Plane departures fuel speculation over Milosevic's whereabouts

October 5, 2000 Web posted at: 5:47 PM EDT (2147 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Speculation over the whereabouts of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was fuelled by the departure of three military aircraft from a military airport near Belgrade.

The mystery deepened late on Thursday when no police guards were posted outside Milosevic's official residence.

Vojislav Kostunica, the man being named as Milosevic's sucessor, told the mass crowds in central Belgrade there was no need to go to suburb of Dedinje where Milosevic and many of his allies live.

"We will not go to Dedinje, we will stay here," he told the crowd from the balcony of the Belgrade city hall, opposite the vast Yugoslav parliament building that demonstrators had earlier stormed.

"He has fled from here, but we will remain here where the people's institutions are. They are ours," Kostunica said.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon, said: "As far as we know Milosevic is still in Belgrade."

As Kostunica addressed the crowds, the independent Beta news agency reported, quoting unnamed sources from Yugoslav flight control, said: "Three military Antonov AN 26 aircraft took off from Batajnica airport at 8.20 p.m. local time (1820 GMT) toward the south."

Beta said the Yugoslav air force had Antonov AN 26s in its fleet. There was no one immediately available for comment at the flight control, or any indication of who might have been on the plane.

Yugoslav Opposition leader Zarco Korac however speculated that Milosevic could be sheltering at an army barracks.

"The truth might be that he's hiding somewhere within the country but whatever happens I don't think he has a safe haven in Serbia any more," he told CNN's Q&A.

"There's a lot of anger now and people are very, very furious and asking, 'Where's Milosevic?' and I think it's good for him to hide for some time because he might face something like a very quick justice in the streets"

Earlier, a statement from Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia said it would "fight against violence and destruction" with "all its force and in all state institutions."

There were fears the mayhem could allow Milosevic to declare a state of emergency and come down hard on his foes.

But his security forces appeared to be disintegrating, with protesters seizing police precincts without a fight. The level of defiance was unprecedented in Yugoslavia's 55-year communist history.

"They're giving up," said a demonstrator.

As official in Belarus was quoted as saying that his nation had no plans to grant asylum to Milosevic.

"Milosevic arriving in our capital Minsk is out of the question," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official in the presidential administration in Minsk as saying.

"There has been no discussion of Minsk granting asylum to Milosevic or him visiting Belarus neither through diplomatic channels nor by the two countries' leaderships. Speaking about a private visit by Milosevic is absurd, to say the least."

Belarus fiercely defended Milosevic's government during last year's NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia and President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested Belgrade could join his country's union with Russia.

-- heeehee heeeeheehee heeehee (what.comes.around@goes.around), October 06, 2000

Answers

If this same news source would mention that Clinton and Co. were convicted and sentenced to 20 yrs in prison by the Yugoslavian Courts for illegal bombing of civilians last year, now THAT would be a story. I predict that your tax dollars will fund the occupation of Serbia for the next 5-20 years until corporations like Chrysler-Diamler can work out a "deal" (read:get control) of the Trepka mineral mines.

-- KoFE (Your@town.USA), October 06, 2000.

Milosevic and shakey are one in the same?

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), October 06, 2000.

I haven't written off Milosevic quite yet. I don't believe that he's going to just disappear quietly. I hope the citizens of Belgrade are keeping their rifles close at hand.

-- (raven@never.more), October 06, 2000.

Give the bastard the old Mussolini treatment, that's what I say.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), October 06, 2000.