United Nations war crimes officials have formally delivered a warrant for the arrest of former president Slobodan Milosevic to the Yugoslav Justice Minister. The International Criminal Tribunal had insisted the warrant be delivered to the country's former president. Mr Milosevic is in a Belgrade jail on domestic charges of corruption and abuse of power. The Tribunal has indicted him on charges of war crimes allegedly committed when his forces attempted to drive the ethnic Albanian population out of Kosovo.
The Tribunal sent a delegation to Belgrade this week to deliver a warrant for his immediate transfer to The Hague. However, the government in Belgrade has ruled out handing Mr Milosevic over in the near future. The government is insisting Mr Milosevic be first called to account for the plundering of public coffers under his rule.
