AP
Vlajko Stojiljkovic

 Mr. Stojiljkovic, who headed the police under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, shot himself in the head Thursday outside the federal parliament.

 In a suicide note, the former minister said he was protesting a law passed hours earlier clearing the way for him and other indicted war-crimes suspects to be sent to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

 Mr. Stojiljkovic's death was announced by his doctors. There was no immediate reaction from Yugoslav or Serb officials.

 On Thursday, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica called Mr. Stojiljkovic's suicide attempt a warning to the international community that constant pressure on Yugoslavia can have ill effects.

 Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party on Thursday called Mr. Stojiljkovic the first victim of the new legislation. It says the measure will legalize the hunt for what it termed Serb patriots and heroes in the war against what it called NATO aggressors.

 The legislation officially went into effect Friday. It specifies that only suspects already indicted by The Hague tribunal will be handed over to the United Nations court. All people indicted later are to be tried in Yugoslav courts.

 The Hague tribunal had already indicted Mr. Stojiljkovic for his role as head of the ministry in charge of Serbian police during the Kosovo crisis. The U.S. Congress recently froze aid to Yugoslavia after Belgrade failed to meet a March 31 deadline to show cooperation with the War crimes tribunal. Passage of the law is seen as a Yugoslav effort to restore the aid.
 
 

Some information for this report provided by AFP.

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