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.