REACTIONS IN BELGRADE TO MILOSEVIC EXTRADITION

BELGRADE, June 28 (Hina) - About a thousand supporters of the today extradited former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic who gathered in front of the Serbian government building, as they do every day, experienced a true shock this afternoon after learning their leader has been extradited to the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. They headed to the central city prison, where Milosevic had been held, to see for themselves whether this information as true. An unnamed source at Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia told Belgrade's news agency Beta "the president is on his way to The Hague," and said with some resignation "we do not know what to do". One of Milosevic's defence attorneys said he was "absolutely shocked" by the Serbian government decision to give Milosevic up to the tribunal. "I hold this to be a constitutional diversion and it was all done in a perfidious way," attorney Veselin Cerovic said. He confirmed the team of attorneys defending the former Yugoslav president "were not informed" about his extradition. The defence counsel celebrated and congratulated each other after the Yugoslav Constitutional Court today postponed the application of the government decree on Yugoslavia's cooperation with the international criminal tribunal. Milosevic was extradited exactly 12 years after he uttered a statement at a celebration on the Kosovo Field he is famous for: "If necessary, there will be a war. We (Serbs) might not know how to work, but we know how to wage war". (hina) lml