BELGRADE SOON TO PRODUCE MILOSEVIC'S DECREE TO TRIBUNAL?

BELGRADE, June 17 (Hina) - The Yugoslav national council for cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal will hold a session on Monday or Tuesday to decide on the delivery of some important documents to the Tribunal's investigators. #L# The documents are papers which Jovica Stanisic, a head of the state security service between 1991 and 1998, possessed, and recently gave to the Serbian Interior Ministry archives. It is about a decree the then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic made on the separation of the Service of the State Security (SDB) from the Serbian Interior Ministry, the Belgrade radio "B92" reported on Sunday. The decree contains Milosevic's signature and presidential seal. This proves that since 1997 Milosevic controlled all the SDB special units and paramilitary units within that service. On Friday night the police searched Stanisic's house in Belgrade's neighbourhood of Senjak trying to find the document. The search was carried out in the presence of investigators from the international war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). However, Stanisic returned the paper to the ministry's archives a day before. B92 Radio quoted interior ministry sources as saying that Stanisic has been negotiating intensively with the tribunal's investigators since the end of 2001 at his own request. He has allegedly told them that he possesses some documents which may incriminate other persons and clear him of any responsibility, the radio said. The talks between Stanisic and the Tribunal officials ended with the signing of statements. Stanisic produced some documents to the Tribunal, but he retained the chief part of the documentation, "manipulating both the Tribunal and the Serbian authorities... and giving contradictory statements," Radio B92 said. A month ago, the Hague-based Tribunal gave a clear warning that he must be a witness in the process against Milosevic. Stanisic accepted it, but he simultaneously tried to contact various services in foreign countries to offer them intelligence pertaining to Islamic terrorists and some Serbian politicians from the former and current authorities in exchange for his removal from the Tribunal's list of indictees, the radio said. According to the same sources, the important documentation will probably be produced to the Tribunal, but it is still unclear whether Stanisic will appear before the Tribunal's trial chamber as a witness or defendant. (hina) ms .