To: cody andre who wrote (16577 ) 5/24/2000 2:38:00 PM From: George Papadopoulos Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 17770
Monica....the mascot for the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague?<gggg>dailynews.yahoo.com Yugoslavia Lashes Out at War Crimes Tribunal By Amra Kevic BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslavia lashed out at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague Wednesday, denouncing an invitation to cooperate as ``extreme arrogance.'' ``I will not agree under any conditions or at any cost that a single Yugoslav citizen be extradited to the so-called Hague tribunal. We do not recognize it, it is an illegal body,'' Yugoslav Justice Minister Petar Jojic said Wednesday. Jojic was reading a response to a letter from tribunal chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte of April 26 which he said had asked Yugoslavia to help the tribunal and ``to hand over certain Yugoslav citizens and others and transfer them to the Hague.'' The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other top Yugoslav Serb officials a year ago for alleged war crimes in Kosovo. ``Indicting top officials in Yugoslavia and Serbia is aimed at breaking up the federal state and its member republic and separating Kosovo from Serbia,'' Jojic said. Jojic Uses Strong Language In Response Jojic, a member of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, called Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ``the illegitimate mother of this inquisition body'' and Del Ponte and her predecessor Louise Arbour ``symbols of prostitution.'' ``To the whore Del Ponte, self-proclaimed prosecutor of the criminal Hague tribunal,'' his letter began. ``You (del Ponte) are participating in the criminal project of the destruction of the Serb people and its national being.'' He said the tribunal had resorted to deceit, organized abduction and force in arresting suspects, citing the arrest of Bosnian Serb General Momir Talic at a conference in Vienna and the recent arrest of another indictee inside Serbia. Serbian police have arrested eight local people allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Bosnian Serb Dragan Nikolic ''Yankee'' in Smederevo, southeast of Belgrade, accusing them of being ``mercenaries'' and charging them with terrorism. Jojic called on the court to prove its impartiality by indicting Western leaders for crimes committed against the Yugoslav population during NATO's March-June bombing campaign, saying more than 2,000 civilians had been killed. The Washington-based Human Rights Watch in February said 500 civilians were killed during the air strikes. Jojic also criticized the court for not indicting Kosovo Albanian leaders for alleged genocide against Serbs and other Non-Albanians in Kosovo. NATO-led forces and United Nations administrators took control of Kosovo last June after Yugoslav security forces pulled out of the province. More than 150,000 Serbs and other minorities have fled Kosovo to Serbia since then in addition to thousands who fled to neighboring Montenegro.