UN War Crimes Tribunal Urged To Indict Milosevic (FoxNews)
8.34 p.m. ET (035 GMT) April 5, 1999

WASHINGTON — The International War Crimes Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia was urged Monday to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic for atrocities in Kosovo, but the court said its ability to
investigate crimes and bring the accused to trial was limited.

Richard Goldstone, who served as chief prosecutor for the tribunal from
1994-1996, and other experts said U.N. war crimes prosecutors had
enough evidence in hand to indict Milosevic and bring him to trial for
alleged mass crimes against ethnic Albanians in the war-torn Yugoslav
province.

"There is a direct chain of command between Milosevic, his security
forces, and what has happened, and there can be no question that war
crimes have been committed,'' Goldstone said after a meeting of war
crimes experts in Washington. "The sooner an indictment comes out the
better.''

In separate newspaper columns, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole called on
President Clinton to identify Milosevic publicly as a war criminal, while
former Secretary of State Warren Christopher said, "It is now clear
Milosevic must be tried for war crimes.''

The president of the tribunal, Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, would not say
whether prosecutors were considering an indictment against the Yugoslav
leader. She told the Washington panel that decision was up to the
prosecutors.

But McDonald warned that investigators were having serious trouble
gathering evidence in Kosovo.

Yugoslavia has refused to allow tribunal prosecutor Louise Arbour and a
team of investigators into the province. As a result, McDonald said
prosecutors might be forced to conduct their entire inquiry without direct
access to sites in Kosovo.

She also warned that divisions within the 15-nation U.N. Security Council
could hamper the tribunal's work. Russia, China and Namibia voted for a
resolution on March 26 demanding an immediate halt to the NATO attacks.

McDonald said she has repeatedly urged the Security Council to take a
tougher line on Yugoslavia's noncooperation with the war crimes court, but
to no avail. "The Security Council is starting to become polarized. It's
starting to get back to where it was in the Cold War,'' she said.

Set up in 1993 by the Security Council, the tribunal relies on the
international community for support. It has no police force of its own to
bring the indicted to trial or compel Belgrade to cooperate.

But McDonald said these problems could be resolved with the help of major
Western powers, clearing the way for trials of Milosevic and others if
indictments were handed down for alleged crimes in Kosovo.

"I've got to believe that the international community would not allow a
world leader to continue to hold power and continue to engage in
(allegedly criminal) acts.... So I believe that the world community would
act.''

State Department spokesman James Rubin said earlier Monday that
Washington held Milosevic "politically responsible'' for the atrocities in
Kosovo, but stopped short of declaring him a war criminal.

That determination should be made by the Hague-based tribunal, Rubin
said, adding that the United States would give the panel "all the help they
need in order to draw their independent conclusions.''