BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Riot police laid siege to Slobodan Milosevic's villa early today in an attempt to arrest the former president. But a defiant Milosevic rejected a warrant in a tense standoff with authorities trying to bring him to justice.
After a raid on his home in an exclusive Belgrade neighborhood, police officials presented Milosevic with the warrant, an Interior Ministry source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. But, according to the source, Milosevic refused to accept it, saying he did not "recognize these police and these authorities, all of them being NATO servants."
The action came on the very day the U.S. Congress had set as a deadline for Yugoslavia to begin cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The court wants to try Milosevic for war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from his harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.
Washington had threatened Belgrade with a suspension of $100 million in economic aid if it did not comply.
The scene settled down overnight, but around dawn police pushed journalists several hundred yards away from the villa in apparent preparation for a second attempt to arrest him. Local media reports said that 20 hard-line Milosevic supporters were prepared to resist.
An Interior Ministry source told the AP that police were readying for a second "action."
The initial raid began with special police — some in plain clothes, others wearing masks — advancing across the vast yard and firing stun grenades surrounding the villa in the Dedinje district. Officers met with some resistance in the villa yard, and journalists on the scene said a police officer was wounded. A local news photographer suffered a gunshot to his hand, the state Tanjug news agency reported.
"We won't let them inside. We won't let them arrest him," Milosevic aide Zivorad Igic told the AP by mobile phone before police hauled him away.
A standoff appeared to be developing overnight amid signs that negotiations were taking place with security guards who indicated they were loyal to Milosevic and were unwilling to give him up.
"Our minister gave us a task to arrest Milosevic according to the arrest warrant, but without casualties if possible," a police officer told the AP. "That's why there are so many policemen, and that's why the operation is so slow."
Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, and their daughter Marija were believed to be inside the villa with the former president. A police armored personnel carrier was parked outside the gate, and the bulletproof BMW sedan Milosevic used during his reign was parked in the yard, a single driver inside.
"I don't know who stopped the action, but we have to finish it by daylight. We don't know who is inside with him or if there are wounded there," said a top-ranking government official.
The police action followed hours of wildly conflicting reports about whether Milosevic was in custody. At one point, Milosevic appeared outside his home, apparently to reassure supporters he had not been arrested as Serbian state television reported.
The government of President Vojislav Kostunica has been split over whether to surrender the former strongman. Many officials insist that Milosevic must be tried at home for ruining the country before he is handed over to the tribunal to face war crimes charges.
He has been investigated for corruption, embezzlement and allegedly ordering the assassinations of political opponents.
Kostunica and others had invoked Yugoslav legislation barring extradition of Yugoslav nationals to a foreign country. Parliament is reportedly preparing a new law that would allow Milosevic to be extradited, but the bill may not be enacted before late April.
Since his ouster from power last fall, Milosevic has lived under police surveillance. Last weekend, he made a defiant public appearance in front of his home.
Milosevic rose to power in Yugoslavia during the waning years of communist power in Europe. He exploited Serb nationalism to gain control, and in 1991 triggered the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
His political demise came last year when he lost in elections to Kostunica. When Milosevic refused to recognize election results last October, opposition supporters rioted.