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Leading article: It is not only Mr Milosevic who must confront the truth about Serbia's crimes

After his fall from power and his arrest in Belgrade, Slobodan Milosevic was getting used to a fresh humiliation yesterday: life as one of 39 prisoners of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal, in a cell measuring 15 square metres.

The journey Mr Milosevic feared most began when the chief prison warder in Belgrade, Dane Blanusa, told him just before 6pm on Thursday (5pm British time): "Mr Milosevic, you have to go on a trip."

The Serbian government had decided to hand him over. Mr Milosevic asked him where he was going. "To The Hague," was the reply.

"What, already?" he said.

Whereupon the former Yugoslav and Serbian president packed his slippers, changed into a pair of clean socks and was led to a waiting police van.

At Tuzla air base in Bosnia, from where he was flown to The Hague on a British military plane, he was greeted by a prosecutor who read out the indictment against him. Mr Milosevic listened and said: "I don't recognise your court."

His journey ended at Scheveningen jail at 1.23am yesterday when two helicopters swooped down behind the walled compound of the prison housing indicted war criminals. All lights were dimmed in an operation so covert that the crowd of several hundred outside could barely see the landing.

The only glimpse of Mr Milosevic came from a long-lens shot by Dutch television, which showed him being led across the prison yard by two guards. The white hair and portly figure looked familiar but it seemed hard to believe this was the man who dominated the Balkans for a blood-stained decade.

Like all the others inside the Scheveningen unit, Mr Milosevic was given an immediate medical test and the tribunal said later that there were no reports of problems. Given Mr Milosevic's reputation for depression, that seemed difficult to believe and Jim Landale, spokesman for the UN tribunal, added that the ex-president would be monitored for weeks to come.

"He had a mental and physical examination but there is a continuing assessment of his health and well being, mental as well as physical," he said.

Mr Milosevic once said he would rather shoot himself than appear at The Hague, and the authorities have special suicide watch facilities, if deemed necessary, including monitoring by closed-circuit television.

Breakfast was before 8.30am but other details of Mr Milosevic's day were sparse. Mr Landale said the ex-president spent his morning "familiarising himself with his new situation" and the rules governing the detention unit.

As with all new prisoners Mr Milosevic spent most of his first day behind bars in his cell, with "around an hour of fresh air", rather than mixing with other fellow inmates.

By most standards the regime would not count as harsh. The UN has a specially built unit inside the normal Scheveningen prison, the main part of which contains Dutch inmates. But for those facing trial at the war crimes tribunal, conditions are not those of a standard Western or Balkan jail.

The cells are all single, equipped with a bed, desk and chair, cupboards with shelves, a shower and lavatory and wash basin. Mr Milosevic has access to radio and television, including satellite channels not only in Dutch and English but also in Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian. He more than likely saw news of his own incarceration.

The former president will also be allowed family visits and access to his own lawyers.

The first formal appearance will be on Tuesday at 10am when charges including crimes against humanity in Kosovo will be read in Serbian, and Mr Milosevic will be asked to enter a plea. The case itself will not start before next year.

When his initial assessment is finished Mr Milosevic will be able to associate freely with prisoners on his floor of the three-storey unit.

His day will begin with breakfast in the cell, after which the doors are opened until midday when inmates have lunch locked inside. They are free to leave the cell from 1pm to 5pm, when their evening meal is provided inside the cell. From 6pm until lock-up at 8.30pm they are also allowed out of the narrow confines of their room.

That means Mr Milosevic will be able to associate freely with those accused of some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. They include the Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic, Dusko Sikirica, commander of some of the most notorious camps, and Blagoje Simic, the Bosnian Serb mayor accused of orchestrating a savage campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Mr Milosevic phoned his family from prison and said he had been "kidnapped" for a "political" trial, according to his lawyer, Branimir Gugl. The former Serb strongman also denied any guilt, saying he had a "clear conscience" and had worked "in the interest of the Serbian people".

The same 10-member lawyers' team, which had prepared his defence on local corruption charges in Yugoslavia, is to defend him in The Hague.

Mr Landale described yesterday as a real turning point, adding: "We have moved from trying camp guards to begin with, to very senior army generals and relatively senior politicians." The arrival of Mr Milosevic and the new co-operation from Belgrade made this the tribunal's "most important moment".