U.S. to Contribute to Yugoslav Fund

The United States said Wednesday that it will make a large pledge at a donors conference Friday to help rebuild Yugoslavia but that payment will depend on Belgrade’s further cooperation with a U.N. war crimes court.

State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker, announcing the decision, declined to say how much Washington will give toward the $1.2 billion hoped for by Belgrade, but a source in Congress said the figure now being discussed is $106.6 million.

Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, speaking in Brussels, said “the American participation guarantees the full success of the conference and is a boost for Yugoslavia’s reformist and democratic forces.”

The United States had delayed announcing its attendance--seen as crucial to the Brussels event’s success--as a means of putting pressure on Belgrade to transfer war crimes suspects, including former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, for trial in The Hague.

Legal moves in Belgrade that appeared to hasten Milosevic’s transfer helped prompt Washington’s decision to attend the event, which is being organized by the European Union and the World Bank.

Reeker said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell decided Tuesday evening to attend the donors conference after receiving reassurances from Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in a telephone call.

The decision followed “Belgrade’s commitment to transfer indicted war criminals to The Hague and fulfill all legal obligations to the tribunal,” Reeker said.

He said the U.S. pledge will be announced at the conference and that discussions were continuing with Congress on the total amount.

But an aide to Patrick J. Leahy, the Democratic senator from Vermont who has taken a close interest in the issue, told the Reuters news service that the figure for this year would be $106.6 million. All but $28.6 million of that has already been approved by Congress and is in the pipeline for Yugoslavia.

The aide, Tim Rieser, said $65 million of that will be for Serbia, $33 million for its junior partner in the Yugoslav federation, Montenegro, and the rest for refugee assistance.

The tribunal in The Hague seeks to prosecute Milosevic for “ethnic cleansing” crimes committed against ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.