SERBIAN PM ANNOUNCES WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS WILL BE EXTRADITED

BELGRADE, Feb 7 (Hina) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said on Thursday several of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's associates indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal would soon have to be brought to The Hague. He confirmed speculation in the Serbian media as to the officials in question - former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, incumbent Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, former Yugoslav Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, and the Yugoslav military chief-of-staff at the time of the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Dragoljub Ojdanic. Djindjic described the United States Congress' latest demand for Yugoslavia's cooperation with the UN tribunal not as dramatic but a "natural process." The U.S. Congress has set March 31 as the deadline for beginning the cooperation, otherwise Yugoslavia loses all promised financial assistance. "I think... we in this country are resolute enough not to make five or six people our national fate," said Djindjic, adding there was no reason for Serbia to remain hostage to war crimes indictees for another decade. If the indictees refuse to surrender the state will have to find a way to bring them to The Hague, said Djindjic, confirming chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte had told him the UN tribunal's priorities were crimes committed in Vukovar, Srebrenica, and Kosovo. The Serbian PM maintains Yugoslavia should not help Milosevic in his defence and that the former head of state should not be allowed to defend himself in freedom. A spokesman for Milosevic's party (SPS), Branko Ruzic, today urged the Serbian government to extend guarantees for Milosevic to defend himself in freedom and cover the costs of his defence. Ruzic said the party's officials Stojiljkovic and Sainovic would not turn themselves in. (hina) ha