Momentum builds for Milosevic arrest

There is a deadline to hand Mr Milosevic to the Hague

By Paul Wood in Belgrade

A newspaper opinion poll in Belgrade has given the surprise finding that a majority of Serbs want former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to be extradited to the Hague to face a war crimes trial.

Many of Serbia's new democratic leaders have suggested that the public is not yet ready to see the former president appear at the UN tribunal.

We are steadily building a case and when we have it, we will arrest Milosevic

Serbian deputy prime minister

But more than half of the 910 people questioned for the Belgrade daily Blic said this is exactly what should happen.

In Bosnia and Croatia, Hague suspects have frequently been transformed into national heros.

This unexpected opinion poll finding in Serbia, suggesting that the case of Mr Milosevic may be different, will hearten the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte.

She has given Belgrade until the end of March to signal that it will hand over Mr Milosevic, saying that the far more serious allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity should be tried before any offences against Yugoslav law.

Her timetable coincides with that set by the United States Congress, which has passed legislation to suspend American aid unless Serbia confirms by 31 March that it will extradite Mr Milosevic.

Indictments

Meanwhile, Belgrade is awash with rumours that the authorities are preparing to detain the ex-president - but not on the charges set out by the Hague.

Carla Del Ponte should be encouraged by poll findings

Local prosecutors are reportedly working on a number of indictments. One is said to charge him with giving false information about his assets when he bought his luxurious residence in the up-market Belgrade suburb of Dedinje in 1999.

Another accuses him of having transferred 173kg (380 pounds) of gold out of the country last year.

However, a Serbian deputy prime minister, Jarko Korac, told the BBC that the authorities were most intent on seeing him arrested in connection with the campaign of apparently state sponsored assassinations, which marked the final years of the old regime.

The former head of state security, Rade Markovic, who was arrested at the weekend, is being questioned about what orders he received from the then president, Mr Korac said.

"We are steadily building a case and when we have it, we will arrest him [Milosevic]," Mr Korac said.

One alternative theory, put forward by the former Yugoslav prime minister, Milan Panic, is that Mr Milosevic will be committed to a mental institution.

"He is mad - no doubt about it," Mr Panic, now a leading Serbian industrialist, told the BBC.

Mr Milosevic, himself, has always denied any wrongdoing.