U.S. Aid Hinges on Cooperation, Yugoslavia Told

President Bush warned new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Wednesday that U.S. aid to help rebuild his strife-torn Balkan nation will depend on its cooperation with an international war crimes tribunal, especially by handing over former President Slobodan Milosevic.

Washington has been pressing Yugoslavia for a date by which Milosevic, whose long and brutal rule ended seven months ago, will be extradited to The Hague for trial on war crimes charges.

In talks heralded by both sides as historic, Kostunica promised that his government will introduce and pass a law by the end of May on extradition and cooperation with the court.

The law would establish a legal framework to determine the fate of Milosevic and other former officials indicted on charges related to his regime’s campaigns to suppress ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Kostunica later told reporters.

Although he refused to provide a date, Kostunica said his government is looking for ways to cooperate. “All of the problems will be settled, including the one that you mention,” he said in reference to Milosevic’s extradition.

After talks in the afternoon with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Kostunica said that “nothing is easy” in Yugoslavia’s current situation. However, he noted that cooperation is “something that is necessary, being a member of the United Nations and behaving as a good member of the international community.”

Yugoslavia initially balked at turning over Milosevic, who stepped down in October after a popular revolt demanded that he abide by election results. Kostunica then pushed to try Milosevic at home for abuse of power and corruption, charges that led to the former president’s arrest April 1.

When Washington rejected that offer, the Kostunica government talked vaguely about compromises, possibly trying Milosevic at home first and then extraditing him. But pressure is growing to give priority to the war crimes charges at The Hague.

Kostunica said his meetings Wednesday with Bush, Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice marked a fresh start in relations after more than half a century of tension. Two years ago, the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization was engaged in airstrikes against the Balkan country as the alliance sought to protect ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s main republic.

Kostunica is in the United States to receive a statesman of the year award Tuesday from the East-West Institute in New York. Bush met him here at what is known as a “drop-by” during the Yugoslav’s meeting with Cheney. The U.S. president used the opportunity to press Kostunica, the first democratically elected leader of Yugoslavia, for “concrete steps” that would lead to full compliance with the Hague tribunal.

“The president welcomed the improved relations between Yugoslavia and the United States and stressed that the United States stands ready to assist Yugoslavia in its democratic transition and effort to join Europe,” White House spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman said.

The Bush administration was encouraged by Kostunica’s pledge to win passage of a law establishing relations between Yugoslavia and the tribunal. “But U.S. ability to assist Yugoslavia depends on Belgrade’s relations with the tribunal. We urged him to present the law to parliament as soon as possible,” she said.

“The president stated clearly that Milosevic must face justice for his international crimes,” she added.

Yugoslavia is desperate for aid and foreign investment so it can rebuild. The nation has been whittled down to the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, after a decade of internal strife and the 1999 airstrikes, which Kostunica said left damage totaling $30 billion.

But the U.S. has deferred support for an international donors conference, originally scheduled for next month, until Milosevic is handed over. Countryman said the U.S. has still made “no commitment at this time” to join the conference. Yugoslavia is seeking $1 billion.

On Wednesday, Powell met Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and pledged that Washington will continue to press for the speedy extradition of Milosevic.

During his meetings here, however, Kostunica pleaded for time and tolerance as Yugoslavia struggles to transform a country from centuries of autocratic rule.

“It’s of the utmost importance that we be allowed to build our own brand of democracy, even if we make mistakes,” he later told a meeting at the Cato Institute.