BELGRADE MEDIA: MILUTINOVIC AGREED TO SURRENDER TO ICTY

BELGRADE, June 29 (Hina) - Serbian President Milan Milutinovic agreed to voluntary surrender and cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Belgrade media reported Friday quoting Banja Luka's daily "Nezavisne Novine". Milutinovic's Office dismissed the information on the President's surrender to the U.N. war crimes tribunal. Belgrade's news agency Beta said the daily quoted "well-informed sources" who claim that all conditions for Milutinovic's voluntary surrender "have already been agreed with reliable diplomatic envoys in utmost secrecy." A source from Milutinovic's Office told Reuters: "The president's term expires in 2002 and there is no need to talk about anything else." Milutinovic himself, contacted by telephone, offered just a brief comment. "I'm busy, performing my regular duties," he told Reuters. Apart from Milosevic, Milutinovic is one of the six senior military and state officials of the Federal Republic Yugoslavia and Serbia whom the ICTY in 1999 indicted for war crimes against Kosovo Albanians. Milutinovic has been allowed to remain in his office by the reformers who swept to power by ousting Milosevic as Yugoslav president last year, mainly because few of them want the distraction of a Serbian presidential election for the moment. Milutinovic has kept an extremely low public profile since Milosevic's ouster last October but has generally cooperated with the reformers. Serbia is the dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation, which also includes Montenegro. Bosnian Serb daily "Nezavisne Novine" said it had learned from sources in the Serbian presidency that Milutinovic had decided to give himself up and testify against Milosevic in return for lenient treatment. (hina) it