POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Milosevic Extradition Opens a Can of Worms

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jun 29 2001 (IPS) - The Serbian government may have dodged a bullet from international donors by handing over former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to a UN war crimes tribunal Thursday but it appeared to open a domestic can of worms.

Milosevic was flown from Belgrade to an undisclosed destination Thursday afternoon. A tribunal spokesperson confirmed his arrival at a detention centre in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday morning. He will remain there, the spokesperson said, pending trial for alleged crimes against humanity.

The move was designed to ease pressure from aid donors and restore some sheen to the reformist Serbian government. But reaction from ultra-nationalist parties was fierce, presaging new problems for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which comprises Serbia and its smaller neighbour, Montenegro.

Popular protest was limited. A few thousand Milosevic supporters took to the streets Thursday night. Their mood was angry but their numbers fell far short of the bulging crowds that used to greet the former leader when he was in power.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica issued a statement late Thursday in which he assailed the extradition, authorised by Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, as “a serious breach of the constitutional order of our country.” Kostunica had balked at handing over his predecessor, arguing that Milosevic should first answer to his own people. Kostunica reportedly had not been notified of the Serbian government’s decision until after it had been made.

Djindjic, however, said the extradition “was necessary because the future of Serbia was endangered without our cooperation with the ICTY,” he said, referring to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “Re-integration into the international community calls for respect of international laws”.

“This was also done because the donors’ conference in Brussels would be in danger. We would face unprecedented shame and humiliation had we not respected our international obligations” Djindjic added.

Washington had insisted that Belgrade honour a 1999 extradition order against Milosevic or face the music at Friday’s meeting of donors and creditors. Milosevic was indicted for war crimes against ethnic Albanians during a crackdown in May of that year.

US President George W. Bush issued a statement Thursday in which he welcomed the extradition as proof that Belgrade sought “to turn Yugoslavia away from its tragic past and toward a brighter future.”

The Serbian premier further defended the decision to comply with ICTY demands, among which Milosevic’s extradition was the chief item, as having been made in accordance with Article 135 of Serbia’s constitution. This authorises the FRY member to act unilaterally if it finds a federal decision contrary to its interests.

The interests of Serbia were endangered earlier Thursday, he said, when Yugoslavia’s Constitutional Court decided to suspend a Jun 23 federal government decree allowing the extradition.

The court had said it would make a final ruling on the decree’s constitutional validity Jul 12. Milosevic’s lawyers, who sought the judicial review, argued the constitution forbids the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to foreign countries as well as foreign institutions such as the ICTY.

The court is made up of judges appointed by Milosevic long before he fell from power last October.

“It is the same court that confirmed the electoral theft of Milosevic in September,” Djindjic said.

The court ruled last September in favour of Milosevic when it was clear that Kostunica had won the majority of votes in national elections. Milosevic was forced to cede power to Kostunica Oct 5, after more than a million Serbs took to the streets.

Milosevic was handed over to “the tribunal’s organs” in the afternoon, said Serbian government spokesman Nemanja Kolesar.

The extradition exposed deep rifts in political circles. The ultra- nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) of Vojislav Seselj and Milosevic’s once-ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) both fired off fierce reactions.

“This is an attempt aimed at destroying Serbia’s name, honour and dignity,” the SRS said in a statement. “This was an act of piracy and banditry.”

The SPS promised to organise protest rallies against the Djindjic’s government.

Zoran Lutovac, an analyst at the Institute of Social Sciences here, told IPS that the Serbian government’s decision “was its only choice.”

“This administration has won a landslide victory in the elections after it promised profound reforms, the end of isolation, and cooperation with the international community. The cooperation includes respecting international laws. Djindjic did not have much of a choice. If he wanted reforms, he had to extradite Milosevic or resign,” Lutovac added.

Nevertheless, Lutovac said, “This does not mean that we won’t have a crisis of the federal government and probably new elections.”

The Serbian government is made up entirely of officials from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) and was established in January, after the party won local elections by a landslide.

The federal government, however, was formed after the September elections and has an altogether different – and more complex – composition. Of its 16 members, seven come from the Montenegrin Socialist People’s Party (SNP), seven from the DOS and two from Group 17 Plus, a think tank of economists allied with the DOS.

The SNP lost no time Thursday in accusing Djindjic of destroying the federal republic by acting on his own and threatening to pull out of the governing coalition.

“This is the final nail in the coffin of the Yugoslav federation,” SNP official Dragan Koprivica told reporters. “SNP will have to see if it will remain in the government.”

The SNP had been a sister party of Milosevic’s SPS but opted to join the governing coalition after the DOS emerged as the largest single party in last September’s elections.

SNP members abstained from the federal government’s Jun 23 decision to hand over Milosevic to international prosecutors.

Serbia has 7.5 million people compared to 650,000 in Montenegro.