lennart
31-03-04, 18:21
US set to freeze aid package to Serbia | 10:23 -> 10:36 | B92
WASHINGTON/BELGRADE -- Wednesday – The US looks set today to freeze an annual aid package to Serbia worth 100 million dollars for failing to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to make his recommendation to Congress a day after the Serbian parliament voted to provide Serb war crimes indictees, including Slobodan Milosevic, with state aid for them and their families.
Belgrade has met the criteria for aid for the past three years. But new Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has adopted a tough stance on the UN court since he formed a minority government supported in parliament by Milosevic’s Socialist Party of Serbia.
Kostunica has demanded that all Serb indictees be tried before Serbian courts.
Marc Grossman, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, indicated yesterday that a negative assessment was likely. “If he decides certification is not possible, it does not close the possibility that certification will be possible some time in the future,” he said in Belgrade.
For the first time, among the conditions is the arrest and extradition of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who UN prosecutors say is in Serbia.
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said yesterday he expected Powell to delay a decision to release the aid.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?order=priority
NAVO bereidt een aanval voor op de olievoorraad van Rusland.
WASHINGTON/BELGRADE -- Wednesday – The US looks set today to freeze an annual aid package to Serbia worth 100 million dollars for failing to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to make his recommendation to Congress a day after the Serbian parliament voted to provide Serb war crimes indictees, including Slobodan Milosevic, with state aid for them and their families.
Belgrade has met the criteria for aid for the past three years. But new Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has adopted a tough stance on the UN court since he formed a minority government supported in parliament by Milosevic’s Socialist Party of Serbia.
Kostunica has demanded that all Serb indictees be tried before Serbian courts.
Marc Grossman, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, indicated yesterday that a negative assessment was likely. “If he decides certification is not possible, it does not close the possibility that certification will be possible some time in the future,” he said in Belgrade.
For the first time, among the conditions is the arrest and extradition of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who UN prosecutors say is in Serbia.
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said yesterday he expected Powell to delay a decision to release the aid.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?order=priority
NAVO bereidt een aanval voor op de olievoorraad van Rusland.