President Vojislav Kostunica hit back today at western demands that Mr Slobodan Milosevic be handed over to a UN war crimes court and insisted his predecessor will face justice in Yugoslavia.
Calling NATO's 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia "senseless, unnecessary, irresponsible and largely criminal" Mr Kostunica said the West had no right to set deadlines for cooperation with the UN court that indicted Mr Milosevic.
Referring to a March 31st deadline set by Washington to start cooperating with the court or risk losing vital aid, Mr Kostunica responded by saying that "some of the (bombing) damage should be compensated by March 31, but this evidently won't happen."
The Yugoslav leader said his reluctance to extradite Mr Milosevic was a result of the court's failure to investigate NATO chiefs for the bombing.
He singled out Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as particularly responsible for his tough stance.
"Mrs Carla del Ponte says that there was not enough time to investigate the consequences of the NATO bombing of this country ... which (was) seen in 1999 on televisions all around the world.
"Just because of that, the case of Slobodan Milosevic will be treated, and must be treated, in this country," he said.
He said the ICTY was "too narrow" an institution to deal successfully with the complex history of the break-up of the old Socialist Yugoslavia throughout the past decade.
Under international pressure, and in particular the US threat to block aid in international financial institutions, Yugoslavia is changing it law which prevents extradition, with an amendment expected very soon.
Mr Kostunica said "extradition is not an important part of the new law".
He said however that Belgrade would meet its international obligations but said that changing the legal framework would take time.
AFP