Serbia's new reformist prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, said on Friday he was making progress gathering evidence for a trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and that an indictment could be ready soon.
Djindjic was speaking after meeting US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was getting immersed in Balkan politics for the first time since being sworn in on Jan. 20.
A UN court in The Hague, the Netherlands, wants to put Milosevic on trial as soon as possible for alleged war crimes by his forces during conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
But Djindjic said evidence was being gathered against Milosevic at home for various alleged crimes, although he did not say whether that was for war crimes or other alleged violations that reformers say include corruption and vote-rigging.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Djindjic had not said what kind of charges would be leveled against Milosevic, whose political downfall in October opened the door to Djindjic's reform government, appointed on Jan. 25.
Asked by reporters if his government was preparing an indictment, Djindjic said, "Yes," but added investigators had a "huge task" gathering evidence for crimes Milosevic allegedly committed in the 12 years when he was in positions of power in the Balkans.
He said Serbia, the dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation, wanted Milosevic to go through its system first, which would then "connect" with The Hague "in a few months."
Parliament would meet in a few days to appoint courts and an attorney general who would be in a position to investigate the alleged crimes, Djindjic said.
"We will start immediately after that. In 10 days or two weeks we will have some results. ... We have some proofs, evidences, of course, but we want to deal with them in a legal way," he said.
"He has done, in these 12 years, many criminal things and it will be a problem to find the point to stay and say OK, it was enough," he added.
Boucher said Belgrade needed to coordinate with The Hague. "We need to keep talking about this to make sure that these two processes can work in a way that accommodates both needs."
Powell also met leaders of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo -- moderate Ibrahim Rugova, ex-guerrilla leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army Hasim Thaci and publisher Veton Serroi.
Rugova told reporters through an interpreter that he had asked Powell to recognize the independence of Kosovo as a way of ending tensions that continue despite its status as a de facto international protectorate.
The US has never said it would support that, and Boucher said it heeded UN Security Council rulings on the subject.
A Security Council resolution asserted Yugoslav sovereignty over Kosovo, but its future status has been left vague since Milosevic's forces left and NATO sent in peacekeepers following its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999.
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