End game in sight for Milosevic
Britain's Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the "end game" is in sight for former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Security forces in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade are set to make a second attempt to arrest the man who led Serbia into conflict with Nato. According to local reports, Milosevic has vowed "not to be taken alive".
Mr Cook said that while Milosevic may only be charged with corruption and fraud offences over his time in office, it could only bring him closer to standing trial for war crimes in The Hague, Holland.
"Whatever the actual hour-by-hour blow is in relation to events in Belgrade, this is plainly the end game for Milosevic," Mr Cook said.
"He has got very, very few people turning up to demonstrate support for him this morning. Hopefully, we are now approaching that moment when he will actually be under arrest and standing trial."
Mr Cook admitted that the Serbian government, which came to power following a popular uprising against Milosevic, had given no assurances that the former leader would be extradited.
But he said that once the Serbian people heard about his record of corruption in office, there would be no desire to protect him from war crimes charges.
"I don't have a problem with them charging him with fraud and corruption against the Serbian people," Mr Cook said. "Having charged him, they then must transfer him to the Hague because it is only in the Hague that he can be tried for war crimes."
Mr Cook said popular opposition to extraditing Milosevic would evaporate once Serbs learned the extent to which he had lined his own pockets while leading the country to poverty and war.
He said Serbian ministers fully understood what they must do now. "We and the other countries of the international community are not going to let up until that happens."
