World

Political Turmoil In Yugoslavia

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 4, 2001 / 10:36 PM EDT / CBS

Politicians from Yugoslavia's smaller republic pledged Saturday to take part in talks to resolve a political crisis touched off by Slobodan Milosevic's extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic, who is from the tiny republic of Montenegro, resigned Friday to protest the decision by Serbia's government to surrender Milosevic to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

The snap extradition triggered the government's collapse, and drove a deeper wedge between Montenegro and Yugoslavia's larger republic, Serbia, shaking the already fragile Yugoslav federation.

Zizic called Milosevic's handover “hasty and tactless.” Other members of the Cabinet from Montenegro — all of whom were once staunch Milosevic allies — also resigned.

President Vojislav Kostunica now has to try to form a new government. Talks to this end are expected to start Monday. Yugoslavia's constitution calls for federal elections if a new government is not in place three months after a prime minister's resignation.

Leaders from Zizic's Montenegrin camp promised to take part in talks with Kostunica on forming a new government.

“We want to try to give our best contribution to try to preserve stability in Yugoslavia,” said Predrag Popovic, a Cabinet minister from the Montenegrin People's Party.

In a statement to the media Saturday, Kostunica denied any knowledge of plans to extradite Milosevic to the war crimes court and reiterated criticism of Serbia's government for ignoring a court ban on the handover.

Milosevic was handed over Thursday by the Serbian government, which ignored a federal Constitutional Court ruling that banned his extradition.

“The truth is that I was not informed of Milosevic's extradition,” Kostunica said. He said first news of the Serb government intentions reached his office at 7:15 p.m. Thursday and an hour later he received confirmation that Milosevic was already en route to The Hague.

The president's claim appeared to contradict Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's statements that a minister from Kostunica's party was in on the decision and that Kostunica “was in a position to know of it, had he wanted to.”

Kostunica said he never backed Milosevic's extradition or that of any other Yugoslav citizen to The Hague without “proper legal procedure.”

The Yugoslav president agrees with Montenegrin officials who claim that the move was “illegal and unconstitutional” and “jeopardizes the functioning of Yugoslavia and its existence.”

About 6,000 angry Milosevic supporters rallied Friday to protest the former president's handover, massing in front of Belgrade's federal parliament.

The relatively low turnout showed how popular support for Milosevic waned since his nationalist campaigns led to four Balkan wars. Many Serbs seem relieved to put his 13-year ruinous rule behind them.

Also Saturday, the Yugoslav army dnied playing a role in Milosevic' transfer to The Hague. Reports had circulated that a Yugoslav army helicopter had transported Milosevic to a U.S. Army base in neighboring Bosnia from where he was then flown to the Netherlands.

“The Yugoslav army did not participate in extraditing Milosevic ... nor is it familiar with the details of how the Serbian police carried it out,” an army statement said.

Milosevic's lawyer, Branimir Gugl, said his client telephoned his family from the tribunal's prison Friday to proclaim his innocence on charges of crimes against humanity in Kosovo and to say he was “fine and healthy.”

Rewarding Yugoslavia for Milosevic's extradition, international donors meeting Friday in Brussels, Belgium, awarded Yugoslavia $1.28 billion to help it rebuild from Milosevic's disastrous rule, international sanctions and a NATO bombing campaign.