BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serb officials started proceedings Thursday to extradite four Serb generals to face charges at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the Balkans. The move - a reversal of previous refusals to hand over the generals - came after Sunday's election of pro-Western reformer Boris Tadic as president of Serbia and suggestions that Belgrade might be ready to work with the court. The international community has set cooperation with the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, as a key condition for financial and political aid from abroad.
The Foreign Ministry handed the indictments against the four to a district court in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, the dominant partner in the Serbia-Montenegro union that replaced Yugoslavia, officials suggested they may be ready to extradite the four. The court is expected to subpoena the men for a hearing to hear their indictments. The four army and police generals were charged last year by the U.N. tribunal for atrocities committed by Serb troops in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war. "We have fulfilled our responsibility to hand over the indictments," said Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic. |