BELGRADE COURT ORDERS ARREST OF 14 WAR CRIMES INDICTEES BELGRADE, April 22 (Hina) - The Belgrade District Court has ordered the arrest of 14 persons indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but four military and police
generals accused of war crimes committed in Kosovo in 1991 are not among them, Serbia and Montenegro's Minister for Human and Minority Rights Rasim Ljajic has said.
BELGRADE, April 22 (Hina) - The Belgrade District Court has ordered the
arrest of 14 persons indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, but four military and police generals accused of war crimes
committed in Kosovo in 1991 are not among them, Serbia and
Montenegro's Minister for Human and Minority Rights Rasim Ljajic has
said.#L#
"No concrete steps have been taken with a view to extraditing the four
generals indicted by the Hague Tribunal (Nebojsa Pavkovic, Vladimir
Lazarevic, Vlastimir Djordjevic and Sreten Lukic)," Ljajic has told
the Danas daily in an interview published on Thursday.
He said that no more indictments against Serbia and Montenegro were
likely after the completion of three investigations against Milan
Babic, Blagoje Adzic and Goran Hadzic.
"I think the story ends here," Ljajic said, adding that his country
was now in a more difficult position than it had been two or three
months ago.
"After the Croatian model of behaviour towards the Hague tribunal and
the voluntary departure for The Hague of eight Croatian police and
military officials over the last month, there will be even more
pressure on the country. There will be grounds to say that we are the
only country not cooperating with the Hague tribunal.
"A voluntary surrender would make our position much easier because it
would cause no internal upheaval or political radicalisation. Judging
by the statements made by the generals, I do not see any readiness to
do so. Unless we do something concrete within a reasonable period of
time, we will be in a very difficult position," Ljajic told the
daily.
(Hina) vm