Date set for Milosevic court appearance

Slobodan Milosevic, architect of the Balkan conflicts that produced Europe’s worst atrocities since World War Two, is to appear before a United Nations judge on Tuesday to enter a plea on war crimes charges.

Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale said Milosevic will appear briefly before the court. He will be asked in his own language if he understands the charges against him and enter his plea.

Milosevic is in prison in The Hague after being handed over yesterday by Serb officials despite a Yugoslav court ruling that barred his extradition to stand trial for alleged atrocities in Kosovo.

The former Yugoslav president was believed to have been flown from a US military base in Bosnia to the Netherlands aboard a British plane. He was delivered by helicopter before dawn today to the bleak, walled prison to await trial for atrocities committed by his forces in the crackdown against Kosovo Albanians two years ago.

Landale said Milosevic spent an uneventful first night in jail following a routine physical results of which were not disclosed.

Milosevic was assigned temporarily to a single-man cell in the special UN wing of a Dutch prison pending a final decision on whether he will be segregated from the 38 other war crimes defendants.

In the meantime, authorities are watching carefully to see how the man who once described himself as the ‘‘Ayatollah Khomeini of the Balkans’’ will react to his new environment.

‘‘They will keep a close eye on his mood and provide whatever he needs,’’ Landale said. ‘‘The assessment will continue for a few days, working out what the appropriate arrangements should be, keeping in mind his security and well being.’’

In Yugoslavia, the dramatic move in defiance of an order by the Yugoslav Constitutional Court staying extradition threatened to plunge the Balkan country into a political crisis.

Milosevic’s successor, Vojislav Kostunica, denounced the handover as ‘‘illegal and unconstitutional’’. Others accused Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who spearheaded the decision, of ‘‘treason’’ and knuckling under US pressure.

Nevertheless, the arrival of the most important defendant ever indicted by the tribunal was a stunning triumph for the UN court, formed in 1993 to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed as the former Yugoslavia disintegrated into ethnic wars that left the country economically prostrate and shunned by the rest of the world.

‘‘The transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to the tribunal is a turning point and the beginning of a new era in the development of international criminal justice,’’ tribunal President Claude Jorda said in a statement.

Jorda promised a ‘‘fair and expeditious trial in accordance with the highest international standards’’.

‘‘This is the ultimate case,’’ Landale said. He predicted a ‘‘relatively lengthy trial’’ with ‘‘complex legal issues’’.

US President George W Bush praised Yugoslavia for handing over Milosevic, saying the move showed the Balkan nation wants to turn away from ‘‘its tragic past and toward a brighter future’’.

US officials said the administration planned to make a pledge in the range of about $100 million (£70 million) for a Yugoslav assistance package, to be discussed today in Brussels at a conference of international aid donors.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the handover as ‘‘a thoroughly good thing’’. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said the Yugoslav government was ‘‘turning over a dark page in European history’’.

In Yugoslavia, however, the response was different. About 3,000 Milosevic supporters rallied last night in Belgrade, chanting Treason. Some turned on television crews covering the demonstration.

At the headquarters of Milosevic’s Socialist Party, Zivadin Jovanovic, the party’s acting head, said the handover amounted to a coup d’etat.

‘‘What happened is that Djindjic suspended the constitutional system of Yugoslavia,’’ Jovanovic said. ‘‘Djindjic introduced dictatorship, and the responsibility for that lies on him and all others who did nothing to prevent this.’’

Djindjic, however, said there was no choice for Yugoslavia but to surrender Milosevic or face renewed international isolation and a freeze on financial aid, leading to ‘‘unprecedented humiliation’’.

Milosevic and the others facing charges stemming from the Balkan wars are housed in a special prison unit spread over four floors with 12 cells each, patrolled by UN guards. Inmates in the UN wing each have their own 17x10ft cell, with shower, toilet, washbasin and desk.

Inmates spend much of their time outside their rooms, and have access to television, a fully equipped gym, an outdoor courtyard, a library, a recreation room, a prison shop and a religion room for prayer. They may take courses in arts, languages and sciences. They also have the opportunity to see visitors, in private if they are married.

Milosevic, 59, faces charges for atrocities committed in Kosovo during an offensive against the province’s ethnic Albanian rebels. About 10,000 ethnic Albanians were estimated to have died in the crackdown, which ended in 1999, after a 78-day Nato bombing campaign.

The charges in the May 1999 indictment include crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war. The war crimes tribunal has said it is preparing a possible case against Milosevic for genocide in connection with atrocities committed in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia.

After ousting Milosevic in October following a controversial election and popular uprising, Yugoslavia’s pro-democracy leaders refused to extradite him, citing constitutional restrictions barring the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to foreign courts.