BELGRADE, June 23 (Hina) - The Yugoslav government on Saturday passed a decree on cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which comes into force on Sunday. The decree provides
for the extradition of Yugoslav citizens accused of war crimes to the ICTY. "Absolutely everybody" indicted by the ICTY will be extradited to The Hague, said Miroljub Labus, the deputy prime minister who chaired today's session. The ICTY has filed 16 indictments against Serb citizens, Labus told a news conference after the 20-minute government session. He added some indictees might be put on trial before national courts, in agreement with the Hague tribunal. Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in Subotica today he expected the hand-over of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic would be a regular, public procedure "without problems." He estimates it wil
BELGRADE, June 23 (Hina) - The Yugoslav government on Saturday
passed a decree on cooperation with the Hague-based International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which comes
into force on Sunday. The decree provides for the extradition of
Yugoslav citizens accused of war crimes to the ICTY.
"Absolutely everybody" indicted by the ICTY will be extradited to
The Hague, said Miroljub Labus, the deputy prime minister who
chaired today's session.
The ICTY has filed 16 indictments against Serb citizens, Labus told
a news conference after the 20-minute government session. He added
some indictees might be put on trial before national courts, in
agreement with the Hague tribunal.
Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in Subotica today he
expected the hand-over of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic would be a regular, public procedure "without problems."
He estimates it will take "about 15-20 days."
Asked if he expected any extraordinary developments during
Milosevic's extradition, Djindjic said he did not "expect anything
particular... If you only want rights and not obligations, than
what makes us different than Milosevic?"
The Yugoslav Information Ministry said immediately after the
government session the decree was in keeping with Yugoslavia's
obligations stemming from a United Nations Security Council
resolution from 1993 and the ICTY Statute.
Only one member of the coalition government from the ranks of
Montenegro's Socialist National Party (SNP) attended the session.
The SNP objected to passing the by-law. The other six SNP government
members, including the Yugoslav prime minister, failed to attend.
The Yugoslav federal government has 16 members, nine from the DOS
and six from the SNP. The decree was passed with eight votes in
favour and one against. Transport Minister Zoran Sami of the DOS was
unable to attend due to illness.
The absence of SNP officials from the session has put the federal
government in crisis, which actually began last week when the SNP
announced in parliament it would vote against a bill on
Yugoslavia's cooperation with the ICTY envisaging the extradition
of Yugoslav citizens.
On Thursday, the DOS coalition withdrew the bill from parliamentary
procedure and found a new form of direct cooperation with the
tribunal.
By passing the decree, Belgrade somewhat helped reduce the
criticism levelled at Yugoslav authorities ahead of a donor
conference scheduled for June 29. This does not mean the United
States will agree to attend the conference. Washington made its
participation conditional on Milosevic's extradition.
(hina) ha