Target: Milosevic; Result: unclear

Yugoslav officials want to put the ousted Serbian leader, accused of war crimes and corruption, on trial.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 31, 2001

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Special police wearing black masks and firing automatic weapons stormed deposed Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's mansion early today, hours after the government claimed he was already under arrest.

[AP photo] Masked police kick in a window at Milosevic's villa in Belgrade early today.

When the attack quieted down, police officials met with Milosevic and presented him with an arrest warrant. But Milosevic refused to accept it, according to the Associated Press, saying he did not recognize the police and other authorities, whom he called servants of NATO. It wasn't immediately known whether the authorities simply arrested him anyway.

The raid began at 1:30 a.m., shortly after a defiant Milosevic appeared on television, smiling and waving to a crowd of supporters at the gates of his compound.

Police arrived in three cars, fired weapons and threw stun grenades to clear federal troops guarding the mansion. They were through the front gates within seconds. Shots were apparently fired from within the compound and a police officer reportedly was wounded.

An hour later, a camouflaged armored vehicle drove slowly up Milosevic's front driveway and stopped at the gate.

About 100 Milosevic supporters jeered at police, calling them murderers and chanting, "Slobo, you Serb, Serbia is with you!" But the small crowd that had vowed to stop Milosevic's arrest put up little resistance as dozens of police surrounded the compound.

There was no sign of Milosevic. His wife, Mirjana Markovic, and their daughter Marija also were believed to be inside the villa.

The police assault followed a bizarre night of claims and counter-claims about whether Milosevic was under arrest or at home sipping coffee. It came as Yugoslavia faced a deadline of midnight tonight, set by the U.S. Congress, to show cooperation with a U.N. war crimes tribunal or risk losing tens of millions of dollars in American aid.

Milosevic and four top aides were indicted in May 1999 by the tribunal on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their troops' harsh treatment of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He also has been accused by opponents of corruption, embezzlement and involvement in political assassinations.

Although some Serbian government officials have suggested for weeks that Milosevic was under house arrest, behind walls guarded by federal troops who answer to President Vojislav Kostunica, Milosevic had freely come and gone to attend meetings of his Socialist Party. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac insisted Friday night that Milosevic was under arrest and said the former president would appear before a judge on unspecified charges this morning.

But Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, one of the leaders of the campaign to remove Milosevic from power in October, told B-92 radio that he had no idea whether police had detained Milosevic.

"I really don't know about that," Djindjic said. "I'm watching Gladiator with my son Luka."

Throughout the night, the parliamentary leader of Milosevic's Socialist Party, Branislav Ivkovic, repeatedly told reporters that Milosevic was still in his mansion in the Dedinje district of Belgrade.

Calling the report of Milosevic's arrest "an absolute lie," Ivkovic blamed the "so-called independent media," which he said was controlled by the ruling coalition that defeated Milosevic in last year's election.

"And it's clear why they do it," Ivkovic told B-92 radio by phone from Milosevic's mansion. "It's because they want to fulfill their vicious intentions, and in this they will not succeed because the people are standing by Slobodan and he is still the host in his house."

The twisted tale of Milosevic's arrest began just after 7 p.m., when the Serbian Parliament was debating this year's budget, which would be impossible to implement without hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid.

Ivkovic went to the podium and claimed police had begun an operation to arrest Milosevic. He told Parliament that seven unmarked jeeps, carrying men in military-style jackets and armed with submachine guns, had arrived at Milosevic's mansion with three ambulances.

A crowd of about 150 Milosevic supporters maintained a vigil outside the rear gates, as they have for weeks, vowing to prevent any arrest.

Just after 8 p.m., Ivkovic walked through the same gates to tell reporters he had just seen Milosevic, who was "feeling fine." The former president already knew from his own sources what was going on and was not worried, Ivkovic claimed.

"He was in a good mood," Ivkovic said, adding Milosevic had "asked me to greet all the citizens who have come here."

"Thanks to you from the media, and the large number of citizens, the arrest didn't happen," Ivkovic said. "The arrest is not possible until further notice. We will see who will hold out longer."

But at 11:30 p.m., a convoy of three black and one metallic blue Mercedes-Benz jeeps pulled up in front of the Palace of Justice a short distance from the mansion. Two jeeps were driven into an underground garage, and men in plainclothes led someone through a steel door into the courthouse.

Police kept people well back from the underground garage's entrance, and one of the vehicles was parked sideways to block the driveway.

When someone in the crowd asked a police officer who was in the car, the officer smiled and said: "Go home. It's over."

But about 20 minutes after midnight, B-92 television interrupted regular programming and posted this bulletin: "Latest news: Slobodan Milosevic showed up in front of the citizens who gathered in front of his house in Dedinje."

The tile-roof villa was built for former Yugoslav communist dictator Josip Broz Tito in 1978, two years before he died. It is said to contain secret underground passages, as well as underground vaults containing jewelry that Tito received as gifts.

To back up claims that he was still free, Milosevic gave his first interview ever to Radio B-92, a station he once shut down.

"I am just having coffee with my comrades here and I am very well," Milosevic said in a brief interview broadcast at 1:30 a.m.

"Are you afraid?" the interviewer asked.

"Of course, I am not," Milosevic replied. "I expect that this story will end in a just way, to the benefit of our people." He then abruptly hung up the phone without saying whether police had arrested him.

A short time later, police stormed the mansion.

-- Information from the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press was used in this report.

Milosevic's life

AUG. 29, 1941: Slobodan Milosevic is born in Pozarevac, an industrial city in eastern Serbia, four months after Hitler's armies invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. His father was a Serbian Orthodox priest; his mother a schoolteacher and committed communist. His father committed suicide in 1962, his mother in 1972.

1987: After rising through the ranks of the Serbian Communist Party, which he joined in 1959, and serving in a series of directorships of state manufacturing enterprises, Milosevic becomes leader of the party, usurping his friend and mentor, Serbian President Ivan Stambolic.

APRIL 1987: With communism's appeal fading, Milosevic propels himself to the political forefront with a fiery speech invoking Serbian nationalism in which he champions the cause of Serbs in the predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo.

1989: Elected president of Serbia, then one of six Yugoslav republics. He revokes the autonomous status of the Serbian provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, in which Serbs are the ethnic minority.

DECEMBER 1990: As the head of the renamed Socialist Party and riding a wave of nationalist passion, he is easily re-elected president in Serbia's first post-communist elections.

1991: Yugoslavia begins to break up. Slovenia and Croatia proclaim independence in June; Macedonia in September. Fierce fighting begins in Croatia between Croats and Serbs.

1992: Bosnia-Herzegovina votes for independence. Bosnian Serbs fear a country dominated by ethnic Muslims and Croats. Civil war breaks out.

1995: After NATO airstrikes against Bosnian Serbs, Milosevic joins the leaders of Bosnia and Croatia in reaching a peace agreement at U.S.-sponsored talks in Dayton, Ohio.

WINTER, 1996-1997: Milosevic rides out waves of protests against his government. The opposition coalition, which led the demonstrations, disintegrates.

1997: Milosevic is sworn in as Yugoslav president, stepping down as Serbia's leader after serving two terms. The only republics that remain in Yugoslavia are Serbia and Montenegro.

1998: The Yugoslav army launches a bloody crackdown on Albanian separatists in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

1999: Kosovo peace talks fail. In March, NATO warplanes begin an air campaign against military targets throughout Yugoslavia. After a 78-day air war, Serbian forces withdraw. NATO-led peacekeepers arrive.

MAY 1999: Milosevic and Serbian President Milan Milutinovic are indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal. They are accused of violating the laws and customs of war, and of crimes against humanity for the actions of Yugoslav and Serbian forces against Albanians in Kosovo.

SEPT. 24, 2000: For the first time, citizens of the Yugoslav federation vote directly for president. Supporters of challenger Vojislav Kostunica declare victory but election commission calls for a runoff.

SEPT. 29, 2000: Tens of thousands of people heed opposition calls for a nationwide strike, blocking roads and shutting shops, movie theaters and mines.

OCT. 4, 2000: Police retreat from attempt to break a strike at key coal mine. Yugoslavia's highest court invalidates parts of presidential election, further angering the opposition. Huge mobs rampage through Belgrade the next day, driving security forces from the streets and seizing Parliament, the TV network and police stations. With military commanders refusing to back him, Milosevic steps down Oct. 6.

JAN. 2001: Milosevic is placed under 24-hour police surveillance, allegedly for his protection, amid accusations of smuggling gold out of the country, theft of public funds, hiding assets, ordering assassinations and abductions of opponents, and election fraud. Surveillance gradually turns into informal house arrest.

MARCH 31, 2001: Police storm Milosevic's villa.

Sources: BBC, AP, Los Angeles Times

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