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Most Serbs Disapprove Milosevic Extradition - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Most Serbs Disapprove Milosevic Extradition
Agence France Press
July 13, 2001Most people in Serbia disapprove of the government's extradition of former hardline leader Slobodan Milosevic to a UN war crimes court, according to a survey published Friday.
A total 56 percent of people questioned by the weekly NIN said the Serbian government had "acted wrongly" in handing Milosevic over to The Hague court to face war crimes charges for his role in the 1999 Kosovo conflict. But more than a third -- 36.5 percent -- approved the transfer.
NIM did not say how many people it had polled for the survey.
Serbia's reformist government extradited Milosevic June 28 after approving a decree which overruled a Yugoslavia constitutional court dedcision to block the transfer. The government used the decree formula after failing to get sufficient backing in the federal parliament where it had to count on former Milosevic allies. The decision led to the resignation of federal Prime Minister Zoran Zizic, a member of a Montengrin party that once backed Milosevic, and brought down the federal government.
The survey showed that 72 percent of people in Serbia, which together with far-smaller Montenegro makes up federal Yugoslavia, wanted to see Milosevic tried in Belgrade. And almost two thirds of the population -- 61 percent -- do not consider The Hague tribunal legitimate.
The court has been criticised by Milosevic's moderate nationalist successor, Vojislav Kostunica, as biased against Serbs. Milosevic also refused to recognise its legitimacy when he appeared before it last week.
Only 28 percent of people surveyed thought the court had the right to try him.
While criticising the way Milosevic's extradition was handled, 57 percent of those polled nevertheless considered he committed crimes during the decade he led Serbia and then Yugoslavia.
The weekly's poll also probed the popularity of two key figures in the extradition saga -- Kostunica, who said he was not informed of the transfer plan, and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who masterminded Milosevic's transfer. Kostunica garnered 71 percent backing for his role, while Djindjic scored just 5.5 percent in popularity ratings.
Milosevic's extradition came on the eve of an international donors' conference on Yugoslavia in which the United States had threatened to withdraw its support for Belgrade if Milosevic was not handed over. With Milosevic in the hands of the tribunal the donors pledged more than 1.2 billion dollars in aid.
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