Little Progress on War Criminals

BELGRADE: Christopher may not have made any progress with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic over the weekend on speeding the extradition of suspected war criminals, but few expected him to. Among the most wanted of the 52 people so far indicted by the international tribunal in The Hague are rebel Serb leaders and former Milosevic allies Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. "No one will confirm that Christopher indeed threatened to end diplomatic relations with Milosevic if he didn't turn over Karadzic and Mladic," reports TIME's Marguerite Michaels from Belgrade. "But it doesn't much matter. Milosevic knows that we can not afford to put him on the spot yet. And so do Christopher and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, who was in the meeting with Christopher and Milosevic. We have high-level officials here and will continue to have high-level officials here. Christopher knows it's not a threat. Holbrooke knows it's not a threat. Besides, who are they going to negotiate with if not Milosevic?"