Milosevic could face firing squad for state murders

2:45 pm - By KATARINA KRATOVAC

BELGRADE - Slobodan Milosevic could face death by firing squad under new charges being considered against him, according to two of the most senior figures in the Belgrade government.

Dusan Mihajlovic, the Serbian Interior Minister, said on a visit to Vienna yesterday: "There are ... indications that Slobodan Milosevic was involved in severe criminal acts for which the death penalty is provided."

Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian Prime Minister, told US newspaper The Boston Globe that Mr Milosevic would be charged within two months with ordering a number of murders that took place during his years in power.

A second hearing began on the existing charges against the man once hailed by Serbs as their national "saviour" while he sat in his cell. The former dictator had threatened to shoot himself in the head as he resisted arrest.

Yugoslavia's new leaders bickered in public over whether he would be extradited to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Even as Mr Djindjic and his associates spoke of more serious charges, the Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, publicly criticised the way Mr Milosevic was arrested, and said he would oppose his predecessor's extradition to The Hague.

International prosecutors at the tribunal are desperate to get Mr Milosevic into custody, even more so after he admitted on Monday to secretly supporting the war efforts of Serbs in Bosnia and the Krajina in Croatia with money and guns.

Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, will become the first Western official to visit Yugoslavia since Mr Milosevic's arrest when he arrives in Belgrade today. He is coming to offer British support for the country's emergence from Mr Milosevic's destructive reign.

The former president is currently being held on charges of abuse of power and fraud in Serbia, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Mr Djindjic also predicted that Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, would soon be charged in connection with murder cases. Although murder can carry the death penalty in Yugoslavia, such a sentence has not been enforced for decades.

The Hague is now preparing new indictments against the former president for war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia.

His admission on Monday that he funded war efforts in Bosnia and the Krajina is believed to be the first time he has admitted to any involvement in the conflicts. Mr Milosevic is already indicted for genocide in Kosovo.

Mr Kostunica said in Belgrade yesterday: "Co-operation with The Hague is not something we should give priority to now."

He accused the tribunal of "selective justice" because it had not indicted other Balkan leaders for their part in the wars, or the Nato leaders who ordered the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

"National dignity is one thing we cannot trade for a handful of dollars," he said, dismissing a US threat to oppose further aid to the country if it did not co-operate.

But the UN's top prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said: "There can be no compromise on this issue. That means we cannot agree to the statement coming from Belgrade to the effect that Mr Milosevic can never be turned over to The Hague."

Most of the power in Yugoslavia is in the hands of Mr Djindjic and his associates, not Mr Kostunica. Cedomir Jovanovic, who negotiated Mr Milosevic's surrender and is a favourite of Mr Djindjic's, said yesterday: "We are obliged to extradite indictees to The Hague".

Mr Jovanovic said yesterday that Mr Milsoevic had pointed a gun at his own head during the long hours of negotiations before his arrest, saying: "A sentence has already been pronounced against me."

Mr Jovanovic said the terms of the deal under which Mr Milosevic surrendered were that he would not be flown immediately to The Hague, that his wife and daughter would be allowed to stay in an official residence, and that his property would not be destroyed.

He said the federal army obstructed police in their first attempt to arrest Mr Milosevic last Friday. Mr Jovanovic did not exclude the possibility of changes in the general staff ­ a clear attack on the chief of staff, Nebojsa Pavkovic, whom Mr Jovanovic has been trying to undermine since October.

Milan Milutinovic, indicted by The Hague for his role as President of Serbia during the Kosovo war, resigned as the deputy leader of Mr Milosevic's party yesterday.

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