Milosevic faces crackdown


Milosevic has been indicted for war crimes

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The man tipped to be Serbia's next interior minister says he will put former president Slobodan Milosevic under 24-hour surveillance.

Dusan Mihajlovic said: "There is a U.N. war crimes tribunal warrant for Milosevic and the local judiciary is investigating charges of his abuse of power here.

"So the public has the right to know where he is and what he is doing."

Serbia's new parliament is expected to meet and form a government this week.

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Mihajlovic, head of the New Democracy Party, is the candidate of the DOS reform alliance which won a landslide victory in last month's parliamentary election over Milosevic's Socialists.

Mihajlovic also said he was in favour of revealing secret police files on people considered enemies of the state during Milosevic's authoritarian rule.

Asked if he could imagine Serbian police arresting Milosevic, Mihajlovic said: "I don't need to imagine, I see no problem with that."

Milosevic is believed to be living in an official residence in Belgrade, with police protection, since his overthrow in a popular uprising in October.

The U.N. tribunal indicted Milosevic and four of his closest allies in 1999, charging that his forces had committed atrocities before and during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia to halt the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Yugoslavia's reformers, led by President Vojislav Kostunica, have indicated they would like to see Milosevic put on trial at home for crimes committed against the Serbian people, possibly involving corruption rather than war crimes.

Some reformers have said they would not object to the tribunal's presence at such a trial, and suggested that the issue should be discussed when the tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte visits Belgrade later this week.

Mihajlovic said it was time to depoliticise the police, and to make it more transparent.

"I believe political files made by the Third Department of the secret police, the one that dealt with so-called internal enemies, have to be opened," Mihajlovic said.

"That department won't exist any more and there won't be enemies of the state. The opening of such files will be useful for a democratic atmosphere. That will let fresh air into this country. It is time to free police from politics," he added.

It is not known how many Serbians were monitored by the Third Department, but analysts say it could run into thousands, including opposition politicians, local and foreign journalists and human rights activists.

Mihajlovic said that under planned reforms his ministry would probably not be in charge of the secret service any more.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Milosevic's daughter-in-law and grandson are believed to have returned from Russia where they fled with his son, Marko, in the days after he was thrown from power.

Subsequent reports said Milosevic's son and his family tried to move to Beijing but Chinese authorities turned them back.

Milica Milosevic and her two-year-old son, Marko, arrived at Belgrade airport from Moscow on Sunday.

Her husband, who had gained notoriety for shady business deals and nepotism he enjoyed while his father was in power, has apparently remained in Russia.

Reuters contributed to this report.