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Serbia's premier designate promises to prosecute Milosevic

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December 26, 2000 

BELGRADE--(UNB/AP) - With official returns confirming a sweeping election victory of Serbian pro-democracy forces Monday, the new premier-designate said former leader Slobodan Milosevic will face prosecution for years of crime and corruption.

Zoran Djindjic said Milosevic will have to answer for what he has done to his country. Djindjic is slated to become prime minister after his Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition won a two-thirds majority in the dominant Yugoslav republic's parliament.

"He will first have to answer in Serbia for all the terrible things he has done - starting from corruption, crime, election fraud and ordering murders," Djindjic told reporters.

He said Milosevic could be arrested, depending on the outcome of an investigation that could start within the next few weeks.

Asked if Milosevic should be sent to The Hague tribunal, which has indicted him for war crimes in Kosovo and has been demanding his extradition, Djindjic said: "Milosevic shouldn't be made a victim because he is not a victim, he is a criminal."

Victory by the pro-democracy forces in Saturday's election has effectively removed the last vestiges of the former president's power structure. Milosevic was forced to concede defeat in the Sept. 24 presidential elections after Yugoslavs took to the streets in protest in October.

The change of administration in Serbia, which, along with much smaller Montenegro forms Yugoslavia, leaves the former leader more vulnerable to prosecution for misrule during his 13 years in power.

With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted, the coalition led by new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica had secured 176 seats in the 250-member legislature.

Milosevic's Socialists were a distant second with 37 seats. Two other parties made it into the assembly: the ultranationalist Radical Party, with 23 seats, and the hard-line Serbian Unity Party, with 14.

Final results were expected later Monday at the earliest, but no major shifts are expected.

Djindjic said that the new Serbian government, the first noncommunist government since 1945, will be in place by Jan. 15.

He has pledged quick and radical economic reforms, as well as reforms in the police force, where Milosevic's allies, such as his secret police chief Rade Markovic, are believed to still be in control.

"We will absolutely demand Markovic's removal," Djindjic said. "I think he has already packed up and left his office."

The new government and Djindjic - considered the power behind the democratic movement that ousted Milosevic - face a series of economic and social problems left behind by the former autocrat.

Serbs are facing power blackouts of up to 12 hours as the deteriorating power grid system fails to meet winter demands. The power cuts triggered skirmishes by angry citizens in Serbia's third-largest city of Nis on Monday.

Djindjic and the new Yugoslav pro-democracy government must also solve the status of the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo - currently under control of the United Nations and NATO peacekeepers - as well as an open rebellion by ethnic Albanians on the Serbian side of the Kosovo border.

Also, Serbia's sister republic of Montenegro has been demanding radical reshaping of the Yugoslav federation. Montenegro's president Milo Djukanovic wants independence for his smaller republic if Serbia and Montenegro are not proclaimed two independent states linked as a loose confederation.

Djukanovic was scheduled to arrive in Belgrade on Monday for a session of the Supreme Defense Council - a body comprising top Yugoslav leaders and military commanders. The body is expected to sack some prominent pro-Milosevic generals who have, in the past, threatened Montenegro.