Kostunica promises cooperation over Milosevic
New Yugoslavia President Vojislav Kostunica today promised ‘‘step by step’’ cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
But he refused to tell reporters whether that would eventually include extraditing former President Slobodan Milosevic for trial.
Kostunica gave the hint as he left the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
He has previously refused to hand over Milosevic to the tribunal in The Hague.
‘‘Our willingness to cooperate, it exists,’’ Kostunica said. ‘‘We are going to go step by step,’’ pointing to the recent visit of the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, and the opening of a tribunal office in Belgrade.
‘‘But nowhere is it written that cooperation should be reduced to the extradition of any one person,’’ he insisted .
Kostunica was making the first appearance by a Yugoslav leader at the forum.
yesterday, he asked other leaders in the region for a ‘‘democratic dialogue’’ aimed at healing the wounds of a decade of turmoil.
