Milosevic-Era Military Chief Retains Job
The man who was Yugoslavia’s top general under Slobodan Milosevic--and rumored to be on a list of U.N. war crimes suspects--retained his job as head of the armed forces Wednesday despite expectations that he would be fired.
The Supreme Defense Council failed to reach a ruling on Nebojsa Pavkovic, the general under Milosevic when the former president ordered a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has demanded Pavkovic’s removal.
But Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica maintains that Pavkovic deserves credit for refusing alleged orders to move against pro-democracy demonstrators whose massive street protests led to Milosevic’s ouster in October 2000.
Djindjic was quoted Wednesday as saying that most, if not all, Serbian war crimes suspects indicted by the U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands will face trial next year.
Djindjic told the Beta news agency that more than a dozen war crimes suspects who live in Serbia and have ignored international arrest warrants stood in the way of the political and economic recovery of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s main republic.
Pavkovic has said he is ready to answer to the tribunal if ordered to do so by the Yugoslav leadership.
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