BELGRADE, Feb 22 (Hina) - Serbia's Premier-Designate Vojislav Kostunica has said the extradition of people indicted by the Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will not be a priority of his
government.
BELGRADE, Feb 22 (Hina) - Serbia's Premier-Designate Vojislav Kostunica
has said the extradition of people indicted by the Hague-based U.N.
war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will not be a priority
of his government.#L#
In an interview with Associated Press on Saturday, Kostunica said
Serbia had to deal with more important issues than extraditions to the
Hague tribunal, such as reviving the devastated economy and defusing
social tensions. "This country is not a simple deliverer of human
goods to The Hague tribunal," he was quoted as saying.
Associated Press says such a statement will certainly not be well
received in the United States, which makes 100 million worth of
annual assistance conditional on Belgrade's full cooperation with the
Hague tribunal.
This year for the first time Congress explicitly mentioned the need to
arrest the former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. State
Secretary Colin Powell has until March 31 to decide whether Belgrade
is to receive financial aid this year.
Kostunica reiterated in the interview that further arrests and
extraditions would only strengthen the Serbian Radical Party.
(Hina) ha