Before leaving for the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, ex-Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic defiantly declared, “Brother Serbs, now farewell!”
Milosevic also mocked the court as a “political circus” and told tribunal officials who read him his rights, “You are kidnapping me, and you will answer for your crimes,” the Nedeljni Telegraf magazine reported.
The weekly, which has close contacts with the Serbian security forces, published a detailed account of Milosevic’s ride from Belgrade’s Central Prison to the Netherlands to face war-crimes charges.
Full-page photographs with the story show a dark-suited Milosevic preparing to board a helicopter, followed by a man in dark glasses and jeans and five uniformed Serbian cops.
The magazine said Serbian justice officials arrived at the prison Thursday with a signed government order for Milosevic’s extradition. The warden told him to start packing.
“And where am I supposed to go?” Milosevic asked.
When told his destination, he said, “The Hague? Ridiculous!”
As guards helped Milosevic pack, he kept asking, “Am I really going to The Hague?”
Milosevic was placed in a blue police van and driven to a state security compound, where U.N. tribunal officials waited with two bodyguards and an interpreter.
After shouting that he did not recognize the tribunal, Milosevic settled down, taking off his jacket and smoking a cigarette.
“I am not afraid of The Hague tribunal. That is no court but a political circus aimed at jeopardizing the Serb people,” the former strongman told the tribunal officials.
“And let me tell you one thing – you are not taking me in, you are kidnapping me, and you will answer for your crimes.”
The magazine said he then cut short a series of formal questions by saying, “Drop the buffoonery, let’s hurry up.”
Before climbing aboard the helicopter for the first part of his journey to The Hague, Milosevic turned to a small group of officers and said sarcastically, “You have my congratulations on a job well done.”
Then he added, “Brother Serbs, now farewell.”
The helicopter took him to the U.S. Army base in Tuzla, Bosnia, where a plane flew him to the Netherlands. There, he was being held under suicide watch. He will be tried for crimes against humanity during his crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 to ’99.
Milosevic faces at least a month in isolation in The Hague. He is being kept apart from the 38 other Yugoslav war-crimes suspects. With Post Wire Services