SERBIAN GOVT. TO DECIDE ABOUT MILUTINOVIC'S HAND-OVER NEXT WEEK

BELGRADE, Jan 9 (Hina) - The Serbian government will discuss a Belgrade County Court's request for initiating proceedings to extradite former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic to the Hague- based war crimes tribunal at a session next week, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac told Belgrade's "Danas" daily on Thursday. #L# In the next couple of days the national council for co-operation with the tribunal will decide about Milutinovic's extradition as political negotiations are currently underway. Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic told journalists that Milutinovic's extradition was unnecessarily treated as a mystery because at the moment Milutinovic was nothing more than an ordinary citizen. Milutinovic will contact the tribunal's office in Belgrade, after which the date of his extradition will be known, the minister said. Milutinovic, who has been accused along with former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, said recently for Serbian Radio-Television that he did not feel guilty of command responsibility during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia because the army and police were not under his jurisdiction. The Serbian police were under the command of the Serbian government while the army was under the command of the federal president, he said. Milutinovic said that he was not afraid of his transfer to The Hague and would not resist it. (hina) sp rml sb