May 27, 1999
BELGRADE
Word of Indictment Stuns the Serbs and Blights Hopes
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By STEVEN ERLANGER
ELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Reports that Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic may be indicted for war crimes Thursday, the day a
Russian envoy is due here to discuss a peace settlement for Kosovo,
stunned Serbs on Wednesday night and dampened hopes for an early
end to the war.
As the government cracked down on anti-war dissent, charging an
elected official with treason, one former confidant of Milosevic
suggested that that the president might intensify the conflict by
carrying it to Montenegro, Serbia's sister Yugoslav republic.
Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic has given shelter to
democrats from Serbia. He is opposed the ethnic purges in Kosovo
and poses the greatest domestic challenge to Milosevic.
If Milosevic is indicted Thursday by the tribunal in The Hague,
it will greatly complicate the efforts of Russian special envoy
Victor Chernomyrdin, who is expected here for talks.
"If the report is true, this will change everything," said a
Serb analyst who requested anonymity. An indictment would confirm
the suspicion of most Serbs that the tribunal, which operates under
the United Nations, is prejudiced against them and is not an
independent court. Serbs will conclude that NATO is not interested
in peace, making Chernomyrdin's efforts all the more difficult.
The Yugoslav ambassador to the United Nations, Vladislav
Jovanovic, on Wednesday night attacked the pending indictment and
its timing. "It is a politically motivated decision that renders
the tribunal an accomplice to NATO as an aggressor," he told the
BBC. "This is motivated to help turn the population against our
president and government."
Milosevic has always been suspicious of NATO's desire to
introduce troops into Kosovo, fearing that the troops would arrest
him for war crimes. He may now suspect that the indictment is a way
to spurn any initiatives he makes toward a Kosovo settlement.
Milosevic is making clear that he will not tolerate anti-war
dissent while the NATO bombing lasts, and may even intensify the
conflict in the Balkans by mobilizing the general population to
defend Kosovo and oust Djukanovic of Montenegro, in a further
challenge to Washington.
The elected mayor of the southern town of Cacak, Velimir Ilic, a
member of the opposition Democratic Party, is the latest to flee to
Montenegro, according to Cacak residents. Officially, Ilic is on
vacation, but he is now thought to have joined the head of the
Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, there. The army has issued an
arrest warrant for Ilic on the grounds of "undermining the defense
capacities of the country and treasonous activities."
Six prominent democrats in Cacak, including a journalist, have
been fined a total of $2,800 for taking part in unsanctioned and
thus illegal gatherings of a "civic parliament" that has called
on Milosevic to negotiate a rapid settlement to the Kosovo
conflict. The fines, representing several months' salary, were paid
Wednesday by unidentified people in Cacak.
The army and police have also cracked down in Krusevac, where
mothers have been demonstrating for their soldier sons to return
from Kosovo. All roads into town are being monitored, and there are
police checks on anyone going in and out of town.
And in Belgrade on Wednesday, the trial opened of two Australian
aid workers for CARE and a Yugoslav colleague, imprisoned since
March 31, on charges of espionage. The trial of the CARE workers,
after its ceremonial start, was closed on security grounds to all
outsiders, including the Australian ambassador to Belgrade and the
mother of the Yugoslav on trial.
Thus far, there have been few severe punishments meted out to
dissenters, even in Krusevac, where up to 3,000 people, many of
them the mothers of conscripts, demonstrated for days and the
soldiers themselves were allowed to return home, at least for a
time.
In Cacak, a statement by the local branch of Milosevic's
political party also accused Ilic of giving interviews to Radio
Free Europe, which was described as "under the direct patronage of
the CIA."
"The present local authorities in Cacak have not shown even the
minimum of patriotism, even after two months of war," the
statement said.
The reported indictment of Milosevic complicates peace efforts.
In the past, the Clinton administration has refused to to negotiate
with people indicted for war crimes in Bosnia, including former
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, but it did negotiate with
Milosevic.
NATO is not negotiating with Milosevic now, doing it through
Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who is
expected to accompany Chernomyrdin to Belgrade. Finland is not a
member of NATO.
But even negotiations through intermediaries deal ultimately
with Milosevic, who decides Belgrade's policy.
The trial of the aid workers before a military court took place
despite protests from the United Nations and other international
agencies. Those on trial are Australians Steve Pratt and Peter
Wallace and a Yugoslav, Branko Jelen.
Jelen's mother was led crying from the courtroom. The Australian
ambassador, Charles Lamb, said he was "very disappointed to be
excluded," since the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
"guarantees the right of access to trials."
On April 12, Yugoslavia displayed Pratt on Belgrade television,
making an apparent confession to collecting information on Kosovo
and the effects of the NATO bombing, but the confession, which
Pratt's lawyer has said was made under duress, is not admissible.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. undersecretary-general for
humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said he had appealed to
Belgrade to "balance any evidence that might exist" against "the
interest we all have in fostering support, sympathy, involvement
and engagement" of international organizations and donors.
Vieira de Mello, ending an 11-day tour of Yugoslavia, including
three days in Kosovo, also told the government that no arguments
could justify the magnitude of the displacement of people in
Kosovo. "The extent of the damage is deeply disturbing," he said.
"People were forced to leave with various degrees of coercion,
intimidation or force."
Vieira de Mello also spoke of the suffering of
civilians.Unemployment had reached crisis proportions, he said, and
health, water, transport and heating have suffered.
"It is a combination of anxiety, humiliation, the lack of
understanding of what is happening, and immense stress of a distant
and powerful enemy that can strike at any moment," he said.
