Belgrade moves on war suspects

Belgrade moves on war suspects

More Serbian war crimes suspects could be going to the Hague

The Serbian government says it will recommend scrapping a law which blocks extradition of any more suspected war criminals to the international tribunal in the Hague.

The move comes amid efforts to preserve stability in the country following the assassination earlier this month of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic

Initial investigations into the assassination blamed a criminal network and supporters of former president Slobodan Milosevic, currently on trial at the Hague.

The changes would meet western demands that scores of Serbs face trial for alleged atrocities in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Serbia currently surrenders only those war crimes suspects indicted before the law came into force last April.

Heavily criticised

But the government in Belgrade will now ask the parliaments of both Serbia and Serbia-Montenegro - the loose union which replaced Yugoslavia - to remove the time restriction.

The UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has strongly criticised the law blocking extradition of new suspects.

She has rejected suggestions from some quarters in Serbia that the court's demands for co-operation from Belgrade were too onerous and could further destabilise the country.

The Serbia and Montenegro foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, has said he expected the Hague to issue up to seven new indictments against Serb nationals.

It is not yet clear whether the new indictments would include two which the Hague prosecutors brought to Belgrade last year.

These were linked to the Srebrenica massacre by Serb forces of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the Bosnian war in 1995.

Other leading suspects who may be hiding in Serbia include the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, and his former political boss Radovan Karadzic.