Milosevic Arrives in the Hague PrisonThe former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was taken early Friday to a prison in the Hague hours after he was handed over to the U.N. war crimes court to face alleged charges against him.A tribunal source in the Hague confirmed Milosevic was taken to the detention unit by a police helicopter at 1:20 am (2320 GMT Thursday). The Serbian government announced the hand-over despite days of protests against the decision. Yugoslavia has been under tremendous pressure from the West, particularly the United States, to agree to hand over Milosevic to the tribunal before an international donors' conference scheduled for Friday in Brussels. Reactions to the hand-over were mixed. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica described the hand-over as "illegal" and the Socialist People's Party in Montenegro condemned it as a "direct violation of the Constitution." Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush and some other Western leaders welcomed the hand-over. |
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