BELGRADE – A spokesman for Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has confirmed that Slobodan Milosevic has been handed over to Hague Tribunal officials in Belgrade following a unanimous decision by Serbian Government ministers.
The former Yugoslav president was handed over to Hague Tribunal to face war crime and genocide charges on June 28, 2001, soon after 4.00 p.m. despite having won a legal appeal against government moves to extradite him earlier in the afternoon.
He was flown to the city of Tuzla in the Bosnian Serb Republic and from there handed into NATO’s care for the flight to The Hague.
The move has taken Serbia by surprise after weeks of wrangling over the extradition issue.
A spokesman for Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica’s office said that he had learnt of the move from the media.
The president’s Democratic Party of Serbia was the only major political party in Serbia not to support the decision for extradition which was taken by the Serbian Government this afternoon with agreement from 21 of the 23 ministers.
Thousands of Milosevic supporters have gathered in Belgrade’s central Republic Square. Traffic has been brought to a standstill, and a number of journalists have been assaulted.
A car belonging to Associated Press was destroyed along with buses and other vehicles stalled in the traffic jam.
Members of the ultra-right Radical Party of Serbia arrived at about 9.00 p.m. and were reported to be in an aggressive mood.
A noted international law expert said tonight that it was the greatest irony in history that a provision of the 1990 Serbian Constitution, written by Milosevic, had been used to justify his extradition.
Vojin Dimitrijevic noted that Yugoslavia was mentioned in only one article of the Constitution, which says that Serbia will not accept Federal decisions if they are against its interests.
A Socialist Party of Serbia spokesman this evening called for the resignation of the Serbian Government, saying that this was the first time a Constitutional Court ruling had been ignored.
Zoran Andjelkovic also said that the party would call for an emergency session of the Parliament tomorrow.
Milosevic arrived in The Hague at about 10.00 p.m.
