Police Investigate Milosevic's link With Truckload of Bodies

Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic Wednesday confirmed that a refrigerator truck with 86 bodies inside was found in the Danube River on April 6, 1999.

The confirmation came in response to criticism that the Serbian authorities are making new allegations to facilitate the extradition of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague tribunal for trial.

Addressing parliament Wednesday, Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj charged the Interior Ministry for "fabricating the truck case" to facilitate Milosevic's hand-over.

Mihajlovic assured the public that they would soon get to know more details. "The public will soon be informed... what happened with the refrigerator truck, where it came from, where the bodies came from, what happened with them later," he added.

The Serbian police were probing into Milosevic's possible connection to the truck that was dumped into the Danube River with bodies inside, allegedly to be those of ethnic Albanian victims of the war in Kosovo. Reports said Milosevic ordered evidence of Kosovo war crimes be destroyed.

The Yugoslav government has started working on a draft law to make possible the extradition of war crimes suspects to the United Nations court at the Hague. Milosevic's alleged attempts to cover up war crimes seemed timed to increase his chances of being handed over.

In a statement, the Serbian Socialist Party led by Milosevic said the new accusations were aimed at "trying to justify the totally unacceptable act on opening the way for possible extraditions."






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