Milosevic surrenders ending standoff

BELGRADE, APRIL 1. The former Yugoslav President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, gave himself up to police today, ending a 24-hour armed standoff with security forces.

The sudden surrender early in the day came after a tense night of negotiations as Mr. Milosevic and his entourage, which police said included up to 50 heavily armed supporters, became increasingly erratic.

``He was in a pretty bad mental state,'' Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Zarko Korac, told BBC television. ``He was unbalanced, threatening and showing his gun, saying he will kill himself and his family.'' But, true to the brinkmanship that marked his political career, Mr. Milosevic left his surrender to the last minute, after his supporters had thwarted one special police bid to grab him and another assault was being prepared.

As he was taken to a waiting convoy of vehicles from his up- market Belgrade residence, shots were heard from inside as his distraught daughter, Ms. Marija, began firing wildly about her. Five shots were heard just before five vehicles, parked by the wall surrounding the residence sped off.

Mr. Milosevic will be grilled by an investigative judge on charges of abuse of power and financial misdealings, officials said. At the first hearing, the judge would decide whether Mr. Milosevic should remain in custody. If so, the judge could order a month-long detention, which could later be extended for up to six months.

But Mr. Milosevic could also be freed pending his trial. His lawyer, Mr. Toma Fila, said the former President was being held in Belgrade's central investigative prison, awaiting the hearing.

Mr. Milosevic was indicted in May 1999 by a U.N. tribunal for war crimes allegedly committed in Kosovo, but he was arrested on the lesser charges of financial misdealings and abuse of power.

Asked how Mr. Milosevic had accepted it, the Serbian Interior Minister, Mr. Dusan Mihajlovic, said, ``common sense has prevailed.'' ``We have witnessed very dramatic events, from claims that the police would not be able to take him alive, to others that he would kill his daughter and wife before killing himself. But may be when these things were cleared up and when more reasonable members of his party helped him to understand the reality of the situation he was in. He became aware that resistance was nonsensical.''

The British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robin Cook, was first to comment on the arrest, saying: ``This is very welcome news to all those who have struggled so long to bring peace and justice to the Balkans.'' The French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, was ``delighted'' with the news, his spokeswoman said. In Washington, the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, welcomed Mr. Milosevic being taken into custody and urged that he be tried for ``crimes against humanity''.

Mr. Bush urged Yugoslavia to work with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, but made no statement on whether he would step up pressure for a trial through the tribunal by cutting off aid to Yugoslavia.

- Reuters

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