Reactions to Milosevic's Extradition

No One is Surprised

AIM Sarajevo, June 29, 2001

The former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and one of the main culprits for the war and destruction in the former federation, Slobodan Milosevic, spent the night between June 28 and June 29 in a cell at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. "Tonight many Bosnians will have much more peaceful dreams, although I am not sure that the 10 life sentences I am certain he will get will help Bosnia much," said a Sarajevo journalist upon hearing that Milosevic had been handed over to U.N. forces. His colleague added that by extraditing Milosevic Serbia, albeit the last country to do so, had finally entered the third millennium. "It was neither poison nor a priest that finally did him in, but St. Vitus Day," commented a Sarajevo taxi driver, alluding to local newspaper reports according to which Milosevic was getting ready to commit suicide and publicly asked to see a priest and secretly asked his wife, Mira Markovic, to provide him with poison.

Almost all TV stations gave prominent coverage to Milosevic's journey from Belgrade via Tuzla to The Hague. Some stations featured live coverage of the Hague, and there were even those, such as NTV Studio 99, who completely changed their programming by opening its telephone lines to everybody who wanted to say something on the occasion. In general, everyone was pleased, but ordinary people had mixed feelings, worrying about the situation in Belgrade and the possibility of riots and demonstrations... "This was certainly a very hard decision for the Serbian government, 12 years after Milosevic's famous speech in Kosovo, which, according to many was a prelude to Yugoslavia's disintegration," said international community High Representative in Bosnia Wolfgang Petritsch. He believes that Milosevic's appearance in The Hague "is of crucial importance for the future development of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina... Justice has to be done. Only through such a process can the true facts be established and individual culprits identified," Petritsch said, expressing the hope that Karadzic and Mladic will also find themselves in The Hague soon.

"This extradition will restore people's trust in justice and international organizations. This should have happened sooner... I am certainly in favor of having all those who committed war crimes, regardless of their ethnic background, tried for their misdeeds in The Hague," said a member of the Bosnian Presidency, Beriz Belkic, late on June 28, adding that he hopes Milosevic will soon be joined by Karadzic and Mladic. The vice president of the Bosnian Parliament House of Peoples, Sejfudin Tokic, said Milosevic's extradition was "a final indicator that nationalist forces have no future in this part of Europe." According to him, it is also "a sign that the policies of the Serb Democratic Party and similar organizations have no future, and it is a great satisfaction for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because Milosevic's policies has caused great suffering and destruction."

"This is a major step in burying the projects of creating big and ethnically pure states, the concept Milosevic created and was a major player in," said Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija, adding that this act should restore the trust in justice of millions of people in the region who suffered because of Slobodan Milosevic's anti-civilizational ideas and projects. He added, "Justice should not stop at the extradition of one of the persons most responsible for the Balkan bloodshed. All those who conspired with him to commit their crimes should also face justice," Lagumdzija said. The Bosnian human rights minister and a former member of the Bosnian Presidency, Kresimir Zubak, said Milosevic's extradition "is long overdue and extremely encouraging news." "The extradition of Slobodan Milosevic will speed up the normalization of relations in the Balkans, because it all started under his patronage, and, unfortunately, took the worst possible course."

The heads of the Muslim-Croat Federation, Karlo Filipovic and Safet Halilovic, hailed the decision of the Serbian government. "I view this change of attitude on the part of the Serbian government in regard to the Hague tribunal as significant. The person most responsible for the crimes in ex-Yugoslavia will finally end up where he belongs. I hope this will influence the government in Republika Srpska to change its stance towards the Hague court, and that Karadzic and Mladic will also be sent there," said Filipovic, whereas Halilovic stressed that the Milosevic trial will be interesting. "It could reveal a series of unknown details related to the horrible suffering of the region. It is most important that the trial of Milosevic individualize the responsibility for crimes and that the blaming of entire nation be stopped," said Halilovic.

The first reactions from the Serb entity, Republika Srpska, were rather shy. A member of the Bosnian Presidency, Zivko Radisic, initially is said to have refused to comment on the Milosevic extradition, and then said it was a prelude to the dissolution of the present day Yugoslavia, and that "the same criteria should be applied to all, regardless of their ethnic background." While CNN was constantly rerunning shots of Milosevic being handed over, RS President Mirko Sarovic (vice president of the Serb Democratic Party, Milosevic's chief ally and force in Bosnia-Herzegovina) said the extradition was Serbia's "internal matter," stressing that by extraditing the former president Serbia and the FRY have not resolved all their problems and will face new challenges: "While searching for a legal framework for extraditing Milosevic to the international tribunal, which it failed to find, the Serbian government resorted to a solution for cooperation with the ICTY and assumed responsibility for all possible consequences." RS Premier Mladen Ivanic only said that "the entire case will probably turn into a political analysis of all that happened in the former Yugoslavia," and that it will "lead RS into a new position." He recalled that now all the neighboring countries have agreed to fully cooperate with the U.N. court and that the RS leadership will be under strong pressure to follow suit.

As opposed to officials, ordinary citizens in Serb Sarajevo interviewed by AIM did not avoid speaking their mind. A physician, 56, said on condition of anonymity: "It's nothing special; it should have happened much sooner, because it was all a terrible misfortune. I spent the enitre war in Sarajevo and I know how terrible it was." Dragan, 30, a street peddler, said: "I think things will start moving forward, but it should not end there. All those responsible for the decade of crisis in the Balkans should face justice. Milosevic is not the only one to blame. As in love, you need more than one person for war." Aleksandar, 35, a car mechanic, said: "As far as I am concerned, his people should have tried him, because his people suffered the most." Dijana Krajisnik, a salesperson, said she has "no comment."

Several hundred meters away, in the part of Sarajevo controlled by the Muslim-Croat federation, Almedin Kosic, a worker, said: "For me, a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina, this is the right thing." Nedzad Alihodzic, unemployed, said "there is no punishment to fit the crimes of Milosevic and his likes." Erol Siljak, an economist, believes it is proper that his people arrested him in Belgrade and handed him over to the Hague court: "Now everything is as it should be." Nermin Puskar, the frontman of the Knock Out group, said: "It's great that he was arrested; I hope this is a turning point. I hope major changes will follow in the entire former Yugoslavia and that all the bad things happening here will end."

AIM reporters also interviewed Fahrudin Avdic, an assistant professor at the School of Political Sciences, who said: "The extradition has restored my faith in the international community; I had already begun to doubt the mechanism for the apprehension of war crimes suspects anywhere in the world. Now I can trust the international community once more. The court should proceed without bias, regardless of who is on trial. I am not overwhelmed by joy or anything like that. I view this arrest as any other, in any other historical period. It is a logical outcome of an autocratic rule. What I am interested in is whether I will live to see the end of autocratic policies once and for all." University student Jasmin Hobota has "no opinion on Slobodan Milosevic, because he does not deserve to be thought about," and Fahrija Sisic, a housewife, and Sulejman Mesic, a pensioner, like many other Sarajevans, say it ought to have happened sooner.

Within 12 hours of the Milosevic extradition, the first reactions of political parties started coming in. Party of Democratic Action spokesman Sefik Dzaferovic said "Slobodan Milosevic is, beyond doubt, a person who has committed war crimes and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, and should be punished for that." He added that his party would be delighted to see Karadzic and Mladic brought to justice as well. Party president and former Presidency member Alija Izetbegovic said the extradition marks the beginning of determining individual responsibility for war crimes, and of removing colective responsibility from the Serbs. "I believe the situation is gradually being clarified, and that it will take a positive course," he said. The Croatian Peasant Party said international community pressure pays off when it is strong and when it exists: "Unfortunately, the results of this pressure are belated, but they have still put the chief criminal where he belongs to... The international community should have demonstrated this resolve earlier, on Karadzic and Mladic, and all war crimes susppects still roaming free throughout former Yugoslavia." Bosnia-Herzegovina Liberal Party president Rasim Kadic believes Bosnia will finally get war reparations, Stjepan Kljujic, of the Republican Party, believes that there is no adequate punishment for the evil Milosevic did, adding that now "the enitire region should feel relieved because soon we will live as in the Benelux countries." The president of the Serb Civic Council-Movement for Equality, Mirko Pejanovic, said the extradition "confirms justice is possible," and said that Milosevic's extradition to the international community "will contribute to building peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

The director of the Institute for Studying Genocide, Dr. Smail Cekic, said: "We welcome the extradition. Our research so far has confirmed the responsibility of his regime. The criminal is in The Hague, but his policies survive because they were not defeated militarily. There are many in Serbia, Montenegro, and Republika Srpska who franticly support the idea of forming a Greater Serbia. We in Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of war, are not satisfied -- and this is also my personal opinion -- with the Hague indictment, because it charges Milosevic only with crimes in Kosovo, and research confirms that he is the most responsible person for genocide in Bosnia- Herzegovina. We hope that the indictment will be expanded because we know that the ICTY has evidence of crimes in Bosnia. We hope that his collaborators, Karadzic and Mladic, will also be arrested, and that Milosevic, Karadzic, Mladic, Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic will all be tried together in The Hague."

Canton Culture and Sports Minister Gradimir Gojak whose name is frequently tied to spiritual resistance during the siege of Sarajevo, said: "The fact that from an inmate of Belgrade's Central Prison, Slobodan Milosevic has become a matter of interest of the Hague judges is itself an issue of great importance. The just outcome of the long drama surrounding the handing over of the most notorious inmate of the Hague prison will not satisfy us fully if at least a portion of the pain felt by the thousands of men and women who suffered at the hands of the 'Balkan butcher' is not soothed. The prison cells in The Hague should as soon as possible accommodate Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and their assistants and abators, because as long as they remain free in Bosnia, civil, ethnic, and, most of all, human rights will be endangered."

No one in Bosnia seems surprised by Milosevic's extradition a day before a donors' conference for Yugoslavia was to be held in Brussels. "They sold him for US$1.5 billion which is not that little," say the well-informed, and add: "How much will they get for Karadzic and Mladic?" In expectation of Milosevic's first appearance before the court, Bosnians are carefully listening to every statement made by ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, openly hoping the indictment will be expanded to include war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia. Namely, at this point the indictment charges Milosevic only with crimes committed in Kosovo, against ethnic Albanians. Milosevic is accused of exiling 740,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, the murder of 340 ethnic Albanians identified before May 24, 1999, and of the massacres in Racak, Bela Crkva, and Velika Krusa, all in the period starting with January, 1999. But at this point, crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina are mentioned nowhere. The data is quite convincing: between 1992 and the signing of the Dayton agreement, over 250,000 people were killed, more than 200,000 were wounded, and over 13,000 were permanently disabled. Of the 4 million inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the war, over 2,5 million were exiled and ethnically cleansed... It is believed that today in Bosnia-Herzegovina there are between 4-6 million unexploded land mines, and other consequences of war...

But it has started and it all happened on St. Vitus Day. Witnesses say Milosevic remained silent throughout the extradition procedure, and that in Tuzla, before entering the helicopter that was to take him to The Hague, he asked his companions only one question: "Don't you know that today is St. Vitus Day?"

Rubina Cengic

(AIM)