KOSTUNICA: CRIME ON THE INCREASE

BELGRADE, Sept 5 (Hina) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica stated in an interview to the Belgrade TV station "Politika" Tuesday evening the crime rates in his country were skyrocketing. He added the Serbian Justice Department was directly responsible for such a trend, continuing the feud between his Serbian Democratic Party (DSS) and the majority of the ruling coalition DOS, especially the Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Kostunica pointed out kidnappings and murders were still an everyday occurrence in Yugoslavia, and offered two possible reasons for that: the link between some police officers and organised crime, or the Justice Department's incompetence. Kostunica also said the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had, legally speaking, been kidnapped from prison and handed over to The Hague prosecutors. He reminded he had been proposing a law that would make sure all the war crime suspects were being tried in Yugoslavia, but had not excluded the possibility of extraditing certain suspects to The Hague. He had not, however, been tempted to stop Milosevic's extradition, nor, he said, had he the authority to do so. Commenting on the rumours that he was protecting the current head of the Joint Chiefs of the Yugoslav Army, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, Kostunica mentioned his achievements during the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia, like pulling out the troops and tanks from Kosovo with minimal losses. He has not commented on the interviewer's assessment that General Pavkovic should be replaced, if for no other reason, than because he had been present in all of the rallies of Milosevic's Socialist Party, as well as those of the Yugoslav left-wing extremists, lead by Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic. (hina) js