SARAJEVO EXPECTS MILOSEVIC'S TRIAL FOR WAR CRIMES

SARAJEVO, April 1 (Hina) - The arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, a former Yugoslav and Serbian president who launched four wars in the region, will have the point only if it is the first step on the path towards his extradition to The Hague, according to reactions in Sarajevo to the apprehension of Milosevic, also branded as the butcher of the Balkans. The Sarajevo media has given great coverage to the operation of Milosevic's arrest and subsequent events in Belgrade, but initial response of the press and politicians in Bosnia is rather restrained given that there is still no confirmation whether and when this dictator will face a trial for his responsibility for triggering a war in Bosnia-Herzegovina which left over 200,000 people dead and hundreds of villages and towns devastated. "Regardless of that Slobodan Milosevic should, according to the knowledge and estimates of the Yugoslav authorities, answer for plundering his own people, it is more important for Bosnia and for the future prospect of peace in the region to see him answer before the Tribunal in The Hague for war crimes," Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said. He maintains that a judicial process against Milosevic must be used as an occasion for the trial against a project about establishment of ethnically cleansed states which led to the horrendous wars. The Croat-Moslem Federation's Vice President Safet Halilovic said Milosevic's arrest was good news which marked the end of the 13- year-long suffering in the region. He, however, insists also that Milosevic must be tried for a policy of ethnic cleansing he carried out as long as he was in power. If Milosevic is to be tried only for corruption and graft this will solve nothing, Halilovic cautioned. (hina) ms