PARIS - Western leaders have a new conundrum: What to do about Slobodan Milosevic, deposed head of state, indicted war criminal, chief suspect in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia, and man on the run.
The fate of Milosevic, chief suspect in the wars that have lain waste to much of Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo over the past decade, depends on a tangle of political, diplomatic, judicial and logistical factors that may take months or even years to unravel.
It was still not known late Friday whether the former strongman of the Balkans would seek to remain in Serbia or attempt to flee to a friendly country.
Governments which find Milosevic within their jurisdiction are obliged to hand him over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, located in The Hague, where the charges against him are likely to be extended to take in genocide.
However Vojislav Kostunica, Yugoslavia's president-elect and himself a strong Serbian nationalist, has said he will refuse to hand over his predecessor to stand trial, denouncing The Hague court as "a tool of political pressure of the U.S. Administration." Western leaders are torn between insisting that Milosevic be brought before an international tribunal to answer the charges against him and establishing good relations with the new regime in Belgrade.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Friday that Washington would be pursuing its efforts to prosecute Milosevic. "It's very important for the new Serbia to be a country that abides by the law," she said.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called for the former strongman to be handed over, though he acknowledged that the new Yugoslav authorities might want to try him first. "It's an option if they believe he has committed offences under Serb law. It's a matter for their sovereign right to decide," Cook said.
But he later said a trial in Yugoslavia could not be a substitute for appearing before the international tribunal.
The human rights group Amnesty International also called on the new Yugoslav regime to present Milosevic to the tribunal in The Hague.
The pressure for an international trial came amid fears that Milosevic might seek asylum in countries such as Russia or Belarus, two of Serbia's strongest supporters over the past decade.
An unnamed diplomatic source in Moscow, where Milosevic's brother Borislav is currently the Yugoslav ambassador, said there was "no question" of Russia offering Milosevic asylum.
However, Belarus Prime Minister Vladimir Yermoshin said that Minsk would consider an asylum request.
The hitherto unimaginable prospect of placing a former head of state on trial was given a strong focus last year when a ruling by the British House of Lords said that General Augusto Pinochet, leader of the Chilean junta that overthrew an elected socialist government in 1973, could be held accountable for actions carried out by his security forces.
Human rights groups are pressing for political figures to be held accountable before such bodies as the International Criminal Court that a UN conference in Rome last year agreed to create.
A suggestion by the UN Human Rights envoy Jiri Dienstbier last weekend that Milosevic might be offered an amnesty as an inducement for him to give up power quietly raised hackles, particularly among tribunal officials in The Hague appalled at the signal such an offer would send to other world leaders accused of atrocities.
If, as appears probable, The Hague tribunal brings an indictment for genocide against Milosevic, possibly charging him with overall responsibility for the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia, the pressure for him to be presented before the court could become irresistible.
The chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said she expected the indictments to be pronounced "very soon." (AFP)