World

Milosevic Indictment Widens

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 28, 2001 / 9:21 AM EDT / CBS

A day after former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was handed over to the international war crimes tribunal, the charges against him were expanded.

Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Friday the new indictment accused Milosevic of command responsibility in the deaths of more than 600 Kosovo Albanians, twice the number of names cited when he was first charged in May 1999.

An estimated 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed during Milosevic's 18-month crackdown there.

The tribunal insists that Milosevic bore responsibility for atrocities there regardless of whether he specifically ordered them because as a national leader, he should have stopped or prevented them. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.

Click here for a timeline of Milosevic's reign.

So far, Milosevic has been charged only with offenses allegedly committed in Kosovo. Del Ponte said she was preparing indictments charging Milosevic for offenses during wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, including possible genocide problems.

But Del Ponte deplored the fact that others charged with war crimes are still free.

Chief among those still at large are former Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, believed hiding in NATO-controlled territory of Bosnia, and the Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, who is thought to be living in Belgrade.

Del Ponte said Milosevic's hand-over illustrated the world's "determination that the victims will not be forgotten and that their story will be told."

For survivors of suffering in the Balkan wars Milosevic led, his transfer to U.N. custody is an epic milestone on a bleak landscape, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth.

"I did close my eyes and I could see all those atrocities committed in Bosnia during the war and in my head were just all these crying people," said survivor Amna Dumpor of her reaction to the news. "I think it's good to keep him alive. You know, he might even suffer more by being in a jail for the rest of his life."

Milosevic, the first former head of state to face the U.N. court, was handed over Thursday by Serb officials, despite a Yugoslav court ruling that barred his extradition to stand trial for alleged atrocities in Kosovo.

He arrived at the tribunal's detention center by helicopter early on Friday. Flanked by guards, his head bowed, Milosevic entered the prison a few hours before dawn.

Milosevic was expected to be arraigned within a week, according to tribunal officials.

The former president's lawyer, Branimir Gugl, said his client "is denying any guilt. He has a clear conscience and says he had worked in the interest of the Serbian people."