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Russia Warns Milosevic Handover Will Destabilise Yugoslavia - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Russia Warns Milosevic Handover
Will Destabilise YugoslaviaHugh Barnes
Agence France Presse
June 29, 2001Russia warned Friday that the handover of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic could destabilise Yugoslavia by playing into the hands of separatists in Kosovo and Montenegro. The transfer of Milosevic to a Dutch jail "does not contribute to the stability of Yugoslavia," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in a statement issued by the foreign ministry.
His warning came as world leaders from US President George W. Bush to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder hailed Belgrade's surrender of the ex-president to the international war crimes tribunal as a blow for justice.
"Without doubt, this is playing into the hands of the separatists in Kosovo and Montenegro who want to leave the Yugoslav Federation," Ivanov said. "They will certainly be quick to exploit the situation, and if events continue to develop in this way, it is not hard to see where they will lead," he added. And Russia's top diplomat suggested that the Serbia leadership's decision to hand over the former strongman in defiance of an injunction by the federation's constitutional court "confirms that contradictions are mounting within the internal democratic forces of Yugoslavia."
Earlier senior Russian lawmakers reacted with indignation to the Serbian move, accusing the Belgrade authorities of bowing to US-backed judicial "colonialism."
Yegor Stroyev, head of Russia's Federation Council (upper house), warned that Milosevic's extradition set a dangerous precedent for Russia, which has long criticised the UN tribunal in The Hague as a partisan body dominated by the United States. Stroyev said the resort to supranational justice was "an attempt to create a precedent for Russia, adding: "This is the beginning of the weakening of the Yugoslav state, a country that sells it leader has no roots and will always be dependent on others. "The federal state of Yugoslavia is ending up as a number of small independent states that are entirely dependent on other countires," Stroyev added.
Milosevic was transferred to a prison in The Hague Friday after being handed over to officials of the UN war crimes tribunal in Belgrade despite a move by Yugoslavia's constitutional court to block the extradition. Serbia, the largest partner in the rump Yugoslav federation, capitulated to international warnings that a one-billion-dollar package to reconstruct the federation after a decade of war would only be paid if Milosevic was handed over.
But ultranationalist Russian deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky denounced the handover, saying Serbia had "no legal grounds" to extradite Milosevic and accusing the United States of pursuing "a new colonial policy" that would bring the world to the brink of war. The outspoken lawmaker also suggested that the extradition was "an indirect strike at Russia" and even that "certain groups" were seeking to provoke Moscow into "a bloody conflict" with the West over Yugoslavia.
The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has indicted Milosevic for war crimes committed in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo.
Russia backed Milosevic -- with reservations -- throughout the wars in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo, but after a period of hesitation finally rallied behind current President Vojislav Kostunica, who defeated Milosevic in elections last year. Russia was also an outspoken critic of the 1999 NATO air war over Kosovo and has repeatedly voiced its opposition to pro-independence moves by the province's ethnic Albanian majority.
And senior Russian lawmakers claimed Friday that the US and its allies were pursuing Milosevic in order to justify the 78-day bombing war that destroyed much of the infrastructure of Yugoslavia. US and NATO officials, not Milosevic, should stand trial at The Hague, Zhirinovsky said.
Gennady Seleznyov, the speaker of the State Duma lower house, denounced what he called the "barter" of Milosevic for one billion dollars, while the Russian press suggested that the extradition showed President Kostunica no longer called the shots in Belgrade.
"Milosevic was handed over to the war crimes tribunal despite Kostunica's pledge not to do so before a final decision of the supreme court," noted the daily Vremya Novostei.
Conceding that the transfer was inevitable, Izvestiya said: "The problem is it is people like the Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic who are in control in Belgrade, not Kostunica."
Milosevic had been in a Belgrade prison since April 1, when he was arrested in connection with domestic charges of corruption during his decade in power.
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