"Milosevic was knowingly lied to he wouldn't be extradited to Hague, Villa Mir massacre prevented"

Printscreen/Tv Prva

Branislav Ivkovic, a former high-ranking SPS party official, revealed that a massacre had been prevented at Villa Mir in Belgrade on the night of Slobodan Milosevic's arrest.

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"Some unit was beating us on the legs, we were bloodied. They moved us away so they could get inside. On the other side of the villa, from a neighboring street, my man calls me and says that there are very few of them there, that the police are coming up and they don't know what to do. At that moment, Cedomir Jovanovic joins in and says, 'we are reasonable people, let's solve this in a peaceful way'."

The former SPS official also spoke about bringing Jovanovic to Villa Mir, for the purpose of conducting negotiations with Slobodan Milosevic.

"I walked in front of him, so that my people wouldn't shoot at him, (Milorad Ulemek) Legija walked behind him, so that his people wouldn't shoot at Jovanovic. Jovanovic behaved very reasonably during the negotiations, he was respectful of him (Milosevic)," Ivkovic said.

He added that three demands had been accepted during the negotiations, and that Milosevic said that there was no guarantee that he would not be extradited to an international court.

After that, Jovanovic called (Zoran) Djindjic and told him to add that demand by hand, they sent a stamp from the Government and that was subsequently verified.

"Milosevic accepted this Jovanovic's guarantee and agreed to surrender," he said.

Ivkovic said that it was "a cruel and hard truth for Slobodan Milosevic, but that he was aware of the situation he was in and did everything to save the people around him and the people around the residence."

"It's true, the negotiations prevented a massacre that would have left a very black stain in the history of Serbia," said Ivkovic.

Zivkovic: Kostunica knowingly lied to Milosevic that he would not be extradited to The Hague

Zoran Zivkovic said that the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic was inevitable and that then president Vojislav Kostunica "knowingly lied to him when he guaranteed that this would not happen and that he would not be extradited to The Hague."

"Someone from Villa Mir asked for someone to come to negotiate with Milosevic, and I don't know why they chose Ceda (Jovanovic). At that time, our goal was to prevent deaths, for the arrest to go without bloodshed," Ziovkovic told TV Prva's morning program.

(Telegraf.rs)