The New York Times

Friday, May 28, 1999

BELGRADE

Serbs Dismiss Indictment as Just Another Enemy Tactic

By STEVEN ERLANGER

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The Yugoslav Government scornfully dismissed the indictment Thursday of President Slobodan Milosevic and four other top leaders on war crimes charges in Kosovo and repeated its desire to solve the conflict through negotiation.

Goran Matic, a Yugoslav Minister Without Portfolio, called the indictment a political event directed by Washington and designed to step up pressure on the Belgrade Government to agree to a less favorable deal over Kosovo. He said the tribunal had no standing to indict the officials because his country was not engaged in war, but in an internal police action.

He also said that Belgrade was concentrating on the visit planned for Friday by the Russian peace envoy, Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, who will be bringing a more detailed draft of a possible settlement to end the war. In an interview, Matic said he hoped that NATO remained serious about negotiating a deal.

Matic accused Washington officials of using the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague to go after those who disagreed with them. "The Hague tribunal belongs to the sort of inquisition used by the U. S. to annul sovereignty and legal order in other countries which they dislike," he said at an earlier news conference.

"If they cannot kill them when they hit their residences, they can ask for their exclusion from the international community in the countries which they control via NATO," he said. He was referring to a NATO missile that hit Milosevic's bedroom last month, two nights after he had last slept there.

Milosevic himself made no comment on the indictment, nor would he, said senior Yugoslav officials. He met the former Greek Prime Minister, Constantine Mitsotakis, who said Milosevic seemed unruffled by the indictment.

"It appeared that he did not care," Mitsotakis said. "I believe that this decision will strengthen his position in the same way that the NATO bombings did."

In an official statement issued by the state news agency, Tanjug, the indictment was called "just another way of stopping diplomatic attempts to solve the crisis through peaceful political negotiations."

Describing the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour, as "a puppet in the hands of the masters of war," the statement called the indictment "another attempt to mislead the world community in order to conceal who is really responsible for the genocide against the Yugoslav people."

Milosevic told Tanjug that Yugoslavia wanted peace, "which means an early solution of problems should be transferred from the military to the political sphere."

And Mitsotakis insisted that "the Yugoslav leadership is ready to take a constructive approach to the proposals of NATO and the international community that are going to be presented" by Chernomyrdin.

"There are still problems, but the Yugoslav leadership is ready to contribute for their solution," he said. "NATO must contribute as well."

There were few details available here of what proposals Chernomyrdin might be bringing as a result of his discussions in Russia with the Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, who flew on to Bonn with the Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari.

But the makeup of an international force to police a Kosovo settlement is a key issue, and Chernomyrdin is said to be concentrating on non-American troops, like German and Italian ones, as the core of a NATO contingent.

The official state radio and television led their broadcasts with the Mitsotakis visit, showing Milosevic appearing confident and healthy.

The indictment was given broad coverage, though the concentration was on Russian, Greek, Chinese and other criticism of its validity and timing. There was also a series of interviews with ordinary, unnamed Serbs on the street, who generally said that the indictment would backfire against NATO, that Milosevic represented the country and that he should pay no attention to what the "aggressors" did.

Later Thursday evening, NATO strikes again took out electricity in Belgrade, another attack on essentially civilian services that most people here regard as a cruel and inhumane form of collective punishment.

Even Serbia's democratic opposition parties were critical Thursday of the timing of the indictment, suggesting that it put Milosevic into a corner and would reduce his willingness to make a serious compromise for peace.

The spokesman for the Democratic Party, Slobodan Vuksanovic, called the indictment "a disaster for democrats and for the nation in general."

"It seems to be a signal sent by the international community and NATO that they don't want to stop the attacks," he said.

Vuksanovic said: "There was hope yesterday. Today there is not. We think the accusation from The Hague comes at the wrong moment."

His party is led by Zoran Djindjic, who has fled to Serbia's sister republic, Montenegro, where he said the most important priority was to end the war.

Asked Thursday if any Serb believed that Ms. Arbour and the international tribunal were acting independently of NATO and Washington, Matic, the Yugoslav minister, said: "Maybe Zoran Djindjic. Maybe."

The president of the Serbian Civic Alliance of opposition parties, Goran Svilanovic, accurately predicted that the state-run news media would portray the indictment as an attack on the Serbian people, not on Milosevic and the Government, and said it would further strengthen the President's hold on power.

Aleksa Djilas, a historian, said it would be better for all concerned if Milosevic "dies a peaceful death in his bed."

If NATO kills him "or puts him on trial in The Hague, he will be a martyr and a hero to most Serbs," Djilas said. "And he will then in this way rule Serbia from his grave or from his prison cell."

One Serbian analyst who requested anonymity saw the indictment as an invitation to a coup against Milosevic, but then pointed out that anyone in a position to mount such a coup had also been indicted Thursday.

In general, ordinary Serbs regard the actions of their security forces in Kosovo as a war against the insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army, which is fighting to separate the Serbian province and make it independent. They consider the expulsion or flight of ethnic Albanians to be a regrettable aspect of that war against a popular, village-based insurgency. And they consider a large part of the charges by NATO and the tribunal to be unproved or propaganda.

Ivica Dacic, the spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party, said that Serbs and Milosevic were simply defending their country against outside aggression.

"This is a precedent in world history," he said, "when someone defending his country is accused of war crimes."

Dacic called the indictments "just a show directed by NATO criminals who are trying to throw dust into the eyes of their publics and the world in order to hide their own crimes."

But Belgrade's position on a settlement remains the same, he said.

"We support the continuation of the political process, with the aim to find a peaceful solution through diplomatic means on the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia, and equal status for all national communities in Kosovo."