An Admission Of Serb War Crimes

Yugoslavia's new president has admitted to CBS News' 60 Minutes II that Yugoslav army and police forces committed widespread killings in Kosovo last year.

Vojislav Kostunica's remarks marked the first time any Yugoslav leader accepted responsibility and expressed remorse for any of the conflicts in the last decade in the Balkans. Former President Slobodan Milosevic steadfastly blamed the West for fomenting violence in the region, and never admitting wrongdoing in Kosovo.

"I am ready to...accept the guilt for all those people who have been killed," Kostunica told 60 Minutes II Correspondent Scott Pelley.

"For what Milosevic had done, and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes," he said on the news program to be aired in the United States Tuesday night.

Asked whether Yugoslav forces were guilty of genocide in the southern province of Kosovo, Kostunica admitted that crimes had occurred, but that both Serbs and ethnic Albanians were killed.

"Those are the crimes and the people that have been killed are victims," the 56-year-old lawyer and legal scholar said, adding "there are a lot of crimes on the other side and the Serbs have been killed."

Under Milosevic, Yugoslav forces launched a massive crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo in 1998. Thousands of ethnic Albanian civilians were killed and tens of thousands of others forced to flee their homes.

Milosevic depicted the crackdown as a heroic attempt to save Serbia's medieval heartland from independence-minded ethnic Albanian extremists. He and four of his officials were charged by the U.N. war crimes tribunal last year for atrocities committed in Kosovo.

Since taking power after a popular revolt, Kostunica has moved to bring about democratic changes and has shown willingness to cooperate with the tribunal. He has not yet moved to arrest Milosevic, saying the tribunal was a political entity created by the West and that his country doesn't recognize it.

Asked by CBS News whether he thought Milosevic would ever stand trial, Kostunica replied, "Somewhere, yes."

But he also said that the new government has not ordered an arrest for Milosevic because there are "too many things to be done at this moment, too many priorities."

Milosevic's party still holds a significant amount of power, which has prevented Kostunica's camp from pushing through much needed democratic reforms. The pro-democracy forces have been struggling to create a transitional government in Yugoslavia's main republic that will open the way for their leadership.

On Monday, Serbia's parliament postponed approval of the interim government and new elections Dec. 23 in Yugoslavia's main republic after Radical Party members accused Kostunica's camp of staging a "coup" by forcing changes in the republican administration.

The Radicals, who hold 82 seats in the 250-seat assembly, filiustered for seven hours, forcing parliament to adjourn its session without a vote on the reorganization plan.

The assembly was to meet again early Tuesday, but the session was delayed by several hours after Radicals walked out to protest a decision by state television not to broadcast the event. It was unclear when the meeting would resume.

Approval was expected after Milosevic's party, which holds 110 of the 250 parliament seats, bowed to pro-democracy demands on the makeup of the new administration.

Albania's parliament has asked Serbia late Monday to apologize publicly for the crimes of its forces in Kosovo and said Milosevic should face trial for war crimes.

It passed a motion welcoming democratic developments in Yugoslavia, but added, however, that an apology for what is widely seen as "ethnic cleansing" of ethnic Albanians before and during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign would help to improve neighbourly relations and increase stability in the Balkans.

"The state of Serbia should make a public apology for the monstrous crimes of its military and police structures in Bosnia and Kosovo," the motion said.

It added that Milosevic and other military and civilian leaders guilty of crimes against humanity should face trial at an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Yugoslavia is a federation made up of Serbia and smaller Montenegro - each with their own elected governments.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but the United Nations and NATO took over the province in June 1999 following NATO's 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia.

Kosovo Serbs, the minority in the province, now commonly complain of being the target of attacks. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded Monday at a neighborhood where most remaining Serbs in Kosovo's capital of Pristina live. It blew a hole in one of the buildings.

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