Milosevic indictment takes in more Kosovo crimes
The chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal said today the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic has been amended and enlarged to include more crimes and more victims of the Kosovo conflict in 1999.
Carla Del Ponte said she was also preparing more indictments against the former Yugoslav president for alleged crimes in Bosnia and Croatia during the rebellions in those former republics in 1992-95.
Del Ponte urged Yugoslav authorities to pursue and arrest more indicted suspects still at large, and said it was ‘‘scandalous’’ that the top leaders of the Bosnian Serbs had not been caught six years after they were indicted.
Milosevic’s transfer arrest and surrender to The Hague showed that ‘‘nobody is above the law,’’ said the Swiss prosecutor.
It was essential to demonstrate that ‘‘the victims will not be forgotten and their stories will be told,’’ she told a news conference 16 hours after Milosevic was transferred to the tribunal’s detention unit.
Del Ponte gave no details about the amendment to the indictment that was issued in May 1999 against Milosevic on charges of persecuting ethnic Albanians in Kosovo earlier that year. But she said newly discovered evidence of an attempt to cover up alleged crimes was not included.
She hailed the decision yesterday by the Serbian government to yield their prisoner to The Hague as ‘‘a turning point’’ for international justice that would give fresh vigour to ‘‘the task of arresting those fugitives who are still at liberty’’.
