World

Yugoslavia: Put Clinton On Trial

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 25, 1999 / 10:58 AM EDT / CBS

Yugoslavia wants to put President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Britain's Tony Blair and other top Western leaders on trial.

A Justice Ministry statement, carried by the official Tanjug news agency, charges the leaders with committing war crimes against civilians during the 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

It said the ministry was issuing subpoenas for the leaders "according to international regulations." It did not specify when the Western leaders should appear in court or say how the subpoenas would be handed to the accused.

Several such trials have been announced by different Yugoslav courts. The trials are apparently an official response by the Yugoslav leadership to war crimes charges leveled against President Slobodan Milosevic and his four top aides by a U.N. tribunal.

Subpoenas were also issued Friday for U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen; the premiers, defense ministers and foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany; former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and NATO's commander for Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark.

But an opposition official, Milan Bozic of the Serbian Renewal Movement, dismissed the Justice Ministry order as a "propaganda move for domestic consumption with no effect against those accused."

Also Friday, the United States denied a newspaper report that a spy within NATO passed secrets to Russia during the war over Kosovo, including details of flight plans of U.S. warplanes.

"There is no information to corroborate those allegations," David Leavy, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told Reuters.

The report in the Scotsman, which cited NATO sources, said leaked information included flight details for a bombing raid by U.S. stealth fighters, which enabled Serb forces to shoot down one of the planes.

The newspaper's sources said an officer attached to NATO passed the details to Russian intelligence services, which then told Belgrade that the target was a defense research base.

A U.S. official said details about such flights did not go through NATO channels and were kept within the U.S. military.

Earlier, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service declined to comment on the report.