BELGRADE, May 19, 2003

• CARLA DEL PONTE ARRIVES IN BELGRADE,DISCUSSES HAGUE FUGITIVES
• HARTMANN: ICTY PROSECUTION REGULARLY INFORMED BELGRADE OF MLADIC'S STAY IN SERBIA
• MLADIC CANNOT BE IN SERBIA, ZIVKOVIC

• CHIEF OF STAFF HAILS LIFTING OF ARMS EMBARGO AGAINST SERBIAMONTENEGRO
• TALKS UNDERWAY ABOUT ENTERING PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE, KRGA

• ZIVKOVIC-SPIEGEL-INTERVIEW

BELGRADE, May 19 (Tanjug) - Chief Hague war crimes tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte arrived in a one-day visit to Serbia and Montenegro on Monday, and is expected to demand that the Belgrade authorities hand over war crimes indictees, present military documentation the tribunal requires and provide better protection for The Hague tribunal indictees.

Spokeswoman for Del Ponte, Florance Hartmann, told Tanjug that the chief Hague war crimes tribunal prosecutor would begin her talks in Belgrade by a meeting with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic and representatives of the government, and after that confer with Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, Defense Minister Boris Tadic and his Deputy Vukasin Maras. Del Ponte will conclude her working visit to Belgrade by a meeting with Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, and leave for Sarajevo sometime in the evening.

THE HAGUE,May 18 (Beta)-The spokeswoman of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia chief prosecutor, Florence Hartmann, said on May 18 that the ICTY prosecution currently cannot specify the exact whereabouts of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, but that it possessed information confirming that he had spent most of the past three years in Serbia.

Hartmann told BETA that the prosecution used to regularly inform the Serbian authorities of its findings and that these were not statements that "would reemerge every three months or so," as Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic had said.

Commenting on a statement by ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Mladic was in Serbia, Svilanovic said on May 17 that such a story would recur every three months or so and that when Del Ponte would arrive in Belgrade "nothing would happen."

Hartmann added that during her visit to Belgrade on May 19, the chief prosecutor would talk with union and Serbia officials about the indictees who are still at large, including former Yugoslav People's Army officer Veselin Sljivancanin, charged with crimes in Croatia, and former Zvornik brigade commander Vinko Pandurevic, charged with crimes in Srebrenica.

Del Ponte will also discuss the access of the prosecution to the military archives in Serbia and Montenegro.

BERLIN, May 18 (Tanjug) - Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic disputed that former commander of the Republika Srpska Army Ratko Mladic, who is charged by the Tribunal in The Hague with war crimes, can be in Serbia. "If you tell me where he is staying, I will tell you let's go there together and arrest him. But, we would not find him," Zivkovic told the German magazine Der Spiegel, in an interview to be released on Monday.

"Belgrade would for him (Mladic) be the safest place," Zivkovic told Der Spiegel, which announced that the Serbian premier will soon visit Berlin. The Americans, the magazine said, demand from Serbia to extradite Mladic to the war crimes tribunal by June 15.

BELGRADE,May 18 (Beta)-SerbiaMontenegro Chief of Staff Gen. Branko Krga said on May 17 that that army "warmly welcomes" U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to lift an arms embargo against the country.

Krga told journalists that the decision was also a chance to improve relations with the U.S., which could be of much use to the army.

PASULJANSKE LIVADE, May 18 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro Army Chief-of-Staff Gen. Branko Krga said on Sunday that talks are underway about the entry of our state into NATO's Partnership for Peace Program and that the entry of Serbia and Montenegro into international integrations was "somewhat a political issue."

Krga told reporters following infantry exercises in Pasuljanske livade that we have already laid out our position on the issue of entry into Partnership for Peace. Asked by reporters whether we are ready and whether we have verified the ticket for entering large integrations, Krga answered that was somewhat a political issue - when we will enter and what kind of integration. "Underway are different talks about that, these initiatives are on the table, and I cannot tell now when that will be," Krga said replying to a question.

BERLIN, May 19 (Tanjug) - In an interview for the German political magazine der Spiegel, Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic has said that Kosovo-Metohija is part of Serbia, that the issue is not a question of mercy of either Europe or Washington, and well as that at present, the time is not right for talks on the final status of the province. The international community had not fulfilled even one third of its obligations in Kosovo - no progress had been made in the return of Kosovo Serb refugees, nor is there any security for the Serbian population, or promised decentralization, he said in the interview to be published on Monday. The situation there is discouraging, and with the assistance of the international community, the ethnic Albanians are destabilizing Kosovo, the Serbian premier pointed out.

Asked if the borders in the Balkans would once again be questioned if the West acknowledged Kosovo's independence, in which case former premier Zoran Djindjic had said a new Dayton agreement would be required, Zivkovic replied that the late premier had in mind a conference which would have to deal with the complete situation in the Balkans. When asked if Republika Srpska would be adjoined to Serbia in case of Kosovo's separation, Zivkovic replied that such a scenario would represent a dangerous precedent, and question the borders throughout the Balkans.