BELGRADE, April 14 (Hina) - The Serbia and Montenegro parliament adopted amendments to the law on cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal with a majority vote on Monday.
BELGRADE, April 14 (Hina) - The Serbia and Montenegro parliament
adopted amendments to the law on cooperation with the U.N. war
crimes tribunal with a majority vote on Monday. #L#
The amendments enable the extradition of all Serbia and Montenegro
citizens who will be indicted by The Hague-based court. Until now
the law provided for the hand-over only of people who had been
charged before April last year, when the law was adopted.
The amendments enable the Serbian and the Montenegrin governments,
as well as the Serbia and Montenegro Council of Ministers, to exempt
both witnesses and indictees from the obligation to keep state and
military secrets. Also, the new law allows those convicted at The
Hague to serve their jail terms in Serbia and Montenegro.
Against the amendments were the Radicals of Hague indictee Vojislav
Seselj, representatives of Hague indictee Slobodan Milosevic's
Socialist Party, as well as Montenegro's opposition.
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic reiterated in parliament today
that several more indictments could be expected from The Hague.
Parliament speaker Dragoljub Micunovic said at the end of today's
debate that Serbia and Montenegro must deal with crime, especially
after last month's murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, because
"one cannot say today that Vukovar, Srebrenica, Bijeljina, or
Osijek didn't happen".
There has to be liability for crimes "because the victims demand
justice," said Micunovic.
He said the law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal needed to be
changed because domestic courts were unable to hold war crimes
trials.
Evidence to that, according to Micunovic, is the fact that one
former Serbian President, Ivan Stambolic, has recently been "dug up
from a limekiln," that two other ex-Serbian presidents, Milosevic
and Milan Milutinovic, are at The Hague, that PM Djindjic has been
assassinated, that another Serbian PM, Nikola Sainovic, is in The
Hague, and that two former interior ministers, Zoran Sokolovic and
Vlajko Stojiljkovic, committed suicide.
(hina) ha