WASHINGTON POST: YUGOSLAVIA FEELS PRESSURE TO EXTRADITE

WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Hina) - An article in Saturday's issue of The Washington Post, headlined "Yugoslavia Feels Pressure to extradite", reports about repeated requests by the international community for the Yugoslav authorities to arrest and hand over indicted war criminals, primarily Ratko Mladic, who the article's author says has been seen in Belgrade. The article says that by March 31 the US Congress is expected to assess whether Yugoslavia is co-operating with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal and based on its findings decide to grant or withhold further financial assistance to Serbia. "War crimes suspects are lucrative exports," says the author of the article, reminding that Serbia had been granted assistance worth 1.2 billion dollars after extraditing Slobodan Milosevic. The daily also carries claims by western diplomats that the Yugoslav government hoped Milosevic's hand-over would stop the pressures for the extradition of more indicted war criminals, but this did not happen. Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic is quoted as saying indictees should surrender to the Hague tribunal voluntarily and that the main opponents of cooperation with the tribunal were in the Yugoslav army leadership. (hina) rml