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Milosevic's Extradition Splits Government: Analysis
The extradition of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to a UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague Thursday has further divided the federal government and triggered massive protests in Belgrade.
President Vojislav Kostunica was quoted as saying later Thursday that the handover was "illegal." Spokesman of the presidential office said they were not consulted over the extradition and learned about it only through the media.
Momir Bulatovic, president of the Socialist People's Party (SNP) of Montenegro, a major partner in the ruling coalition, announced that Prime Minister Zoran Zizic and six ministers, all from the SNP, would quit the federal government.
Zvadin Jovanocich, SNP vice president, told the media that the Serbian government's decision to hand over Milosevic in defiance of the federal Constitutional Court's ruling amounted to a coup.
Meanwhile, thousands of Milosevic's supporters gathered at the Republic Square in central Belgrade in protest of the extradition. The angry demonstrators chanted "Betrayal" and "Uprising."
Milosevic was reportedly brought to Belgrade airport from the city's central prison Thursday afternoon. He was taken early Friday to a prison in The Hague hours after he was handed over to the U.N. tribunal, a tribunal source said.
Milosevic's handover came just hours after judges of the Constitutional Court indefinitely suspended a government decree that allows his extradition to The Hague tribunal, ruling that the Court needed more time to consider the government decree.
Kostunica stressed earlier that the government decree should not take effect until the Constitutional Court gives its ruling, and that the government must go about its cooperation with The Hague tribunal within the framework of law.
However, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindijic told a press conference Thursday night that the his government had decided to take over the jurisdiction of federal authorities in accordance with the Serbian constitution.
He said the judges of the Constitutional Court had no right to rule whether the government decree as unconstitutional, slamming them for cheating in elections and bringing the country to near collapse.
He said the decree had resulted in the participation of Western countries in the donor conference scheduled for Friday in Brussels, arguing that failure to cooperate with The Hague tribunal would leave Yugoslavia in the cold at the conference.
The Constitutional Court's decision to suspend indefinitely the extradition would ruin the future of Serbia, he added.
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