STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hague sets its sights on Karadzic, Mladic Former Bosnian Serb leader ready to testify against Milosevic: sources RELATED LINKS · UN war crimes indictment against Milosevic · Guardian special report: Yugoslavia War Crimes · Hague sets its sights on Karadzic, Mladic (July 4) · Milosevic arrives in The Hague · Star editorial: No Place To Hide · Legacy: 'Moral, economic ruin' (Apr. 2) · Radio B92 Belgrade BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic's appearance before the UN war-crimes tribunal has raised hopes that his former wartime allies - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic - soon will join him. The two fugitives, who top the tribunal's most-wanted list, have been evading justice since the end of the Bosnian war in 1995. They stand accused of genocide against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst single atrocity in Europe since the Second World War. Karadzic is known to be hiding in the mountains of eastern Bosnia, somewhere near the town of Foca. Those who have seen him recently say he has changed his trademark bushy hairstyle to a shaven head, has grown a large beard and dresses in black robes like a Serbian priest to evade NATO-led patrols who have orders to arrest him. In the past, Karadzic often changed his hide-outs - including Serbian Orthodox monasteries and specially refurbished mountain caves - and travelled in ambulances with flashing lights to zip through NATO checkpoints undetected. His associates say Karadzic has often visited his wife, Ljiljana, daughter, Sonja, and son, Sasa, in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, east of Sarajevo, under cover of darkness. He reportedly also has visited his sick mother in the mountains of neighbouring Montenegro, and last year went to Budva on the Yugoslav republic's Adriatic coast. Those in his inner circle have even claimed that Karadzic once sneaked into Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital which his troops shelled relentlessly for three years, and had coffee with his friends in a downtown cafe. Locals f ailed to recognize him in disguise, they say. But one of his associates, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Karadzic is preparing to surrender to the tribunal in The Hague. The source said that Karadzic realizes he can't stay on the run forever, and is running out of money to pay the bodyguards who have been protecting him - and now have begun to abandon him. Karadzic has decided to testify against Milosevic in exchange for a lighter sentence, the associate said, and for the past two years has been collecting documents that would put the blame for Bosnian atrocities squarely o n Milosevic. For now, Milosevic - who inspired the Serb rebellion in Bosnia - has been charged only with war crimes in Kosovo, although the tribunal has said that indictments dealing with atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia also are bein g prepared. Mladic led the 1995 Serb onslaught against the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica. Serb troops bombarded Srebrenica for five days and gunned down columns of refugees fleeing the town. At least 7,500 Muslim men and boys we re reported dead or missing. Mladic lived freely in Belgrade until Milosevic was ousted from power last October. He had shown up openly at soccer stadiums and had dined in plush restaurants. When Yugoslavia's new pro-democracy authorities signalled that they might have to hand Mladic over to the tribunal, he apparently left the Yugoslav capital for Bosnia. But just last month, he was seen dining in a well-kno wn Belgrade fish restaurant - one that is also frequented by foreign diplomats. Patrik Volf, the spokesperson for Bosnia's top international official, High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, said Milosevic's transfer to the UN court ''sets the stage for the arrest and transfer to The Hague of the rem aining individuals indicted by the tribunal.'' ''The High Representative thus expects that others such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leaders likewise indicted by the Hague Tribunal for their role in Bosnia's bloody war, will also appear sho rtly before the court in The Hague,'' Volf said. Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian prime minister who was instrumental in Milosevic's sudden extradition last week, recently promised that all war crimes suspects living in Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, soon will be ha nded over to The Hague. There are other high-ranking indicted suspects who remain at large and live freely in Belgrade - at least for now. They include Serbian President Milan Milutinovic; former army chief of staff Col. Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic; former Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic; and former Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic. All were close aides of Milosevic who were indicted along with him by tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Of 27 indicted suspects still free, 15 are believed to be living in Yugoslavia while the rest are believed to be in the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia, the tribunal says. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
