Solana faces anger in Belgrade

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is in Belgrade for the first time since he oversaw the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, as head of NATO.

News of the planned visit prompted demonstrations on the streets of the Yugoslav capital on Wednesday.

Protesters burned an effigy of Solana, dressed in prison clothing, and carried banners reading: "Solana -- killer" and "Child killer -- go to jail."

Solana and other senior European Union representatives are meeting Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

The fate of Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic -- indicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal -- is expected to top the agenda.

Belgrade is under pressure to extradite Milosevic, and some of his senior officials, for trial in The Hague. The United States has given leaders a deadline of March 31 to co-operate with the tribunal or risk losing vital financial aid.

But the new regime -- swept to power on a tide of popular support -- is concerned that handing over Milosevic would not go down well at home. Feelings against the West have remained high since the NATO bombing that forced Milosevic to pull his troops out of Kosovo.

Wednesday's protests were evidence of that. Around a thousand people gathered outside government buildings, blocking roads, and later marched past the U.S. embassy.

Some threw stones and eggs, others shouted "We will not give you Slobo" and "We love you Slobo".

Solana was among 14 Western leaders sentenced by a Belgrade court last September, when Milosevic was still in power, to 20 years in prison for NATO's air war.

"The criminal returns to the scene of the crime," said an open call for the protest published in the Glas Javnosti daily and signed by the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia and an "anti-NATO committee."

"He should be ashamed, he doesn't have any shame. How dare he come here," pensioner Desa Brenovac said.

But new Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic has described the trial of the Western leaders as a farce.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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NATO
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
European Union

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