Milosevic in Detention at The Hague

June 28 -- Former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic is in detention at a prison in The Hague, where he will face trail for alleged atrocities committed in Kosovo.

Milosevic, who would be the first former head of government to be brought before the International War Crimes Tribunal, arrived by helicopter at the Scheveningen jail around 1:15 a.m. Friday local time. A Hague spokesman confirmed Milosevic was in the detention unit.

His journey started earlier today when Yugoslav officials turned Milosevic in to tribunal officials.

"The former Yugoslav president was handed over to The Haguetribunal," Yugolsav government spokesman Nemanja Kolesar said in a brief statement.

Milosevic was indicted on charges that he orchestrated atrocities committed in Kosovo during the crackdown he ordered on the province'sethnic Albanian population. The crackdown ended after NATO's 78-day bombing campaign.

He was flown to a NATO military base in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on a Serb aircraft. According to a senior Pentagon official, Milosevic was set to be picked up by British aircraft, with security from The Hague, and transported to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague in the Netherlands.

NATO security at the Tuzla base was considerably beefed up in preparation for the arrival of the former Serb strongman, ABCNEWS has learned.

During the course of his 13-year authoritarian reign, Milosevic fomented a reawakening of Serb nationalism that saw his country through crippling wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and the rending of the old state of Yugoslavia along ethnic lines.

After a Fight

Today's dramatic move came hours after Yugoslavia's highest court temporarily suspended a government decree intended to pave the way for Milosevic's extradition to The Hague.

The constitutional court said it wanted time to evaluate an appeal by Milosevic's lawyers against the decree, which was issued by the Yugoslav government last week.