Milosevic Handed Over to War Crimes Tribunal

Analysis

The Serbian government extradited former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague on June 28. Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica was not consulted on the decision.

The extradition of Milosevic has exposed deep, perhaps
unbridgeable, cracks between Serbia and the Yugoslavia
federation, between Serbia and federation partner Montenegro, and
between Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Kostunica.

There are multiple indications that Djindjic sidelined Kostunica

in the decision to extradite Milosevic. The Yugoslav president
promised the Serbian Socialist Party on June 28 - just before the
extradition - that there would be no cooperation with The Hague
until the Constitutional Court had ruled on the legality of the
extradition decree.

According to Belgrade's Radio B92, Kostunica was not even invited
to the meeting in which Serb officials decided to surrender
Milosevic. Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac went so far as to
tell the BBC that Kostunica and his party were "quite isolated."
As of 10:25 p.m. Belgrade time - more than six hours after
Milosevic was extradited - the Serbian government had yet to
officially notify Kostunica of the move, according to Reuters,
which cited a source in the president's office.

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