Djindjic gets last word

Djindjic considered his draft notice an attempt to intimidate opposition leaders

By CNN's Matt Smith

(CNN) -- By Thursday, the convoluted, bloody history of the Balkans put Slobodan Milosevic's fate in the hands of a man his government tried to prosecute as a draft-dodger during the war in Kosovo.

Zoran Djindjic, now prime minister of Serbia's government, gave the order on Thursday to turn Milosevic over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. To do so, he defied an order by Yugoslavia's Constitutional Court, which refused to allow Milosevic's extradition.

"The Serbian government made its decision based on international law and obligations towards the international war crimes tribunal," Djindjic said Thursday. "We decided for an immediate implementation of the decree."

The events that led to Milosevic's arrival early on Friday at a U.N.-run jail in The Netherlands capped a dramatic reversal of fortune for both men over the past two years.

As bombs from the United States and its NATO allies fell on Belgrade in May 1999, Djindjic was one of the leaders of the opposition to Milosevic, who had led the country into nearly a decade of ethnic warfare.

That month, at age 46, Djindjic received notice that he was being called up for service in the Yugoslav Army. He considered the order an attempt to silence opposition and refused to report for duty.

"I will not respond ... and I said this even before the war started," Djindjic told The Associated Press. "Those who started the war and who are advocating the war must go first."

Djindjic's Democratic Party was one of many beleaguered opponents of the Milosevic government, which accused its critics of offering aid and comfort to the enemy. He left Serbia, the dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation, to take shelter in Montenegro. Serbia's smaller partner was led by a pro-Western government trying to stay out of the conflict.

The issue drew some attention from Western journalists, and NATO press officers at the alliance's daily news conferences provided occasional updates on his situation.

After the war ended in June 1999, Djindjic returned to Serbia, began joining street rallies against the Milosevic government and appeared before a military judge on charges of draft evasion. The hearing was inconclusive, and the charges were never pursued.

Opposition pressure on Milosevic eventually prompted him to call elections in October 2000. The embattled leader tried to claim victory in a disputed poll against Vojislav Kostunica, a Milosevic critic but still a Serb nationalist. Opposition leaders fought back with a wave of street demonstrations.

In November 2000, protesters stormed the Yugoslav parliament building; Milosevic's government collapsed, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to celebrate his downfall and opposition leaders like Djindjic became the new leaders of Yugoslavia.