forces committed in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s.
Among those in hiding in Serbia is one of the tribunal's most-wanted fugitives, Gen. Ratko Mladic, the military leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
Pierre Prosper, U.S. ambassador for war crimes issues, said Thursday at the United Nations that Mladic must be caught and extradited for trial. ``He cannot remain at large. He must go to The Hague,'' Prosper said.
Djindjic stressed that handovers are a condition for Yugoslavia, which is made up of Serbia and Montenegro, to join Europe's mainstream after years of war and economic decline.
He said some indictees could be delivered to the tribunal ``within three to four days'' and played down the significance of Sunday's deadline, saying that ``March 31 is not fixed'' and that the United States could hold off on sanctions if it is clear his country is taking action.
``This is the reality we face. Whether it will happen in a couple of days, five days or 10 is not that important,'' Djindjic said. ``But it must happen and we must once and for all make it clear whether we want to become part of the world or not.''
``We can go forward only if we cooperate with those countries whose help we need,'' he added. ``This is not only an American initiative. The whole world demands it - to refuse it would lead to Yugoslavia's complete isolation.''
The Serbian prime minister's comments came on the heels of sharp criticism of the U.N. court by his archrival, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. In an interview this week, Kostunica said he was ``sick to his stomach'' of hearing about the tribunal and accused the court of a ``horrific degree of prejudices.''
Kostunica - a moderate nationalist who frequently lashes out at the tribunal as illegal and anti-Serb - has repeatedly clashed with Djindjic, a pro-Western politician who engineered Milosevic's arrest and extradition.
Kostunica has opposed delivering suspects to The Hague, saying there is no domestic law that allows for extraditions. Defying his objections, Djindjic's Cabinet adopted the U.N. tribunal's rules allowing for extraditions earlier this week.
AP-NY-03-29-02 1201EST
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