Milosevic Ally Shoots Himself in War Crimes Drama

12/04/2002| IslamWeb

Former Police Minister Fighting for his Life in Hospital; * Supporters Protest Outside Parliament; * Bosnian Serb Leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic Still at Large; __

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Former Serbian Interior Minister and accused war criminal Vlajko Stojiljkovic shot himself outside the Yugoslav parliament on Thursday, hours after it passed a law to send him and other suspects to a U.N. court.
He put a bullet through his temple, police said, and was fighting for his life in hospital after emergency surgery.
The former police minister had been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal along with his former boss Slobodan Milosevic for atrocities committed by Serb forces in Kosovo province in 1999.
He left a suicide note accusing reformist leaders, who ousted his former chess partner Milosevic as Yugoslav president in 2000, of selling him and other inductees to the Hague tribunal in return for Western cash.
Scores of angry protesters gathered to denounce the reformers. "Killers!" they shouted.
Parliament passed the law on cooperation with the tribunal only under pressure from the United States, which froze financial aid this month because of Belgrade's failure to hand over a significant number of suspects after Milosevic in June 2001.

POLICE BOSS

Stojiljkovic, born in 1937, was interior minister from April 1997 until October 2000. His ministry was in charge of the police units widely accused of atrocities in Kosovo.
The ex-minister was one of three Milosevic-era officials seen as prime candidates for transfer to The Hague after the law was passed. Reporters at the parliament saw him
U.N. deputy war crimes prosecutor Graham Blewitt said he was shocked by the news.
Government ministers have said handovers could take place within about two weeks after the legislation was approved.
The U.N.-run International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia is seeking a total of 33 fugitives, the vast majority of them believed to be in Yugoslavia or Bosnia's Serb Republic. The most wanted are Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both charged with genocide.