Russian Parliament Demands Release of Milosevic

MOSCOW, Feb 15, 2002 -- (dpa) Russia's parliament demanded Friday that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic be released from United Nations custody in The Hague, Holland, where he faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A total of 316 deputies in the 450-seat Duma backed the resolution with only 6 votes against, the Interfax news agency reported.

The proceedings against Milosevic had become a "political trial of an entire country," criticized the Communist speaker Gennady Seleznyov.

"Both the NATO leadership and the people who ordered the bombing of Yugoslavia must be brought before court," he was quoted as saying.

The Duma also accused the United Nations war crimes tribunal of ignoring crimes by NATO and Albanian extremists in Kosovo in its examination of the conflicts in former Yugoslavia in the past decade.

The house said in the resolution that crimes committed in the Balkan wars should be dealt with in courts in former Yugoslavia.

President Vladimir Putin should now use his influence in the UN Security Council to ensure the tribunal's work has a clear time limit, it added.

Milosevic has been under detention by the tribunal since the end of June after being handed over by Belgrade. He refuses either to recognize the legitimacy of the tribunal or the charges against him.