MILOSEVIC'S STAUNCH SUPPORTERS HOLD RALLY ASKING FOR HIS RELEASE

BELGRADE, June 17 (Hina) - Some 5,000 supporters of a former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, on Saturday held a rally in Belgrade demanding from Yugoslav authorities to free him from prison and not to extradite Yugoslav citizens to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).#L# After they gathered at the Square called 'Trg Republike', Milosevic's diehard supporters marched to the prison where this 'Balkan butcher' is being kept in custody, and handed over to the prison's authorities a letter insisting on his release . Speeches at the rally were given by Zivadin Jovanovic, a former Yugoslav foreign minister and a vice-president of Milosevic's Socialistic Party of Serbia (SPS), who is also the acting leader of the party while Milosevic is 'absent' and other SPS senior officials. Jovanovic opposed "pressure which is being exerted on Yugoslavia to work together with the ICTY", and asked the incumbent authorities to raise the question of war damages which should be given to Yugoslavia because of the 1999 NATO air strikes. An Italian reporter, Fulvio Grimaldi and a Russian, Mihail Kuznjecov, who is at the helm of the recently established international committee for Milosevic's defence, claimed that they had collected over 500,000 signatures in Russia and Ukraine for the petition for Milosevic's release. The rally and march passed with no incident and without significant presence of police. Milosevic has been held in prison since his dramatic arrest on April 1 for alleged abuse of power and corruption. The ICTY has issued an indictment against him in connection with atrocities committed by Yugoslav forces against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999. The indictment is likely to be extended because of his liability for aggression against Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina in early 1990s and war crimes committed by his followers in these two countries. (hina) ms