World leaders welcome arrest of Milosevic

World leaders welcome arrest of Milosevic

PARIS (AP): World leaders welcomed the arrest of former
Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Sunday, but the general
rejoicing was tempered by concerns about whether the architect of
a decade of Balkan wars would stand trial for crimes against
humanity.

"We have waited for this day for a long time. Justice must now
be done," French President Jacques Chirac said Sunday, according
to his spokeswoman Catherine Colonna.

"It is another important step toward bringing Milosevic and
his cronies to book for their crimes against humanity," said
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer welcomed the arrest as
a sign that the new Belgrade government is committed to democracy
and justice and said the administration must now fulfill its
commitments to cooperating with international justice.

But a question mark still hangs over whether Yugoslav
President Vojislav Kostunica will hand Milosevic over to a United
Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

The former leader has been indicted for war crimes and crimes
against humanity in connection with atrocities committed during
his harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Milosevic, who earlier said he would not go to jail alive,
surrendered after a 26-hour armed standoff with police, following
late-night negotiations between the government and his Socialist
Party. He faces corruption charges stemming from his ruinous
rule.

His arrest followed threats by the United States to suspend
$50 million in economic aid if Kostunica's fledgling government
did not show willingness to cooperate with the United Nations
tribunal.

So far, the tribunal has received no information to contradict
Yugoslavia's public position that Milosevic would not be
extradited before being tried at home for corruption. Many Serbs
consider the UN tribunal a political instrument of American
foreign policy.

A spokesman for the UN tribunal said Saturday that Belgrade
has "a binding legal obligation" to hand over Milosevic.

But Carl Bildt, the UN special envoy to the Balkans, said in
an interview with Swedish Radio on Sunday that extradition was
unlikely in the immediate future, even if the chances had
increased.

"I do not think this is the issue of the day. The issue now is
that Serbian justice and Serbian democracy will take in hand a
person who one understands has destroyed so much of his own
country," Bildt said.

Russian State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov also ruled out
extradition. "It is that country's internal affair to try him. If
he is guilty, he will answer in accordance with the law,"
Seleznyov told the Interfax news agency Sunday.

During his decade in power, Milosevic often looked for support
to Russia -- like Yugoslavia, a predominantly Slavic, Orthodox
Christian country. Russia vehemently opposed the 1999 NATO
airstrikes against Yugoslavia, that ultimately pushed Milosevic's
forces out of Kosovo.

NATO said Milosevic's arrest was the beginning of the road to
The Hague. "We believe the charges he has got to face of war
crimes are extremely serious charges. He should answer those,"
said NATO spokesman Mark Laity in Brussels.

Human rights groups were quick to insist that Sunday's arrest
was not an end in itself.

"It is critical to remember that Milosevic has been charged
with some of the gravest human rights catastrophes in recent
history," William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty
International USA said in a statement.

"If he is not tried by the Tribunal, it will send the very
powerful message to other human rights violators that it is open
season on ordinary people who can't defend themselves," Schulz
added.

New-York based Human Rights Watch warned in a statement that
corruption charges do not meet "the letter and spirit" of U.S.
law requiring cooperation with the war crimes tribunal.

"Prosecuting Milosevic on corruption charges can never provide
justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of wartime
atrocities in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo," Holly Carter,
executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division, said
in a statement.

Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation
European Union, said Milosevic's arrest would help bring peace
and justice to the fractured region.