Extradition

Extradition “would be death warrant for government”
Beta - April 18, 2004

PODGORICA -- Sunday – Former Yugoslav Army chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic said today that he is determined not to appear before the Hague Tribunal and will not allow himself to be extradited.

“If they extradite the three generals, and I don’t include myself out because I will not allow that to happen, this government will be signing it’s own death warrant,” he told Podgorica daily Publika.

Pavkovic also said he was will to make his private archive from the time he commanded the Third Army in Kosovo available to Slobodan Milosevic to assist in his defence before the tribunal.

He told Publika that the violence in Kosovo last month had opened the eyes of the international community.

Pavkovic, who is charged over earlier events in Kosovo, said that the Yugoslav Army had not waged war on Albanian civilians, but only on terrorists.

The international community had now realised that, he said, so a review of the indictment of himself and three other senior officers of the security forces could be expected.