Subject: NPWJ Statement on Kosovo and Indicting Milosevic

Just a little follow-up on No Peace without Justice's report on its findings

on Kosovo and the need to indict Milosevic now before any deals are made in

the peace negotiations for his immunity (provided that has not already been

done.)

Rights group sees loophole on Kosovo war crimes

By Tom Heneghan

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Human rights campaigners suggested on

Thursday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could use a loophole in a

Kosovo peace deal to avoid responsibility for alleged war crimes committed

there.

The No Peace Without Justice group presented a report alleging Milosevic was

directly responsible for a pattern of serious rights violations by Yugoslav

and Serbian forces in the conflict in the majority ethnic Albanian province.

But Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, who drew up the report, told reporters that

Belgrade leaders could use a clause on immunity for rebels as a shield against

possible prosecution by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The peace deal, which the big power Contact Group says must be completed by

Saturday, should not ``confuse immunity with impunity,'' he said.

``The concession to grant immunity for taking up arms against the Serbs may be

exploited by those who have massacred civilians to get away with it,'' said

Figa-Talamanca, a former official of the war crimes tribunal.

Sources close to the Kosovo Albanians said the latest draft of the deal

dropped all references to war crimes or crimes against humanity, asking only

in general terms for all parties to cooperate with the tribunal in The Hague.

Serbian sources say Milosevic wants an undertaking that he will not be

indicted as a suspected war criminal.

Diplomats say the West could not guarantee him immunity but some speculate

Western powers might privately make clear they would not offer prosecutors

evidence against Milosevic.

Earlier drafts of the peace deal said no one should be prosecuted for crimes

related to the conflict in Kosovo ``except for those who have conmitted war

crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international

humanitarian law.''

``That has now all gone down the drain,'' said the source close to the ethnic

Albanians, who also wanted the deal to assure visa-free access to Kosovo for

tribunal investigators.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor Louise Arbour was turned away at the border

when she tried to enter Kosovo last month to investigate a mass killing in the

village of Recak.

Since her staff could not enter Kosovo, six former officials of the war crimes

tribunal travelled there on a private basis to draw up the report, Figa-

Talamanca said.

The report, which was presented to the European Union's mediator at the peace

talks, Wolfgang Petritsch, details what it called terror attacks against

ethnic Albanian civilians.

``The report establishes the individual criminal responsibility of Presdient

Slobodan Milosevic for the planning and conduct of the campaign by the Serb

Ministry of Interior forces and the Federal Army and for the serious

violations of international humanitarian law committed in Kosovo during

1998,'' No Peace Without Justice said in a statement.

``Any agreement reached in Rambouillet will not serve the purposes of peace

and reconciliations without strong provisions concerning the access of the

Prosecutor of the International Tribunal to Kosovo and the obligation of the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to provide her with full cooperation,'' it

said.