Yugoslavia Allows Extradition of War Crimes Suspects

On April 11, 2002, under international pressure, Yugoslavia’s parliament enacted a new law permitting extradition of war crimes suspects to the International Tribunal for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia. The legislation was also accompanied by arrests and the suicide of one of the suspects. Immediately after the legislation passed, Vlajko Stojiljkovic, former head of police in Serbia and a close associate of former Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic, shot himself in the head and died shortly thereafter. A handwritten suicide note condemned the Yugoslav government as a “puppet regime” and blamed its current leaders for “destroying Yugoslavia” and undermining its constitution and law. Stojiljkovic headed the Serbian Interior Ministry from April 1997 to October 2000 and is accused of crimes against humanity in Kosovo and violations of the laws anc customs of war. Sojiljkovic ordered violent police crackdowns against anti-Milosevic protesters in the late 1990s. He resigned in October 2000, just days after Milosevic conceded electoral defeat to a pro-democracy coalition led by Vijislav Kostunica, the current president.