Retiring Serb Leader Faces Tribunal

The Serbian president and alleged war criminal Milan Milutinovic came under pressure yesterday to join his former boss Slobodan Milosevic in the Dutch detention cells of the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

When Mr Milutinovic's presidential term expires this week the immunity which has kept him out of the dock since being indicted by the tribunal in 1999 will end.

Carla del Ponte, the court's chief prosecutor, has stepped up pressure on the Belgrade government to ensure that Mr Milutinovic is handed over, and the Serbian prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, declared last week that he expected the president to go to the Hague voluntarily.

But Mr Djindjic is engaged in a power struggle on the issue with the Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, which has paralysed the governance of Serbia.

While the Serbian government declares itself keen to cooperate with the Hague, Mr Kostunica is hostile to the tribunal and insists that no one indicted will be forcibly turned over.

Mr Milutinovic was indicted in 1999 for alleged war crimes in Kosovo, along with Mr Milosevic and three other senior Serbs, two of whom surrendered to the Hague. The other killed himself when the government promised to cooperate with the tribunal.

Mr Milutinovic's term as president ends next Sunday, although, there were claims yesterday that his term was already up. He is not expected to resist arrest or hide, but he has not indicated any willingness to go to the Hague voluntarily, either: the option the authorities would prefer.

Mr Milutinovic, a former diplomat and Yugoslav foreign minister, was a crony of Mr Milosevic.

But his power as president was formal and limited, and his defence will be that he was not a policymaker.

He has kept a very low profile since the fall of Mr Milosevic more than two years ago.

Despite Ms Del Ponte's strident calls for cooperation, the Yugoslav government regularly plays for time, and deploys bureaucratic procedures to avoid turning over suspects.

The foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, said last week that cooperation with the Hague was essential for Serbia's progress, but Ms Del Ponte complained that he would not even take her telephone calls.

For nearly two years the tribunal has been demanding Yugoslav government files to use in Mr Milosevic's trial, but Belgrade has refused to release the papers.

Last Friday a meeting attended by Mr Milutinovic finally decided to declassify some files and provide them to the Hague.