"Political pressure" on Serbia-Montenegro

Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister on Wednesday accused U.N. war crimes tribunal prosecutors of doing a poor job in the trial of former President Slobodan Milosevic, saying the proceedings have produced little hard evidence. Goran Svilanovic, a member of the democratic leadership that ousted Milosevic in 2000 and then extradited him to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, lashed out at the U.N. prosecutors, who recently accused his government of lack of cooperation. Svilanovic said his government has cooperated with Del Ponte when she has asked for access to specific documents, but that it could not accept what he said was demands for unlimited access to classified documents and state archives, some of which may contain evidence against Milosevic and the other suspects being tried at the court. He said the prosecution was exerting "political pressure" on Serbia-Montenegro. Svilanovic also accused the prosecution of violating what he described as "an understanding" that former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, who surrendered voluntarily in January to answer charges related to the Kosovo war, be released pending trial because he turned himself in.