BELGRADE, June 5 (Hina) - Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic, who has been in custody for over two months, believes "there is no reason" for him to go to The Hague and be tried by the international war crimes tribunal
(ICTY), and if he must be tried, he believes it should be in Yugoslavia, Milosevic's attorney Toma Fila said on Tuesday. All witnesses in an investigation against Milosevic and three of his associates suspected of embezzling some DEM 800 million of budgetary funds while in power have been questioned and none of them have corroborated the prosecution's claims and no evidence has been presented, Fila said. He added, though, that he "feared" new indictments against his client, who has been in detention since April 1. Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said today Milosevic could be "the key witness" in a probe into the case of a mass grave containing the bodies discovered in a refrige
BELGRADE, June 5 (Hina) - Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan
Milosevic, who has been in custody for over two months, believes
"there is no reason" for him to go to The Hague and be tried by the
international war crimes tribunal (ICTY), and if he must be tried,
he believes it should be in Yugoslavia, Milosevic's attorney Toma
Fila said on Tuesday.
All witnesses in an investigation against Milosevic and three of
his associates suspected of embezzling some DEM 800 million of
budgetary funds while in power have been questioned and none of them
have corroborated the prosecution's claims and no evidence has been
presented, Fila said. He added, though, that he "feared" new
indictments against his client, who has been in detention since
April 1.
Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said today Milosevic
could be "the key witness" in a probe into the case of a mass grave
containing the bodies discovered in a refrigerator lorry which had
been recovered from the Danube River two years ago.
The bodies were relocated and buried secretly at "a location near
Belgrade" and the exhumation began last Saturday.
Asked whether Milosevic knew anything about this case, Fila
answered in the negative. He added his client also denied
involvement in the 1999 murder of four high Serbian Revival
Movement (SPO) party officials, the murder of journalist Slavko
Curuvija, the establishment of the pyramidal "Dafiment" bank or the
"story" about the transfer of Yugoslav gold to foreign countries.
As the investigation against Milosevic proceeds, the parties of
Serbia's ruling coalition are having trouble reaching an agreement
with their coalition partner on the federal level - Montenegro's
Socialist People's Party - on the adoption of a federal law on
cooperation with the ICTY. The law should enable Milosevic's hand-
over to the Hague tribunal.
The conduct of the Montenegrin partner, the main opposition party
to Montenegro's ruling coalition, headed by President Milo
Djukanovic, has led to the deterioration of relations in the
Yugoslav federation. Serbian officials fear that Serbia could pay a
high price and be left without foreign investments and assistance
which it expects to receive at a donors' conference scheduled to
take place in Brussels in late June.
Claims that Serbia must not be a hostage to Yugoslavia or anyone in
Montenegro have become increasingly frequent in Belgrade. The
joint state has once again been jeopardised, this time by the
Montenegrin Opposition and the Belgrade authorities, whose
representatives are getting closer to a decision to let Serbian
citizens decide if they want to live in the joint state.
(hina) sb rml