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Yugoslavia Adopts Decree on Extraditing War Crime Suspects
The Yugoslav government on Saturday issued a decree on extraditing war crime suspects that could pave way for transferring former president Slobodan Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The decree, which sets out legal procedures for the handover of indictees, will come into force on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus told the press after a cabinet meeting. "It is a matter of days. The district court, the supreme court and the Serbian government are authorized to deal with these issues," he added.
Labus said all of the 16 Yugoslav citizens including Milosevic who have been indicted by the war crimes tribunal will have to be handed over.
Milosevic, who has been jailed since April 1 on domestic charges of corruption and abuse of power, has been wanted by the tribunal for war crimes committed against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998-1999.
The new Yugoslav government, that ousted the Milosevic government last October, has been under strong Western pressure to cooperate with the tribunal if it wants to receive more than 1 billion US dollars in aid and investment from the West.
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