U.N. targets 12 Balkans suspects

Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal, is pressing Belgrade to hand over Milosevic

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The United Nations war crimes tribunal has revealed it has 12 secret indictments against alleged perpetrators of Balkan atrocities.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, said it wanted to quash speculation that "most of the Serbian population is under sealed indictment," the Associated Press reported.

The names of the accused and details of the indictments were not released. The 12 new arrest warrants come in addition to 26 individuals publicly indicted and still at large.

Of the 38 suspects at large, 26 are in the Serb part of Bosnia and 12 are in Yugoslavia, prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said.

The U.N. court began issuing sealed indictments because local authorities had been refusing to arrest suspects sought by the tribunal, and disclosing names served as a warning for suspects, often driving them into hiding out of reach of NATO troops.

In August 1999, Austrian police arrested a leading Bosnian Serb military commander, General Momir Talic, who had been indicted in a secret warrant and unwittingly travelled abroad.

Among the most wanted war crimes suspects are former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was arrested in Belgrade in April, and four of his leading aides.

Other major suspects at large are Bosnian Serb wartime rebel leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic.

But the prospect of Yugoslav war crimes suspects standing trial in The Hague moved a step closer on Wednesday when Belgrade drafted a law to enable the extradition of Milosevic and other war crimes suspects to a U.N. court, an official said.

The draft law would allow for the extradition of suspects, but only after a legal review of their cases at home, said Nebojsa Sarkic, an assistant justice minister.

"We tried to balance demands for respect of Yugoslavia's legal sovereignty and the necessary cooperation with the United Nations," Sarkic was quoted by the Tanjug news agency as saying.

The law will soon be reviewed by the Yugoslav government and discussed in the country's parliament, he said.

Milosevic was arrested over allegations of misusing state funds

Yugoslavia's new authorities have been reluctant to hand over war crimes fugitives, citing a constitutional ban on the extradition of Yugoslav citizens.

Milosevic was arrested on suspicion of abuse of power. The government has repeatedly pledged to try him at home on a series of charges, including war crimes.

However, the United States and its allies want to see Milosevic tried in The Hague, where he has been indicted on charges of crimes against humanity for his regime's 1998-99 crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

Washington has demanded that Yugoslavia steps up its cooperation with the U.N. court before it receives any substantial aid.