Prosecutor Won’t Drop Bid Against Milosevic

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Criticizing Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica for dismissing her court’s claim to Slobodan Milosevic, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor rejected calls that the former president first stand trial at home.

Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she remained “cautiously optimistic” that Milosevic would be extradited to the Netherlands-based tribunal so that the U.N. court can try him on suspicion of involvement in atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing” campaign in Kosovo--a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic--triggered the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 1999 air war against Yugoslavia.

“For crimes against humanity . . . Milosevic will stand trial in The Hague,” Del Ponte predicted, winding up three days of meetings with Kostunica and other political leaders.

Del Ponte said her meeting with Kostunica was disappointing. “All I did was sit and listen to his lectures,” she said.