Slobodan Milosevic is today under siege at his villa after refusing to recognise a warrant for his arrest. After a raid on his home in Belgrade, he rejected the warrant, saying he refused to "recognise these police and these authorities, all of them being NATO servants".
The Serbian government says it ordered the arrest of Mr Slobodan Milosevic for abuse of office but that the former Yugoslav president had resisted detention and vowed he would "not go to prison alive."
It was the authorities' first substantial comment on a night in which two attempts were made to detain Mr Milosevic in the official villa he still occupies in Belgrade despite having been deposed by a popular revolt in October. In the second attempt, masked commandos clashed with Mr Milosevic's bodyguards amid gunfire.
With police still surrounding the walled compound, Serbian Interior Minister Mr Dusan Mihajlovic told a news conference: "Milosevic will be under house arrest until he agrees to show up in front of an investigating judge...
"When employees of the Ministry of Interior estimate that it is possible to carry out the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, it will be done. And they have the proper authorization to do so...He will either come in by himself or we will take him in, with or without force."
He said Mr Milosevic was being charged with abuse of office and financial crimes, but that there was no current intent to send him to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which has indicted him for atrocities committed in Kosovo in 1999.
He said the former president had told police who went to negotiate with him on Friday that "he will not be taken to prison alive."
The raid came just before the expiry of a deadline set by U.S. legislation for President Bush to declare whether Yugoslavia is cooperating with the U.N. tribunal.
Belgrade may face U.S. economic sanctions and a withholding of $50 million in aid if it is not deemed to be co-operating but Washington appears likely to be satisfied with an attempt to put Milosevic behind bars, even if it is not for extradition. A number of his former associates have already been detained.
Mihajlovic, a member of the reformist coalition that has taken power in Belgrade since Milosevic was overthrown, said the police raid had been thwarted by the head of an army unit which guards Milosevic's villa.
He said the officer, told by police to reduce the size of Milosevic's official bodyguard to just one, had given the keys to the compound to private guards loyal to Milosevic.
He said a meeting had been held, "but the problem could not be solved because of Yugoslav Army obstruction."
The Politika newspaper cited "the most reliable source" in the Serbian Justice Ministry as saying the army's chief of staff, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, had blocked the arrest.
The comments followed a night of confusion during which, at one time, Serbia's deputy prime minister said Mr Milosevic had been detained and taken before a judge.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Milosevic was seen greeting a crowd of around 100 supporters outside his home.
Some time later, police commandos in black jackets and balaclavas drove up to the compound at speed and clambered over gates. Shots rang out and glass was smashed as they took up positions inside and outside. Calm returned around 3 a.m.
Speculation that an arrest was imminent had mounted on Friday afternoon when a police van, an ambulance and several unmarked cars showed up near the villa - apparently to try to negotiate Mr Milosevic's surrender.
