Government paves way for U.N. extraditions

? Government ministers approved a law change Friday to make it easier to extradite war criminals to a U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands, a top official said.

The U.N. tribunal has charged that Serbia hasn’t done enough to track down suspects believed living in Serbia, especially Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic — the top Bosnian Serb leaders during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Western authorities have threatened to suspend financial and other support unless the country fully cooperates with the tribunal.

Serbian law prohibits the extradition of war crimes suspects indicted after April 2002. The change removes that prohibition. It was approved Friday by the ministers and must now pass the parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, the two-state union that replaced Yugoslavia in February.

The decision, made during a government session in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, would open the way for the extradition to the tribunal of more suspects accused of committing atrocities in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Low-profile suspects could still be tried before local courts, with the U.N. tribunal’s approval.

“We have to cooperate with the international institutions, especially U.N. institutions,” said Svetozar Markovic, the head of the Council of Ministers.

“The world certainly won’t give up on its demands.”