Sunday April 1 12:35 PM ET
World Leaders Hail Milosevic Arrest As 'First Step'

LONDON (Reuters) - International leaders Sunday hailed the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a key player in the Balkan wars which spawned Europe's worst violence since World War Two.

But many argued that the arrest should be the first step to trying Milosevic at the U.N. international tribunal at The Hague, which has charged him with crimes against humanity over atrocities committed in Kosovo in 1999.

U.S. President Bush called on Yugoslavia to work with the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal but did not say whether he would step up pressure for a trial by cutting aid to Belgrade.

``Milosevic's arrest should be a first step toward trying him for the crimes against humanity with which he is charged,'' Bush said in a written statement.

The former Yugoslav leader, who was forced to accept election defeat by a popular uprising last October, was arrested and taken to jail in the early hours of Sunday morning after a tense 36-hour stand-off. He was arrested on domestic charges of abuse of office.

NATO, Britain and Germany led the calls for a U.N. trial.

``Justice must be served,'' NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel told Reuters. ``We expect that the arrest of Mr. Milosevic will be the first step on the road leading eventually to The Hague to answer charges of war crimes.''

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said: ``The arrest is a very good first step, but the end of this road must be in The Hague.''

``The Yugoslav government's intention to start a criminal procedure against Milosevic initially under national law is a first step toward bringing him to account for the gravest offences and human rights abuses he is charged with,'' German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said.

Un Court Wants ``Immediate Commitment''

The U.N. tribunal urged Yugoslav authorities to transfer Milosevic to the international court by the end of the year.

``We are asking immediately for a commitment from the Yugoslav state to transfer him to The Hague,'' Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, told Reuters. ``They (Belgrade) have to respect the international arrest warrant against him.''

``I believe that within a few months, I would say in the course of this year, Milosevic should be transferred to The Hague,'' del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss radio published in an Italian daily Sunday.

Japan saw the arrest as a sign of Yugoslavia's greater cooperation with the tribunal.

``I strongly expect the Yugoslav government to enhance cooperation with the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal,'' Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono as saying.

The 15-member European Union voiced the hope that Milosevic the politician was now finished.

``(We hope) this marks the end of Slobodan Milosevic's political career, which has caused the region so much devastation and its people so much suffering,'' Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said on behalf of the bloc.

French President Jacques Chirac declared himself ''overjoyed'' by the news and said: ``The Yugoslav authorities have confirmed their faith in the path of democracy and law.''

On the streets of Belgrade, where Milosevic, 59, is now in jail, Serbs welcomed the arrest of their former leader.

``That man ruined 10 years of my life and it was high, high time,'' said student Vlada Stevanovic. ``I felt so happy and relieved, especially as he was seized without bloodshed.''

Ordinary People Welcome Arrest

Elsewhere in the region, ordinary people welcomed the arrest of the man widely reviled as ``The Butcher of the Balkans.''

``There is no justice that can satisfy a mother who has lost her child,'' said Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members when Bosnian Serbs murdered several thousand Muslims after the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica fell to their forces in 1995.

``But I am really happy that Milosevic has finally been arrested,'' she said.

The arrest came as a U.S.-imposed deadline expired on Saturday night for Yugoslavia to show it was cooperating with the war crimes tribunal and embracing democracy or risk losing vital financial support from Washington. State Department officials said their decision would be
revealed Monday.

Under Milosevic, Yugoslavia became an international pariah and felt the force of international anger.

In 1999, NATO waged 11 weeks of air strikes against Yugoslavia that persuaded Milosevic to scrap a brutal military crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and withdraw his security forces.

President Milan Kucan of Slovenia, which fought the Yugoslav army for independence in 1991, said Milosevic's arrest signaled new justice in Belgrade.

``The arrest is an announcement that a man who is among those who initiated long-term evil in the Balkans will have to take responsibility for his actions,'' said Kucan, leader of the first republic to break away from old socialist Yugoslavia.

In a written statement, the Albanian government said it was ''waiting for the Belgrade authorities to clearly charge Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal, and to hand him over to The Hague tribunal where he should be tried.''

``This is an important step of Belgrade's new authorities, for which they should be congratulated,'' the statement said.

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