IN AIR/NETHERLANDS: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S WIFE MIRA MARKOVIC ARRIVES IN AMSTERDAM TO BE REUNITED WITH HER JAILED HUSBAND
Record ID:
647063
IN AIR/NETHERLANDS: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S WIFE MIRA MARKOVIC ARRIVES IN AMSTERDAM TO BE REUNITED WITH HER JAILED HUSBAND
- Title: IN AIR/NETHERLANDS: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S WIFE MIRA MARKOVIC ARRIVES IN AMSTERDAM TO BE REUNITED WITH HER JAILED HUSBAND
- Date: 19th July 2001
- Summary: (W4) IN AIR (JULY 19, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. MCU MIRA MARKOVIC, WIFE OF FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC SEATED IN PLANE DRINKING COFFEE WITH MILOSEVIC LAWYER DRAGOSLAV OGNJANOVIC DURING FLIGHT TO AMSTERDAM (2 SHOTS) 0.30 2. MCU (English) MILOSEVIC LAWYER DRAGOSLAV OGNJANOVIC: (Reporter's question: "Do you feel nervous.") "No I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous" (Question "Are you excited? Are you relieved? I'm trying to") "I am a little bit excited but you know I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm professional, I have to do my job. And I am going to do my job" 0.54 3. MCU MIRA MARKOVIC SEATED LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW 0.58 (W4) AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (JULY 19, 2001) (REUTERS) 4. MCU (INTERIOR PLANE) OGNJANOVIC AND MIRA MARKOVIC SEATED/ ZOOM IN TO VIEW OF SCHIPHOL AIRPORT RUNWAY AS PLANE TAXIES ON TARMAC ON ARRIVAL 1.10 5. SLV EXTERIOR VIEW PLANE TAXIES ON TARMAC 1.16 6. SV INTERIOR TERMINAL/ PEOPLE WATCHING AS PLANE TAXIES ON TARMAC 1.21 7. CU MONITOR SHOWING PLANE ARRIVALS 1.25 8. LV JAT PLANE ON TARMAC BY ARRIVAL GATE 1.30 9. SV SECURITY GUARD BY PLANE 1.33 10. SLV MIRA MARKOVIC WALKING DOWN PLANE STEPS/ GETS INTO CAR 2.00 11. SLV CAR DRIVES OFF 2.18 (W4) THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (JULY 19, 2001) (REUTERS) 12. SV WORKERS PUTTING UP BARRICADES NEAR PRISON 2.32 13. SLV/SV PHOTOGRAPHERS (2 SHOTS) 2.40 14. SLV POLICE VAN ARRIVING AT PRISON 2.52 15. SLV MIRA MARKOVIC'S CAR ARRIVING AT PRISON 3.15 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd August 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: IN AIR/ AMSTERDAM AND THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Reuters ID: LVAC4LQX7D7V1E8DTQEJT2HBL60T
- Story Text: Slobodan Milosevic's wife has been reunited with her
husband, making her first trip to The Hague since the ousted
Yugoslav leader was spirited out of Serbia to face war crimes
charges. She is expected to stay until Saturday.
Mira Markovic, herself a prominent politician, arrived
at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport aboard a Yugoslav Airlines
flight from Belgrade on Thursday (July 19).
She has been dubbed Serbia's "Lady MacBeth" for her
influence on her husband and is widely seen as a driving force
behind her husband's career. She has also been named the "Red
Witch" for her public support of leftist ideology and reported
belief in mysticism.
She was accompanied by lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic, who
says he has been retained as part of a legal team to help
defend Milosevic.
It was not clear whether Ognjanovic's appointment meant
Milosevic had gone back on his decision not to appoint defence
counsel, or whether the lawyers would only act as advisers to
the ex-president.
"I'm not nervous", Ognjanovic told reporters during the
flight. "I am a little bit excited but I'm calm, I'm
professional, I have to do my job."
"I am going to do my job," he added.
The plane touched down at around 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT). The
black-clad Markovic stepped out with two men. She made no
comment to reporters and was immediately whisked away by a
black BMW under police escort to the U.N. detention centre in
The Hague where her husband is being held.
The centre, in the leafy Hague seaside suburb Scheveningen, allows visitors between 9 a.m. and 4.45 p.m. on weekdays.
Couples can typically expect to be provided with rooms for
conjugal visits, dubbed "intimacy rooms".
The close couple had not seen each other since he was
transferred to the custody of the U.N. International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on June 28.
Prosecutors have charged Milosevic on four counts,
including crimes against humanity, accusing him of
responsibility for the mass killings and expulsions of ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo.
Milosevic refuses to recognise the authority of the
tribunal, which has entered a plea of not guilty on his
behalf.
Milosevic and his wife have been together since they were
teenagers and are widely seen as a very close couple.
Dutch authorities announced on Friday (July 13) they would
grant Markovic a visa to visit her husband despite her
presence on an EU blacklist of Milosevic's family and close
associates.
The blacklist was drawn up as part of international
sanctions designed to hurt Milosevic and his entourage, seen
in the West as among those most responsible for a decade of
Balkan wars, and prevent them moving money around.
But the war crimes tribunal asked the Netherlands to allow
Markovic to visit Milosevic.
The tribunal stresses its detention unit is a remand
centre, not a prison. Many of the 39 inmates are still
awaiting trial and must accordingly be treated as innocent
people.
Markovic said in a recent magazine interview she felt lost
without her husband and still found him "cute and likeable".
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