Del Ponte's mission impossible

By CNN's Belgrade bureau chief, Alessio Vinci

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- International war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte arrived in Belgrade with a flawed mission.

She knew that most of the people she was going to meet -- from the Yugoslav President down -- were going to tell her that extradition of Slobodan Milosevic was out of the question.

The primary reason for their refusal is because most people in Yugoslavia believe that the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague is politicised and anti-Serb.

The new Yugoslav leadership was very disappointed and dissatisfied at Del Ponte's refusal last year to investigate thoroughly NATO's bombing campaign in 1999.

Many officials, and indeed the population at large, believe NATO has committed war crimes when it bombed refineries, power stations, residential areas and the headquarters of state television.

President Kostunica and most of his allies, as a result, do not trust the War Crimes Tribunal, and they are afraid that a Milosevic trial in The Hague would turn into a trial against the whole nation.

While admitting that Serb forces may have committed atrocities and crimes, Kostunica also says that in the last decade of the Balkan conflicts there were no innocent sides, and that everybody is, in one way or the other, guilty.

What the Yugoslav officials propose is to set up a Truth Commission similar to the one established at the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and let this body establish the extent of war crimes and responsibilities for what happened in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

It is not clear how much longer the refusal to extradite Milosevic and other war crimes suspects will last.

Several top Western diplomats have clearly said that any further international aid to Yugoslavia after April this year should be linked to Belgrade's firm commitment to co-operate with the Tribunal.

But it is not a sentiment shared by all. EU Commission President Romano Prodi said he has full trust in Kostunica and that any aid or assistance to Yugoslavia should not be conditional.

Kostunica, as did his predecessor, is perhaps counting on Western officials being paralysed by conflicting views on what to do with Milosevic.

The new Yugoslav and Serb leadership meanwhile has been very clear regarding Milosevic's future. They want him investigated as soon as possible, and to bring him to trial as soon as possible.

Serbia now has a new government, and a new parliament. The new prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, said they will begin introducing sweeping reforms in the police and judiciary to allow competent authorities, like police and prosecutors, to begin their investigations in the weeks and months ahead.

So the question at this point is not whether Milosevic will face trial, but where?

Perhaps the best solution would be a compromise, as suggested by the Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic -- a trial in Serbia with the participation of prosecutors from the War Crimes Tribunal.

In that case however, Serb and U.N. prosecutors will have to agree what to discuss first.

The vote fraud and the billions of dollars that Milosevic allegedly stole from Yugoslav banks or the war crimes he allegedly committed by ordering his forces to massacre tens of thousands in the name of a greater Serbia?

The first charges may be easier to prove than the second.

But for now Del Ponte says she is ready to prove Milosevic was involved in war crimes, while Serb prosecutors are beginning only now to investigate his bank accounts.

That is why Carla Del Ponte said, leaving Belgrade after her three-day visit, we are ready to begin the trial.

Milosevic, for now, has enjoyed the protection and the benefits of being a former president.

He has even met with Kostunica in his capacity of head of the largest opposition party in Yugoslavia, the Socialist Party.

It is perhaps this kind of treatment that worries most international observers, and not where and when a trial will be held.

Belgrade urged to assist U.N. tribunal
January 25, 2001
U.N. confident of Milosevic trial
January 25, 2001
Protests mar war crimes meeting
January 24, 2001
Abrupt end to Milosevic extradition talks
January 23, 2001
Arrest warrant re-issued for Milosevic
January 23, 2001

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