29 October 2003 Afternoon Edition

Regional News

· Interior minister says extradition of newly indicted generals would destabilize (AP)
· Schroeder to back reform on Balkan trip (AFP)
· German chancellor to visit Serbia and Montenegro (Tanjug)
· U.S. to financially support war crimes trials in Bosnia (dpa)
· Thousands rally in Belgrade to demand government's ouster (AP)

Interior minister says extradition of newly indicted generals would destabilize Serbia

By JOVANA GEC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Serbia's interior minister warned in comments published Wednesday that the arrest and extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal of recently indicted police and army generals would destabilize the country and its pro-Western government.

Dusan Mihajlovic also said in an interview with Vecernje Novosti daily that he and his police would refuse to arrest the four officers who were charged last week with war crimes by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

``I will not do it,'' Mihajlovic said. The indictments last week against Mihajlovic's deputy, Sreten Lukic, and three other police and army officers who served in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war, have raised tensions and fear within the police and army ranks. Thousands _ mostly police officers _ rallied on Friday in downtown Belgrade to protest the indictments.

In the interview, Mihajlovic suggested that the police could rebel against the government _ which toppled former president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and has since been a key U.S. ally in the Balkans _ if an order is issued for Lukic's arrest.

``If Lukic goes to the Hague, no police officer will willingly defend the country,'' Mihajlovic said, adding police would ``no longer be so nice.''

Serbian government officials have ruled out the swift extradition of the four officers and a national council in charge of relations with The Hague tribunal is to debate the issue later this week.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. envoy for war crimes, Pierre Richard Prosper suggested that Serbia might be allowed to try the four at home if it arrests and hands over to The Hague the court's most wanted fugitive _ Bosnian Serb wartime army commander, Ratko Mladic.

``If Serbia and Montenegro are able to arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic, it will change the environment completely,'' Prosper said in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.

Belgrade has faced immense U.S. and other international pressure to arrest Mladic, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Serbia. Officials here have claimed that the fugitive general is no longer here, but have nevertheless promised to do their best to apprehend him.

Lukic, who commanded the Serb police in Kosovo during the war, was indicted along with former Yugoslav Army Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic; Vladimir Lazarevic, the former commander of Yugoslav Army forces in Kosovo's capital, Pristina; and Vlastimir Djordjevic, the chief of police forces operating in Kosovo.

The indictment against the four accuses the men of five counts of war crimes, including murder, persecution, deportation and inhumane treatment during the Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanians to quell their independence movement in the southern province.

Similar allegations of atrocities in Kosovo have led to the extradition and trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and several of his top aides. Up to 10,000 ethnic Albanians are believed to have been killed in Kosovo.

Mihajlovic said that indictments against Lukic and the three other generals were ``unacceptable'' and unfounded. He also warned that the extradition of the four would have ``unprecedented consequences'' for the stability of Serbia.

``Serbia would be left without a real army and police if the generals go to The Hague,'' Mihajlovic declared. ``Everything is at stake here.''

Schroeder to back reform on Balkan trip

By Stephen Coates

BELGRADE, Oct 29 (AFP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due Wednesday to make the first visit to Belgrade by a German leader in almost 20 years in a significant show of support for the Balkan region's pro-Europe reforms.

He is also the first major European leader to visit the federation known as Serbia and Montenegro since it replaced the disbanded Yugoslavia earlier this year to become Europe's newest state.

While the name has changed, the challenges remain the same as the country struggles to drag itself out of the legacy of war, isolation and economic turmoil bequeathed by former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Schroeder told the Belgrade-based Politika daily that much had been achieved since Milosevic was thrown from power in a popular uprising in October 2000 and replaced by a reformist, pro-West government.

But he warned that more needed to be done to preserve the fragile regional peace and ensure that Serbia and Montenegro remained on the path to Europe.

"We want to look forward and build our relationship on a permanent and stable basis. The preconditions for that are better than ever after a new democratic beginning in October 2000," he was quoted as saying.

"Germany in every way supports Serbia and Montenegro in its democratic and economic renewal."

Schroeder is expected to meet Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic later Wednesday and attend the opening of an Economic Cooperation Council set up to promote economic links between Belgrade and Berlin.

He will then fly to neighboring Croatia on Thursday, marking the first visit to Zagreb by a German chancellor since the country gained independence from the former communist federation of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Germany is Serbia and Montenegro's biggest commercial partner and, after Italy, the second most important for Croatia. Schroeder said one of the main priorities of his visit was to enhance those economic links.

But he is expected to emphasize the fragility of Balkan stability and remind Belgrade and Zagreb of their special roles in a region still wracked by ethnic hatred after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Germany has 5,000 troops serving in Bosnia, the breakaway southern Serbian province of Kosovo, and Macedonia.

The German leader told Politika that Belgrade in particular needed to accept its "responsibility" for keeping the Balkans on an even keel, a possible reference to the independence movements in Kosovo and Montenegro.

The European Union last year forced the Montenegrin government to delay its plans to declare independence from Serbia until 2006 at the earliest, fearing that a split here would inflame other separatist movements in the Balkans.

Schroeder will also likely remind leaders in Belgrade and Zagreb that the road to Europe will be blocked if they do not give their full cooperation to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

It is a routine message from visiting European dignitaries, but it will have added significance amid the ongoing furore in Belgrade about four fresh war crimes indictments against Serbian police and army generals issued last week.

Croatia is also under strong pressure to hand over retired general Ante Gotovina, a war crimes suspect who is regarded by many Croats as a hero of the 1991-95 war.

German chancellor to visit Serbia and Montenegro

BELGRADE, BERLIN, Oct 29 (Tanjug) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due on a visit to Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) on Wednesday, where he will meet with SCG President Svetozar Marovic, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, and other officials. A German government spokesperson told Tanjug that the objectives of the chancellor's visit are the enhancement of bilateral relations at the political and economic levels.
Schroeder is the first chancellor to visit Belgrade since Helmut Kohl in 1985.

U.S. to financially support war crimes trials in Bosnia

Sarajevo (dpa) - The United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Pierre Richard Prosper said Wednesday in Sarajevo the U.S. government was ready to help establish a war crimes chamber within Bosnia-Herzegovina's State Court.

Prosper, who arrived in Sarajevo on his way to The Hague where he is due to attend a conference Thursday, said the U.S. would cover one third of the total cost of the chamber, expected to reach 28 million euros.

``We believe that this is an important project which needs to begin as soon as possible if we want to be able to put this war crimes issue behind us,'' Prosper told reporters in Sarajevo.

He also said that the U.S. government hoped that The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, expected to continue until 2008, would begin transferring war crimes cases back to Bosnia-Herzegovina's courts as soon as the war crimes chamber is established.

``Full disclosure of information as well as the apprehension and transfer of any indicted war criminal still hiding in Bosnia-Herzegovina,'' would be important elements in the success of the project he said.

Speaking about the situation in neighboring Serbia and Montenegro and possible transfer of war crime trials before the local courts there, Prosper said that the readiness of the Serbian authorities to apprehend some of the most wanted war criminals would ``change the environment in that country'', opening the way for domestic war crimes trials.

``Our (the U.S. government's) view of the question of indictments in Serbia has been that if Serbia and Montenegro are able to arrest and transfer (Bosnian Serb war criminal allegedly hiding in Serbia, General Ratko) Mladic it will change the environment completely,'' said Prosper.

Once Mladic was apprehended, he said, ``we can begin to look at creating the opportunity for Serbia and Montenegro to prosecute cases at home.''

The U.S. government, according to Prosper, has already been taking steps along with Serbia and Montenegro to ``create the capacity or to build capacity so that they can do domestic prosecutions at home''.

Thousands rally in Belgrade to demand government's ouster

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ In the biggest labor action since Slobodan Milosevic's ouster in 2000, thousands of workers rallied in downtown Belgrade on Wednesday to demand the dismissal of the pro-Western government that toppled the former president.

The protesters, led by a trade union that was close to Milosevic during his ruinous rule in the 1990s, also demanded early parliamentary elections and the stoppage of the government-organized privatization of state-run enterprises.

About 3,000 workers, many bused to the capital from all over Serbia, gathered at a downtown Belgrade square, honking horns and carrying anti-government banners.

``We won't disperse until our demands are met,'' said Milenko Smiljanic, the leader of the Independent Trade Union, which organized the protest. He had earlier said that at least 50,000 protesters would attend.

Police, which had banned a planned march in front of Serbia's parliament by the protesters, deployed in the hundreds in front of the parliament building in full riot gear. Police water cannons stood nearby.

The protest coincided with an initiative in the parliament, launched by nationalists and other parities allied with Milosevic, to vote the pro-democracy government out of office.
Serbia, the dominant republic in the Serbia-Montenegro union, is struggling to overcome the effects of Milosevic's rule, which ruined the economy and made the country one of the poorest in Europe.

Milosevic was extradited in 2001 to the U.N. war crimes tribunal, where he is now standing trial for alleged atrocities by his troops during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

There have been increasing signs of serious labor unrest in Serbia as the new government failed to radically increase living standards following Milosevic's ouster in October 2000.

The painful process of closing or privatizing state-run companies _ steps urged by Western creditors _ has further increased unemployment. The jobless rate stands at more than 30 percent.