USA SUSPENDS AID TO SERBIA DUE TO LACK OF COOPERATION WITH ICTY

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Hina) - The United States on Wednesday temporarily suspended financial assistance to Serbia and Montenegro due to the country's failure to hand over indictees of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.#L# US Secretary of State Colin Powell decided that Serbia and Montenegro was not fully cooperating with the tribunal, which is a precondition for assistance, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. Serbia and Montenegro was to receive some 100 million in aid this year, and of that amount some 43 million has already been spent. Some 25 million will be withheld after this decision, Ereli said. The decision does not refer to humanitarian aid, assistance for the promotion of democracy, and assistance for Kosovo. Ereli said the reason for the decision was the non-extradition of 16 indictees of the UN tribunal who lived most of the time in Serbia and Montenegro, including Ratko Mladic. By law, Powell had to certify to Congress by Wednesday that the authorities in Belgrade were cooperating with the tribunal to have the assistance granted. US aid to Serbia and Montenegro can resume if the US government testifies to Belgrade's cooperation with the tribunal. (Hina) rml