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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Albright Renews Anti-Milosevic Plan</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By The Associated Press<br>BERLIN (AP)-- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday renewed a so-far unsuccessful campaign to depose Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>``As far as U.S. policy is concerned, we want to see Milosevic out of power, out of Serbia and in The Hague,'' Albright said, referring to the international court that indicted him on charges of war crimes in the Kosovo conflict. <br><br>Speaking at a conference on democracy in the Balkans, Albright said, ``If Milosevic cared at all about the rule of law, he would turn himself over to The Hague and stand trial.'' <br><br>She credited Serbs in opposition to his rule, some of whom attended the conference, as supporters of democracy and said Serbia's desperate economic plight is the result not of U.S., U.N. and European sanctions, but ``the mismanagement and thievery of a regime that has enriched Milosevic's cronies, while leaving everyone else with scraps.'' <br><br>Albright urged the private groups at the conference to assist ``courageous political and municipal leaders, journalists, students and other activists trying to assemble the nuts and bolts of freedom'' in Serbia, the larger of the two republics remaining in truncated Yugoslavia. <br><br>She called Milosevic's government the biggest impediment to democratic progress in the region. Milosevic ``is now waging war against the democratic aspirations of his own people -- a people that deserve far, far better,'' she said. <br><br>In the speech and over breakfast with Serbian opponents of Milosevic, Albright condemned an anti-terrorism law approved by the Serbian parliament. <br><br>``Its transparent purpose is to provide a respectable cover for repressive policies,'' she said. <br><br>In the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo, the Clinton administration helped upset Belgrade's rule. <br><br>Reviewing progress toward democracy, Albright said Bosnia's leaders have been slow to adopt economic policies needed to attract investment to create jobs and sustain growth, <br><br>And in Kosovo, she said, rivalry among factions is testing the democratic tradition of coexistence. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will not learn to live together overnight, she said. <br><br>While the level of violence has decreased dramatically in the province since the start of the year, tensions among ethnic groups remain high, Albright said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Croatia seeks warcrimes charges for Dubrovnik</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br> <br>ZAGREB, June 27 (Reuters) - Croatia said on Tuesday it had given documents on the Yugoslav bombardment of Dubrovnik in 1991 to the international war crimes tribunal to speed up indictments of the army and paramilitaries. <br>Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic told a news conference that Croatia's new reformist government had given several documents and video tapes related to the 1991 siege and bombing of the Adriatic city to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). <br><br>He said these were given to the ICTY's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte during her recent visit. <br><br>"By doing this we wanted to speed up the process of investigating and indicting (the Yugoslav army and paramilitaries). We intend to provide more material so that indictments are raised and Madam del Ponte has publicly pledged to do so in near future," he said. <br><br>The area south of Dubrovnik was overrun by Yugoslav army and Montenegrin reservists in autumn 1991. The city itself, a key tourist destination on the Adriatic coast, was shelled from overlooking mountains held by Bosnian Serbs. <br><br>Montenegro's pro-Western President Milo Djukanovic apologised at the weekend to the Croatian people, particularly to those living in Dubrovnik, for the "pain and damage" they suffered at the hands of his compatriots. <br><br>Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Montenegro is still a member of the Yugoslav federation, together with Serbia, but has increasingly sought more independence from Belgrade. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslavia Drafts Tough Anti-Terrorism Law</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br> <br>BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav authorities released details Tuesday of a draft anti-terrorism law that critics say will plunge the country into "darkness and fear." <br>The draft, which parliament is expected to pass Friday, foresees jail terms of at least five years for "acts that threaten constitutional order." <br><br>The phrase is a catch-all term often applied to opposition groups, particularly the student-based Otpor or Resistance movement, that are campaigning to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to step down. <br><br>Lawyers said the draft violated existing law and was clearly targeted against opponents of Milosevic, both in Serbia and Montenegro, where the pro-Western government has edged away from Belgrade over the past two years. <br><br>It enables suspects to be held without charge for 30 days compared with the three days set down under existing laws and the theoretical 24-hour limit set in the Yugoslav constitution. <br><br>Information about proceedings may not be made public and witnesses can be held for 30 days if they refuse to testify. <br><br>"The true name of this act is not the anti-terrorism but the anti-opposition law," the opposition Christian Democratic party said in a statement. <br><br>Another opposition party said the law, which also envisages at least five years' jail for acts threatening the "territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" (FRY), was an attempt to provoke conflict in the smaller republic Montenegro. <br><br>Montenegro has taken control over some of its borders and its foreign and monetary policy in the past two years -- actions that could be seen as "terrorist" under the new law. <br><br>"Citizens of the FRY are facing darkness and fear," the Djordje Subotic from the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina told a news conference. <br><br> <br><br>LAW OPEN TO WIDE INTERPRETATION <br><br>The activities defined in the law include kidnapping, arson and nuclear blackmail as well as "generally dangerous activities...(that) create a feeling of insecurity and fear among citizens" -- a phrase open to wide interpretation. <br><br>Serbian Deputy Justice Minister Zoran Balinovic told the Vecernje Novosti newspaper last week that traffic blockades -- something that has been discussed by the opposition -- would be considered terrorism as they endangered citizens' security. <br><br>Sinisa Nikolic, a lawyer for the opposition Democratic Party, said by telephone the law could easily be abused. <br><br>"The proposal is legally inaccurate and leaves great space for misconduct at the expense of human rights," he said. <br><br>Igor Olujic, from the Humanitarian Law Center, a non-governmental organization that monitors political trials, said recent legal practice made him fear the worst. <br><br>A prosecutor in the southern Serbian town of Leskovac had on Monday called for an Otpor activist who tried to paint the movement's symbol, a clenched fist, on a police station wall, to be investigated for threatening constitutional order, he said. <br><br>Olujic said if Otpor was declared a terrorist organization under the new law -- something he said would be legally incorrect but possible in the current climate -- people could be jailed for at least three years for just wearing an Otpor badge. <br><br>"I hope it's only meant to scare people," he said. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>EU approves humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>June 27, 2000<br><br>BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- The European Commission on Tuesday approved 61 million euros ($57.38 million) in funding to provide humanitarian aid for refugees, displaced people and ordinary citizens in Yugoslavia. <br><br>The funding will enable the Commission's own aid office and humanitarian organizations to carry out projects such as providing better food supplies, shelter, sanitation, and community and health services. <br><br>The Commission, the EU's executive, said in a statement Serbia would receive 31.9 million euros, 18.1 million would go to Kosovo province and 5.3 million would go to Montenegro. About 5.7 million would be placed in a contingency reserve fund. <br><br>"The objective is to continue covering the most urgent needs throughout the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including Kosovo," it said. <br><br>The Commission said it had already provided about 378 million euros in aid for people affected by violence in Kosovo. <br><br>The EU has been trying to help ordinary people and the democratic opposition in Yugoslavia while at the same time attempting to isolate Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Milosevic is a U.N.-indicted war criminal and the EU regards him as a major obstacle to democracy after years of conflict in the region. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : Kosovans accuse four British peacekeepers of theft </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Four British soldiers of the peacekeeping force in Kosovo have been accused of stealing money and valuables from ethnic Albanian civilians at a checkpoint, the Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday. <br>The four members of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers have been separated and given other duties. <br><br>The civilians say that the soldiers took mobile phones, cameras and up to £10,000-worth of German marks at a checkpoint in the provincial capital, Pristina. <br><br>"Because it was a four-man patrol and an allegation was made that money and effects were stolen, they are all under investigation," an MoD spokesman said.<br>"But we don't know yet whether it's one or more that actually are being accused." <br><br>The military police special investigation branch was investigating, and the soldiers "would be dealt with quite severely" if the allegations proved true, he added <br><br>Meanwhile international aid agencies which pulled out of Serb-held areas of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica last Friday said yesterday that they would not return until there were better guarantees for the safety of their staff. <br><br>"If we were to go back without some kind of explicit agreement [with Kosovo Serb leaders], then next time we will have somebody killed. It will not just be a matter of somebody being beaten," said Paula Ghedini of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which coordinates the international aid effort. <br><br>Ms Ghedini had a letter from Oliver Ivanovic, the self-proclaimed leader of the Serbs in Mitrovica, saying the aid organisations' decision to suspend work was "hasty and politicised". The Serb National Council in north Mitrovica did not support violence and had condemned individuals responsible for recent attacks on aid staff and their vehicles. <br><br>Ms Ghedini said this fell short of what was needed. In less than a year, 90 aid agency vehicles had been damaged and 36 destroyed in Mitrovica in clearly coordinated attacks. <br><br>Dennis McNamara, UNHCR chief in Kosovo, was meeting the Serbs and UN security staff in Mitrovica and the situation would be reviewed daily. Meanwhile, the UN police were working to improve their response.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>AFP : Five on trial accused of attempted killing of Milosevic on French orders</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, June 26 (AFP) - Five men accused of plotting to assassinate Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic under French orders were scheduled for trial here Tuesday, seven months after spectacular accusations levelled by the authorities.<br><br>The five were originally accused of devising four different plans to kill Milosevic, including a sniper attack, a bomb placed in a gutter, a booby-trapped car and an armed raid on his residence.<br><br>The accused, all Serbs from Yugoslavia and Bosnia, were arrested last November, alleged to be members of an underground group called Spider.<br><br>The Belgrade prosecution charges that they took instructions from Paris.<br><br>"France was caught red-handed," Information Minister Goran Matic said at the time.<br><br>But his allegations that a French intelligence service connected with the group was involved in a plot to kill Milosevic were dismissed by French officials as "totally unsubstantiated."<br><br>Matic said Spider had been set up in 1996 and headed by Jugoslav Petrusic, a 37-year-old man with joint Yugoslav-French citizenship.<br><br>Petrusic had worked for France for 10 years under the codename "Dominique," the minister charged.<br><br>Petrusic is on trial with Milorad Pelemis, 35, Branko Vlaco, 46, Rade Petrovic, 25, and Slobodan Orasanin, 43.<br><br>Matic said the five were "ruthless mercenaries," who had fought in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars on the Serb side, but had also been undercover agents recruited by France.<br><br>The original charges that the five had devised four different plans for the assassination of Milosevic were later dropped.<br><br>Instead they were charged by a Belgrade court with "spying for a foreign country" -- France -- and with the murder of two Albanians in the Kosovo province during 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.<br><br>However, full details of the indictment have not been made public yet, and the start of the trial on Tuesday was to be in camera, "due to the revealing of details considered top secret," defence lawyers said.<br><br>Thirteen prosecution witnesses are to testify, defence lawyer Nenad Vukasovic said, stressing difficulties in the communication process with the defendants.<br><br>Since the start of the investigation, only a handful of details linked to the investigation have leaked out, and press reports have frequently repeated Matic's claims of Spider's involvement in a series of crimes in the past decade.<br><br>Matic alleged that in 1994 Petrusic had committed a "massacre in Algeria in which 15 Algerians were killed, on the instructions of France."<br><br>The minister also claimed Petrusic was part of a group that had participated in the July 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, the bloodiest incident of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.<br><br>Matic said Pelemis, Vlaco and Petrovic had been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes committed in Srebrenica, but that they had escaped prosecution by working for the French.<br><br>After the end of Bosnian war in 1996, Petrusic had been involved in recruiting foreign mercenaries for fighting in Zaire -- the present day Democratic Republic of Congo -- again under French instructions, Matic asserted.<br><br>During the Kosovo bombing campaign, the Spider group had gone to the province in a failed attempt to kill a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), "Commander Remi," but the group had later killed several Albanians in the province, the minister also claimed.<br><br>After the end of NATO bombings in June 1999, Petrusic had allegedly returned to France, but later came to Kosovo with the French contingent of the NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR), under the name "Jean-Pierre Pironi", according to Matic.<br><br>"His task was to take part in setting up the mixed civilian police in the province, whose members he would recruit for the French secret services," Matic said.<br><br>Neither the authorities in Belgrade nor the media have said the alleged plot was uncovered, while evidence presented to journalists has consisted mostly of photographs and unclear statements by Petrusic and the others given during the investigation.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Washington Post : U.S. Seeks Envoy's Ouster</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Colum Lynch<br><br>UNITED NATIONS, June 23 –– The United States is campaigning to kick Serbia's U.N. envoy out of the United Nations, at least temporarily, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said today. <br><br>Richard C. Holbrooke said that Belgrade's envoy, Vladislav Jovanovic, continues to be accredited to the United Nations as the representative of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, even though that country ceased to exist in the early 1990s. He said Serbia must re-apply for membership in the United Nations as a newly independent state, or leave the organization.<br><br>"This is going to be an all-out effort to dislodge Yugoslavia from the United Nations. We may win. We may fail," Holbrooke said in an interview. "The flag flying [at U.N. headquarters] on First Avenue is the flag of a country that hasn't existed in a decade--Tito's Yugoslavia."<br><br>Holbrooke announced the U.S. campaign shortly after the Security Council, acting at the behest of the United States, voted to bar Jovanovic from participating in a council debate on the Balkans. The U.S. envoy said that he and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright would urge their counterparts in New York and in foreign capitals to support the U.S. position.<br><br>The United Nations decided in 1993 that the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceased to exist and that each new country should apply for membership. The former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have since done so.<br><br>But the government of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic "refused to apply again, saying that they were the successor state and the other states were just breakaway renegades," Holbrooke said.<br><br>While Belgrade has been denied a seat in the U.N. General Assembly since 1993, the U.N.'s legal office decided to accredit the government's U.N. mission and allow it to participate in a number of U.N. committees. In the past, the Serbian representative has been permitted to sit in the Security Council as an observer.<br><br>Holbrooke said that since he became the U.S. ambassador nine months ago, he has quietly persuaded his colleagues to bar Jovanovic from addressing the council. But Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, decided today to put the issue to a vote. He was defeated 7 to 4, with China, Namibia and Ukraine supporting Moscow.<br><br>After the vote, Lavrov stormed out of the council chamber in protest, saying it was "nonsense" to discuss the Balkan troubles without the presence of Milosevic's representative.<br><br>"Gagging people's mouths is not the best way to discuss the acute international problems. . . . Even a defendant has a right to defend his or her position," Lavrov said.<br><br>"The Russians in effect triggered this fight by raising the issue," Holbrooke responded. "And now we're going to go at it."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : British drag off death camp Serb </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Julian Borger <br><br>British troops in Bosnia snatched the commander of one of the Serb's most notorious wartime prison camps yesterday, breaking down the door of his home and wrestling him to the ground before flying him to the Hague to face trial. <br>Dusko Sikirica was indicted by the war crimes tribunal in July 1995 for genocide and crimes against humanity for presiding over the massacre of Muslims and Croats at the Keraterm camp in Prijedor. <br><br>Serb news media reported that British troops, including members of the SAS, drove up to Mr Sikirica's house in Prijedor at 2.45am in four vehicles. They knocked down the door, forced him to the floor, tied him up and dragged him away. Within hours he was on a flight to the Netherlands. <br><br>Since 1997, 21 war crimes suspects have been taken to the Hague for trial, eight of them since October, when George Robertson, the former British defence secretary, became Nato secretary general. He promised to make the arrest of war criminals a priority. <br><br>Keraterm ranks alongside Omarska, Trnopolje and Srebrenica as one of the most gruesome massacre sites of the Bosnian war. According to the indictment against Mr Sikirica, more than 3,000 prisoners were held in the abandoned ceramics factory, where they were "killed, sexually assaulted, tortured, beaten and otherwise subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment". <br><br>"The overcrowded conditions were extreme, to the extent that on many occasions the detainees could not lie down," it added. "Detainees were fed starvation rations once a day, with little time to eat. <br><br>"Severe beatings were commonplace; all manner of weapons were used, including wooden batons, metal rods, baseball bats, lengths of thick industrial cable that had metal balls affixed to the end." <br><br>The corpses of detainees were piled next to a garbage area. <br><br>In one incident in July 1992, the guards herded 140 inmates into a factory warehouse and mowed them down with machine guns. When they discovered that a few prisoners had somehow survived the massacre and escaped, they selected 20 other prisoners and executed them on the spot, the indictment said. <br><br>Twelve camp guards and officials were charged with war crimes alongside Mr Sikirica. Three of them are already in custody. He was indicted for genocide because of his role as camp commander. <br><br>"This detention shows the international community has not forgotten one of the most gruesome episodes of the war," the defence secretary, Geoffrey Hoon, and foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said yesterday. <br><br>Mr Sikirica is one of the most senior Serb officers from the camps to be arrested as Nato troops start to focus on the higher ranks of the Bosnian Serb authorities. Momcilo Krajisnik, the breakaway republic's deputy leader, was arrested in April. <br><br>The wartime Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, remain at large. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times : U.N. Mission in Kosovo Proposes to Set Up a War Crimes Court </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br> <br>PRISTINA, Kosovo, June 22 -- The head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, plans to create an internationally run court to try war and ethnic crimes in the province, an official in Dr. Kouchner's agency said today. <br>"This will be the first court of its nature," said the official, Fernando Castanon, who heads the prosecution services in the United Nations administration and who will coordinate the court installation. "It is a response to such a need for justice." <br><br>The proposed tribunal, the Kosovo War and Ethnic Crimes Court, would be headed by international judges and prosecutors and supplemented by equal numbers of Albanian, Serbian and other ethnic judges. Experts expect the court to break ground in pursuing justice after the Kosovo conflict, blending the impartiality and scope of an international tribunal with the immediacy of locally executed justice. <br><br>Proposed by a commission of Albanian and international legal experts last year, the court plan has languished as an idea, neglected as the United Nations administration tried to establish a local judiciary. But Serbian judges have refused or been intimidated from serving on the local courts, leaving the system hopelessly one-sided. The proposal for the special court has emerged as the crucial element and, perhaps, last chance to bring justice and reconciliation to Kosovo. <br><br>The court would be a specialized agency, with precedence over local courts and concentrating on war crimes in the Kosovo conflict and on serious crimes since the war that have racial, ethnic or political grounds. Its mandate would cover war crimes committed by Serbs in the conflict, and the court would try Albanians in the abductions and killings of Serbs and other minorities during and after the war. <br><br>Dr. Kouchner is widely expected to sign a regulation to establish the court in 15 days. According to a United Nations official who is close to him, Dr. Kouchner has made his decision in recognition that attempts to give the local judiciary a chance have failed. <br><br>"Kouchner thinks we need a credible judiciary," the official said. "Taking stock of one year in office, that is our failure. The only way to kick start it now is with internationals." <br><br>As violence continues to simmer between the majority Albanian and dwindling Serbian communities, a judicial system is essential if international peacekeepers, police forces and administrators are to stabilize the province, said Kosovare Kelmendi, an Albanian lawyer who heads the Pristina office of the Humanitarian Center for Law. "It has to start as fast as possible," Ms. Kelmendi said. <br><br>A year after the conflict ended and the United Nations took over, Albanian victims of Serbian forces' war crimes have yet to see justice in the courts. The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has indicted President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and four others, and it is preparing additional charges. But prosecutors concede that they cannot handle all the cases.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>IWPR : Anti-terrorism Law Poses "Monstrous Threat" </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">New anti-terrorist legislation in Serbia would strike at the very heart of civil liberties and crush the last vestiges of democracy.<br><br>By Slobodan Vucetic in Belgrade (BCR No. 150, 20-June-00)<br><br>Incapable of finding a way out of the deep economic, social and political crisis and burdened with the problems of international isolation, the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has resorted to wide-ranging repression.<br><br>Through the suppression of the independent media and an aggressive "anti-terrorist" campaign, the regime aims to intimidate those citizens who do not share its views.<br><br>The principal "internal enemies, fascists and terrorists" and all those supposedly undermining the country are in reality unarmed students and school pupils, members of the Otpor (Resistance) movement.<br><br>Their only terrorist activity amounts to plastering posters with the name Otpor and the clenched fist symbol (a reference to the old communists) on walls.<br><br>Having failed to prove earlier claims that these students and some opposition parties are engaged in terrorist activities, the regime has come up with a fiendish idea - the immediate introduction in Serbia of a new law against terrorism. Under this proposed legislation, the term "terrorism" would enjoy a very flexible interpretation.<br><br>The details of the new law have yet to be revealed. But Serbia's Deputy Justice Minister, Zoran Balinovac, has suggested that merely the "intention" to commit a violent crime would be enough to support a terrorism charge. <br><br>The state controlled television and media have being laying the groundwork for this new legislation, reporting the urgent need for such measures in light of the experience of other countries with similar patterns of terrorist activity. <br><br>But it is quite clear these forms of terrorism do not exist in Serbia.<br><br>Of course, every state has a right and a duty to combat terrorism, but this fight must be conducted in line with constitutional guarantees of civil liberty and civic rights. The limits of executive power must be respected.<br><br>The regime's intention is to use this new 'Law against Terrorism' to limit the basic freedoms of its citizens. Under the constitution, these rights can only be limited during wartime or during a state of emergency.<br><br>Only when specific legal and constitutional conditions are met can the Federal Parliament or Federal Government declare war or a state of emergency. <br><br>No such legal or constitutional conditions exist in Serbia. There is no "large scale internal unrest which threatens the constitutional order of the country," to cite the Law of Defence, Article 4.<br><br>Should Milosevic's regime pass such a law then it would be in breach of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FRY, especially of those clauses guaranteeing basic civil freedoms.<br><br>A group of pliant officials within the Serbian judiciary have already announced in the media the possible introduction of rigorous new restrictions of basic rights and freedoms. These officials have cited so-called "higher interests" and the "urgent need to protect society from terrorism" as the reasons behind the new rules.<br><br>The proposed increase in police powers of detention, restrictions on a suspect's rights to a proper defence and the introduction of quick trials would all be in contravention of the FRY constitution and the Federal Law on Legal Proceedings, legislation introduced during Tito's time. <br><br>Under the current Law on Legal Proceedings, police powers are already vast - a suspect can be detained for up to 72 hours without access to a defence lawyer - and unconstitutional.<br><br>Citizens deemed "politically unfit" are already being subjected to so-called "informative chats" at their local police stations - which also breach existing laws.<br><br>There are suggestions the new law would legalise the use of telephone tapping devices and bugs and that the police would be allowed to submit such recordings as evidence in court.<br><br>Such proposals are monstrous and represent a dangerous political and legal precedent. They threaten the freedom of Serbian citizens and the future and international reputation of the country.<br><br>Constitutional rights to privacy would be breached. There would be no guarantee that such recordings had been made after the introduction of the legislation or that the material had not been tampered with, edited or taken out of context.<br><br>It has already been announced that the police will be granted the right to break into private premises without a court order or two witnesses, whenever they deem there is "reasonable evidence" a terrorist act is being prepared.<br><br>At present the Serbian constitution and the federal constitution (Article 31) allow police to do so only "if it is necessary to arrest a person who has committed a criminal offence or to rescue people or property in a manner defined by Federal Law."<br><br>It should come as no surprise if all forms of public (and private) criticism of the regime and its officials are redefined as an act of terrorism and if all public gatherings of more than five people are banned - except those by members of the ruling parties, of course.<br><br>Judging by comments from Serbia's minister of justice and his colleagues in the Party of the Yugoslav Left, JUL, they are keen to see a statutory provision for special courts dedicated to combating terrorism. Magistrates who have already demonstrated their worthiness be passing down draconian penalties on the independent media could staff these administrative organs.<br><br>The latest rumours indicate a Federal anti-terrorist law may also be in the pipeline, thereby legalising the arrest of "terrorists" in Montenegro.<br><br>The frightening scope of this proposed Law against Terrorism is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that even Vojislav Seselj - a man renowned as an enemy of democracy and civil rights in Serbia - opposes its introduction.<br><br>Slobodan Vucetic was, until his dismissal six months ago, a judge in the Serbian Constitutional Court. A version of this legal analysis first appeared in the daily newspaper "Blic".</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegro court changes judge in Draskovic case</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, June 21 (Reuters) - A court on Wednesday agreed to a prosecutor's demand to change the judge investigating suspects in the shooting of Yugoslav opposition leader Vuk Draskovic. <br>The higher court in Podgorica, capital of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, originally appointed Svetlana Vujanovic, wife of Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic, to investigate the case. Prosecutor Vesna Medenica demanded the court disqualify Vujanovic. <br><br>"Another judge, Zoran Zivkovic, was appointed to investigate the case. The defence has no right to complaint," said Nikola Martinovic, the lawyer representing two of the suspects detained in the case. Four others are being hunted by police. <br><br>"The prosecutor's demand to disqualify Vujanovic was justified by a need to protect rights of the accused during the prosecution process," Martinovic told Reuters. <br><br>The change in judges, approved by the higher court's president Milan Radovic, would delay the first hearing for suspects Ivan Lovric, 25, and his brother Milan 19, until Thursday at 0900 (0700 GMT), he said. <br><br>Montenegrin police filed charges of terrorism on Tuesday against six people suspected of the attack last week on Vuk Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement. Draskovic was wounded when gunmen fired a hail of bullets through a window of his apartment in the Adriatic seaside resort of Budva. <br><br>Police named four of the suspects as the Lovric brothers, Vladimir Jovanovic, 32, and Dusan Spasojevic, 32, and said Jovanovic had organised the assassination bid. They said they were hunting two more unnamed suspects. <br><br>Police said the four named suspects all came from Serbia, tiny Montenegro's bigger partner in the Yugoslav federation. They said they had asked Serbian police for help in apprehending those still at large. <br><br>Draskovic, who once joined the government of Slobodan Milosevic only to be sacked a few months later, was last year in a car crash which he called an assassination attempt. He has accused the Yugoslav president of responsibility for last week's shooting. <br><br>A Yugoslav government minister said Milosevic's foes, ranging from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to domestic opponents, were instead behind the attack. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Washington Post: Prosecutor: No Milosevic Deal</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"> <br>By George Jahn<br>Associated Press Writer<br>Wednesday, June 21, 2000; 8:38 AM <br><br><br>PRISTINA, Yugoslavia –– The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal denied Wednesday that the tribunal is willing to cut a deal with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and drop its indictment against him. <br><br><br>The prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, also announced that Milosevic's archenemies in Kosovo – the former commanders of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Milosevic's forces until a year ago – are being investigated on suspicion of war crimes. And she said that Milosevic might face additional charges for his role in previous Balkan wars.<br><br><br>Milosevic is already indicted by the tribunal for his alleged role in atrocities during the Serb crackdown on Kosovo Albanians that ended a year ago. Del Ponte's denial that the tribunal might drop the indictment was a response to news reports that the United States is considering offering Milosevic safety guarantees in exchange for him stepping down.<br><br><br>"My investigators will continue their forensic work in Kosovo to gather additional evidence concerning the existing indictment of Slobodan Milosevic," Del Ponte told reporters. "We have no intention to withdraw this indictment.<br><br><br>It is unclear what kind of international pressure could be brought on the court, which answers to the United Nations, but Del Ponte's comments were an indication that the court itself was not aware of any kind of deal for Milosevic.<br><br><br>There is no indication in any case that Milosevic is contemplating a deal that would see him step down in exchange for safety guarantees. While facing international isolation, he has managed to consolidate his rule by outmaneuvering a split political opposition.<br><br><br>In her comments Wednesday, Del Ponte said the tribunal is "investigating the criminal responsibility of Milosevic for (wars in) Bosnia and Croatia."<br><br><br>Milosevic fomented Serb rebellions, first in Croatia and then in Bosnia, in response to decisions by the non-Serb majorities in those two republics to secede from Yugoslavia. Hundreds of thousands of people died in those two wars.<br><br><br>Her comments on the Kosovo Liberation Army, meanwhile, appeared calculated at least in part to dispel Serb criticism that the war crimes tribunal is biased against Serbs. Serbs have accounted for the majority of those indicted as a result of the Croatian, Bosnian and Kosovo wars, and no ethnic Albanian has been publicly indicted for the Kosovo conflict.<br><br><br>"We are investigating KLA activity during the conflict," Del Ponte said. "Our mandate is always to look at the highest responsibility in the chain of command, and that is also the case for the KLA."<br><br><br>Serbia has barred tribunal officials from entry since the end of the Kosovo bloodshed. Del Ponte urged Serb officials to allow them in so they can interview Serb victims and witnesses of atrocities in Kosovo who later fled the province.<br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslavia committed to firm ties with India: Milosevic</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, June 21 (AFP) - <br>Yugoslavia is committed to develop strong ties with India in a bid to fight policies of colonialism and domination in the world, Tanjug news agency quoted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as saying Wednesday.<br><br>Successful cooperation between the two countries, to which Yugoslavia is committed, is of vital importance to the people of both India and Yugoslavia, Milosevic said Wednesday to the new Indian ambassador in Yugoslavia, Arun Kamur, after receiving his credentials, the agency said.<br><br>Milosevic said the "consistant efforts of the two countries against the policies of colonialism and domination" represented "special contribution to peace and understanding among states and nations", the state-run agency said said.<br><br>Tamjug quoted Kamur as saying that India and Yugoslavia had a long tradition of excellent mutual relations, adding that there was a great potential for future economic cooperation between the two countries.<br><br>Kamur also said that his government was ready to cooperate with Yugoslavia, the agency said.<br><br>Western countries have refused to cooperate with Milosevic and his regime ever since he, along with four associates, was indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia for warcrimes against ethnic Albanians in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Six charged in attack on Serb opposition leader, police say</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Four Serbs and two other people were charged Tuesday with terrorism and attempted murder in an attack on Vuk Draskovic, Serbia's top opposition leader, Montenegrin police said. <br>Two of the Serb men were in custody in Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation. Montenegrin authorities were demanding that their counterparts in Serbia arrest the two other Serbs and search for the remaining pair of unidentified suspects, police said in a report released Tuesday. <br><br>Draskovic, the head of the Serbian Renewal Movement, was shot Thursday at his summer home in the Montenegrin coastal town of Budva. <br><br>Four of the suspects were identified as cousins Milan and Ivan Lovric, 26 and 19; Vladimir Jovanovic, 32; and Dusan Spasojevic, 32, all from Belgrade. They and the two unidentified accomplices are accused of sneaking up to the verandah of Draskovic's summer home and firing eight .32 caliber bullets as he sat on a sofa watching television, the report said. Draskovic was grazed by two shots. <br><br>After opening fire, the six allegedly escaped to an apartment about 100 yards from Draskovic's home, the report said. Police discovered an unlicensed gun during a search of the apartment and immediate vicinity, which ballistics later proved was used in the shooting, the report said. <br><br>In the report, police accuse the suspects of carrying out a carefully premeditated attack. It was not immediately clear whether they allegedly devised the plan on their own or were working for someone else. Draskovic has accused Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's regime of being behind the shooting. <br><br>On Tuesday, suspects Milan and Ivan Lovric were brought to a courthouse in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, for a 45-minute appearance amid heavy security. Reporters were not allowed in and no information about the hearing was released. Lawyers said the two were due back in court Wednesday. <br><br>Montenegro's police have been tightlipped about the case, claiming its political sensitivity requires secrecy. They announced Friday they had arrested some of the alleged attackers but failed to say more until Tuesday. <br><br>Since the incident, Draskovic has remained in Budva under heavy police protection. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegro police names Draskovic shooting suspects</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, June 20 (Reuters) - Montenegrin police said on Tuesday they had arrested two suspects in last week's shooting of a Serbian opposition leader and had identified two others who were being sought. <br>Police said two more people were believed to be involved in the assassination attempt against Serbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic on Thursday night, but they did not have their names. <br><br>A police statement said all four named suspects came from Serbia, which together with tiny Montenegro make up the Yugoslav federation. They had asked Serbian police for help in apprehending those still at large, the statement added. <br><br>Draskovic, 53, was wounded when gunmen opened fire through a window of his apartment in the Montenegrin sea resort of Budva. <br><br>Montenegrin police said late on Friday they had detained the gunmen and their accomplices and knew who had ordered the shooting, but did not give any details. <br><br>Draskovic has accused Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of responsibility for the shooting. <br><br>But a Yugoslav government minister said Milosevic's foes, ranging from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to domestic opponents, were behind the shooting. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>No Deal for Milosevic</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">State Department: Policy Toward Yugoslav Leader Unchanged <br> <br>Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been indicted for atrocities Yugoslav security forces allegedly committed in Kosovo before NATO's air campaign drove them from the ethnic-Albanian dominated province last year. (AP Photo)<br><br>June 19 — The State Department today denied a newspaper report saying U.S. officials were looking for a way to let Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic bow out of office without having to face the consequences of his indictment as a war criminal. <br>The United States has not changed its policy toward Milosevic, State Department officials said. The New York Times, citing senior U.S. and NATO officials, reported today the United States has been talking to NATO allies and Russia about the possibility that Milosevic be permitted to leave office with guarantees for his safety and personal assets.<br>“The only place that Milosevic should consider going is the Hague,” a State Department official told ABCNEWS. “The United States continues to view him as a war criminal. <br>“Right now there has been no deal offered, either by Milosevic’s people or by anyone acting as an intermediary,” the official said. <br>The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has indicted Milosevic for atrocities Yugoslav security forces allegedly committed in Kosovo before NATO’s air campaign drove them from the ethnic-Albanian dominated province last year. <br>No Offers, But Some Talk <br>The Times also reported the Clinton administration was not preparing any offer to Milosevic and would not make one.<br>But a senior administration official told ABCNEWS that U.S. allies “have raised this idea periodically but only informally. There have been no formal discussions of any kind … this is just one of those issues that is hanging out there.”<br>“The issue for most people is that if you have to choose at the end of the day between giving Milosevic a safe haven versus keeping him in power, then I think people [in the Administration] would think hard about holding their nose and taking the deal,” the official said.<br>The official also said circumstances would depend on whether Milosevic himself was interested. “The deal has to be something Milosevic agrees to and it seems hard to see him taking such a deal since he is better off in power, even though it is eroding, than by going in to exile.” <br><br>Proposals, Denials <br><br>The Times quoted officials saying various proposals have been made to the United States and Greece in recent weeks by emissaries saying they come from Milosevic. <br>It is less clear is whether they are fully authorized, and whether Milosevic is serious about cutting a deal, the newspaper said.<br>The Times reported that Milosevic and his family are believed to possess large amounts of money in foreign banks, although the size and location of the holdings are not known.<br>Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a Russian diplomatic source as saying the Times report that Moscow was involved in the informal talks on an exit option for Milosevic “has no foundation whatsoever.”<br>Russia “is having no such talks, not with the Americans or anyone else,” Interfax quoted the source as saying. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>War Crimes prosecutor would object to immunity for Milosevic</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Any diplomatic deal to push Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from power must contain no promises of immunity for war crimes, officials at the U.N. tribunal said Monday. <br><br>They were interviewed after The New York Times reported Monday that the Clinton administration is exploring the possibility of a deal for Milosevic to leave office while guaranteeing his safety and his savings. <br><br>Though tribunal officials remain steadfast in objecting to any plan that would grant Milosevic immunity from prosecution, the tribunal would be unlikely to impede diplomatic moves to restore political stability to Yugoslavia, said spokesman Paul Risley, broadly indicating that the chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, would not block a deal for Milosevic to step down from power. <br><br>Deputy Prosecutor Graham Blewitt told reporters in Skopje, Macedonia, that if another country took in Milosevic, the tribunal at The Hague "would not hesitate to send another warrant to that country to arrest him." <br><br>"Any country that agrees to take President Milosevic, who has been indicted by the tribunal, has an obligation to arrest and surrender him," he said. <br><br>There was no immediate comment from the Yugoslav officials on the Times report. However, sources close to the government said Milosevic is not contemplating such an option at the moment and that he has moved to strengthen his grip on power in Yugoslavia. <br><br>Although Milosevic faces international isolation, he has managed to consolidate his rule a year after the NATO bombing left his country in ruins and caused his popularity to plummet among ordinary Serbs. <br><br>In the past year, Milosevic has managed to outmaneuver his political opponents by a combination of increased repression against dissent and an aggressive campaign to reconstruct the country. <br><br>With federal and municipal votes due by the end of the year, Milosevic is more focused on the ways to ensure his ruling coalition's election victory. He could also be hoping that the international political climate would change to his benefit, enabling him to cut a better deal. <br><br>While war crimes suspects in Bosnia constantly are at risk of arrest by NATO troops stationed there, Milosevic -- who rules in Serbia -- does not feel threatened by the alliance's troops in Kosovo, Yugoslavia's southern province. <br><br>Del Ponte was in Skopje on Monday and will travel to Kosovo on Tuesday and Wednesday to pursue the investigation of alleged war crimes in the Yugoslav province. <br><br>The indictment against Milosevic focused on Serb policies in Kosovo, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians. Milosevic's crackdown on Kosovo prompted a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbia last year. <br><br>Risley said the tribunal and the countries that support it "would never permit a guarantee of immunity for any person indicted by the tribunal. <br><br>"That said, the tribunal recognizes the important role of diplomacy in bringing stability to the region," he added in a telephone call from Skopje. <br><br>Other tribunal officials said rumors of U.S. interest in a deal with Milosevic have been floating for some time. A Greek newspaper reported a month ago that U.S. officials had quietly approached Athens to try to work out an arrangement for his departure from office. <br><br>Greece, which has maintained close ties with Belgrade, had acted as an intermediary with Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing campaign. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Nato may offer Milosevic an amnesty if he agrees to quit </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Mary Dejevsky in Washington <br><br><br>20 June 2000 <br><br>One year after the end of the Kosovo conflict, the United States, along with its Nato allies and Russia, is exploring ways to ease the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, from power with his consent, according to a newspaper report yesterday. <br><br>But the report, quoting senior US and Nato officials, said the talks were delicate and informal, and officials denied that any offer was either being prepared or was likely to be made. <br><br>The scenario set out in The New York Times report would require Mr Milosevic to leave power but would guarantee his safety and his savings. While the Serbian leader has so far resisted all efforts to oust him, domestic opposition is mounting, and several of his close allies have been assassinated. <br><br>Yesterday's report bears all the hallmarks of a test of public and political opinion, especially in the US, where the presidential election is less than five months away. Allowing Mr Milosevic to leave office with virtual impunity would anger large sections of the political establishment and the public, not just in the US, but in Europe. <br><br>Mr Milosevic is seen on both continents as the chief instigator of the violence against Kosovo's Albanians which triggered Nato's military intervention. He is also an indicted war criminal; allowing him to go free would imply that one law was applied to subordinates and quite another to leaders. <br><br>In response to the report, a State Department official was quoted as saying there was no change in US policy, which was that the right destination for Mr Milosevic was the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. A senior White House official echoed that view, saying the US would condemn any other proposal. But the official went on: "That's the policy. But would we act to stop it [a deal] or quietly acquiesce is another question." <br><br>In Russia, which has shown considerably more sympathy for the Serbian case, a deal that removed Mr Milosevic from power without subjecting him to prosecution could be a welcome solution. It would allow the new Russian government to keep its pro-Serb sentiments intact while severing ties with a leader who has frequently proved a liability. <br><br>What is uncertain is which side made the first move. It can be inferred from The New York Times account that at least some of the running was made by Mr Milosevic himself, or by his domestic allies. Emissaries purporting to come from Mr Milosevic have reportedly approached officials in the US and in Greece. Russia denied flat out that it was involved in talks about the leader's future. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>US seeks war crime amnesty for Serb leader </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>China is seen as haven if Milosevic gives up power<br><br>Kosovo: special report <br><br>Rory Carroll, Julian Borger in Washington and Helena Smith in Athens <br>Tuesday June 20, 2000 <br><br>It bombed his home, put a bounty on his head and branded him a monster who could never be forgiven, but the United States is quietly seeking a way out for Slobodan Milosevic that would leave his bank account intact. <br>Despite denials, US officials are considering ways to allow the Yugoslav president to leave office without a war crimes trial at the Hague. In what may turn out to be the Balkan endgame, the US is signalling the possibility of a secure retirement for the man blamed for setting Yugoslavia aflame.<br><br>Amid reports that Mr Milosevic is transferring his family fortune to China, officials leaked claims that his emissaries have approached Washington and Athens with proposals for his ceding power in exchange for an amnesty.<br><br>The war crimes tribunal in the Hague insisted yesterday that the Yugoslav leader would have nowhere to hide, but President Bill Clinton's yearning for a historic legacy is said to be opening doors to a deal.<br><br>The US is using Greece as an intermediary to discuss bolt holes, the New York Times reported yesterday. <br><br>"If we were presented with a hard and fast offer that would get Milosevic out of power, we'd have to think very hard before saying no," a senior US administration official said.<br><br>The revelation follows rumours in Belgrade that Mr Milosevic wants out, exhausted by defeat in Kosovo, indict ment by the Hague and economic meltdown.<br><br>His wife, Mira Markovic, haunted by the fate of Romania's executed first couple, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, fears that events are spinning out of control, according to leaks from their tight circle of friends. Mr Milosevic's political allies have been assassinated in a wave of unexplained shootings.<br><br>At the beginning of the year and with Washington's blessing, Greece dispatched envoys to Belgrade to discuss exit scenarios for him and his family. The former Greek prime minister, Constantine Mitsotakis, is willing to act as an interlocutor between the west and Mr Milosevic, his "close friend" and sailing partner.<br><br>Mr Mitsotakis, who belongs to the opposition New Democracy party, has a reputation as the only western politician the Yugoslav leader trusts. <br><br>Last week Mr Mitsotakis reportedly vowed to undertake the mission if the US guaranteed that it was serious and that he was not made an "international laughing stock".<br><br>Denying the New York Times report, the state department yesterday repeated the official position tha Washington would never contemplate offering Mr Milosevic an amnesty from war crimes.<br><br>Any international amnesty deal behind the back of the Hague tribunal would seriously undermine its authority in administering justice in the wake of the Croatian, Bosnian and Kosovo wars.<br><br>Last year the US slapped down opposition leaders in Serbia who sought to arrange an asylum deal for Mr Milosevic as a means of ensuring a peaceful transition of power.<br><br>"If there is any place where he seeks sanctuary, I would recommend the Hague," the US defence secretary, William Cohen, said at the time. Washington has offered a $5m reward for information leading to Mr Milosevic's arrest and delivery to the Hague tribunal.<br><br>One year on, however, the Serbian opposition remains as divided as ever and apparently no closer to ousting Mr Milosevic under its own steam. Disillusionment has made the people of Belgrade sceptical of suggestions that he may step down. The rumours tend to be believed only by senior opposition figures. "Wishful thinking. They've screwed it up so that's all they've left," said one Belgrade shop assistant.<br><br>But the Clinton administration is running out of time, and is deeply concerned about its final balance sheet. Greek officials at the foreign ministry said they believed Mr Milosevic was biding his time until the US presidential election - a view echoed in Belgrade - in the hope of a Republican victory.<br><br>A British diplomat said the Clinton administration's hopes were deluded. "I don't see why he would do it. It's more dangerous for him to quit than it is to stay put."<br><br>Once he cedes power Mr Milosevic will lose all his bargaining chips. Though he is beleaguered, the official opposition in Serbia is in disarray and unpopular. The police and army remain loyal. Street protests have fizzled out.<br><br>One Nato country official insisted, however, that an amnesty was on the cards, saying: "It's in the best solution for everyone, and they [Nato] could spin it as victory. There is a strong argument that democracy should be put ahead of the person."<br><br>Greece, Belarus and Iraq are believed to be among countries ready to provide a haven. Shortly after the Bosnian war the Serb monastery on the self-governing Republic of Mount Athos, in northern Greece, prepared accommodation for Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, though both remained in Serbia.<br><br>According to the Serb opposition leader, Zoran Djindjic, Mr Milosevic has also been offered asylum in China. Of all possible bolt-holes, that is the most likely. His son, Marko, is believed to have recently flown to Beijing to negotiate transfers of family funds with officials in the government, with which his mother's Marxist party, the Yugoslav United Left, enjoys excellent relations.<br><br>Chinese money has been pouring into Belgrade since the end of the Kosovo bombing. Advertisements in China encouraging nationals to emigrate have increased the number of Chinese people living in Serbia to nearly 100,000.<br><br>However last year's indictment as a war criminal would complicate any deal. James Landale, the Hague tribunal's spokesman, said yesterday: "The mandate of the tribunal is handed down by the security council. All states are obliged to cooperate. Anyone who is indicted is indicted for life. No one can nullify or dismiss an indictment, other than the security council."<br><br>Any package deal for Mr Milosevic will have to include his unceasingly loyal wife. "My husband is a perfect man," she wrote in her regular column in a women's magazine.<br><br>The war leaders: at home, in prison - or dead<br><br>• Radovan Karadzic The Bosnian Serb wartime leader who was charged with crimes against humanity and genocide is still living in seclusion in his home in Pale. The S-For peacekeeping troops patrolling the area have been reluctant to storm his house for fear of casualties.<br><br>• Ratko Mladic The Bosnian Serbs' top general, who is living in retirement in the Yugoslav capital, is also wanted for genocide. He commanded the constant shelling of Sarajevo and the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica. His full address is: 119 Blagoja Parovica, Banovo Brdo, Belgrade. He likes to go to horse races and football matches, and continues to draw a monthly pension from the Yugoslav government. <br><br>• Zeljko Raznjatovic, known as Arkan. The leader of the paramilitary group the Tigers was charged last year in a sealed indictment, which was thought to include his role in massacres in Croatia in 1991, Bosnia in 1992 and possibly in Kosovo last year. He was gunned down in a Belgrade hotel soon after the indictment was issued. At the time of his murder, he had been exploring his options, sounding out at least one western country for asylum.<br><br>• Momcilo Krajisnik Karadzic's right-hand man, and the most senior war crimes suspect to have been captured by Nato troops and delivered to the Hague, in April this year. He is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity for his part in implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing across Bosnia from 1991 to 1995.<br><br>• Dusan Tadic Convicted on 11 war crimes counts by the Hague tribunal in 1997 for his part in running the horrific Omarska camp in the Bosnian Serb Republic where inmates, mostly Muslims, were tortured, raped and killed. He is currently appealing against his sentence.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times : NATO's Friends Can't Win Every Vote</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br> <br>WASHINGTON -- To hear some in NATO talk, Montenegro is the unsinkable aircraft carrier in the West's unfinished war against Yugoslavia's president, Slobodan Milosevic. But last week, the carrier took a few shells from Montenegro's voters, a sizable minority of whom want to remain inside Yugoslavia. <br><br>Montenegro is the last republic of Tito's Yugoslavia that remains alongside Serbia in Mr. Milosevic's incredible shrinking state. <br><br>But Montenegro has barely more than 600,000 people -- a third of Belgrade's population -- and represents only 5 percent of Yugoslavia's people. <br><br>Still, Milo Djukanovic, its young president, broke away from Mr. Milosevic and barely defeated a Milosevic ally in 1997. He has also moved sharply toward the West on a platform of virtual and then eventual independence from an undemocratic Belgrade. He opposed Mr. Milosevic's policies toward Kosovo and then defied him during the war there a year ago, raising fears that Montenegro could be the next flashpoint in Yugoslavia. <br><br>But now, an ambiguous election result has reduced the pressure for Montenegrin independence just when few in NATO have much taste for another confrontation with Mr. Milosevic. <br><br>In local elections last week in the capital, Podgorica, and in the seaside town of Herceg Novi, Montenegrins split over competing notions of the republic's future. A coalition called "For Yugoslavia," which supported Mr. Milosevic, won a handy victory in Herceg Novi, while losing in Podgorica, where Mr. Djukanovic is strong. <br><br>It's always easy to make too much of local elections, but the message to American policy makers was clear: Mr. Milosevic has won a round in fair elections. <br><br>"Djukanovic clearly thought he'd get a better result, and he didn't," one senior American official said. "It's not a disaster, but it's a signal." <br><br>For Mr. Djukanovic and his coalition, it is a clear warning that any referendum on independence for Montenegro would not win by the kind of thumping majority that could prevent civil strife. In fact, it could produce civil war and partition. <br><br>Even more important, these deep splits could allow Mr. Milosevic and Belgrade to foment civil strife in Montenegro with a high degree of deniability, even without a direct use of the Yugoslav military units that are based there. While the NATO alliance has not promised to come to Montenegro's aid if Belgrade moves forcibly against it, NATO leaders have warned Mr. Milosevic against doing so. <br><br>Senior American officials insist that any effort to move against Mr. Djukanovic with force could have consequences in Belgrade, with new bombing attacks. But few in NATO want another bombing war after Kosovo. One senior NATO official said acerbically, "Kosovo was such a resounding success that no one in the alliance wants to repeat it ever again." <br><br>So Mr. Djukanovic's awkward limbo continues, with him caught among competing pressures -- from some supporters to move more briskly toward independence, from Washington and NATO not to precipitate a crisis, and from Belgrade aimed at undermining him. <br><br>Belgrade's pressure is not just political and psychological, Western and Montenegrin officials insist, but also physical, with the skillful assassination, 10 days before the vote, of one of Mr. Djukanovic's closest bodyguards. American officials say they have no evidence of Belgrade's involvement. Still, the assassination seemed like a message to the Serbian political opposition, too -- one that was underscored by what appeared to be an assassination attempt on the Serbian opposition figure Vuk Draskovic late Thursday night in Montenegro. <br><br>"The vote just puts Djukanovic further into the maze, trying to chart a middle course, but to where?" said John Fox, a former State Department official who specializes in the Balkans. "This limbo in which Montenegro is supposed to remain becomes more difficult and more costly for Djukanovic in political terms." <br><br>The most obvious loser in the election was the Liberal Alliance, which favors rapid independence and precipitated these elections by pulling out of a coalition with Mr. Djukanovic. But Mr. Djukanovic has also lost, because some significant part of the pro-Yugoslavia vote was an anti-Djukanovic protest against corruption and arrogance in this small state where, as in Belgrade, a few people live extremely well on their political and criminal connections. In small Herceg Novi, Mr. Djukanovic's brother, Aco, is a major figure, and he is widely disliked for his shady business practices. <br><br>But Mr. Djukanovic matters to the West. He has provided shelter to Serbian opposition figures who were afraid for their lives, both during the war and afterward, as well as to Serbian draft dodgers during the war. And he has provided a platform for broadcasting anti-Milosevic material into Serbia. In return, he has received Western adulation and millions of dollars in aid. <br><br>As a part of Yugoslavia, Montenegro can also have an impact on the fate of the country's president, Mr. Milosevic. That is why American officials -- and much of the Serbian opposition -- are pressing Mr. Djukanovic to take part in federal elections Mr. Milosevic must call by the end of this year. <br><br>Mr. Djukanovic has opposed the idea, rejecting the legitimacy of the currently constituted federal government or Parliament. But the Americans and the Serbian opposition are convinced that they can win the elections if Montenegro participates, weakening Mr. Milosevic before next year's crucial parliamentary elections in Serbia. A Montenegrin boycott, on the other hand, could give Mr. Milosevic an excuse not to have the elections at all. <br><br>But Mr. Fox thinks the strategy is wrongheaded. Montenegro's participation would legitimize Mr. Milosevic more than undermine him, he says, and in any event the West should call the elections unfree and unfair, given the restrictions on the media in Serbia. "The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is already illegitimate and dysfunctional," Mr. Fox said. "And here we are saying to Djukanovic that we won't talk to the war criminal that heads it but that you have to participate in his election."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: Informal Talks Reported on Exit Terms for Milosevic </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br> <br>PRAGUE, June 18 -- The Clinton administration is exploring with some of its NATO allies and Russia the possibility that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia be allowed to leave office with guarantees for his safety and his savings, senior American and NATO officials say. <br><br>The discussions are delicate and informal, the officials stress, emphasizing that the administration is not preparing any offer to Mr. Milosevic -- who has been indicted by an international war crimes tribunal -- and will not make one. <br><br>On the other hand, "if we were presented with a hard and fast offer that would get Milosevic out of power, we'd have to think very hard before saying 'no,' " a senior administration official said. <br><br>Another senior official said that the United States would condemn any proposal that would allow Mr. Milosevic to go anywhere but to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. "That's the policy," the official said. "But 'Would we act to stop it or quietly acquiesce?' is another question," the official said, then added carefully: "There has been no formal discussion of this -- that I am aware of." <br><br>Mr. Milosevic raised the question of his future last summer, after the war over Kosovo ended, officials say. But Washington rebuffed any discussion of a deal. <br><br>Various proposals have been raised to Washington and Athens in recent weeks by emissaries saying they come from Mr. Milosevic, the officials said. But what is less clear is whether they are fully authorized, and whether Mr. Milosevic is serious about doing a deal, or simply trying to "see how the ground lies," an American official said. "What we would never do is make him an offer, because he'll just pocket it." <br><br>Any deal, even without clear American fingerprints, would also put Vice President Al Gore into a difficult position during the presidential campaign and could undermine the international tribunal that indicted Mr. Milosevic. <br><br>It is also not clear why Mr. Milosevic would choose to leave power now, the officials caution. While his position is slowly disintegrating, along with Yugoslavia's economy, his current seat is probably the safest place for him. "It would be hard for him to trust assurances from anyone, inside or outside the country," an official said. <br><br>Within his ruling party, Mr. Milosevic has said that it is important to wait out the Clinton administration, and that a President George W. Bush would be more "realistic" toward Serbia and carry less personal animosity from the Kosovo war. <br><br>Still, President Clinton raised the issue of Mr. Milosevic's future with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, at their recent summit meeting, Russian officials have told some NATO-country officials. According to the Russians, Mr. Putin told Mr. Clinton that Miami seemed as good a place for Mr. Milosevic as Moscow, the officials said. <br><br>The Clinton administration has made the ouster of Mr. Milosevic one of its main policy goals and regards him as the central obstacle to democratization and stability in southeastern Europe. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright has told her top aides she wants Mr. Milosevic out of office before she goes, yet Mr. Milosevic has frustrated Washington, outflanking the opposition. <br><br>"There is keen interest in these proposals in Washington," said a NATO-country official. "They can't be seen to be shopping. But they are sending signals that should a clear proposal come, it would be seriously entertained. And that shows they're serious. If you write about it, it will be full denial. But it's the best solution for everyone, and they could spin it as victory, as his head on a platter. There is a strong argument that democracy should be put ahead of the person." <br><br>Greece is one of the countries actively exploring the possibility of a deal for Mr. Milosevic's ouster, which could mean exile abroad for him and his family or, less likely, pledges of safety inside Serbia from any successor government that promises not to extradite him. <br><br>Orthodox Greece provided humanitarian aid to Serbia and Kosovo even during the air war and has acted as a go-between for NATO and Belgrade in the past. <br><br>Last month, Mr. Milosevic saw the former Greek foreign minister, Karolos Papoulias, and some important Greek businessmen, including some with close ties to the United States. Mr. Milosevic is said to have asked to see former Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, whom he trusts, but officials say that they are looking for more signals of seriousness from Belgrade before Mr. Mitsotakis would be authorized to go. <br><br>While Mr. Milosevic is beleaguered and unpopular, and the country is having severe economic problems, the Serbian opposition is weak and there are no signs of potential insurrection. The army and the police have not cracked. Russia and China, which opposed NATO's use of force in Kosovo and have interests in Serbia, have been willing to help Mr. Milosevic and his government with credits, loans and energy supplies. <br><br>On the other hand, the officials say, Mr. Milosevic is showing signs of nervousness. He is not seeing a broad range of people or traveling widely inside the country; there is evidence of a grain shortage that will drive up food prices; and there have been a series of assassinations of senior officials and criminal leaders, none of them solved, that indicate instability. <br><br>The opposition is becoming more of a widespread movement inside Serbia, with opinion polls showing a growing desire for change and an end to international isolation, even if the current leaders of the opposition are not popular themselves. <br><br>Furthermore, international sanctions against Yugoslavia are becoming better coordinated and seem to be biting those close to the government. Just last week, officials say, Cyprus, a favored spot for Serbian money and money laundering, finally agreed to shut down the office of Beogradska Banka on technical grounds. <br><br>Mr. Milosevic and his family are believed to have large amounts of money in foreign banks, although the size and location of the holdings are not known. <br><br>Mr. Milosevic seems tired and irritable, the officials say, and they note that his speeches have a kind of ideological fury more reminiscent of the views of his influential wife, Mirjana Markovic, a professor of sociology who founded the Yugoslav United Left Party. <br><br>Some in his own party are said to be looking beyond him, and the security of his family -- especially his son, Marko, who is involved in a wide range of business activities -- is a concern. <br><br>Marko Milosevic, although on a list of individuals banned from travel to European Union countries, was recently in Greece on a false diplomatic passport, one official said, and he is now believed to be in Japan, possibly on his way to China. <br><br>As for Mr. Milosevic's conviction that a Bush administration would be more realistic and less emotional toward him, a Bush foreign policy adviser cautioned that there was no agreed policy, and that the situation in Serbia could change a lot in six months. <br><br>"But Milosevic should take no comfort from the prospect of a Bush administration," the adviser said. "There will be no sense of letting bygones be bygones. The strategy may change in different ways, and it will be worked out with the Europeans. But the idea that a bunch of Kissingerian realpolitikers will focus energy elsewhere and let him mind his own business is not something he should bank on."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times: British commander hits at EU for Kosovo aid delays </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Stephen Grey, Pristina <br><br>THE British Army's most senior commander in Kosovo has accused the European Union of failing to deliver aid promised to families left homeless by ethnic cleansing and war. <br>Brigadier Richard Shirreff, who heads Nato forces in central Kosovo, said time was being squandered in delay and red tape. "The EU seems incapable of getting anything done without a bureaucratic wrangle," he said. "We have lost three months since the last winter and another is approaching fast." <br><br>The remarks by Shirreff, who also commands Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade, were en-dorsed by high-ranking EU officials in Pristina, the Kosovan capital, and in Brussels. <br><br>Six months into the year only a fraction of the EU's £170m earmarked for reconstruction in Kosovo has been spent. By last week, contracts had been signed for £60m of work and only £6m had been paid out. Michaele Schreyer, EU budget commissioner and a member of the German Green party, called the delays shocking and unacceptable. <br><br>Although Kosovo is under United Nations control, the EU is in charge of reconstruction and is meeting up to 70% of the bill. Its £170m contribution includes £34m to rebuild 8,000 of the 120,000 homes damaged in the war. <br><br>The EU's record on aid contrasts unfavourably with Britain's Department for International Development, led by Clare Short. Since April, Britain has awarded contracts for 70% of its £20m budget. <br><br>Experts say many of the problems have been caused by delays in setting up the European Agency for Reconstruction, which oversees the EU's work in Kosovo. The agency began work in February, months behind schedule. <br><br>Its work has been hampered by a power struggle between the Greece-based governing body and a management committee in Brussels that controls its funds. <br><br>Last month the committee delayed approval of an agricultural aid programme for Kosovo because members said they had not been consulted earlier. The committee has not even agreed which language to use in meetings, forcing Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner, to intervene. <br><br>All members speak English, but sessions will be conducted in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German. Patten won a single compromise that papers would be in English only. <br><br>The committee has also angered field workers by intervening over minor details, creating substantial delay. Lousewies van der Laan, a Dutch liberal and vice-president of the European parliament's budget control committee, condemned such "childish" behaviour. <br><br>Patten said agency officials in Kosovo were working "flat out" to get everything done. "I'm confident we can get the houses rebuilt and the power restored before winter," he said. "It's going to be tight, but we are determined to do it." <br><br>For Nato commanders on the ground, such as Shirreff, the main problem is the slow pace of rural reconstruction, which has caused a flow of people into the cities. The population of Pristina has grown from 300,000 before the war to 500,000 and, with 100,000 more refugees expected to return to Kosovo this summer, there are fears that overcrowding will threaten security. <br><br>The Mramor area near the capital illustrates the difficulties created by the EU's slow delivery of aid. Brussels promised to rebuild 300 homes this year. Work has yet to begin and most families live in tents or are refugees elsewhere. <br><br>"The international community and the bureaucracy of the EU are finding it next to impossible to release the money," Shirreff said. "I have been going from office to office in Pristina, trying to identify what the blockage is." <br><br>Antoine Duplouy, the shelter co-ordinator for the international rescue committee, the EU's main contractor in the area, said the EU was going to fund the rebuilding of the Mramor homes. But first a committee would have to meet in Pristina to decide which families should be given priority. <br><br>"It is always the same with the EU, you have to wait for the money," Duplouy complained. "We could have started in April but for some reason money from Brussels arrives late in the year. I don't understand why."<br><br>Serbs hold on to the forgotten victims of war<br> <br>NEITHER Burim Zhubi nor his brother Mirgjim can be called prisoners of war. They have never held a gun or worn a uniform, writes Stephen Grey. <br>A year after the end of Nato's aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia, however, they remain in jail in Serbia, among more than 1,300 forgotten victims of the Kosovo conflict still held by the Serbs. <br><br>Their family says they were betrayed by Nato when it dropped a clause, obliging the Serbs to release prisoners, from the final draft of the pact that ended the 12 weeks of airstrikes. It was signed by Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Jackson, Nato's British commander in Kosovo. <br><br>Ferial Zhubi, 61, the men's mother, returned from visiting Burim in jail in Nis, 150 miles south of Belgrade, saying he and his fellow prisoners were bitter about the agreement. "They want to know why it contained nothing about our people in prison," she said. <br><br>Until May 7 last year - nearly two months into Nato's air war against President Slobodan Milosevic - Burim, 41, and Mergjim, 31, were known to the people in their home town of Djakovica only as managers of a chemist's shop. That day they were arrested, along with 150 other local men, accused of terrorism and taken into custody. <br><br>A draft peace agreement for Kosovo drawn up at the failed negotiations at Rambouillet, France, three months earlier had included provisions demanding "the release and transfer" of "all persons held in connection with the conflict". <br><br>A later peace plan devised by the G8 group of the world's most powerful nations, which was accepted by Milosevic on June 3, demanded that "full account" be taken of the Rambouillet accords. So, too, The Sunday Times has learnt, did early drafts of the final agreement. <br><br>The International Crisis Group, an American-based think tank, blames the climbdown on pressure from President Bill Clinton to end the war. <br><br>Jackson said he had dropped the clauses on releasing prisoners because he was powerless to negotiate over their fate. "I was well aware of this issue," he said. "But the fundamental decision was taken by the G8. This formed the basis of everything that followed. I could not go beyond what was agreed." <br><br>Many western officials have since accepted they were wrong to abandon the Albanian prisoners. One senior diplomat in Pristina last week said the absence of any agreement containing terms for prisoners and missing persons was the "number one outstanding issue" in Kosovo. "Nato was in an obscene hurry to end this war," he said. "So they abandoned these prisoners wholesale." <br><br>In Kosovo last month there were demonstrations after a judge in Nis sentenced 143 Kosovar Albanians to a total of 1,632 years in jail for alleged involvement in terrorism. Among those sentenced, all of whom were arrested at random in Djakovica, were Burim, who was given 12 years in jail, and Mergjim, given nine years. Their alleged crime was complicity in the murder of a Serbian policeman on May 11 - even though they had been arrested four days earlier. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Milosevic accused of assassination attempt </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade <br><br><br>17 June 2000 <br><br>Vuk Draskovic, Serbia'sleading opposition politician, last night accused government agents acting on the orders of President Slobodan Milosevic of carrying out an attempt on his life. <br><br>Mr Draskovic was injured when shots were fired through a window of his holiday home in the Montenegrin town of Budva on Thursday night, grazing his head, but leaving him otherwise unharmed. <br><br>"This was definitely organised by Serbia's state security," he said. Amid the rubble of smashed glass, blood stains and a wall riddled with bullet holes, Mr Draskovic, with a bandage on his left ear and right temple, claimed President Milosevic had transformed the former Yugoslavia into a "lawless concentration camp" where gangland-style killings had become a means of governance. <br><br>Senior officials in Mr Draskovic's party, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), voiced their anger at the attack yesterday. "This was an act of terrorism, Draskovic was saved by a miracle," said Ognjen Pribicevic, one of Mr Draskovic's closest allies. <br><br>An SPO spokesman, Ivan Kovacevic, said Mr Draskovic had been alone, watching television, when the living room was sprayed with bullets. No bodyguards had been present. <br><br>"There are no doubts that certain forces that want Draskovic to vanish as a leader that can bring changes into this country, stand behind this assassination attempt," Mr Kovacevic said. Another attempt was made on Mr Draskovic's life last October. Four aides died in a car crash near Belgrade, while he suffered only minor injuries. <br><br>The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, sent a message to the SPO yesterday condemning "the assassination attempt". Mr Ivanov said this "act of terrorism" had endangered the process of democratisation in Serbia. Mr Draskovic headed a delegation of Serbian opposition parties which visited Moscow last month. <br><br>In Brussels, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign and security policy chief, said he was shocked by the incident. Mr Solana said the "escalation in the cycle of violence illustrates the sad state of political affairs" in a country "where the use of brute force seems to have become an increasingly standard method of settling political differences". <br><br>Mr Draskovic's aides said the attack "came as a shock" and grim-faced party officials gathered yesterday at the party's Belgrade headquarters to discuss its implications. Milan Bozic, a close ally of Mr Draskovic, said: "The spiral of violence continues and threatens to suck in the entire country," <br><br>The incident was the latest in a series of attacks against prominent figures in Yugoslavia. On 31 May, Goran Zugic, the national security adviser to the Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic, was gunned down in front of his home in Podgorica. In January, Serbia's most infamous warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was murdered in Belgrade. <br><br>One month later, the Defence Minister, Pavle Bulatovic, was shot dead in a restaurant in Yugoslav capital. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian: Serb leader accused of murder plot </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Serbia: special report<br><br><br>Gillian Sandford and agencies in Belgrade and Budva, Montenegro <br>Saturday June 17, 2000 <br><br>Serbia's best-known opposition figure has accused President Slobodan Milosevic's secret police of trying to kill him, after his holiday home was sprayed by gunfire. <br>Vuk Draskovic, the head of the Serbian Renewal Movement, was grazed in the head by the shooting, which occurred at about midnight on Thursday at his home near Budva, a coastal town in Montenegro, where he had been staying for two days. <br><br>"This was definitely organised by Serbia's state security," Mr Draskovic said yesterday. <br><br>Mr Draskovic, with a bandage on his left ear and right temple, claimed Mr Milosevic had transformed Yugoslavia into a "lawless concentration camp" where gangland-style killings have become a means of governance. <br><br>"It is also definitely certain that another decision on my liquidation could not have been reached without the knowledge of those who run the country - and in this case it is Slobodan Milosevic and his wife," he added. According to Mr Draskovic's wife, Danica, he had told local police he was in Montenegro but declined their offer of protection. <br><br>After the first bullet grazed his temple, Mr Draskovic threw himself on the living room floor, his wife said. One of the bullets hit his earlobe. <br><br>The Serbian deputy information minister, Miodrag Popovic, denied that the government was behind the attack. <br><br>Montenegro's police chief, Vukasin Maras, said that his force now faced attempts by Belgrade to export "state terrorism" to the Yugoslav federation's junior republic. "This is a monstrous conspiracy," he added, saying he felt personally responsible for Mr Draskovic's injury. <br><br>Mr Draskovic's aides said the attack "came as a shock" and grim-faced party officials gathered yesterday at the party's Belgrade headquarters. <br><br>It was the latest in a series of attacks against prominent figures in Yugoslavia this year. Mr Draskovic has claimed there was an attempt on his life last October when a car he was in collided head-on with a truck which allegedly swerved out of its lane. He suffered minor injuries but three party associates were killed. <br><br>Mr Draskovic and his party are considered key Milosevic opponents, despite their occasional cooperation with him - notably during the Nato bombing campaign last year when he briefly joined the Milosevic government. <br><br>The most prominent unsolved murders in Yugoslavia this year:<br><br>Bosko Perosevic <br>Senior official in Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party. Shot dead on May 13 at the Novi Sad fair <br><br>Zika Petrovic <br>Head of Yugoslav national airline JAT. Gunned down outside his home in central Belgrade on April 27. <br><br>Mirko Tomic <br>Also known as Bosanac (the Bosnian). Prominent underworld figure. Gunned down on February 13 from a speeding vehicle. <br><br>Pavle Bulatovic <br>Yugoslav defence minister, shot dead in restaurant on February 8. Officials put the blame on terrorists who had received their orders from abroad. Police have yet to find the killer. <br><br>Zeljko 'Arkan' Raznatovic <br>Feared Serbian warlord indicted by UN court for war crimes during the Croatian and Bosnian wars in 1991-95. Shot dead on January 15 in a Belgrade hotel. Police say they have arrested several suspects but do not have a motive for the killing.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Del Ponte has no "permission" to visit Montenegro: ministry</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, June 17 (AFP) - Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the UN war crimes tribunal, has no "permission" to visit any part of Yugoslav territory, state agency Tanjug quoted the Yugoslav foreign ministry as saying Friday.<br><br>Del Ponte "is NATO administration clerk and such a personality has neither permission of authorised Yugoslav institutions, nor a visa to visit any part of its sovereign territory," the ministry said in a statement.<br><br>"Those who accept and allow her to come to sovereign Yugoslav territory pursue with ingratiating themselves to NATO and the US administration and also break Yugoslav laws and the constitution," the statement said.<br><br>They also "desecrate victims of NATO aggression," as Belgrade refers to the 1999 Alliance bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, and "bore responsibility in front of their own people," the statement added.<br><br>Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was scheduled to visit Montenegro, the reformist-led republic, which together with Serbia makes up Yugoslavia.<br><br>Earlier Friday, Montenegrin Justice Minister Dragan Soc said that the republic's government will cooperate with the ICTY and provide it with all necessary assistance.<br><br>ICTY deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt said last week in The Hague that the visit was primarily at the request of the Montenegrin authorities, but added that it also gave the tribunal an opportunity to reach Serb witnesses and victims given Belgrade's refusal to cooperate.<br><br>Contrary to Belgrade, Montenegro, led by reformist President Milo Djukanovic, a fierce critic of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, has established contacts with the ICTY.<br><br>Milosevic and four other top Serbian officals were indicted by the ICTY last year for war crimes committed in Kosovo during Belgrade's repressive rule in the province.<br><br>Meanwhile in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, the Socialist People's party (SNP) of Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, Milosevic's close ally, called for a "series of street protests" if Del Ponte was allowed to visit the republic.<br><br>"By giving up a pursuit of real criminals and proclaiming our state leadership as war criminals, Del Ponte has become persona non grata in Montenegro," Danijela Prenkic of the SNP told reporters.<br><br>"We advise her to remain in The Hague, if not, the SNP will call people for mass protest to block her arrival to Montenegro," Prenkic said.<br><br>The SNP is in the opposition to Djukanovic in Montenegro, while on the federal level, it is united with Milosevic's Socialists, his wife's neo-communist Yugoslav Left, and the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical party of Vojislav Seselj.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>IWPR: Montenegrin Stalemate </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Neither pro-independence nor pro-Yugoslav forces have gained significant ground in this week's Montenegrin local elections<br><br>By Milka Tadic in Podgorica (BCR No. 148, 13-June-00)<br><br>Cars took to the streets of Podgorica early on Monday morning to celebrate President Milo Djukanovic's local election triumph in the capital. "We have won thousands more votes more than in previous elections. Our main opponents lost four and a half thousand votes. Our victory represents a real triumph in the capital for our policies," President Djukanovic told supporters of his victorious "For a Better Life" coalition.<br><br>But the champagne flowing in government headquarters, the dancing in the streets and the chants of "Milo, Milo" masked concern over the other result, in the coastal town of Herceg Novi. There, the "Yugoslavia" coalition led by Milosevic loyalist and former Montenegrin president Momir Bulatovic had triumphed.<br><br>Unofficial results for the June 11 poll suggest that Djukanovic's coalition won 28 of the total 55 seats in the Podgorica parliament, while "Yugoslavia" will now control Herceg Novi, where it won 19 out of 35 seats in the local assembly.<br><br>There were celebrations in Herceg Novi too, where they waved Yugoslav and Serbian flags, toasted Slobodan Milosevic and sang Chetnik songs. It all felt like a throw-back to the early nineties, when the Montenegrins fought with the Serbs against Croatia and Bosnia. "Serbia is our state and we will work for it in Herzeg Novi," future mayor, Djuro Cetkovic said in excitment.<br><br>The biggest loser in these elections is the Liberal Alliance, the pro-independence party which precipitated a crisis and forced early elections in the two towns by leaving the ruling alliance. The Liberals were banking on a bigger share of power in these elections, but they won only four seats in Podgorica and two in Herceg Novi. Moreover, they have lost their previous leverage, as the ruling coalition won enough seats to govern without them.<br><br>Podgorica, which comprises a quarter of the total electorate, is important for Djukanovic, so his improved performance there is good news. By contrast, Herceg Novi is home to only five per cent of the electorate, yet the psychological impact of a victory for pro-Milosevic forces in this coastal town far outweighs its numerical significance.<br><br>For Momir Bulatovic, the regaining of Herceg Novi marks the first turn around in a series of election defeats following presidential elections of 1997. Bulatovic probably got the votes of several thousand Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia who have settled in the town, but the pre-election strategy of the ruling coalition will have contributed to their defeat. <br><br>In pre-election campaigning in Herceg Novi, Svetozar Marovic, the chief campaigner for "A Better Life", tried to beat the "Yugoslavia" coalition at its own game, with patriotic pro-Yugoslav rhetoric, which paled in comparison to the real thing.<br><br>It seems neither pro-independence nor pro-Yugoslav forces have gained significant ground in this election. <br><br>Despite the defeat in Herceg Novi, anti-Milosevic forces are growing, but not fast enough for President Djukanovic to risk a referendum on independence. <br><br>Milka Tadic is the editor of the Podgorica-based Monitor magazine.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>AP : Serbia's major opposition leader wounded in shooting incident </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Controversial Serb opposition leader Vuk Draskovic was slightly wounded early today when unknown assailants fired at him at his holiday home on the Montenegrin coast, his party and the independent Beta news agency reported. <br><br>The shooting occurred shortly after midnight near the coastal town of Budva, Beta said. <br><br>Quoting local police, Beta said Draskovic was transported to a hospital in nearby Kotor with bullet wounds in his head but the injuries were not life–threatening. <br><br>In Belgrade, Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement said the attackers "sprayed machine gun fire" on his house in a "new assassination attempt." <br><br>A senior party official said that one bullet struck Draskovic in the ear while another grazed his temple. <br><br>The official said the Draskovic home was "peppered with bullets." <br><br>A nurse on duty at the hospital in Kotor, 40 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, said Draskovic was released after receiving treatment for "bullet injuries." <br><br>She would not give her name. <br><br>The incident was the latest in a series of attacks against prominent figures in Yugoslavia. On May May 31, Serbs, Goran Zugic, the national security adviser to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, was gunned down in front of his home in Podgorica. <br><br>In January, Serbia's most infamous warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was nurdered in Belgrade. One montn later, Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic was shot dead in a restaurant in Yugoslav capital. <br><br>On Oct. 3, Draskovic survived a road accident in which three members of his party associates, includinh his brother–in–law, were killed. <br><br>Draskovic himself suffered only minor injuries but called the incident an assassination attempt. <br><br>At the time, Draskovic was in a car convoy when a truck coming the other way sweerved off its lane, crashing into two cars in Draskovic's convoy. <br><br>A police investigation later uncovered the charred remains of the truck but the driver has never been found. <br><br>Following the accident, Draskovic appeared less in public and kept a somewhat lower profile but made several blatant accusations against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic whom he blamed for "state terrorism." <br><br>Draskovic and his party are considered key Milosevic opponents, despite occasional cooperation with the Serb strongman, such as during NATO's bombing campaign last year when Draskovic briefly joined Milosevic's government. <br><br>Last summer and fall, Draskovic also refused refused to join daily street protests organized by a rival opposition group demanding Milosevic's ousting, arguing that protests could lead to a civil war in Serbia. <br><br>Instead, he is demanding Milosevic resign and all–out early elections be held only after free and fair election conditions can be implemented. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslav Army Displays Decoys Said To Have Fooled NATO</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">NIS, Jun 15, 2000 -- (Reuters) The Yugoslav army on Wednesday displayed a range of crudely-made decoys that it said had tricked NATO pilots into firing away from genuine targets during the alliance's 1999 air strike campaign.<br><br>The head of Yugoslavia's Third Army division, Colonel-General Vladimir Lazarevic, sought the upper hand in the post-war public relations battle by reiterating accusations that the West had exaggerated the damage inflicted by its bombs.<br><br>"The first victim (of the war) was the truth," said Lazarevic, who headed the army's Pristina Corps during the conflict and who was later promoted by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.<br><br>Lazarevic, speaking at the bomb-damaged headquarters of the Third Army in the southern Serbian city of Nis, put its losses at 13 tanks, 10 armored personnel carriers as well as some artillery pieces - well below Western estimates.<br><br>"The truth is that the losses in military equipment were minimal," he said in an interview. "Never before in the history of warfare have such low losses been seen."<br><br>He did not go into detail about army strategy for avoiding greater damage, nor did he give military casualty figures.<br><br>But journalists were later shown decoys at an army base outside Nis which army personnel said were used in Kosovo.<br><br>Intended to trick hostile aircraft into going after the wrong targets, the decoys include dummies of soldiers filled with hay standing next to fake anti-aircraft guns made out of various metal parts, including old water pipes.<br><br>ARMY SAY DECOYS EFFECTIVE<br><br>One decoy was a multiple rocket launcher with rusty vegetable cans as barrels.<br><br>"It looks primitive, but it was very effective," said one army official. "The results were very good."<br><br>Another army officer, who declined to be identified, said the decoys had contributed greatly to reduced hardware losses. He said most of them were hit during the March-to-June air war.<br><br>Before reporters could approach a field where a dozen or so decoys were scattered, soldiers covered some of the larger ones so they could not be seen.<br><br>The army said these decoys had survived the bombing and been brought back by soldiers withdrawing from Kosovo last year to Nis, where the Pristina Corps, named after the provincial capital, is now based.<br><br>NATO bombed Yugoslavia to force Belgrade's military and police into ending a harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking self-rule in Kosovo, a southern province of Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia.<br><br>Last month, the Pentagon and the U.S. Air Force denied a Western media report that the U.S. military and NATO had vastly inflated bomb damage wrought on Serbian armor.<br><br>An article in the U.S. magazine Newsweek said the air strikes were very accurate against fixed targets but ineffective against tanks, armored vehicles and mobile artillery.<br><br>U.S. Air Force Brigadier General John Corley, director of studies and analysis at U.S. Air Force headquarters in Europe, conceded that only about 26 destroyed and burned-out Serb tanks were found by his team after the bombing ended.<br><br>But he said that the total count was 93 destroyed after information from sources such as satellite pictures and gun-camera film was considered.<br><br>Kosovo, still legally part of Yugoslavia, is now under the de facto international rule, with 40,000 NATO-led peacekeeping troops struggling to keep peace and vengeful ethnic Albanians carrying out frequent attacks against remaining Serbs.<br><br>Echoing statements by the civilian Yugoslav leadership, Lazarevic said KFOR peacekeepers had failed to stop such attacks and suggested that they should be replaced by Serbian troops.<br><br>"There is no peace in Kosovo, there is no peace in the Balkans, unless the international security troops, the way they are, withdraw from Kosovo," he said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>RN: Mixed Election Result in Montenegro</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br> <br> <br>By our Eastern Europe correspondent James Kliphuis, 13 June 2000<br> <br> <br>Local elections in two towns in Montenegro have produced a mixed result. In the capital, Podgorica, the pro-Western government of Milo Djukanovic has succeeded in broadening its base; but in the coastal town of Herzeg Novi, the opposition (loyal to the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic) was victorious. <br><br>The two elections were necessary because the Liberal Alliance had walked out of the government-led local coalitions in Podgorica and Herzeg Novi. Both sides eagerly anticipated the outcome. For Montenegro's pro-Western president Milo Djukanovic and his followers in the "For a Better Life" coalition, the elections would provide an indication of the strength of their current popular support. But pro-Belgrade opposition leader Momir Bulatovic and his "Yugoslavia" bloc felt certain the results would show that support for Mr Djukanovic and his pro-Western stance had been largely eroded in the past year.<br><br>Mixed Message<br>As it turned out, both sides got a little of what they wanted, and some of what they had feared. With an absolute majority in the Montenegrin capital, President Djukanovic was able to claim that was what really mattered. With an absolute majority in the southern town of Herzeg Novi, opposition leader Bulatovic could say that his party - which was already strong in the north - now held a third of Montenegro's 21 municipalities.<br><br>"The citizens showed they were for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", said Mr Bulatovic (who happens to be the Prime Minister of that Federation, which groups Montenegro with Serbia). President Djukanovic, however, stated that now "it was clear that Montenegro was marching on a stable, democratic, reform-oriented path", adding that his coalition's victory in Podgorica was "much better and greater" than its defeat in Herzeg Novi. <br><br>Brave Face<br>To some extent it sounds as if Mr Djukanovic is whistling in the dark, putting a brave face on a result that must have been pretty disappointing for him. The fact that support for the Milosevic loyalists has now spread to the south of Montenegro is significant. War veterans and pensioners make up a significant share of the electorate in Herzeg Novi. Their traditional loyalty to Belgrade has proved stronger than their support for Djukanovic's measures aimed at pacifying them, such as paying pensions in strong Deutschmarks instead of Yugoslav dinars. <br><br>The mixed outcome of this local vote can in no way be seen as an encouragement to Mr Djukanovic to call for a referendum on the vexed question whether Montenegro should finally cut loose from Belgrade. The outcome would be too uncertain. Djukanovic (and above all, his Western backers) have until now always shied away from that one irrecoverable step. They have always felt that a referendum would be tantamount to an invitation to the Federal authorities to send in the Yugoslav army to take over in Montenegro.<br><br>Army Presence<br>Over the past months there have been numerous occasions when Belgrade has signalled that it is not willing to let Montenegro leave the Yugoslav Federation just like that. For example, the federal army has been staging all sorts of manoeuvres in Montenegro. At the same time, it is doubtful that Bulatovic and his Belgrade loyalists will remain content with their Herzeg Novi win and let the Montenegrin President carry on as before. Even before the polls closed, they had been complaining about ballot-rigging; in Belgrade, the Yugoslav army chief of staff had been warning that the army will prevent civil war "at any price" The least that can mean is a continued, very visible presence of the federal Yugoslav army in Montenegro.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: Montenegro Town Rejects a Split With Belgrade</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br> <br> <br>HERCEG NOVI, Montenegro, June 13 -- The mayor-elect of this town apologized the other day for his appearance and hoarse voice, a result of a hard-run election campaign, and immediately launched into a long explanation of the cap on his desk and the typical Serbian wedding at which it is worn. <br><br>The mayor-elect, Djuro Cetkovic, a local leader of the Socialist People's Party, had just orchestrated a political victory for the Serbs of Montenegro and in turn for the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Mr. Cetkovic's pro-Belgrade coalition defeated the Montenegrin government coalition in local elections here on Sunday, giving Milosevic supporters control of 7 out of 21 municipalities in this republic, the junior partner, with Serbia, in the Yugoslav federation. <br><br>The loss of Herceg Novi is a blow for the Montenegrin leader, Milo Djukanovic, who strongly opposes Mr. Milosevic and is trying to draw his republic out from under the Milosevic sway. The government held on to the capital, Podgorica, but its defeat in Herceg Novi, on the coast, gave a lift to his opponents at home and in Belgrade. <br><br>Mr. Cetkovic had clearly been celebrating, and his supporters said they were already looking forward to federal elections later this year. <br><br>Herceg Novi has always been the most closely contested of municipalities and the swing in the election result from the previous local government was small. The pro-Serbia coalition won 19 of the 35 seats, an improvement on the 17 it and its coalition partners held previously. The government coalition dropped to 14 seats, from 15, and its former coalition partner, the Liberal Alliance lost 1 of its 3 seats. <br><br>But these elections were more important than the local issues and voters and politicians alike have taken the results as important indicators for the future. "My face hurts from forcing a smile to show I don't mind," said the local Liberal Alliance secretary, Panto Pavicevic. <br><br>Sitting despondently in a cafe, he and the local party chief, Budimir Katuric, acknowledged that they had been outclassed by the good organization of the pro-Belgrade coalition headed by the Socialist People's Party, known as the S.N.P. <br><br>"A lot of young people did not come out to vote, and they are usually our supporters," Mr. Katuric said. "But 100 percent of the S.N.P. people came out, so they did not throw away a single vote." <br><br>There is no doubt that the liberals and the government party blundered badly. The Liberals withdrew from the coalition and forced these elections, hoping to increase their vote, but clearly misjudged. Mr. Katruic even admitted that the new results giving the the Socialist People's Party a majority are a truer reflection of local society. <br><br>The government paid the price for its poor performance over the last two years in the eyes of the people of Herceg Novi, and for allowing corruption to flourish, enriching a small elite while ordinary people have seen their standard of living plummet. <br><br>"There were some mistakes made by our party and people are weighing it up," said Zarko Mandic, head of a local school and member of the government party, the Democratic Party of Socialists. "It is a step backwards and the government must take it as an important lesson." <br><br>The Serb leader, Mr. Cetkovic, judged it right. His coalition had been weakened by its divisions in the last elections, he said, and this time they presented a united front. <br><br><br>The election centered on the fundamental preoccupation in Montenegrin society, whether to stay, or split from Serbia. That single issue is felt particularly acutely in Herceg Novi, a predominantly ethnic-Serb town. <br><br>Most people interviewed in Herceg Novi today, workers, pensioners, office workers and businessmen, said they had voted for the pro-Serbia coalition in order to stay within Yugoslavia. Few seemed to care about Mr. Milosevic himself but voiced fears of being cut off from Serbia. <br><br>"I voted for Yugoslavia," said Nenad Susic, a businessman and owner of a confectionary business. "My closest friends are in Serbia. There is no one here who does not have ties with Serbia. We are for integration, not disintegration." <br><br>Many complained that the Montenegrin government was already moving away from Serbia, cutting them off from family, friends and business partners through its economic policies. The introduction of the German mark as the main currency has brought higher prices and in turn caused Serbia to impose a trade blockade which has hurt ordinary people, they said. <br><br>"I personally voted for change," said a restaurant owner, Seka, who asked that her full name not be used. "My thought is that Montenegro is too small for independence, but the feeling is that the government is taking us that way. Serbs are finding it more difficult here. We lived here mostly on Serb tourists and now they are not coming." <br><br>Herceg Novi, with about 42,000 people, has a high proportion of ethnic Serbs, although the breakdown between Montenegrins and Serbs is murky since many people are actually vague about their origins. Mr. Katuric, the Liberal Alliance leader, estimated the divide as 50-50. The Serbian leader, Mr. Cetkovic, suggested the Serb element was over 90 percent. At least 9,000 Serb refugees from wars in neighboring Bosnia and Croatia have also swelled the district population over the last 10 years and have been given the right to vote. <br><br>Mr. Cetkovic is a passionate defender of the Serbs and can trace his family roots here back 300 years. He says that virtually all of those who live in Herceg Novi follow Serbian Orthodox Christianity and thus are Serbs. Montenegro appears to be a sideshow in Mr. Cetkovic's thinking. <br><br>What is clear is that Belgrade's propaganda is still finding fertile ground and has worked on people's fears, while the Montenegrin government has failed to allay them. <br><br>Montenegro appears to be a sideshow in Mr. Cetkovic's thinking. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Journalist charged with spying </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade and Steve Crawshaw <br><br>15 June 2000 <br><br>A military court in the southern town of Nis yesterday indicted a 49-year-old Serb journalist, Miroslav Filipovic, for espionage and spreading false news. <br><br>Filipovic worked from the central Serbian town of Kraljevo, 100 miles south of Belgrade, as a correspondent for the independent daily Danas, Agence France Presse news agency and the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. <br><br>Mr Filipovic's wife Slavica expressed shock at the charges against her husband, and insisted: "There is not a single reason for my husband to be where he is." <br><br>Mr Filipovic was arrested in his apartment on 8 May, under the orders of the local court in Kraljevo. The police also took away the hard disk from his computer as well as several dozen pages of printed-out stories. <br><br>In a matter of days, Kraljevo civil court transferred the case to the military court in Nis, which did not bring charges against him at that time and released Filipovic on 12 May. <br><br>"I'm not a spy. All the stories I've written were printed under my name and spies do not do such things," Filipovic said when he left the military prison in Nis. <br><br>Ten days later, a new investigation was opened and Mr Filipovic has remained in custody since then. If found guilty on both counts – espionage and spreading of false news, he faces a minimum of three years and a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. <br><br>The article that appears to have roused the particular anger of the authorities documented the shock felt by members of the Yugoslav armed forces at what they had witnessed during the Kosovo conflict last year. The article was written for the IWPR, and was later republished by The Independent. No military secrets were contained within the story. <br><br>Anthony Borden, executive director of IWPR, said yesterday: "Miroslav's only crime has been to pursue serious reporting at the highest level. He has shown unique courage in covering topics at the heart of Yugoslav politics." The IWPR called on the Yugoslav authorities to "respect the rule of law and behave according to international norms and standards". <br><br>There has been a strong crackdown against the media in Serbia in recent weeks and months. Broadcasters have been closed down – including the opposition Studio B television studio and the independent B2-92 radio station – and newspapers have been forced out of business by the use of the law or punitive fines. <br><br>It is still not certain that the court will press ahead with the charges. Colonel Vukadin Milojevic, president of the military court in Nis, said that the case was now handed over to the court by the military prosecutor. It is up to the court to "start criminal proceedings", and to decide whether Mr Filipovic will stay in prison while awaiting trial and during the trial itself, if the trial goes ahead. <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Democracy in Kosovo needs time, warns UN </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Christian Jennings in Pristina <br><br>13 June 2000 <br><br>Thundering into the southern Kosovan town of Prizren one year ago, German Nato tanks ran into a roadblock manned by defeated, humiliated and violent Serbian Interior Ministry Police. <br><br>The German tanks ground to a halt. A group of journalists approached the Serbs. "Where," we asked them, "can we come and find you once you've left Kosovo and gone back to Serbia?" There was laughter among the group of slab-faced policemen in their blue and black camouflage uniforms. <br><br>Words in Serbian were exchanged as one drew a hunting-knife and approached. "You won't forget my address," one man said to me, smiling only with his mouth, "if I carve it right into your face." <br><br>A year later along the same road, the leaves on the lime trees are flagging in another scorchingly hot Kosovan summer, the Serbs have left, the Albanians are sporadically killing many of those that have remained and Nato and the UN are 12 months into their most testing mission. <br><br>In a destroyed province beset by ethnic violence, organised crime, political uncertainty, poverty and an extreme lack of socio-economic development, the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Dr Bernard Kouchner, called the first year of the mission a "success" yesterday. Dr Kouchner, who is, in effect, the governor of the Serbian province where 40,000 international peace-keepers are now deployed, said: "For the UN people the Kosovo mission is a success. We are building a modern democratic society, but the international community needs time, we are here for some years." <br><br>The UN Security Council's resolution 1244, which mandated the establishment of the UN Mission in Kosovo, or Unmik, continues unchanged, but members of the Security Council in New York have made plain to Dr Kouchner that their continued backing for the mission is dependent on his and Nato's ability to bring to anend the ethnic violence in the province. <br><br>A small, crude explosive device was discovered outside the UN headquarters in Pristina on Saturday. Two Kosovo Albanians were shot dead and one wounded yesterday near Cubrilj in central Kosovo, while eight Serbs have been killed and more than 20 wounded in the past three weeks. In his end-of-year report, the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said that of some 330 serious ethnic crimes, including murder, rape and kidnapping, that have taken place since January, about 65 per cent have been against the Serbs and other ethnic minorities. <br><br>Dr Kouchner urged the ethnic Albanian majority and the remaining Serbs in the province yesterday to vote for "substantial autonomy" in local elections set for October. <br><br>One international officialin Pristina said: "This is asticking point for the Kosovo Albanians. They want independence, we're saying 'hold on,' we need to develop democracy and institutions." But other Western analysts display a more cynical approach. <br><br>"Democracy?" asks one UN international staffer. "We're 15 light years away from it – these people couldn't run a bath." The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe is overseeing voter registration for the elections. It is seriously behind schedule, with more than 500,000 people still due to register in less than a month. <br><br>Crucial in the voting process are the thousands of Serbs who have fled from the province in the past year. Dr Kouchner says simply that they "must vote if they want to be part of the future of Kosovo". Voterregistration points have therefore been opened along Kosovo's boundary with Serbia and tentative plans are under way to encourage Serbs to return to Kosovo, under the protection of Nato. <br><br>The UN refugee agency says it may be "premature" to encourage Serbs to return, even supported by Nato troops. Under constant armed attack by hardline Albanians, Kosovo's remaining 80,000 or so Serbs have been forced to live in Nato-protected enclaves, such as Gracanica and the ethnically divided flashpoint of Mitrovica. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegro's rifts remain after pro-West party's poll success </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Podgorica <br><br>13 June 2000 <br><br>Deep political rifts look likely to remain in the tiny Yugoslavian republic of Montenegro after voters handed the pro-Western coalition of President Milo Djukanovic a victory in the capital but a defeat in the coastal town of Herceg Novi. <br><br>Sunday's local polls involving one-third of the electorate were seen as a test of Mr Djukanovic's pro-independence policies, which have distanced Montenegro from Belgrade. Mr Djukanovic's supporters celebrated into the early hours yesterday as it became clear his coalition had won in Podgorica. But their jubilation was tempered when results showed that the winner in Herceg Novi was the coalition of the Yugoslavian Prime Minister, Momir Bulatovic, strongly backed by the Yugoslavian President, Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Mr Djukanovic told his supporters not to despair at the Herceg Novi results: "It is clear that Podgorica has voted for the European Montenegro, the only future for our country." <br><br>Many are unsurprised with the outcome in Herceg Novi, which is home to many retired Yugoslavian Army officers. The town also has a big Serbian refugee population that fled the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. Serbia is the dominant republic in the Yugoslav Federal Republic, which also includes Montenegro. <br><br>Mr Djukanovic has warmed up relations with neighbouring Croatia, reopening a border crossing and broadening cooperation with the nearby Croatian resort of Dubrovnik. But he is likely to clash with Herceg Novi's new mayor, Djuro Cetkovic, who, in line with his Belgrade patrons' animosity towards Croatia, based his campaign on promises to oppose such co-operation. <br><br>The results will be officially proclaimed tomorrow. Complete but as yet unofficial results for Podgorica show Mr Djukanovic's coalition obtained 28 out of 54 seats in the city council. Mr Bulatovic's pro-Milosevic coalition won 22 seats, while the small Liberal Alliance of Montenegro will hold four seats. <br><br>In Herceg Novi, Bulatovic's coalition won 19 out of 35 seats in the municipal council, while Mr Djukanovic's coalition won 14. Two seats went to liberals. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Reuters: China's Li Lays Wreath at Bombed Belgrade Embassy</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE (Reuters) - The head of the Chinese parliament, Li Peng, laid a wreath Tuesday at the gate of Beijing's Belgrade embassy to commemorate the three people who died when it was bombed during last year's NATO air strikes.<br><br>Li, No. 2 in the Communist Party hierarchy and the most senior foreign official to visit Belgrade since the NATO campaign, went to the ruined building on the third and final day of his stay.<br><br>He described the attack on the Chinese embassy as ``evidence of the barbarian character of the NATO action, headed by the United States,'' Yugoslavia's state news agency Tanjug reported.<br><br>It said Li was ``visibly shaken'' as he viewed the damaged building.<br><br>In a speech to the federal Yugoslav parliament Monday, Li denounced the embassy bombing as ``a case of grave international wrongdoing seldom seen in the history of diplomacy and a gross violation of China's sovereignty.''<br><br>The attack on May 7, 1999 sparked violent anti-NATO demonstrations across China and brought relations with the United States close to breaking point.<br> <br>The deserted embassy building in the New Belgrade district of the capital appears to have been untouched since then.<br><br>NATO and the United States say the bombing was a mistake caused by shoddy targeting. Washington apologized to China and agreed to pay $28 million in compensation.<br><br>The visit by Li was widely seen as a sign of support for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted as a war criminal ostracized by the West and facing growing opposition at home.<br><br>State media gave full coverage to Li's meetings Monday with Milosevic and other senior officials. Milosevic presented him with the Order of the Great Yugoslav Star for developing and strengthening bilateral friendship, state media reported.<br><br>Li left Belgrade Tuesday afternoon, traveling to Slovenia before continuing to neighboring Croatia Thursday.<br><br>NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days to force Belgrade's military and police into ending a harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking self-rule in the southern Serbian province, Kosovo. China, along with Russia, strongly opposed the NATO war.<br><br>Isolated by much of the world as punishment for its role in a series of Balkan wars in the 1990s, Belgrade has turned to China, Russia and other non-Western countries for support and help in rebuilding its shattered economy.<br><br>In 1997, Milosevic and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin signed an agreement on friendship and cooperation.<br><br>In December, China was reported to have extended a $300 million credit to finance reconstruction of the economy of Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia alongside Montenegro. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Newsweek : Djukanovic's Dangerous Game </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Will Milosevic let Montenegro slip away? <br><br>By Joshua Hammer<br>Newsweek International, June 19, 2000 <br><br>Milo Djukanovic was not his confident self. As the 38-year-old president of Montenegro strode along Freedom Street in downtown Podgorica, hundreds of policemen formed a tight cordon around him. The charismatic leader and foe of Slobodan Milosevic climbed onto a brightly lit stage before 5,000 cheering young supporters. Bodyguards lurked on the platform and in the audience. Djukanovic, a former basketball player who towered above his security force, sounded tired. But there was no mistaking his meaning as he broached the explosive subject of formally separating from Yugoslavia. "Montenegro knows what it wants and how to reach it... without waiting endlessly," he said.<br>Djukanovic has reason to be concerned. Last Sunday's local elections in Montenegro were the leader's first real political test since he broke from Serbia, Montenegro's larger partner in the rump Yugoslav federation, in 1997. Djukanovic's party was expected to win the vote, a victory that should embolden him to move closer to the West and to his ultimate goal of independence. But it's a dangerous game. The regime in Belgrade is unlikely to let Montenegro slip away unchallenged, and it has 20,000 Serb troops on Montenegrin soil to enforce its will. The threat of violence was made clear on May 31, when Goran Zugic, Djukanovic's top security adviser, was gunned down outside his home in Podgorica. The motive and assassin remain unknown, but the killing shocked Djukanovic, who mingles with locals and often drives himself around town. "This is an attempt to show Djukanovic how far Milosevic can reach," says Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan. (The Serb Interior minister blamed the hit on the CIA.)<br><br>Djukanovic's political rebirth is one of the Balkans' more remarkable transformations. An avid communist under Tito, he was an early ally of Milosevic and a Serb nationalist. As Montenegro's prime minister in 1991, he helped recruit volunteers to shell Dubrovnik. But Djukanovic began to question Milosevic after international sanctions and war shrank Montenegro's economy by 80 percent in the 1990s. He broke from Milosevic in 1997; two years later, when NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, Djukanovic welcomed Kosovar Albanian refugees and attacked Milosevic's expansionism. Since then, Djukanovic has inched further toward independence. A well-armed force of 20,000 police now stands eyeball-to-eyeball with the Serb Army. Last fall Djukanovic replaced the Yugoslav dinar with the German mark as the republic's currency. Milosevic responded with a blockade, but generous Western help has prevented economic collapse. The United States poured $55 million into Montenegro last year, and the European Union has given tens of millions more.<br><br>Despite the tensions, almost nobody in Montenegro expects Milosevic to go to war now. "Slobo has his hands full in Belgrade right now," says one Western diplomat in Podgorica. Milosevic's best hope is that Djukanovic will damage himself politically, creating a climate for a coup. But Djukanovic is moving cautiously, recognizing that declaring independence outright might force Milosevic to move against him. "When we feel the situation is stable, we'll organize a referendum and go for it," says the deputy prime minister. As last month's assassination shows, stability may still be a long way off.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : Election boost for Milosevic divides Montenegro </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Jonathan Steele <br>Tuesday June 13, 2000 <br><br>Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic has won an important political victory in Serbia's sister republic of Montenegro after voters strongly backed his supporters in a key local election and rebuffed proponents of independence. <br>In a poll seen as a partial referendum on the republic's future the 'Yugoslavia Coalition' took control of the coastal town of Herceg Novi from the pro-western government of President Milo Djukanovic, gaining 19 seats compared with the 13 they had before. <br><br>Since becoming the republic's leader three years ago Mr Djukanovic has broken with Belgrade, introduced the German mark as an official currency and no longer recognises the federal government. <br><br>He has won strong backing from the United States and European Union, although they do not support outright independence and have urged him to be cautious in not going so far as to risk civil war. <br><br>The Yugoslav army has a powerful garrison in Montenengro which has regularly flexed its muscles by taking control of border points and issuing conscription notices to prominent anti-Belgrade journalists and politicians. <br><br>Mr Djukanovic has created a paramilitary police as a counterweight and both sides accuse each other of preparing for civil war. <br><br>The preliminary results from Sunday's poll show the polarisation of society but will reinforce Mr Djukanovic's cautious approach. His party did well in elections in the capital Podgorica and gained an extra seat - to give it a total of 28 in the 54-seat council - while the pro-Belgrade SNP lost one. <br><br>The big losers in both places were the pro-independence Liberals who provoked the elections by walking out of coalitions with Mr Djukanovic. They expected the tensions of the last two years would have strengthened the case for immediate secession. But they lost ground. <br><br>The pro-Serb forces tend to be concentrated in inland cities closer to the Serbian border but Herceg Novi has always had a high proportion of Serb migrants from Bosnia and Hercegovina. Since the collapse of Tito's Yugoslavia, the new headquarters of the Yugolav navy are nearby. <br><br>Mr Djukanovic, who had earlier predicted victory in both towns, put a brave face on the result. "Today we can say for sure that Montenegro is marching on a stable, democratic, reformist path and that no one can distract it from that path," he said. "Our victory in Podgorica is much better and greater than our defeat in Herceg Novi," he added. <br><br>Predrag Bulatovic, a leader of the pro-Belgrade block, said afterwards the vote proved that the people of Montenegro, who are mainly Orthodox Slavs, wanted to live with fellow-Slav Serbia. <br><br>"In this election the citizens showed they were for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Mr Bulatovic said, adding that the victory in Herceg Novi meant his party, already strong in the north, now held one-third of Montenegro's 21 municipalities. <br><br>The next dilemma for Mr Djukanovic's government is whether to take part in the federal elections which President Milosevic is likely to call later this year. To his chagrin, Western governments have been urging the Montenegrin leader not to boycott them. <br><br>"The international community should conduct a more careful analysis", Miodrag Vukovic, the President's legal adviser, complained recently. "The federal elections are just another of Milosevic's manipulations. If we reject them, he will accuse us of being separatists. If we take part, we will be repudiating all our previous statements." <br><br>After Sunday's poll results the dilemma has become more acute.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent : Milosevic allies accuse EU of buying votes </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Podgorica, Montenegro <br><br>12 June 2000 <br><br>Political allies of President Slobodan Milosevic have accused the European Union of buying votes in yesterday's local elections in Montenegro. <br><br>After casting his own vote, Yugoslavia's Prime Minister, Momir Bulatovic, accused the EU and the United States of spending 40 million German marks (£13m) in Montenegro with the "aim of buying votes". <br><br>International aid that has poured into Montenegro has enabled the government of President Milo Djukanovic to pay state employees salaries twice what their counterparts in Belgrade receive. <br><br>Mr Bulatovic said: "What is happening now is really indecent. We see foreign centres of financial and political power pouring money in and giving false promises. These are the first elections that the US and the European Union are trying to buy. This quasi-democratic government has no real support among the people." <br><br>Mr Bulatovic and his Socialist People's Party have been the main opponents of Mr Djukanovic, with a campaign attacking the government's pro-Western politics as "treason". Mr Bulatovic said that he and his party would be ready to accept the results of the elections "if they were democratic, correct and fair". <br><br>Huge numbers of voters turned out in the Montenegrin capital and the coastal town of Herceg Novi yesterday and President Djukanovic's supporters seemed confident of winning support for policies that have given the republic virtual independence from the central government in Belgrade. <br><br>Both Mr Djukanovic and Mr Bulatovic have apartments in the same building and both voted at the same polling station, two hours apart. Mr Bulatovic showed with his wife Nada and an entourage of bodyguards to be greeted by the mild applause of several elderly women. In contrast, Mr Djukanovic drove his own car, accompanied by his wife, Lidija, and was greeted with cheers. <br><br>In Podgorica, the turn-out was expected to reach 80 per cent by the time polling stations closed at 9pm. Hundreds queued from 8am, patiently waiting to cast their votes, despite the fierce heat. <br><br>Since winning presidential elections in 1997, Mr Djukanovic has co-operated with the West, and made himself a foe of Mr Milosevic in the process. The official Belgrade media often calls him a "lackey" of the West. There are fears that the Yugoslav military, which is loyal to Mr Milosevic and has 25,000 men stationed in Montenegro, could disrupt the elections. <br><br>But on Friday Admiral Milan Zec, the commander of the Yugoslav Navy, which is based in Montenegro, said: "The full truth is that there is no intention, order, preparation or mood to endanger Montenegro. We completely respect the democratically pronounced will and choice of the people."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>REUTERS: Chinese Official, at Yugoslav Parliament, Denounces NATO</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Serbia, June 12 -- Li Peng, head of the Chinese Parliament, denounced NATO today for its 1999 air war on Serbia in an address to Yugoslavia's Parliament, saying the American-led alliance had violated the United Nations charter. <br><br>Mr. Li, the most senior foreign official to visit Belgrade since the bombing campaign, also met with President Slobodan Milosevic, who was indicted by a United Nations tribunal for war crimes said to have been committed by his forces last year in Kosovo, the Serbian province. State television said the two leaders discussed strengthening relations and developing economic ties, but gave no details. <br><br>The report on the meeting, which took place on the day the United Nations marked its first year in charge of Kosovo, harshly criticized the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeeping presence. It said the minority Serbs in Kosovo were being subjected to "genocide," adding that international forces should leave and Serbian troops should return to ensure a secure environment. <br><br>NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days to pressure its security forces to end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking self-rule in Kosovo. <br><br>Mr. Li said in his speech that NATO's air campaign was flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. "This constitutes a violation of the purposes of the U.N. Charter and the universally recognized norms governing international relations and poses a serious threat to stability in Europe and peace in the world," he said. <br><br>Mr. Li visit was widely seen as a sign of support to President Milosevic, who has been ostracized by the West and faces growing opposition at home with local and federal elections due later this year. <br><br>China, with Russia, strongly opposed the NATO bombing, during which missiles hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese. Mr. Li called the embassy bombing "a gross violation of China's sovereignty." And he said the Kosovo issue remained unresolved, referring to the ethnic violence that has continued to plague the province despite the arrival of the NATO-led peacekeeping troops on June 12 last year. <br><br>Frozen out by much of the world as punishment for its role in a series of Balkan wars in the 1990's, Belgrade has turned to China, Russia and other non-Western countries for support and help in rebuilding its shattered economy. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Loa Angeles Times : Montenegrin Advisor's Slaying Adds to Tension Ahead of Today's Vote </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer<br><br>PODGORICA, Yugoslavia--Montenegro's men in blue are usually honest and well behaved. But there are so many of them--one in 32 citizens is a cop--that even admirers of President Milo Djukanovic say he's creating a police state. <br>The Western-backed leader has built up his 20,000-strong force as a security blanket while steering Montenegro cautiously away from Serbia, its sister republic in the Yugoslav federation led by President Slobodan Milosevic. <br>Whatever sense of protection that the built-up police force gave to independence-minded Montenegrins, however, was severely shaken last month when an assassin gunned down Djukanovic's top security advisor outside his home and vanished into the night. <br>Montenegrin officials suspect that Milosevic's secret service, operating from a Yugoslav army base in Montenegro, carried out the hit to remind the restive republic of its vulnerability. The slain aide, Goran Zugic, 38, had overseen the rapid expansion of Montenegro's uniformed force. <br>The May 31 slaying in this easygoing provincial capital stunned Montenegrins, who are calling it the first assassination against their independence movement. It has raised the level of tension in the campaign for municipal elections today that are seen as a midterm test for Djukanovic's defiant, pro-Western course. <br>"It looks like a terrorist act against democracy and against the security of the people," said the Montenegrin leader, looking grim and upset at a recent memorial service for his aide and close friend. <br>The service drew about 10,000 people, twice the number at Djukanovic's closing campaign rally Thursday night. Hundreds of police were on hand for the rally, and a score of plainclothes agents surrounded the tall, popular president as he waded through the crowd. <br>Djukanovic, who took office in January 1998, has refused to recognize Milosevic's authority and dropped the Yugoslavia dinar in favor of the German mark. Milosevic retaliated with a trade blockade between Serbia and Montenegro, but Djukanovic has overcome many of its effects through infusions of Western aid--$55 million from the United States and $19 million from the European Union this year. <br>The Western largess has enabled Montenegro to meet basic human needs while recruiting, training and equipping a loyal police force. The force is needed, Montenegrin officials say, to counter 14,000 Yugoslav troops based in the republic and about 900 Milosevic loyalists in the 7th Military Police Battalion. <br>As police chief in Podgorica, Zugic once put down an anti-government riot by unarmed Milosevic supporters. Later, as security advisor, he had the task of neutralizing Serbian secret service and paramilitary threats in Montenegro. <br>Yet the lawyer-turned-cop was traveling alone the night he died. <br>Officials said he was shot three times in the head as he was locking his black Audi A8 a few steps from the door of his apartment building on a still-busy street here just after 11 p.m. Police set up checkpoints and detained hundreds of people for questioning but reported no arrests and no leads. <br>Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic accused the CIA last week of planning the killing to make it look like Milosevic's work and aggravate tension between Serbia and Montenegro. He charged that Montenegrin Interior Minister Vukasin Maras, Zugic's rival in the security hierarchy here, also was involved in the plot. <br>The CIA denied any role, and Maras dismissed the accusation as the product of an "insane, sick and tragic mind." <br>Noting that four close Milosevic allies have been slain in Serbia this year, Rifat Rastoder, deputy chairman of Montenegro's parliament, said the killing here was "the first, most direct attempt to spread the politics of the gun from Serbia into Montenegro, to create conditions for a possible state of emergency." <br>Two pro-Milosevic parties from the ruling coalition in Serbia have teamed with allies in Montenegro's Socialist People's Party to try to oust Djukanovic's forces in today's municipal elections in Podgorica and Herceg Novi. Milosevic's supporters are a relatively strong minority in both cities. <br>Both sides are going all out in what they call an electoral test of the republic's identity. Opposition leader Predrag Bulatovic has accused Djukanovic of betraying Yugoslavia and taking orders from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Djukanovic calls Bulatovic a puppet of Milosevic and says Montenegro has the choice of joining Europe or remaining part of a pariah state. <br>The Montenegrin leader is also under attack by the small Liberal Alliance for refusing to declare outright independence and for building an oversized police force with the alleged aim of intimidating his democratic critics. <br>"Djukanovic is building a private Praetorian Guard," said Miroslav Vickovic, a Liberal Alliance leader. "Does anyone have the illusion that these policemen could defeat the Yugoslav army? With such a force, only one thing is certain--that our president will be the last to die." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : Montenegrins vote in test for pro-west leader </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Gillian Sandford in Belgrade <br>Monday June 12, 2000 <br><br>Security forces were on alert yesterday during elections in Montenegro that pitted supporters of the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, against backers of the pro-western government in a state that is teetering on the brink of war. <br>The polls come after days of heavily policed rallies in the capital, Podgorica, and the coastal city of Herceg Novi.<br><br>Although the vote is for local governments in the two cities, it is viewed as a key test of opinion in the only republic still left alongside Serbia in Yugoslavia.<br><br>The pro-Milosevic party has joined with hardline parties to form a Coalition for Yugoslavia and the pro-west forces are grouped under the For a Better Life coalition, whose main party is that of the pro-western president, Milo Djukanovic.<br><br>After casting his own vote, Yugoslavia's prime minister, Momir Bulatovic, accused the US and the EU of spending £12.5m in Montenegro with the "aim of buying votes".<br><br>Mr Bulatovic, a close aide to Mr Milosevic, was referring to large amounts of international aid that have enabled Mr Djukanovic's government to pay salaries double those of state employees in Belgrade.<br><br>"What is happening now is really indecent," Mr Bulatovic said. "We see foreign centres of financial and political power pouring money in and giving false promises."<br><br>Tension increased on the eve of polling when the Yugoslav army chief of staff, Nebojsa Pavkovic, said Montenegro was "supported by foreign factors", adding that "destructive forces in the country are trying to break its unity".<br><br>He added: "We send a message to all of them, including their commanders, that the Yugoslav army is united, qualified for combat and has proven experience. We will prevent civil war at any price."<br><br>The pro-Milosevic bloc has made allegations of ballot-rigging and warned that if it loses, it will not accept the result lying down.<br><br>Belgrade controls the state's military forces, but Mr Djukanovic's government controls the police, who have received western aid and training.<br><br>Analysts say a vote for the Milosevic bloc will symbolise a vote for the Yugoslav Federation, but a vote for the Better Life coalition is a vote for a referendum on independence.<br><br>"To some extent, these elections have nothing to do with local issues," said political scientist Srdjan Darmanovic, of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights.<br><br>"They decide on who will rule the capital - and in any country that is important."<br><br>The elections also give a third of the 600,000 population the right to vote, "so act as a kind of mini-referendum", he said.<br><br>Both cities are marginal constituencies and the elections come half way through the presidential term of Mr Djukanovic, and half way through the term of the republic's government.<br><br>Opinion is deeply polarised, Mr Darmanovic adds. At a rally last week the mayoral candidate of the pro-Milosevic bloc in the capital promised full employment and pledged that hundreds more apartments would be built. Predrag Bulatovic added that he would talk to the west, but not as a servant.<br><br>One 35-year-old mother said she was backing the pro-Milo sevic bloc "because of Kosovo", adding that she wanted to ensure that Yugoslavia reclaimed Kosovo and that Montenegro "does not go next".<br><br>The Milosevic bloc has accused the government of corruption. According to the analyst Nebojsa Medojevic, Mr Djukanovic's government has more influence in ordinary people's lives than any government in the last 20 years.<br><br>"The government controls everything in Montenegro. If the ruling coalition gets more than 50% of the votes, I think we will see repression here, because it will be a sign that people like a dirty, primitive, corrupted government," he said. "My government exercises power without responsibility."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times : Montenegro Election Seen as Barometer on Tie to Serbia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br> <br>PODGORICA, Montenegro, June 11 -- Local elections held in Montenegro today, closely watched as a barometer of this small republic's future, suggested that it remains perilously divided between following the West, or staying with President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbia. <br><br>Ostensibly, voters in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, and in the seaside town of Herceg Novi, were simply electing new mayors and local assemblies. <br><br>In fact, the vote was effectively a poll on who wants to stay with Mr. Milosevic and Yugoslavia -- which now consists only of Serbia and Montenegro -- and who prefers the more independent course of Montenegro's leader, Milo Djukanovic. <br><br>Western ministers and diplomats have leaned heavily on Mr. Djukanovic in recent months to avoid a complete break with Belgrade and to postpone any referendum on independence. It is also not clear that the president and his ruling coalition would win sufficient support; opinion polls indicate a fairly even split among Montenegro's 600,000 people between staying with their traditional allies, the Serbs, and breaking all ties with Mr. Milosevic. <br><br>Both outsiders and residents of this small republic fear any outright rupture with Belgrade would cause another in the series of Balkan wars that have erupted since the old Communist Yugoslavia began splitting apart a decade ago. <br><br>Early unofficial results suggested that the situation remains sharply divided. Mr. Djukanovic's coalition -- "For a Better Life" -- apparently won the majority of the 28 council seats at stake in the capital, Podgorica, but was losing to the pro-Yugoslavia coalition in Herceg Novi. That slip, if confirmed, would a strengthen Mr. Milosevic's allies and could eventually tempt Belgrade to challenge Mr. Djukanovic's hold on power. <br><br>Violence has already begun to color the politics of Montenegro, where the atmosphere remains uneasy 10 days after a close aide of Mr. Djukanovic was killed in what appears to have been a political assassination. <br><br>The Yugoslav army presence in Montenegro remains a persistent cause for concern for the government as do political supporters of Belgrade, who have threatened to take to the streets if they lose today's ballots. <br><br>Few local issues were raised during the boisterous flag-waving rallies this last week. <br><br>The government coalition kept to its familiar slogan and the name of the president, offering a program of democratic reform and openness to Europe and the West and a hint towards independence. "We have never sold our authority, and will never sell our country," Mr. Djukanovic said at a rally in the capital last week. "That's what we want for Montenegro and our future." <br><br>The pro-Belgrade opposition, led by the Yugoslav prime minister, Momir Bulatovic, and the local leader Predrag Bulatovic (no relation to Momir), ran with the simple message "Yugoslavia." <br><br>Predrag Bulatovic has emphasized that Montenegro and Serbia are equal partners in the union, yet he has been forced into a coalition with both the most radical Serbian nationalist party and its leader, Vojislav Seselj, and the leftist party run by Mr. Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic. Both that alliance and televised footage of his meeting with Mr. Milosevic in May to discuss these elections undermined Predrag Bulatovic's claim to equal partnership. <br>The small Liberal Alliance, which caused these elections by withdrawing from the government coalitions in both cities, has slipped from view behind the larger parties. The most vocal supporter for independence, and a critic of the Djukanovic government, it hoped to win a larger part of the vote in new elections, but has been drowned out by the greater confrontation with Belgrade. <br><br>Today, voters in the capital were clear about their choice. Supporters of the government said they voted for democracy, for modernity, openness to the West and a future inside Europe. "It is the only choice with perspective," said one student who gave his name only as Aco. <br><br>"I voted 'For a better life.' No one wants to live worse," said Milisav Miuskovic, a school janitor, quoting the government coalition slogan. <br><br>Supporters of the pro-Belgrade coalition were often reluctant to talk to a Western journalist or declined to give their names. When they did, their arguments were direct. <br><br>"I voted for Momir," said Rada, a saleswoman who declined to give her full name. "I am for Yugoslavia, I do not want to separate from Serbia. The people will not let it happen." <br><br>Mr. Djukanovic appeared confident and relaxed, driving himself to his local polling station in the city and walking in with his wife and only a small security detail. <br><br>Yet the campaign has not been an easy ride for him. Goran Zugic, his close friend and security adviser, was shot dead outside his apartment on May 31 in an attack that shook the political establishment and the public who turned out in huge numbers for Mr. Zugic's funeral. Diplomats based in the region suspect the hand of Belgrade and say the killing amounted to an attack on the president himself. <br><br>But trouble has also surfaced from other directions. Mr. Djukanovic's younger brother, Aco, caused a scandal when he was arrested for his involvement in beating of a man in the lobby of Podgorica's main hotel. The man, a liberal politician, was admitted to hospital with a serious injury from a pistol butt to the head. <br><br>"They are taking the law into their own hands," Miroslav Vickovic, the liberal leader and candidate for mayor, said of Mr. Djukanovic and his supporters. "They think they can do anything." <br><br>The Liberal Alliance has also criticized the Djukanovic government for its slowness on promised reforms, murky privatization deals and widespread corruption. The government has managed to attract financial support from the West and now questions are being asked as to where that money has gone. <br><br>"Talk to people and ask them about privatization and they will tell you it is all illegal stealing," Mr. Vickovic said. <br><br>"We have no audit office, no parliamentary control of the budget. The government has no culture of public interest. The problem is the lack of institutions and controls over the government," said Nebojsa Medojevic, an independent economist. <br><br>Rather than address those criticisms, Mr. Djukanovic and his political allies chose to clean up Podgorica, pouring money into several civic projects such as placing new benches in the parks and new garbage bins in the streets. <br><br>Critics of the government charge that it is effectively using Mr. Milosevic has a useful excuse for any inefficiencies or failures. <br><br>A presidential aide, Miodrag Vukovic, said that the government neither wanted nor needed these elections. "Montenegro has plenty of problems without them. We are involved in two conflicts, an internal Montenegrin conflict between democrats and conservatives, and a second conflict between Montenegrin democracy and Belgrade dictatorship," he said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Christian Science Monitor : Montenegro tests limits with partner Serbia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Results of Sunday's elections could herald further Balkan breakup.<br><br>Alex Todorovic <br><br>PODGORICA, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>Apart from the machinegun toting police, the scene on Montenegro's streets these days resembles more of a post-game party than election campaigning. Flag-waving revellers drive through town honking horns, with pictures of their favorite politicians festooned on the hoods of their cars.<br><br>That could change soon. The rumor in Podgorica, Montenegro's capital, is that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic may make an unprecedented surprise visit today to bolster his beleaguered supporters in this junior partner in what remains of Yugoslavia. Such a trip would greatly intensify the strained atmosphere. Observers say Mr. Milosevic's gambit is to destabilize the electoral process.<br><br>It's been more than four years since Milosevic visited Montenegro, and Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic once threatened that he would have the Serb leader arrested for war crimes if he came to the republic.<br><br>Sunday's local elections are being viewed as a referendum on the policies of Mr. Djukanovic, a pro-Western leader who is in a three-year standoff with the Milosevic regime. And polls show his coalition is out in front.<br><br>Montenegro has steadily distanced itself from Serbia - and last year proposed to Belgrade to redefine its relationship in a co-federation with equal status.<br><br>Meanwhile, Djukanovic's To Live Better coalition faces an opposition on two fronts. The Yugoslavia Coalition wants Montenegro to remain a part of Yugoslavia and generally supports Milosevic while the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro wants Montenegro to separate from Yugoslavia as soon as possible.<br><br>Both the Liberals and pro-Yugoslav parties say the election process is tainted, that the Djukanovic government is rife with corruption, and that the West is ignoring the issues because Djukanovic serves Western interests in the Balkans.<br><br>Western nations have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Montenegro's economy, allowing Djukanovic to build a 20,000-strong, well-equipped police force to check the 15,000 Yugoslav soldiers stationed in Montenegro.<br><br>Djukanovic relies on foreign aid to pay the republic's massive public payroll. Western policy is to make Montenegro an example of ethnic tolerance and democracy that other Balkan countries may emulate. But critics from both the left and right say that, despite the flowery democratic rhetoric, Montenegro is far from achieving any such ideal.<br><br>The opposition coalitions charge that the Djukanovic government has sold off state-owned companies to friends and family. There have also been longstanding claims of government ties to cigarette smuggling and black marketeering, notably by Djukanovic's brother Aca.<br><br>Aca Djukanovic is currently under arrest, after severely beating a Liberal politician in Podgorica's main hotel last week. Although the incident was personal rather than political, reports of the president's brother waving a gun in a hotel lobby only added to the family's thuggish image.<br><br>Djukanovic has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing. Yugoslav Prime Minister and staunch Milosevic ally Momir Bulatovic referred to Djukanovic as "the admiral of the smuggling fleet" at a rally on Wednesday night.<br><br>"This democratic process here is demoralizing. Out of pragmatic political reasons, the West is using a double standard in its support of Djukanovic. He should be going to court, not elections. We can't honestly call crime democratic reform," says liberal mayoral candidate Miroslav Vickovic.<br><br>In recent days, the crisis between Montenegro and Belgrade intensified with the shooting death of Montenegro's national security adviser, Goran Zugic. While Yugoslav officials point the finger at the CIA, both Montenegro leaders and the US State Department dismiss the claim, and many suspect that the Milosevic regime is behind the slaying.<br> <br>The Yugolsav Coalition's mayoral candidate for Podgorica, Predrag Bulatovic, said recently, "There are two core issues facing Montenegro. Will it be ruled by criminals? And the other is Montenegro's relationship to Yugoslavia. We think that at least two-thirds of citizens want to live with Serbia."<br><br>The Yugoslav Coalition also presses the point that Djukanovic remained silent during NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia - which ended one year ago - calling him a traitor to the nation. The Liberals have been "antiwar" from the beginning.<br><br>The opposition claims that the election process is flawed. Liberal Alliance activists found irregularities in at least 10 percent of the voting rolls. "These elections will not be fair. They didn't fulfill a large part of the election law. Despite that, our party decided to participate in elections," Mr. Bulatovic said in a recent speech.<br><br>Meanwhile, the government insists that the election process is sound. "I think the election process has been correct. They're justifying their loss ahead of time," says Bozidar Jaredic, Montenegro's minister of information.<br><br>Mr. Jaredic says that Serbia is trying to negatively influence the campaign, specifically the claim by Goran Matic, Yugoslavia's minister of information, that the CIA was behind the recent assassination of Djukanovic's security advisor.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegrin poll to test anti-Milosevic government</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, June 9 (Reuters) - Montenegro holds early local elections on Sunday that will test public support for its pro-Western leaders' cautious moves away from Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia. <br>The ruling coalition faces a challenge from both ends of the political spectrum: a pro-Yugoslavia bloc that wants to restore Milosevic's control and a smaller party that thinks the tiny, mountainous republic should split quickly away from Serbia. <br><br>Closely watching the polls will be the West, which approves of President Milo Djukanovic's step-by-step approach, sees his government as a model of ethnic tolerance for its neighbours and fears another bloody Balkan conflict if it is destabilised. <br><br>The polls concern only two municipalities, the Montenegrin capital Podgorica and the coastal town of Herzeg Novi. Their combined electorate totals less than 150,000, but the two main contestants see it as a much wider struggle. <br><br>"This is a struggle between democracy and dictatorship, a struggle between integration and isolation, a struggle between economic progress and economic collapse," Djukanovic told an election rally this week. <br><br>His main foes, a bloc made up of Montenegro's Socialist People's Party (SNP) and all three members of Milosevic's ruling coalition, say they are fighting for Yugoslavia and Serbdom against a Western plot to break up the two-republic federation. <br><br>"Yugoslavia is very threatened by the separatist tendencies of the regime in Montenegro," Predrag Bulatovic, deputy president of the SNP, told a news conference this week. <br><br>Djukanovic was elected president of Montenegro in late 1997 amid fierce opposition from the SNP, which later staged violent demonstrations against his inauguration alleging election fraud. <br><br>Since then he has edged Montenegro away from Milosevic's government in Belgrade, winning exemptions from the Western sanctions imposed over the Serb strongman's role in the violent disintegration of Socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. <br><br>MONTENEGRO IS SEMI-SOVEREIGN <br><br>The coastal republic now has its own foreign policy and took control of the economy late last year when it legalised the German mark alongside the weakening Yugoslav dinar, to the fury of Belgrade which imposed a trade blockade on the Serb border. <br><br>Montenegro controls some of its other borders, has its own, loose, visa regime and a large and well-equipped police force. <br><br>Units of the Yugoslav army, whose commanders are loyal to Milosevic, are still based in the republic and its soldiers control part of the main airport and some border posts. <br><br>Troops have occasionally been involved in stand-offs with the police, most notably over control of the airport in December, but incidents have so far been resolved peacefully. <br><br>The international community is anxious that Sunday's voting in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica and in Herzeg Novi on the Adriatic coast should be seen to be fair. It has sent around 60 observers to monitor the vote in some 250 polling stations. <br><br>Voting starts at eight a.m. (0600 GMT) and ends at nine p.m. (1900 GMT). Full preliminary results are due on Monday morning. <br><br>The opposition Yugoslavia bloc has said it will decide after official results come out on Wednesday whether to contest them. <br><br>Most analysts predict Djukanovic's coalition will win in Podgorica but say the many pro-Yugoslavia pensioners and war veterans in Herzeg Novi will make that a close race. <br><br>Djukanovic's other main opponents, the Liberal Alliance, provoked the poll by withdrawing from government-led coalitions in the two towns to try to capitalise on what it sees as a pro-independence mood and discontent with government corruption. <br><br>If it wins the balance of power, it says it will try to force Djukanovic to set a date for a referendum on independence, something he has so far avoided due to fears of unrest among a mainly Slav population that is deeply divided on the issue. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegro opposition leader on more moderate line</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, June 9 (Reuters) - The most popular leader of the pro-Serb opposition coalition in Montenegro said it would not contest the results of Sunday's local elections unless it had proof of major violations. <br>Predrag Bulatovic -- striking a more moderate note than other members of the coalition backed by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- said there had already been irregularities by Montenegro's pro-Western government but they were not crucial. <br><br>Many supporters of the coalition in the tiny Balkan republic have written the polls off in advance. A radical member of the coalition told its final pre-election rally on Wednesday that a "lava of evil" would flow over Montenegro if his party deemed the results to be unfair. <br><br>Bulatovic played down the prospect of unrest. But he alleged the polls were not democratic because the government of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic had used Western funds to boost its campaign. <br><br>Djukanovic's government has been cautiously edging Montenegro away from the Yugoslav federation, of which it is part along with sister republic Serbia. <br><br>The West, which sees Djukanovic's government as a model of democracy and ethnic tolerance compared to Milosevic's rule in Serbia, has made no secret of its support for him and has approved funds to support his reforms this year. <br><br>LEADER SEEN OVERSHADOWED BY MILOSEVIC <br><br>"Despite all that, we decided to take part in the elections because we managed to correct some of those irregularities. Others remained but for now they cannot have an important influence on the results of the elections themselves," Bulatovic said. <br><br>He said the Yugoslavia coalition led by the Socialist People's Party, of which he is deputy president, would take a view on the poll once official results come out on Wednesday. <br><br>"If there are no facts to prove the election has been stolen, I will be the first to give a positive judgment on these elections regardless of the result," he said. <br><br>He said if his coalition won as much as previously or more it would be an affirmation of its pro-Yugoslavia stance. <br><br>"For me the stabilisation of the political situation in Montenegro is the main thing and it is less important who wins. The most important thing is that there is no stealing." <br><br>Analysts say that while Bulatovic is influential among his party's supporters in Montenegro, he is beholden to Milosevic. They point to leaked television footage of Milosevic ticking Bulatovic off at a recent meeting in Belgrade. <br><br>Bulatovic said the footage had been misused and that the Montenegrin government's regular warnings that Milosevic is threatening to destabilise the republic were just a ploy to get funds from the West. <br><br>He also raised the prospect of a change in political allegiances within Montenegro after the poll but would not elaborate. <br><br>Bulatovic said he had good relations with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is sending 60 international observers to monitor the polls. <br><br>He noted his role in calming tensions between the Yugoslav army, which is controlled by Milosevic, and Djukanovic's Montenegrin police during last year's NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia over Kosovo. He said he believed peace would prevail. <br><br>"I am totally convinced that the era of protests and of issues being resolved in a forceful and undemocratic way is behind us," he said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Reuters: Yugoslavia Says Montenegro Prepares for Conflict</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE (Reuters) - The Yugoslav army Thursday accused Montenegro's police of setting the scene for conflict and said the republic's authorities had joined a Western campaign against Yugoslavia and its armed forces.<br><br>The accusations, in an army statement carried by the state news agency Tanjug, coincided with tensions between the pro-Western coastal republic and Serb-dominated federation ahead of local elections in two Montenegro's towns.<br><br>``The Montenegrin leadership, the authorities and police wholeheartedly joined a Western psychological propaganda and media campaign aimed at our country and the Yugoslav army,'' the statement said Thursday.<br><br>But, it added, the Montenegrins, ``aware of the historic moment and responsibility for the future, will pull their strength together in order to recognize who is who in the Yugoslav reality.''<br><br>Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic has been at odds with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic since 1997, pushing for democratic and economic reforms in Yugoslavia and threatening a referendum on independence if Belgrade does not comply.<br><br>Djukanovic is facing early local polls in the capital Podgorica and in the coastal town of Herceg-Novi after the Liberal Alliance party pulled out of his local coalitions in order to campaign on a pro-independence ticket.<br><br>Pro-Milosevic parties in Montenegro formed a coalition for the polls and have been campaigning vigorously, accusing Djukanovic of treason and of trying to secede from Serbia.<br><br>Last Friday, the Montenegrin Finance Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic said he saw no risk the army would try to overthrow his government that has edged away from the federation dominated by Milosevic, himself of Montenegrin origin.<br><br>``We are fully aware that top officers of the Yugoslav army are completely loyal to Mr. Milosevic,'' Ivanisevic told reporters in Brussels, but added he ``would say the Yugoslav army would not be used in Montenegro for a coup d'etat.''<br><br>The army has also denied it was doing anything else in Montenegro but its regular duties stipulated by the federal constitution and said it posed no threat to the republic.<br><br>But Thursday, it listed a number of examples of what it called ``measures, acts and preparations set to provoke incidents, conflicts and clashes with members of the army in order to cause the international community condemnation and reactions.''<br><br>The statement said that Montenegrin police were arming and exercising a reserve in the towns of Cetinje and Herceg-Novi, while in the towns of Tivat, Bar and Ulcinj the reserve was made up mostly of ethnic Croats and Albanians.<br><br>``In addition, Montenegro's police have enormous forces in other security centers formed on the basis of political and national criteria,'' the statement said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>TIME : MONTENEGRO HAS ALWAYS STAUNCHLY DEFENDED ITS SOVEREIGNTY, A PROCESS THAT ENDURES IN THE WAKE OF THE WAR IN KOSOVO</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By JEFF CHU<br><br>Legend has it that Montenegro won its name - which means "black mountain" - through prowess in war. Centuries ago, its foes chose the name to commemorate huge losses at the hands of those who ruled this part of the Balkans. Today, Montenegro often appears in the news with the words "tiny" or "little" before it. The junior partner in the Yugoslav federation, it is overshadowed by Serbia and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. But if history is any guide, Montenegro remains a formidable force, with a reputation for beating not only the odds but also its enemies. <br><br>Perhaps Montenegro's raw beauty compelled Slavic immigrants from northern Europe to settle in this region of snow-covered peaks and deep green gorges. Whatever the reason, Montenegrins have guarded their autonomy fiercely since they arrived in the 7th century. A victory over Byzantium in 1042 secured autonomy, and Montenegro was the only state in the region to fend off the Ottoman Turks as they swept through southern Europe in the 1300s. The Turks tried again, repeatedly, in subsequent centuries. Each time, the Montenegrins held on, and strategic alliances - first with Venice, then with Russia - helped maintain self-rule through the 19th century. This tenacity was not lost on the world; Alfred Lord Tennyson praised the "race of mightier mountaineers" in his 1877 poem "Montenegro." <br><br>The 20th Century brought humility in war for a country that had never known defeat. In the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars, Montenegro was on the winning side. But while it gained more territory, it lost many men. When World War I erupted the following year, the country joined, its thinned ranks fighting alongside those of neighboring Serbia. Austria occupied Montenegro in 1915, when Serb-led forces protecting the region fled to Greece. The Allies quickly declared their solidarity with the defeated Montenegro. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George promised, "The Allies will do justice to the heroism of the Montenegrins." The Allies did win the war, but Montenegro did not regain sovereignty. When Austria retreated in defeat in 1918, Serbia moved in, purportedly to secure Montenegro's stability for a transitional period. <br><br>Serb sympathizers within Montenegro had different ideas, orchestrating a union of the two countries with the approval of Serbia's king. The unpopular move sparked the Christmas Uprising of 1919. Thousands of Montenegrins died in the consequent guerrilla war, which continued until 1926. Thousands more fled Montenegro, resettling in other parts of Europe and the United States. Many who stayed joined the fledgling Yugoslav communist movement, which preached equality at a time when Montenegrins were feeling marginalized and neglected. <br><br>The communists took control of Yugoslavia after the end of World War II. Many Montenegrins were rewarded for their loyalty with positions of power. True to their heritage, they held particularly prominent posts in the military. Montenegro itself was promoted from a mere administrative region to full-fledged republic in the new Yugoslav federation. <br><br>Montenegro proved loyal to the federation, even after Tito's death in 1980 (TIME, May 19, 1980) and the radical political shake-ups a decade later. In the country's first multi-party elections in 1990, Montenegrins showed staunch support for the ruling communists. Montenegro alone joined Serbia in protesting the secession of Slovenia, then Croatia, and finally Bosnia and Herzegovina, staying in the truncated Yugoslavia even after the other republics split. <br><br>But many Montenegrins were deeply critical of Serbia, particularly with regard to the war with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Montenegrin units even withdrew from the Yugoslav army in protest. Sanctions against Yugoslavia decimated the Montenegrin economy and largely ended the flow of tourists to Montenegro's beaches and ski resorts. Discontent grew in the mid-1990s as the federal government did little to rejuvenate the still-ailing economy. <br><br>Elections in 1997 were a turning point. Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic captured the federal presidency. But in Montenegro's own presidential election, voters chose Milo Djukanovic, a pro-Western candidate, over Momir Bulatovic, a staunch Milosevic ally. (TIME, June 15, 1998) Once in office, Djukanovic embarked on reclamation projects, taking back much power from Belgrade and easing Montenegro out of federal institutions and relationships. (TIME, Winter 1998-99) <br><br>While Djukanovic has publicly said that Montenegro remains committed to the federal Yugoslavia, his actions suggest a more independent future for his country. Milosevic has made clear his feelings on the matter. In early 1999, he reminded Montenegrins that they are still Yugoslavs, calling up all draft-age Montenegrins for military service and discarding an earlier pledge that no Montenegrins would fight in Kosovo. While Montenegro largely escaped NATO bombing during the conflict, Milosevic's broken promise and a steady stream of refugees tested loyalties in the republic, eroding his still significant base of support. Polls in mid-1999 showed that 60% of Montenegrins would vote for independence if given the chance. (TIME, Aug. 23, 1999) <br><br>Despite pressure from Belgrade, Montenegro has stayed its independent course, maneuvering itself into a state of semi-sovereignty. Its repositioning may not yet be done. The West has heaped praise on the Djukanovic administration, with the E.U. pledging millions of euros in economic aid for Montenegro. President Djukanovic has expressed his gratitude for the willingness of the E.U. and the rest of the world to "reaffirm the will of Montenegrins." Centuries ago, that hardy will won Montenegro its name and reputation. Soon, it may win back independence as well.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Agence France Presse : RUSSIA HOSTS ALBANIAN FM, BUT NO SHIFT IN MOSCOW'S BALKANS POLICY</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">MOSCOW, Jun 8, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) The Russian and Albanian foreign ministers will discuss the troubled situation in Kosovo Thursday, but the encounter signals no shift in Moscow's pro-Serbia policy in the Balkans, analysts say.<br><br>Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo's three-day visit to the Russian capital at the invitation of his counterpart, Igor Ivanov, comes 10 days after a high-level delegation from the Yugoslav opposition.<br><br>It secured only lukewarm support from Moscow for demands that Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milosevic end a crackdown on opponents, although Russia did back the return of seized opposition-run television station Studio B.<br><br>"I don't see any significant efforts to break with Milosevic and establish some working relationship with Albania," commented Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation.<br><br>Russia, which fiercely opposed last year's NATO air campaign to force Milosevic to accept broad autonomy for Kosovo, accuses the West of promoting independence for the majority ethnic Albanian province.<br><br>It also protests that nothing has been done to protect Kosovo's dwindling Serbian population, whose plight strikes a deep chord in fellow-Orthodox Russia.<br><br>After a meeting with Milo on Wednesday, the speaker of Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, warned that unless Serbian rights were respected "there will never be peace there (in Kosovo)."<br><br>Moscow accuses former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters of being behind widespread violence against Serbs, which flared again last week, killing eight people and provoking a Serb boycott of the UN-backed joint administration.<br><br>In turn Russian peacekeepers that serve in the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo are widely distrusted by ethnic Albanians who see them as supporters of the Belgrade regime.<br><br>Yugoslavia is a traditional Russian ally.<br><br>Two Russians have been killed since the start of the peacekeeping operation last June.<br><br>In Serbia itself, Moscow has not abandoned its long-time support for Milosevic, an indicted war crimes suspect, even if it recognizes that it must keep contacts open with the opposition, say analysts.<br><br>During his visit to Russia last month, Yugoslav opposition leader Vuk Draskovic was refused a meeting with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, although a junior minister did receive him for talks.<br><br>"Russia is not so happy with Milosevic. He is a notorious figure, but I don't see that Russian foreign policy is looking for an immediate replacement for Milosevic," said Volk.<br><br>"There are people at the top who openly or secretly support Milosevic," he added.<br><br>This was illustrated in May, when Washington sharply criticized Moscow for allowing Yugoslav Defense Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic, another indicted warcrimes suspect, to visit the Russian capital.<br><br>The Russian foreign ministry denied any prior knowledge of the visit, and the authorities later explained that Dragoljub had been invited to Moscow by the defense ministry by mistake.<br><br>The same month, Moscow granted Belgrade a 102 dollar million loan after a visit by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic.<br><br>Alan Rousso, director of the Carnegie Endowment think-tank in Moscow, commented: "There does appear to be some sense that the Russians are looking for ways not to disagree directly with the West, over Kosovo and in general over policy on Yugoslavia.<br><br>"But it doesn't look very much as if they're willing to make too many sacrifices in their support for Serbia in order to propitiate relations with the West," he added. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ABCNEWS : FEATURE-Vote tests strength of Montenegrin change</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">UBLI, Yugoslavia, June 8 (Reuters) - In the morning, Serb folk music rang through the village of Ubli as people gathered to hear politicians promise to defend Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia as a bastion against the West. <br>Later that same day, a different group brought rock music and pledges to free the last republic still left with Serbia in Yugoslavia from the isolation brought by Milosevic's rule. <br><br>The first group offered visitors a slug of strong alcohol and a doughnut. At one point a military helicopter appeared and circled over the sun-baked sports pitch, prompting frantic cries of "Slobo" "Slobo" before flying off again. <br><br>The second brought promotional badges and a large number of tough-looking police who maintained a studied indifference when some drunken locals slung insults and waved their fists. <br><br>The morning's audience was mainly families and pensioners, rural people, unhappy with the present, nostalgic for the past and scared of the future. In the evening it was the young, confident, urban crowd that filled the small village hall. <br><br>On Sunday both groups will have their say in whether Montenegro should keep heading West as it has done for the past two years or turn back towards Belgrade. <br><br>The vote is for the local councils in just two municipalities -- Podgorica and Herzeg Novi -- in a republic whose entire population of around 650,000 would fit into one large suburb of a major world capital. <br><br>VULNERABLE <br><br>Those capitals will be watching, because after the four wars that have ripped through former Yugoslavia in the past decade, many people fear Montenegro could be next. <br><br>U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made clear which way she would like the vote to go last weekend by meeting Montenegro's pro-Western President Milo Djukanovic in Berlin. <br><br>Washington distributed $11 million in aid last month while the European Union said it had approved 55 million euros ($52 million) of assistance. <br><br>Milosevic, for his part, says Montenegro would be better off with Serbia and has put his Serbian ruling coalition in coalition with Djukanovic's main opponents the Socialist People's Party (SNP), in a bloc called Yugoslavia. <br><br>The International Crisis Group think-tank said there was a slight chance the bloc could win in the coastal town of Herzeg-Novi but that support for Djukanovic, who has edged Montenegro away from Serbia in the past two years, was solid. <br><br>"On the contrary, the SNP's pro-Yugoslavia message suffers a new blow with...every new move by Milosevic to strengthen his hold on power," it said in a pre-election analysis. <br><br>Western diplomats and many Montenegrins fear Milosevic -- cornered by a U.N. war crimes indictment and facing growing public discontent at home, could try to stir trouble in the republic to bolster his position. <br><br>Last week those fears grew when Djukanovic's national security adviser was shot dead by an unknown gunman, although Montenegrin officials have not said directly whom they blame. <br><br>SNP officials say neither they, nor Serbia, represent any threat to Montenegro, and it is the West that is stirring by encouraging Montenegrin autonomy. <br><br>They also say that if the SNP loses the election it can only be through fraud, something they said more than two years ago about Djukanovic's election as president. <br><br>Then they staged violent protests to try to stop his inauguration. But now the appetite for violence seems small. <br><br>"I don't think there are that many people prepared to contest the election results," said a Western diplomat visiting Montenegro, adding that while the election might not be perfect it was likely to be fairer than most in the region. <br><br>ELECTION IS TEST OF STRENGTH <br><br>Sunday's vote is more likely to test the faultlines running through Montenegro's dramatic, mountainous landscape -- poor versus rich, old versus young, Serb versus Montenegrin and army versus police -- for a possible fight. <br><br>Milosevic who, due to Djukanovic's stealthy moves towards autonomy, controls the army but little else in Montenegro, is keeping people guessing as to whether and when it might start. <br><br>Just as on Saturday, the military helicopter fooled the crowd into thinking he was on his way, so recent tough words and military exercises by the army in Montenegro have worried many that he may be prepared to use it against Djukanovic's government. <br><br>But just as the helicopter clearly did not bring him, so most analysts doubt he feels secure enough about the army's loyalty to take on Djukanovic's well-armed police. <br><br>Instead, Belgrade seems to want to push the republic towards holding the referendum on independence which Djukanovic has been threatening for almost a year -- something that would inevitably spark tensions among ordinary Montenegrins. <br><br>"We can hardly wait for the Montenegrin people to decide," Ivica Dacic, a top official of Milosevic's Socialist Party, told a news conference during a visit to Podgorica on Sunday. <br><br>That is also what Djukanovic's other opponents, the Liberal Alliance, want, although, as bitter critics of Milosevic, their motivation could not be more different. <br><br>They provoked Sunday's elections in the two towns by pulling out of coalitions with Djukanovic because they thought their pro-independence, anti-corruption ticket could win them enough votes to push the government towards a plebiscite. <br><br>But with a opinion polls showing big splits in the mainly Slav republic between those seeking independence and those who either are Serb, or feel a close affinity with their Serb neighbours, a referendum would be risky. <br><br>The West is advising firmly against and hopes the Montenegrin government, which already has its own economic and foreign policy, will remain strong enough to resist pressure to rush towards a plebiscite. <br><br>"We will have our own Montenegro," Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic told the evening crowd in Ubli at the weekend to loud cheers. "But not at the cost of bloodshed."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times : Rights Group Says NATO Bombing in Yugoslavia Violated Law</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PRAGUE, June 7 -- In an extensive report that infuriated NATO leaders, Amnesty International said today that NATO violated international law in its bombing war over Yugoslavia by hitting targets where civilians were sure to be killed. <br><br>In particular, the human rights group said that NATO's bombing of the Belgrade headquarters of Radio Television Serbia, on April 23, 1999, ''was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime." Sixteen people died in the predawn attack, nearly all of them technicians, security workers and makeup artists. <br><br>NATO has defended the bombing as an attack on the "propaganda machine" of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. <br><br>International law forbids direct attacks on civilians and civilian targets and requires all feasible precautions to prevent civilian deaths. In some cases, Amnesty said, NATO failed to take sufficient precautions to minimize civilian casualties. The number of civilian deaths from NATO air strikes "could have been significantly reduced if NATO forces had fully adhered to the laws of war," the report said. <br><br>Amnesty also condemned a NATO attack on a bridge at Varvarin on May 30, 1999, in which at least 11 civilians died. "NATO forces failed to suspend their attack after it was evident that they had struck civilians," the report said, and it criticized NATO for ordering its pilots to fly so high that they could not take proper precautions against bombing civilians. In particular, the report criticized the bombing of convoys of Albanian refugees near Djakovica on April 14 and Korisa on May 13. <br><br>The report was released less than a week after Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, told the United Nations Security Council that her investigation had found no basis for charging NATO with war crimes. Mrs. Del Ponte said that although "some mistakes were made by NATO," she was "very satisfied that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets." <br><br>Still, some tribunal officials said privately that they hoped their report would cause NATO countries to review their rules of engagement in order to lessen the chances of civilian casualties. <br><br>NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, called Amnesty's accusations baseless. He said that NATO "made every effort to minimize civilian casualties." NATO's mistakes, he said, were few and should be weighed "against the atrocities that NATO's action stopped." <br><br>The report by Amnesty does not try to weigh the violations committed by Serbian officials and forces; rather it tries to hold the members of NATO up to the highest standards of international law and behavior. <br><br>The Amnesty report is similar in its findings to a detailed report by Human Rights Watch in February. Of the 500 or so Yugoslav civilians killed in Serbia and Kosovo by NATO bombs, half died because of NATO violations of laws and practices on protecting civilians, said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a telephone interview from New York. <br><br>Amnesty was scathing about the bombing of the television station, which went off the air only briefly. "NATO deliberately attacked a civilian object, killing 16 civilians, for the purpose of disrupting Serb television broadcasts in the middle of the night for approximately three hours."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Nato 'deliberately attacked civilians in Serbia' </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By Robert Fisk <br><br><br>7 June 2000 <br><br>Only five days after Nato was "exonerated" by the International War Crimes Tribunal for its killing of civilians in Yugoslavia last year, Amnesty International today publishes a blistering attack on the Alliance, accusing it of committing serious violations of the rules of war, unlawful killings and – in the case of the bombing of Serbia's television headquarters – a war crime. <br><br>The 65-page Amnesty report details a number of mass killings of civilians in Nato raids and states that "civilian deaths could have been significantly reduced if Nato forces had fully adhered to the rules of war". <br><br>Legalistic in nature but damning in content – the document reminds readers that Amnesty repeatedly condemned Serb atrocities against Kosovo Albanians – the report highlights inconsistencies and obfuscation by Nato's official spokesmen. Although Nato told Amnesty that pilots operated under "strict Rules of Engagement", it refused to disclose details of the "rules" or the principles underlying them. The report says: "They did not answer specific questions Amnesty International raised about specific incidents ..." <br><br>Amnesty records that Nato aircraft flew 10,484 strike missions over Serbia and that Serbian statistics of civilian deaths in Nato raids range from 400-600 up to 1,500. It specifically condemns Nato for an attack on a bridge at Varvarin on 30 May last year, which killed at least 11 civilians. "Nato forces failed to suspend their attack after it was evident that they had struck civilians," Amnesty says. <br><br>When it attacked convoys of Albanian refugees near Djakovica on 14 April and in Korisa on 13 May, "Nato failed to take necessary precautions to minimise civilian casualties". <br><br>The report says Nato repeatedly gave priority to pilots' safety at the cost of civilian lives. In several investigations of civilian deaths, Amnesty quotes from reports in The Independent, including an investigation into the bombing of a hospital at Surdulica on 31 May. The Independent disclosed in November that Serb soldiers were sheltering on the ground floor of the hospital when it was bombed but that all the casualties were civilian refugees living on the upper floors. <br><br>Amnesty says: "If Nato intentionally bombed the hospital complex because it believed it was housing soldiers, it may well have violated the laws of war. According to Article 50(3) of Protocol 1, [of the Geneva Conventions] 'the presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character'. <br><br>"The hospital complex was clearly a civilian object with a large civilian population, the presence of soldiers would not have deprived the civilians or the hospital compound of their protected status." Some of Amnesty's harshest criticism is directed at the 23 April bombing of Serb television headquarters. "General Wesley Clark has stated, 'We knew when we struck that there would be alternate means of getting the Serb Television. There's no single switch to turn off everything but we thought it was a good move to strike it, and the political leadership agreed with us.' <br><br>"In other words, Nato deliberately attacked a civilian object, killing 16 civilians, for the purpose of disrupting Serb television broadcasts in the middle of the night for approximately three hours. It is hard to see how this can be consistent with the rule of proportionality." <br><br>On 17 May last year, Nato's secretary general, Javier Solana, wrote to Amnesty in response to its "grave concern" over the TV bombing, stating that RTS (Serb Radio and Television) facilities "are being used as radio relay stations and transmitters to support the activities of the ... military and special police forces, and therefore they represent legitimate military targets". <br><br>But at a meeting with Nato officials in Brussels early this year Amnesty was informed that Mr Solana's reference "was to other attacks on RTS infrastructure and not this particular attack on RTS headquarters." <br><br>The US Defense Department, Amnesty recalls, justified the television station bombing because it was "a facility used for propaganda purposes" and Amnesty itself says that Tony Blair "appeared to be hinting [in a subsequent BBC documentary] that one of the reasons that the station was targeted was because its video footage of the human toll of Nato mistakes ... was being re-broadcast by Western media outlets and was thereby undermining support for the war within the alliance". <br><br>Of the Nato destruction of the train at Gurdulica bridge on 12 April, Amnesty says: "Nato's explanation of the bombing – particularly General Clark's account of the pilot's rationale for continuing the attack after he had hit the train – suggests that the [American] pilot had understood that the mission was to destroy the bridge regardless of the cost in terms of civilian casualties ..." <br><br>Nato had not, Amnesty adds, "taken sufficient precautionary measures to ensure there was no civilian traffic in the vicinity of the bridge before launching the first attack". Amnesty quotes the Nato spokesman James Shea as admitting that the video of the train shown to the press at the time was speeded up (to three times its original speed) because Nato analysts routinely reviewed tapes at speed. <br><br>Mr Shea, Amnesty says, "said that the [Nato] press office was at fault for clearing the tape for public screening without slowing it down to the original speed". <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : British open fire on Serbs in Kosovo clash </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>Jonathan Steele <br>Wednesday June 7, 2000 <br><br>British troops yesterday fired into a crowd of Serb civilians, injuring three, after they surrounded Brigadier Richard Shireff, the commander of the British sector of Kosovo. <br>The incident, which is one of the worst since Nato-led troops entered Kosovo exactly a year ago, occurred as Serbs gathered to protest against a drive-by grenade attack at a crowded market in the monastery town of Gracanica, close to Pristina. <br><br>The grenade attack, which wounded five shoppers, touched off a melee. Serbs began stopping Albanian cars on the road through the town, setting five vehicles alight and injuring two drivers. <br><br>Hearing of the incident, Brig Shireff rushed to the scene but was almost set upon. The Nato spokesman, Captain Jo Butterfill, said his bodyguards had felt threatened and fired into the crowd. <br><br>Brig Shireff later met Father Sava Janjic, a leader of the moderate Serb faction, to try to ease tensions. Serbs said they began stopping vehicles after Swedish troops stationed in the town failed to block the car which carried out the grenade attack. <br><br>"It was thrown right in front of K-For [Nato peacekeepers]," said Dragan Stojanovic. "How come they weren't able to stop that car? Aren't they ashamed?" <br><br>The Serb national council said the grenade attack was only the latest "wave of organised Albanian terrorist groups seeking to expel Serbs from Kosovo". <br><br>"We have repeatedly told K-For that the market in Gracanica is a dangerous site ... but Nato has found no solutions for the problem," Fr Janjic told the private news agency, Beta. <br><br>Unlike most Serb communi ties in Kosovo which have been reduced to isolated enclaves, Gracanica straddles a key main road connecting the capital with the southeastern city of Gnjilane. <br><br>K-For maintains roadblocks for spot-checks on traffic, but the peacekeepers usually wave vehicles through without searching them. Serbs often set up their own roadblocks to deter Albanians from driving through the town. <br><br>The incident comes two days after the Serb national council walked out of the UN-led government of the province in protest at a spate of attacks on Serbs in the last fortnight. Eight Serbs, including a four-year-old boy, have been killed. <br><br>The increase in violence against Serbs comes as two Serbs have gone on trial in the town of Mitrovice, in northern Kosovo, accused of committing war crimes during the conflict last year. The men, one of whom is being tried in his absence, are accused of expelling Albanians from the province and burning their homes. <br><br>The international community agreed to speed up the trials of suspected war criminals after Serb prisoners staged a hunger strike to protest against their detention for weeks without trial. <br><br>At the height of the hunger strike as many as 1,000 local Serbs gathered outside the jail every day. <br><br>The top international official in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, was only able to break the deadlock over the hunger strike by giving in to almost all the prisoners' demands. He persuaded them to give up their protest in return for prompt trials before an international judge. <br><br>An international judge is presiding over the hearing, assisted by a panel of lay judges made up of two Serbs and two Albanians. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Serb aide accuses CIA of killing Montenegro's security adviser</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ A top aide to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday claimed that the CIA was behind the slaying of an adviser to Montenegro's pro-Western president. U.S. officials called the charge absurd. <br>Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic is at odds with Milosevic's government over economic and political issues. Montenegro and Serbia make up Yugoslavia. <br><br>Some officials in Montenegro have accused Yugoslav authorities of complicity in the killing of National Security Adviser Goran Zugic a week ago. Zugic was one of Djukanovic closest associates. <br><br>Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic, who has repeatedly accused Western governments of plotting against Yugoslavia, said Zugic was killed so the CIA could blame Milosevic's authorities for the murder. <br><br>To back up his claims, Matic offered reporters what he said was a transcript and a sound clip of telephone conversations between two Americans working in the region. <br><br>There was no was to verify the authenticity of the Matic's claims. Without mentioning the Zugic killing, the speakers in the clips spoke of " ... it was professional ..." and " ... mission accomplished." <br><br>U.S. and Montenegrin officials dismissed Matic's charges as ridiculous. <br><br>"That is nonsense," commented CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield in Washington. <br><br>Echoing that reaction, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker called Matic's alleged evidence "absurd, completely false." <br><br>Montenegrin Interior Minister Vukasin Maras called the taped transcript an "unskillful setup." <br><br>Maras said the accusation was an apparent attempt to discredit Montenegro's leadership _ which maintains strong ties with the U.S. administration _ ahead of important municipal elections in the republic Sunday. <br><br>Zugic's death marks the first slaying of a prominent Montenegrin official after a series of high-profile killings in Serbia. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegrin President's Brother Arrested in Assault</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's younger brother has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in an attack that seriously injured an opposition politician, newspapers said Tuesday. <br>News of the arrest followed an outraged statement by the victim's Liberal Alliance party, which will run against Djukanovic's pro-Western coalition in local polls Sunday that could help decide the fragile Yugoslav republic's future. <br><br>Djukanovic's main opponent is the Socialist People's Party backed by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who wants to reverse the autonomy Djukanovic has introduced in Montenegro, seen by the West as a model of ethnic tolerance compared with Serbia, its bigger partner in the Yugoslav federation. <br><br>The smaller Liberal Alliance party, which is campaigning for Montenegrin independence, said Liberal Zoran Klajic had undergone surgery after the attack, in which it said he was hit on the head with a pistol. <br><br>An official at the hospital in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica said by telephone Klajic's condition was stable. <br><br>The papers quoted a statement issued by the Podgorica court through the government saying Aco Djukanovic had been arrested along with Vladislav Jabucanin "on suspicion they had committed a criminal act in the Hotel Montenegro." <br><br>Tuesday, a lawyer for the younger Djukanovic issued a statement in his name in which he said he had given himself up to police 10 minutes after the incident, which happened in the early hours of Monday morning. <br><br>He said he had been provoked by a stream of insults from Klajic, with whom he had long been at odds, and that he had been unaware he was a member of the Liberal Alliance. <br><br>"I am very sorry for what has happened but I believe that all honest people will understand that there is a threshold of personal dignity under which a man simply can not go. Especially if he is as a citizen ready to suffer all legal consequences in a regular legal procedure," the statement said. <br><br>The Liberals alleged the attack was political and stemmed from its criticism of Milo Djukanovic's government, which has steered a cautious path toward independence, winning praise from the West but criticism at home over alleged corruption. <br><br>The younger Djukanovic, a 35-year-old businessman whose business activities are a source of furious speculation in Montenegro, accused the Liberal Alliance of using Klajic to deliberately provoke him for electoral purposes. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Associated Press : Montenegro Vote To Test Independence</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- After three years of virtual independence, Montenegro faces elections that will measure the strength of the Yugoslav republic's pro-Western leadership and its rivals who support Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>The test comes Sunday when voters in the capital of Podgorica and coastal town of Herceg Novi choose municipal officials. Although the elections are local, the outcome will have major implications for all of Yugoslavia since one-third of Montenegro's voters live in the two cities. <br><br>A strong showing by President Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists would reaffirm popular support for his pro-Western policies and solidify his grip on power despite opposition from Milosevic and his allies in Montenegro. <br><br>Djukanovic faces an intense challenge from the Socialist People's Party, headed by Yugoslavia's prime minister and Milosevic ally, Momir Bulatovic. A strong showing by Bulatovic's party would raise questions whether Djukanovic can resist pressure from Belgrade or continue policies which have made Montenegro all but independent of Yugoslavia. <br><br>More is at stake than simply mayoral and city council posts. <br><br>``This is the right time to get rid of this government of traitors,'' Bulatovic said at a recent rally. He accused Western powers of ``trying to destroy the historic brotherhood of the Montenegrin and Serbian people.'' <br><br>Since taking office in 1998, Djukanovic has steered a difficult course between Montenegrins who remain loyal to Belgrade and those who want the republic of 600,000 people to declare full independence. <br><br>Both sides have their own armed forces. Djukanovic controls the republic's 20,000-member police force, which is equipped with an array of weaponry. The pro-Milosevic Yugoslav armed forces maintain an army group in Montenegro along with naval forces since Montenegro is Yugoslavia's only outlet to the Adriatic Sea. <br><br>Those troops, estimated at 25,000, constitute the most important remaining symbol of federal authority, albeit a strong one. <br><br>While federal army troops rarely venture outside the barracks, the pro-Djukanovic police are always present on the streets, stopping cars and checking identity papers of anybody remotely suspected of being a possible troublemaker sent by Belgrade. <br><br>Those measures did not help Djukanovic's top security adviser, Zoran Zugic, who was shot dead last week outside his apartment in Podgorica. No arrests have been announced, but many Montenegrins suspect Milosevic's regime played a role. <br><br>Within days of the assassination, Djukanovic met with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who reiterated American support to his government. <br><br>Meanwhile, the election campaign has brought out hardline supporters from both the pro and anti-Belgrade camps. The rhetoric suggests that the two camps are so far apart that they may be irreconcilable. <br><br>``Yugoslavia is dead,'' says Miomir Mugosa, Djukanovic's close aide and his party's candidate for Podgorica mayor. ``We are not separatists. We simply cannot tie our future to the war crimes suspect, to the man notorious for spreading death and destruction.'' <br><br>The pro-Milosevic camp ridicules Djukanovic's promises of a ``better life'' for Montenegrins and his links to foreign governments. <br><br>``It has been a better life, but only for a small majority in the government and their clans,'' says Predrag Bulatovic, the pro-Belgrade camp's candidate for Podgorica mayor. He is no relation to Prime Minister Bulatovic. <br><br>The mayoral candidate Bulatovic says that the fact that international sanctions against Yugoslavia do not apply to Montenegro is a proof that ``the United States and NATO, the powers that just want to use Montenegro to accomplish own interest in the region.'' <br><br>Bitterness among the pro-Belgrade supporters grew after last year's NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, which included targets in Montenegro. <br><br>After the bombing, Djukanovic took a major step toward independence by introducing the German mark as the alternative currency. The Yugoslav dinar has since become obsolete. <br><br>More than $100 million of Western loans and aid have come to Montenegro over the past three years while Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia, languishes in international isolation. <br><br>Mugosa praised the government's market reforms and efforts toward privatization, criticized as a sham by opponents. He pointed out that the average monthly salary in Montenegro is $110, compared to less than $50 in Serbia. <br><br>``We need peace to accomplish our projects, we need stability and the trust of the international community,'' Mugosa said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegrin leader warns of more Serbian pressure</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">LISBON (Reuters) - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said Monday the killing of one of his top advisers pointed to mounting pressure by the Yugoslav government of Slobodan Milosevic against his pro-Western policies. <br>While he stopped short of openly blaming Milosevic or his allies for the murder of Goran Zugic, gunned down outside his home in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica last Wednesday, Djukanovic said the death was clearly politically motivated. <br><br>"It is not only my impression but the impression of the general public in Montenegro that this was a political murder," he told a news conference after meeting Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama. <br><br>"This (the killing), and not only this, leads us to conclude that the repertory of destructive measures against Montenegro will not only go on, but will become enhanced," he said through an interpreter. <br><br>Montenegro, the reluctant partner of the far larger Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, faces local elections later this month widely seen as a test of strength between Djukanovic's government and backers of Milosevic in Montenegro. <br><br>But despite the efforts of the Yugoslav authorities, who in turn accuse the Montenegrin government of being a puppet of the West, Djukanovic said he would not be deflected from his pro-democratic, pro-European stance. <br><br>He reaffirmed that he was ready to call a referendum on independence unless Milosevic agreed to institute democratic reforms in the federation. But he set no deadline, saying Montenegro was prepared to be patient. <br><br>"We think time is on our side. We do not want to make any rash move and provoke Milosevic into a fifth Balkan war," he said, referring to the series of conflicts over the past decade that have shrunk the territory of the former communist state. <br><br>Djukanovic, who was visiting Portugal in its role as current president of the European Union, said that while the EU had stepped up assistance to his struggling republic, more was needed. <br><br>"It is very important that Europe's support should be generous and enhanced," he said. <br><br>In particular, the president said Montenegro needed the cooperation of international financial institutions, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB). <br><br>Gama noted that the EU had recently increased the flow of financing to Montenegro and was also studying how to make it easier for the EIB to raise its lending.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent : A word out of place costs lives in Pristina </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Gordana Igric risks her life returning to Pristina, where speaking the wrong language can be a fatal mistake being Serbian, or even Bulgarian, can get you murdered <br><br>6 June 2000 <br><br>A column of vehicles is stuck for hours on the Kosovo-Macedonia border. Hamdi, an ethnic Albanian taxi-driver from Macedonia, keeps harking back to the good old days of the former Yugoslavia, of Tito and the times "when those foreigners didn't spark quarrels among us". He uses a language we both speak – Serbian. <br><br>Yet when he parks his car in front of Pristina's Grand hotel his lack of English and my uncertain fluency in Albanian are threats to our lives. <br><br>Hamdi knows speaking Serbian here could attract the attention of young Albanians gathered at the town centre. Someone in the long column of taxis could hear him, remember him and brand him a traitor. <br><br>The day before I decided to come here, young Albanians stopped a car in Pristina to ask the driver for identification. When they found he was Serb he was killed instantly. One Bulgarian UN worker foolishly responded to: "What time is it?" from young Albanians in Bulgarian, a language dangerously similar to Serbian. He was murdered. So, that's why Hamdi, crimson with embarrassment, whispers words of farewell. <br><br>In recent years, I was one of the people whose job was finding victims and witnesses to crimes by Serbian police. They searched me regularly at their checkpoints as a traitor and their Albanian victims mistrusted me for being Serbian. <br><br>In the centre of Pristina, at first glance everything looks the same. Even the staff of the Grand, a former centre of Serbian journalists and police informants, wear the same old-fashioned black uniforms. <br><br>This time I have to mask my Serbian identity. I sleep in the room of my English colleague, who arranged things so I did not have to show my red Yugoslav passport and compromising name. <br><br>When I use the phone at the reception I speak English. But the taxi drivers and shopkeepers know me, and my whole being rebels against the new madness. I was embroiled in my private battle for two weeks to travel here, as I made my preparations for securing in advance a flat and a driver. <br><br>Nearly all my friends and colleagues told me the trip was madness. The K-For peacekeeping force refused to grant me security, as if this was not the basic task of these troops. <br><br>Three times I called the mobile phone of my former driver from Pristina, who had driven me so many times. Each time he answered and immediately hung up on hearing my voice. <br><br>Later, when I got to Pristina, he sent me a message of apology – urging me not to get angry, as he could not dare answer in Serbian while he had a passenger in his taxi. Probably the truth was that he could not really accept to be my driver, out of fear. <br><br>Where should I stay? I suggested to an Albanian ex-colleague that I bring a sleeping bag and sleep in the office. He refused awkwardly. Someone would find out, he said, and throw a bomb into the office. <br><br>I opted for the most unpalatable choice. I phoned a close friend who had stayed in my house in Belgrade many times. I had the uneasy feeling I was "collecting payment" for that friendly gesture and getting him deeper into danger. I told him I was coming and wanted to see him. I said I had nowhere to sleep. Silence greeted me. <br><br>A couple of days later, when I met him in a Pristina restaurant, he told me with an unnatural expression that he did not wish to live in this city. And that he was humiliated. <br><br>The same expression, a seal of shame about what your national community is doing in your name, was one I carried for a long time in Kosovo. <br><br><br>Gordana Igric works for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independet: Milosevic increases intimidation of opponents and gags on press </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Steve Crawshaw <br><br><br>4 June 2000 <br><br>Miroslav Filipovic, a 49-year-old journalist from Kraljevo in southern Serbia, is currently in a military prison awaiting trial on charges that could land him with a sentence of up to 15 years. His crime? In a report for the respected Institute of War and Peace Reporting, he revealed details of unhappiness among Yugoslav army officers about atrocities committed by their forces in Kosovo last year. The IWPR report – published as part of its online newsletter, Balkan Crisis Report – describes their anger at what they had witnessed. <br><br>Mr Filipovic's story, which was also published in the Independent, caused particular offence, with its talk of "sickening atrocities". Worst of all from the regime's point of view, the evidence came from an internal army report, showing that many officers were shocked at what they had seen. According to informants, the research was aimed at gauging morale, at a time when President Slobodan Milosevic seems to be weighing up the possibility of launching yet another war, this time against the small, pro-Western republic of Montenegro. <br><br>When Mr Filipovic was called in for questioning, the civilian court could find no reason to hold him – so he was handed over to the military court. That court announced last week that it is holding him pending further "investigations". His chances of receiving a fair trial are not high. Mr Filipovic, who also reports for Agence France Presse and Belgrade daily Danas, is accused of "collecting data important for the country's defence and providing them to a foreign organisation which does intelligence work" – in other words, the IWPR. But as he points out: "If one wants to spy, one does not publish under one's byline." <br><br>Traditionally, Serbia has had none of the straightforward censorship – a sour-faced man in a suit, flicking through the page proofs – of the kind that existed throughout eastern Europe before the collapse of Communism. Instead, journalists who put their head above the parapet can do so – at their own risk. It is only then that they are shot down – sometimes literally, as with newspaper editor Slavko Curuvija, who was assassinated last year. To nobody's surprise, the killers were never found. <br><br>The regime has sharply turned up the heat in recent weeks, even as protesters have again come out on the streets. Security troops have occupied the offices of the opposition television station Studio B and of Radio B2-92 (a reborn B-92, a popular radio station forced off the airwaves during the war). Vojislav Seselj, the quasi-fascist deputy prime minister, said that the TV station had been "transmitting calls for the violent overthrow of the legally elected government". <br><br>The authorities have been especially unsettled by growing support for Otpor ("Resistance"), a student movement, which is popular not least because it is unconnected with the leaders of the opposition parties, whose bickering among themselves alienates many potential supporters. <br><br>One of the regime's favoured techniques for keeping the media out of its business has been to find legal excuses – an alleged problem with a tenancy agreement, or a "technical problem" – to close a newspaper or radio station. What is new is a spate of legal actions: three papers and a dozen TV and radio stations have been forced to close after losing expensive libel cases brought by government officials. <br><br>The Beta news agency received a hefty fine after reporting a statement by Otpor calling for the information minister to reveal the identity of the killers of Mr Curuvija. <br><br>The aim of the current crackdown seems to be to make it impossible for people across Serbia to know how much opposition there is in different parts of the country. When it is quiet, the regime leaves the media unharrassed. Journalist Gordana Igric, now associate editor at IWPR, argues: "It's definitely worse than before. Now there's no day and no place where they don't arrest somebody." <br><br>The continuing defiance of journalists is particularly heartening at a time when much of Serb society lives in apathetic despair. In a future democratic Serbia, Miroslav Filipovic and his colleagues may be recognised as heroes . Even now, it is clear that locking him up can do the regime little good. Nor do the bullying tactics appear to have much effect, even where they hurt most. Mr Filipovic has two student children, a son and a daughter. Both of them hope to be journalists, too. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian: Serbs spark crisis for UN in Kosovo </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>Peter Beaumont in Pristina <br>Monday June 5, 2000 <br><br>The United Nations mission in Kosovo was plunged into new difficulties yesterday as Serb leaders withdrew from the province's interim administrative body and demanded effective self-rule in their own strongholds, in protest at killings of Serb civilians by Kosovan Albanian extremists. <br>As the security council prepares to meet next week to review the first 12 months of the mission in Kosovo, Serb leaders announced that they would be sending a delegation to New York to demand amendments to resolution 1244 - the mandate for the UN effort - to protect Serb rights in Kosovo and allow the establishment "of functional self-rule" in areas occupied by Serbs. <br><br>In addition, moderate Serb leaders say that they have already asked European officials in the region to send anti-terrorism experts to back up the Kosovo protection force and the UN's international police force. <br><br>The statement by the Serb national council, meeting at the ancient monastery of Gracanica, comes amid disillusionment among many officials serving with the UN mission over the resurgence of ethnic violence and organised crime in Kosovo, and the apparent unwillingness of senior officials to take on the ethnic Albanian leaders suspected of involvement in both. <br><br>The Serbs' decision is doubly embarrassing for the UN mission, which is preparing to mark the first anniversary of its mandate this weekend and has been making strenuous efforts to persuade Serbs to share its vision of a multi-ethnic democratic society. <br><br>But the Serb community is angry about an eruption of violence in the last week that has left eight of their members dead in four incidents. <br><br>The most recent took place early last Friday, when a car hit an anti-tank mine which had been planted overnight on a British-controlled road a few miles from Pristina. Two men died, and a woman and two children were injured. <br><br>The decision to withdraw from the Albanian dominated administrative council is also a blow for Bernard Kouchner, the head of the UN mission, who had recently managed to persuade moderate Serbs, backed by the Serbian Orthodox church, to attend the council as observers prior to full involvement. <br><br>It comes amid a campaign for voter registration for the region's first local elections, scheduled for the autumn. While more than 250,000 ethnic Albanians have been persuaded to register, only a few thousand of the province's remaining 95,000 Serbs - from a community originally numbering 250,000 - have registered to vote. <br><br>Following the meeting yesterday, Father Sava, a moderate Serb leader who has backed Serb involvement in Kosovo's nascent democratic process, indicated that many Serb leaders wanted to end cooperation with the UN, rather than suspending their involvement until the security council meets. <br><br>"The international community has got to decide whether Kosovo is going to be a lawless place or move towards being a democratic society," he said. "At the moment, the international community is not really prepared to take the lead against Albanian terrorism or confront the problem of organised crime." <br><br>He added: "We are aware of the efforts that are being made to protect Serb people, particularly in the British sector which seems determined to work in an even-handed way. But in the last two months of our cooperation with the UN administration we have seen a resurgence of organised crime all over Kosovo." <br><br>The rise in the violence and intimidation against the remaining Serb community comes despite intense efforts to make Serbs feel secure. Many Serbian villages south of Pristina have been turned into virtual fortresses, protected by checkpoints, watch towers and constant helicopter and ground patrols. <br><br>However, despite a ratio of one peacekeeping soldier for every three Serbs in Kosovo, the Nato-led troops have been powerless to prevent the latest outbreak of violence. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Albright meets with President Djukanovic in show of support</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BERLIN (AP) _ Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met Saturday with President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro, signaling U.S. support for the smaller of the two republics that make up Yugoslavia. <br>Albright offered her sympathy for the slaying of Goran Zugic, the national security adviser in the independence-minded republic, a senior U.S. official said. <br><br>It was the first slaying of a prominent Montenegrin official after a series of high-profile killings in Serbia, and Rifat Rastoder, a deputy speaker of Montenegro's parliament, has accused the Yugoslav government of complicity. <br><br>Djukanovic is at odds with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and is seeking autonomy or outright independence from Belgrade. <br><br>Albright and Djukanovic also discussed Yugoslav actions against the media and the general situation in the area, the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LA Times: His Stand on Milosevic Can Define Putin </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>Russia: Will the Russian leader continue to shill for the Yugoslav dictator or back the Serb people and democracy? <br><br><br>By EDWARD P. JOSEPH<br><br> Is the new president of Russia a democrat or an autocrat? The recent crackdown in Serbia provides a vital opportunity for President Clinton to find out during the summit with Vladimir V. Putin. <br> Facing a third major internal challenge to his rule, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has responded with unprecedented ruthlessness. Media have been crippled, universities shut down and journalists and members of the opposition arrested. The strategy appears to be working. In April, more than 100,000 Serbs protested the regime, and a student-led resistance seemed poised to evolve into a mass movement. In late May, barely 20,000 turned out. <br> Nevertheless, Milosevic is by no means assured of remaining in power. Political parties, opposition municipal governments and independent media survive, even in weakened form. The treasury reportedly is again thin on foreign reserves, which Milosevic depends on to buy police loyalty and to shore up the currency. And his indictment by the Hague tribunal guarantees his international isolation. <br> Milosevic needs friends, and his most reliable one these days is Putin. Before he put his foot down on dissent, Milosevic dispatched two top ministers to Moscow. Buoyed by pledges from Putin's government, the crackdown began shortly after their return to Belgrade. The timing of the visit was no coincidence. (Russia later apologized for failing to arrest the Yugoslav defense minister, who also is indicted for war crimes.) The next week, Russia boycotted a major meeting of states overseeing the Bosnia peace agreement in solidarity with banned Yugoslavia. <br> Throughout the Yugoslav drama, Russia has played apologist and protector of "misunderstood" or endangered Serbs locked in ethnic conflicts. But no such pretext exists for Moscow's current shilling for Milosevic. His conflict this time is not with Bosnian or Albanian Muslims, but with his own people--fellow Orthodox Slavs. And Russia's support for Serbia, unlike its policy in Chechnya, is not an "internal matter" insulated from scrutiny. Bereft of cover, Putin must either stand with the Serb people or with their disastrous dictator. <br> Clinton should ask him to choose. The decision is hard for Putin, but not because of any sentiment of "Slavic brotherhood." Moscow backs Milosevic precisely because he is a thorn in the side of Washington. He keeps NATO off-balance and out of Yugoslavia. Keen to control the pace and extent of further NATO expansion, Moscow leverages its influence over Belgrade to get its voice heard. <br> Not even Milosevic can last forever, and Putin is shrewd enough to hedge his bets. He did the minimum for visiting Serb opposition leaders last week, permitting them a modest reception. But the minimum is not good enough. Moscow must insist that Milosevic cease all intimidation of independent media and opposition figures, as well as hold fair elections. If Russia "was, is and will remain a European country," as Putin stated to European Union leaders, then it should take a firm stand against Serbian repression. <br> Doing so neither weakens Russia's role as protector of Orthodox Yugoslavs nor turns it into a servant of the West. Ironically, backing the forces of democratic change could heighten Moscow's influence in post-Milosevic Yugoslavia. Politically, Putin can afford it. Russia's pro-Serb Duma overwhelmingly voted him sweeping new powers. Further, standing with the Serbian opposition would define Putin as the Russian leader determined to join in defense of fundamental freedoms agreed to in the 1975 Helsinki accords on human rights. This would be a bonus for Putin, who is suspect for his own centralizing and anti-democratic tendencies. <br> Confronting Putin squarely on Serbia also will serve notice of Washington's determination at a time when Putin and Milosevic may doubt NATO consensus and EU toughness. Indeed, failing to press Putin on the issue could reinforce the perception of hesitancy, encouraging Milosevic to try out his options. He could go on "good behavior" to try and bamboozle Europe into easing sanctions and letting him continue to rule. Or he may resort to his favorite ploy: provoking a crisis so as to turn all internal opponents into "traitors." <br> Clinton should disabuse Putin--and through him, his client--of any question about our resolve or our willingness to entertain any option but Milosevic's departure, preferably through fair, constitutional elections. The two leaders may come to an impasse over Serbia, but that is no reason to skirt the issue. Better a clear statement of difference than a fuzzy compromise. A healthy U.S.-Russian relationship can only develop if unclouded by illusions. And the more transparent Russian intentions toward the Balkans become, the less effective Russian advocacy for Milosevic's cause will be. <br> At the summit, Clinton should let Putin choose what his Russia stands for: dictatorship or democracy. <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>U.N. War Crimes Prosecutor Declines to Investigate NATO</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By BARBARA CROSSETTE<br><br>UNITED NATIONS, June 2 -- The United Nations' chief war crimes prosecutor said today that there was no basis for a formal investigation into whether NATO committed war crimes during the bombing of Yugoslavia a year ago. <br>"Although some mistakes were made by NATO, I am very satisfied that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets by NATO during the bombing campaign," the prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland, told the Security Council. She said a detailed statement on her decision would be released as early as next week. <br><br>A parliamentary commission from Russia, Yugoslavia's strongest international supporter, and Western lawyers working for the Yugoslav government had brought allegations of NATO war crimes to the tribunal last year. Several rights groups have also raised questions about NATO attacks on civilian targets. <br><br>The 11-week NATO bombing campaign was intended to stop Yugoslav repression of Albanians in Kosovo, the Serbian province now under the administration of NATO and the United Nations. <br><br>Among the NATO actions taken to the Balkans tribunal by critics alleging war crimes were an airstrike on a passenger train crossing a targeted bridge; the bombing of a Serbian television center; killing of refugees in a convoy mistaken for soldiers; the use of cluster bombs that can fragment over a wide area, in one case hitting grounds of a hospital; and the use of depleted uranium in weapons. There were also more general allegations of genocide and deliberate environmental destruction. <br><br>"I am now able to announce my conclusion, following a full consideration of my team's assessment of all complaints and allegations, that there is no basis for opening an investigation into any of those allegations or into other incidents related to the NATO bombing," Ms. Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney general, told the council. She did not discuss the allegations themselves. <br><br>The Balkans war crimes tribunal, based in The Hague, has played down the importance of these charges since they were first made public late last year. Officials have said that the tribunal was formed to charge individuals, not institutions or organizations, with war crimes. NATO officials have answered or dismissed the charges, but have said errors were committed. <br><br>Among these they include the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. American officials subsequently said that the bombing was an accident resulting from the use of outdated maps and incorrect intelligence information, but China has rejected this explanation. <br><br>Ms. Del Ponte, also chief prosecutor of a war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, conducted only an informal study of the allegations against NATO, officials said. She has been more deeply involved in formal charges against Yugoslavia's president, Slobodan Milosevic, who was indicted by the tribunal last year. <br><br>But she told the council that she felt she had to examine the allegations against NATO because it was her "obligation and responsibility" to look into all complaints. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent : Belgrade is accused of Montenegro murder </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade <br><br>Belgrade was accused yesterday of masterminding Montenegro's first political murder after the senior security adviser to President Milo Djukanovic was shot on his doorstep with an automatic rifle. <br><br>The murder of Goran Zugic has heightened simmering political tensions between the governments of Mr Djukanovic and the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Until yesterday, police had remained silent on Wednesday night's assassination in Podgorica, described by the Montenegrin media as a "political killing". They quoted witnesses who saw a young man with short black hair flee on foot after the killing. <br><br>Montenegro, unlike Serbia its senior partner in the federal Yugoslav republic, had not experienced assassinations of prominent underworld or political personalities, regular events in Serbia. <br><br>The warlord Zeljko Raznatovic (Arkan) was killed in Belgrade in January, the defence minister, Pavle Bulatovic, the following month, the Yugoslav Airlines general manager Zika Petrovic in April and the leader of northern Vojvodina's provincial government, Bosko Perosevic, was shot in Novi Sad last month. Mr Milosevic's government blames the killings on its opponents, the "lackeys of the West" but the Serbian opposition has denied involvement. <br><br>Mr Bulatovic was in thepro-Milosevic opposition party in Montenegro. Rifat Rastoder, a deputy speaker, said his killing was "a classic politically motivated assassination with all the characteristics of the murders in Serbia". He added: "It is a direct and desperate attempt to transfer Serbia's shotgun policies to Montenegro and create conditions for the imposition of a state of emergency and dictatorship." <br><br>Tensions are high between Montenegro and Serbia over Mr Djukanovic's steps to move the republic towards autonomy, or even independences. Mr Milosevic's government has accused Mr Djukanovic of acting on Western orders to break up what remains of Yugoslavia. <br><br>The tiny republic of Montenegro has responded to the build-up of the Yugoslav Army by creating a stronger police force, highly loyal to Mr Djukanovic. Mr Zugic had served as head of police in the coastal town of Herceg Novi. <br><br>On 11 June, early local elections in Herceg Novi and in Podgorica are seen as a trial of strength between Mr Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists and the Socialist People's Party, which has the backing of Mr Milosevic. <br><br>Last Sunday, Socialist People's Party officials said Mr Milosevic had accepted an invitation to visit Montenegro. TMr Djukanovic's party called it as "political provocation". <br><br>In Belgrade, transport has been chaotic since Monday, when private bus owners went on strike over price caps imposed by the central government. The government said it is now taking control of transport from the city's opposition-led authorities. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian : Killing of president's aide shakes Montenegro </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Gillian Sandford in Belgrade <br>Friday June 2, 2000 <br><br>Tension was high in Montenegro yesterday after a security adviser and close friend of the Yugoslav republic's pro-western president was assassinated outside his home. <br>Police roadblocks throughout the capital failed to catch the gunman who ambushed Goran Zugic, 39, late on Wednesday night outside his home in the capital, Podgorica. <br><br>It was the first Serbia-style assassination in the country and comes ahead of crucial elections in the towns of Herceg Novi and Podgorica that are viewed as a vital test of the pro-west and pro-Belgrade forces in the republic. <br><br>The murder of Zugic is a blow to the president, Milo Djukanovic. Zugic was one of his closest friends, and was best man at his wedding. <br><br>A gunman with an automatic weapon shot Zugic in the head a number of times at 11pm on Wednesday night. Police sealed off the area soon after and have declared that they will try their utmost to solve the killing. <br><br>"It was a classic politically motivated assassination with all the characteristics of a series of murders in Serbia," said Rifat Rastoder, deputy speaker of Montenegro's parliament. <br><br>"It is a direct and desperate attempt to transfer Serbia's shotgun policies to Montenegro and create conditions for the imposition of a state of emergency and dictatorship" by [Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevic's regime, Mr Rastoder added. <br><br>Mr Djukanovic is at odds with Mr Milosevic. Montenegro is seeking autonomy or outright independence from Yugoslavia because of Mr Milosevic's autocratic policies. <br><br>Montenegro's opposition leader, Miroslav Vickovic, said that in both Serbia and Montenegro "the thin line between politics and crime has disappeared". <br><br>In Serbia, the Milosevic administration yesterday took over a municipal bus company in the opposition-controlled capital. The decision to take away the Belgrade City Transport company from the hands of the municipal authorities followed a four-day strike by private carriers which brought public transport in the capital to a virtual halt. <br><br>A government statement on the takeover carried on the official Tanjug news agency said: "The total collapse of public transport in Belgrade has jeopardised living and working conditions of all the citizens, as well as the functioning of enterprises, schools and hospitals." <br><br>The takeover is part of an ongoing campaign by Mr Milosevic's government to discredit the opposition ahead of Serbia's municipal elections, due by the end of the year. <br><br>The victims of gangland-style killings in Serbia this year include the warlord Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic; the defence minister, Pavle Bulatovic; the head of Yugoslav Airlines and a close ally of Mr Milosevic, Zika Petrovic; and a senior official of the ruling party, Bosko Perosevic. <br><br>According to the Belgrade daily Danas, Zugic was born in Montenegro but grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was a police officer there before returning home in 1992. <br><br>He was made chief of police in Herceg Novi and in 1995 took up the same post in Podgorica. The elections there are to be held on June 11. <br><br>His death follows statements by officials of Montenegro's pro-Belgrade opposition party that Mr Milosevic would visit the small Yugoslav republic. <br><br>Few believe that will happen, but one analyst said the reports had destablised Montenegro because it highlighted the vulnerability of Mr Djukanovic's party's pro-western wing. It would be virtually impossible to arrest Mr Milosevic, he said, without triggering massive turmoil. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Milosevic's government delivers another blow to foes</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Two weeks after seizing a nongovernment TV station, Slobodan Milosevic's administration lashed out again Thursday by taking over an opposition-run public transport company in the capital. <br>The decision to take the Belgrade City Transport company from the hands of the opposition-run municipal authorities followed a four-day strike by private carriers which brought public transport in the capital to a virtual halt. <br><br>"The incapable and irresponsible municipal government in Belgrade has blocked all vital public services in the capital and created a complete chaos," a government statement on the takeover said. <br><br>"The total collapse of public transport in Belgrade has jeopardized living and working conditions of all the citizens, as well as functioning of enterprises, schools, hospitals," said the statement carried by the official Tanjug news agency. <br><br>The takeover was part of a campaign by President Milosevic's government to discredit the opposition ahead of municipal elections due by the end of the year. <br><br>Two weeks ago, the government seized Belgrade's main Studio B television and B2-92 radio. The move triggered few days of protests but also revived traditional differences between Serbia's opposition leaders who could not agree on what to do in response. <br><br>The mild response to the media takeover obviously encouraged Milosevic to move against the transport firm. <br><br>In a sign of further rift among Milosevic's opponents, key opposition leader Zoran Djindjic admitted Thursday that "opposition unity so far has been mostly rhetorical, and even that has been jeopardized." <br><br>Serbia's opposition leaders _ formally united in their struggle to oust Milosevic _ have been unable to mount a credible challenge to the autocratic president, who has moved to silence critics and independent media. <br><br>"The regime is continuing with violence which is destroying the legal order," warned Belgrade's deputy mayor Milan Bozic. "We fear this government act could have much more serious consequences then it seems at first." <br><br>Announcing the takeover of public transport company, Milosevic's spokesman Nikola Sainovic said "the work (of the transport company) involved a lot of criminal deeds." <br><br>The opposition took control over Belgrade and dozens of other Serbian cities at municipal elections in 1996. When Milosevic's allies tried to annul the opposition victories, they triggered more than three months of street protests. <br><br>In the past four years, Milosevic's government has sought to undermine the opposition rule in Belgrade and other cities. The capital's private carriers went on strike last Monday after the government refused to allow a rise in prices of the transport tickets. <br><br>For four days Belgrade residents hitchhiked or competed for available taxis to get to work or return home. Shortly after the government session on Thursday, the private carriers were back in the streets. <br><br>Also Thursday, an inspection team was dispatched to the offices of the Belgrade's own transport company which has been brought to the verge of bankruptcy after years of Serbia's economic decline and the lack of funds to maintain vehicles or import spare parts from abroad. <br><br>In Yugoslavia's other republic of Montenegro, a senior official accused Milosevic's federal government of complicity in the slaying of the national security adviser in the republic's pro-independence leadership. <br><br>Rifat Rastoder, a deputy speaker of Montenegro's parliament, said the killing Wednesday of Goran Zugic was an attempt to create conditions in Montenegro that would allow Belgrade to impose a state of emergency. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Montenegro shocked by killing of president's aide </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, June 1 (Reuters) - The murder of the security adviser to pro-Western Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic sent shock waves through the volatile Yugoslav republic on Thursday. <br>Goran Zugic, considered one of Djukanovic's closest and most reliable allies, was shot dead on Wednesday evening in the courtyard of his apartment block in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica. <br><br>The murder followed a series of mysterious assassinations of officials and underworld figures in Serbia, the dominant republic in the Yugoslav Federation led by Slobodan Milosevic. But it was the first such killing in Montenegro. <br><br>"We are terrified by the murder of Goran Zugic," Miroslav Vickovic, leader of a liberal opposition party, told Reuters. <br><br>"We are terrified but not surprised. For a long time we have been warning that Podgorica will inevitably became a second Belgrade. Both Serbia and Montenegro have lost the thin line between politics and crime," said Vickovic, president of the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro. <br><br>Police and government officials declined immediate comment on the assassination, which an eyewitness said had been carried out by a lone gunman with an automatic weapon. <br><br>Some people saw a connection with Milosevic's ruling coalition in Belgrade, which is trying to reassert itself by taking part in local elections in Montenegro due on June 11. <br><br>"This just had to happen when JUL arrived in Montenegro," a man in his 60s told Reuters, referring to the neo-Communist Yugoslav Left party led by Milosevic's powerful wife that has allied with Djukanovic's main, leftist opponents for the vote. <br><br>Officials in Belgrade were not immediately available for comment. <br><br>ZUGIC LED POLICE DURING PRO-MILOSEVIC PROTESTS <br><br>The June 11 local elections in Podgorica and Herzeg Novi are seen as a test of strength between Djukanovic's pro-Western government and its main opponents, who are backed by Milosevic. <br><br>Before becoming national security adviser in 1998, Zugic was in charge of the pro-Djukanovic police force in Podgorica during violent demonstrations in January that year by pro-Milosevic groups seeking to stop Djukanovic from coming to power. <br><br>Djukanovic began edging Montenegro away from Milosevic's influence after he was elected Montenegrin president and is now is the Serb strongman's most powerful rival. <br><br>There was no way of telling immediately whether Zugic's killing was politically motivated. But it is likely to raise already high tensions between Belgrade and Podgorica. <br><br>Djukanovic has regularly warned of a possible coup against him and threatened to hold a referendum on independence if Milosevic refuses to reform the Serbia-dominated federation. <br><br>Milosevic's government in Belgrade accuses Djukanovic of acting on Western orders to try to break up what remains of Yugoslavia. <br><br>Western leaders, fearful of another Balkan conflict, have advised Djukanovic not to push ahead with an independence vote, while warning Milosevic not to provoke tensions in Montenegro. <br><br>"This is terrible. It's the first time something like this has happened in Montenegro," said a woman at the murder scene. <br><br>Another woman living nearby said she had heard two rounds of muffled automatic gunfire -- first two or three bullets then four or five. "The gunman had short, dark hair," said a young man who had said he had seen the assassin leave on foot. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>REUTERS : Montenegrin president's security aide shot dead</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, May 31 (Reuters) - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's security adviser was shot dead on Wednesday by an unknown gunman in the capital of the pro-Western Yugoslav republic. <br>The body of Goran Zugic lay in the yard of a high-rise apartment building near the city's main marketplace. Police had cordoned off the area but declined any comment. <br><br>One person standing nearby said he had heard fire from an automatic weapon at around 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) and had come out to find Zugic, who lived in the apartment block, lying dead near his car. <br><br>Several top officials and underworld figures have been assassinated in mysterious circumstances in Serbia this year, including President Slobodan Milosevic's Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic, a Montenegrin shot dead in a Belgrade restaurant in February. <br><br>But it was the first such killing in Montenegro, Serbia's increasingly reluctant junior partner in the two-republic Yugoslav Federation led by Milosevic. <br><br>Djukanovic, who began edging Montenegro away from Milosevic's influence after he was elected Montenegrin president in 1996, is the Serb strongman's most powerful rival. <br><br>There was no way of telling immediately whether Zugic's killing was politically motivated. But it is likely to raise tensions between Belgrade and Podgorica, which are already high. <br><br>Djukanovic has regularly warned of a possible coup against him and threatened to hold a referendum on independence if Milosevic refuses to reform the Serbia-dominated federation. <br><br>Milosevic's government in Belgrade accuses Djukanovic of acting on Western orders to try to break up what remains of Yugoslavia. <br><br>Western leaders, fearful of another Balkan conflict, have advised Djukanovic not to push ahead with an independence vote, while warning Milosevic not to provoke tensions in Montenegro. <br><br>On June 11, the republic is set to hold local elections in two towns, Podgorica and Herzeg Novi. They are seen as a test of strength between Djukanovic's pro-Western government and its main opponents, who are backed by Milosevic. <br><br>Zugic, 39 this year, had headed the police force in the coastal town of Herzeg Novi before joining the presidential team. He was married with a daughter and son. <br><br>"This is terrible. It's the first time something like this has happened in Montenegro," said a woman at the murder scene. <br><br>Another woman living nearby said she had heard two rounds of muffled automatic gunfire -- first two or three bullets then four or five. <br><br>"The gunman had short, dark hair," said a young man who had said he had seen the assassin leave on foot.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ICG: Montenegro's Local Elections: Testing the National Temperature</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Introduction<br><br>Local elections are to be held in Podgorica and Herceg-Novi, two of Montenegro's 21 municipalities, on 11 June 2000. Their significance is wider than the simple question of who governs the two local authorities, for these will be the first elections in Montenegro since the victory of the "For a Better Life" coalition (DZB) under president Milo Djukanovic in general elections in May 1998. For this reason the results will be widely interpreted as a comment on the performance of Djukanovic so far, and a barometer of the political mood in the republic as a whole. <br><br>The government did not want to hold these elections at this time. They were caused deliberately by the pro-independence Liberal Alliance (LSCG), who broke off 1998 local coalition agreements with the DZB in September 1999. The significance of these two localities is that they are the only places in Montenegro where the LSCG hold the balance of power. In most other municipalities either the DZB governs alone (11) or the Socialist People's Party (SNP) governs alone (4) or with allies (2). Exceptions are Ulcinj, where the Albanian parties Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) and Democratic Alliance (DS) hold most of the seats, and Plav where the DZB is strongest but Bosniak and Albanian parties hold the balance. <br><br>The Liberals gave as the reason for breaking off the coalitions that they were unhappy with the way the DZB was running the municipalities, that pre-election claims had not been honoured. But they also felt - and it is universally believed that this was the real reason for forcing the elections - that the cause of Montenegrin independence was gaining public support, and that the Liberals' poll ratings were recovering from a bad result in 1998 - this is in essence the "change of public mood" referred to by LSCG leaders. The Liberals assert that there is little to choose between the two main opposing blocks in Montenegrin politics (DZB/SNP), and that a strong LSCG is the best guarantee of honest and principled government. So the LSCG hopes that a good result for them will put pressure on the government to move faster towards the long-mooted referendum on Montenegro's status, but also bring better, more open government at all levels. Still, with no chance of winning their best hope this time is to re-enter coalitions with the DZB, but from a position of increased strength and influence. <br><br>For the government, it will be useful if it can gain enough votes to govern the two municipalities without the LSCG. But its main need is to show that the support they it gained in 1998 is holding up. Politically DZB does not need to win either Podgorica or Herceg-Novi outright, since the Liberals have made it clear they will not work with the SNP, but it does need to be able to show that in the republic as a whole support for the reformist, internationalist course the DZB has followed is not crumbling. <br><br>For the pro-Yugoslavia SNP the stakes are higher still.2 The government only needs to hold on to the level of support it already has, but the SNP must do better than in 1998. Victory in either election would strengthen the party's claim that its true support is much higher than published polls suggest, and that the government does not enjoy the support of a majority of voters. It would also give the SNP for the first time a municipality in the southern part of the country, important symbolically to show that their support is not confined to the highlands. Herceg-Novi looks the easier target, but Podgorica is the bigger prize: an SNP victory there would be a major embarrassment to the government. Even a close failure in Podgorica coupled with victory in Herceg-Novi would give the party a platform from which to call insistently for early general elections.3 But clear defeat in both places would demonstrate that voters still have faith in Djukanovic, that the pro-Yugoslavia and pro-Milosevic message is not gaining support. <br><br>European Union (EU) support for Djukanovic could hardly be clearer: commenting on a new package of EU aid on 8 May 2000, the EU's head of Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana called it an "excellent decision, bearing in mind important elections in Montenegro in June."4 EU Commissioner Chris Patten made a high-profile visit to Podgorica on 15 May. Americans by contrast have been keeping quiet and out of sight, but no-one doubts their support for Djukanovic. <br><br>Electoral procedures give a slight advantage to coalitions over friendly parties running separately.5 Pre-election coalitions function as a single party, but if no one list wins enough seats to govern outright there can be post-election coalitions or alliances. Whoever can command most votes in the municipal council becomes mayor, usually but not necessarily the head of the list which received most votes. The head of the party list carries an important responsibility as, in effect, the leader and public face of that party's campaign. But, as in other list systems, the head of the winning list is not obliged to become mayor; having won the election he can hand over the responsibility to a colleague. Thus the election campaign does not automatically determine who will become mayor, but it does determine the balance of forces in the municipal council, which in turn elects the mayor. <br><br><br>Podgorica<br><br>The republican capital Podgorica had a population of 152,025 in 1991, some 24.7 per cent of the total. In 1998 there were 118,603 registered voters; for the forthcoming election 111,6066 - the city has not shrunk, but the new laws on voters lists have led to the removal of many ostensible voters unable to produce documents proving their entitlement to vote. In 1998 the turn-out was 73 per cent, and over 86 per cent of those who voted chose either the DZB coalition or the SNP. The result was close enough to leave the LSCG with the balance of power, but left no room for marginal parties: <br><br><br>Votes Per Cent Seats <br>DZB 40118 46.33 27 <br>SNP 34866 40.26 23 <br>LSCG 6454 7.54 4 <br>SNS 1789 2.07 <br> <br>DUA 1604 1.85 <br> <br>SRS 791 0.91 <br> <br>SKJ 620 0.72 <br> <br>ZS 240 0.28 <br><br>The DZB thus needed LSCG co-operation in order to function as a local government, though the combined opposition could not outvote it. Following the Liberal withdrawal of co-operation and subsequent stalemate, since February this year Podgorica has been governed by a three-man board appointed by the government, one from each coalition member, replacing the elected mayor Mihailo Buric. The head of this board, Dr Miomir Mugosa, Minister of Health in the DZB government and a popular Podgorica politician, has since been named as the DZB candidate for mayor, and will be first on the DZB list. The SNP showed how seriously it is taking the elections by placing at the head of its coalition list Predrag Bulatovic, one of three party vice-presidents and easily their most popular public figure. The LSCG is fielding its party president Miroslav Vickovic. <br><br>There is a significant settlement of Albanians at Tuzi, enough to determine the outcome of several seats. Altogether Albanians make up around 8 per cent of the population of Podgorica.7 There used to exist a separate municipality of Tuzi but it was extinguished in 1957. The main Albanian nationalist parties, DUA and DS, are in coalition ("Zajedno za Malesiju" - "Together for Malesija" - that is, the Tuzi area) calling for the restoration of municipality status, which would give them another local authority to run in addition to Ulcinj - the DUA leader, Ferhat Dinosha, is a Tuzi man. The DZB resists the idea, not least because the balance of forces in Podgorica is so close, and many Albanian voters in 1998 supported the DZB rather than their own nationalist parties. If the Albanians vote for the DUA/DS coalition this time it will certainly be harmful to the DZB vote, although the Albanians would be much more likely to support DZB than SNP in a post-election coalition: if they are lucky enough to hold the balance of power they will seek to make municipality status for Tuzi the price of their support. <br><br>Herceg-Novi<br>Herceg-Novi is a coastal town on the border with Croatia: it is the centre of a municipality which includes several small tourist resorts and a shipbuilding and repair yard at Bijela. Its 1991 resident population of 27,593 was 4.5 per cent of the population of Montenegro, but it has grown from an influx of refugees during the last decade. In 1998 there were 21,465 registered voters; now there are 22,018.8 Its economy is heavily dependent on summer tourism and so has suffered, along with the rest of the Montenegrin coast, from international isolation and perceptions of insecurity which deter tourists. As a result facilities have fallen behind the standards which modern tourists expect, so that new investment will be needed before the market can revive. A few kilometres across the border in the Dubrovnik area tourism is picking up rapidly, with tour operators flying in groups from all over Europe. Herceg-Novi meanwhile does what it can with the domestic market. The area gets much of its water supply from neighbouring Croatia, and there are chronic problems of paying for it: supply was rationed by daily cuts during April and again in the second half of May, though this time because a supply tunnel was closed for annual maintenance. <br><br>The municipality also contains the Dr Simo Milosevic Institute, a specialist hospital which used to attract patients regularly from abroad. The Institute became a national issue after it was part-sold in privatisation to the ICN company of Milan Panic, a Yugoslav-American businessman actively involved in Serbian politics in support of the democratic opposition. It was sold in early 1998 by direct deal rather than international tender, which the opposition SNP and LSCG contend contravened the law. They also say the sale was well under market price. This was the subject of a debate in parliament in February 2000, and the SNP has since launched a court case accusing the government of criminal handling - this court case is opportunely timed for the election campaign. <br><br>Such a place, whose future depends on opening up to the outside world, looks like natural territory for the Djukanovic government. But in fact the voters of Herceg-Novi in 1998 spread themselves very widely and produced the closest result in any of Montenegro's 21 municipalities. Turn-out was 72 per cent:9 <br><br>Votes Per Cent Seats <br>DZB 5953 38.19 (without SDP) 15 <br>SNP 5050 31.67 13 <br>LSCG 1157 7.42 3 <br>SNS 916 5.81 2 <br>ZOKZ 377 2.41 <br> <br>Independent 311 1.99 <br> <br>SDP 309 1.98 <br> <br>SKJ/KCG 275 1.76 <br> <br>Savings 197 1.26 <br><br>This gave the resulting alliance between DZB and LSCG a bare 18-17 majority until the Liberals broke the alliance - unlike in Podgorica, the DZB needed active support from the LSCG to avoid being outvoted by the opposition. In terms of the coalitions in 2000 the voting blocks are: DZB 5953 (excluding SDP), pro-Milosevic Yugoslavia bloc 7010; so the SNP alliance has a real chance at least to gain the largest number of votes and seats - winning power is harder since the Liberals will ally with the DZB if necessary to keep them out, but even then the 1998 numbers argue a close result. Of course with such a tiny number of voters, interpretation of results becomes hazardous and extrapolation risky. And 1998 was a turbulent time. But if there is, as the SNP claim but published polls contradict, even a slight drift in support towards the Yugoslavia bloc, it should be enough to give them Herceg-Novi outright. <br><br>Nowhere else along the coast did the SNP do nearly as well last time. One reason for the strong performance of the SNP in Herceg-Novi is suggested also by the significant minority vote for the Serb nationalist parties SNS and SRS.10 Herceg-Novi is home to a sizeable group of Serbs and Montenegrin-Serbs displaced from Bosnia and Croatia in 1991-2. These resettled populations tend to be embittered by their experiences and so are natural supporters for the nationalist message. Not all of them have a vote, but their numbers are swelled by Serbian pensioners and army veterans who settled voluntarily in the area - Herceg-Novi was anyway a traditional destination for Serb migrants from Hercegovina. Even in 1991 31 per cent of the population identified themselves as Serbs, much higher than in any other municipality in Montenegro. Impoverished pensioners nostalgic for better days in the old Yugoslavia are a natural constituency for the SNP. <br><br>The category "Yugoslav" in the 1991 census too accounted for 5243 citizens of Herceg-Novi, much more than in any other municipality - in terms of the current debate this is misleading, since at the time this designation usually denoted moderate citizens either of mixed parentage or unwilling to identify with a particular ethnic group. The term has since fallen into disuse, though these people will tend not to vote for nationalist parties now. <br><br>Recipes for reviving the tourist industry divide along traditional lines. The government version is that a policy of openness will in due course attract investors and tourists and secure a long-term future. The SNP version is that government policies have alienated even the Serbian tourists who used to come, as well as cut off the shipyard from federal help and pushed up prices. The remedy, as usual, is to return to better relations with Serbia, to preserve such tourism as is possible under current conditions. The SNP policy has the advantage that it could bring results quickly, but the tourist industry remembers the free-spending Germans and Britons of the past, and knows that the SNP cannot bring them back. <br><br>The DZB candidate for mayor in Herceg-Novi is Bozidar Maric, a doctor, though the head of their list is Stanko Zlokovic, head of the boat yard at Bijela. Zlokovic has a higher public profile and was considered a more likely vote-winner, but he does not want the full-time job of mayor. The incumbent mayor, Dragan Jankovic, will not stand again after four years in the post. The Yugoslavia coalition are putting up local SNP party leader Djuro Cetkovic. The LSCG candidate is new local party leader Budimir Katuric, while the SDP list is headed by veteran Miodrag Marovic, a retired Serbian journalist and publisher. <br><br>Parties and Coalitions<br>In Podgorica the DZB will fight as a coalition just as it did in 1998. At first the coalition was to be called "For Podgorica" but the name was later changed to the old formula: "For a Better Life - Milo Djukanovic". But this does not mean that all is harmonious within the government. On at least two recent occasions, over the privatisation of the hotel "Mogren" in Budva, and over Easter greetings to the Montenegro Orthodox Church (see section V(b) below), there has been a difference of approach between its two most powerful leaders, President Djukanovic and the Speaker of the Assembly Svetozar Marovic. Why Marovic should be seeking to mark out for himself a separate political space is a subject of much speculation in political circles, but two facts about him are possibly relevant: consistently in opinion polls he is rated the most popular politician in Montenegro (his position as Speaker allows him to appear conciliatory without taking responsibility for unpopular decisions); and he is the one top politician in Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) towards whom the SNP feel reasonably friendly. In particular the personal relationship between Marovic and the SNP's Predrag Bulatovic is co-operative.11 Remembering that DPS and SNP leaders were until 1997 colleagues in a common DPS, speculation abounds, based on no evidence but mainly historical and personal background, that the tectonic plates of Montenegro's political alignments have not yet settled durably. <br><br>Among the DPS's coalition partners the People's Party (NS) seem quite solid, though whether it has yet picked up any support after a change of leadership and a political relaunch is dubious.12 The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is playing Hamlet as usual. While reconfirming the party's presence in the coalition in Podgorica, leader Zarko Rakcevic proclaimed that he considered the Platform Proposal13 dead, in explicit contradiction of the official government position. In Herceg-Novi, also as in 1998, dislike between DPS and SDP runs deep and the SDP has chosen to campaign separately, leaving the DPS and NS to fight alone.14 Given the SDP's miserable solo vote in the town in 1998, this behaviour on their part appears quixotic. However, the local party attributes its poor result last time to a lack of preparation (it left the DZB at a late stage in the campaign), and says it is are confident of winning one or two seats this time.15 Other local parties are prepared to admit that the SDP are better organised than in 1998, and ought to perform to around their national level of support (7-10 per cent). <br><br>The SNP is in coalition with several parties whose Serb nationalist identity is more extreme than their own: with Vojislav Seselj's Serbian Radical Party (SRS), with Mira Markovic's Yugoslav United Left (JUL) and with the indigenous Serb People's Party (SNS).16 Three other very small communist or nationalist parties have also joined.17 In 1998 terms at first sight this looks like a better idea in Herceg-Novi, where the SNS and SRS mustered 13 per cent between them, than in Podgorica, where their combined vote was 3 per cent - but in fact if those few votes had gone to the SNP it would have gained one more seat at the expense of the DZB: as it was the SNS and SRS votes produced no seats and so were effectively wasted. <br><br>The coalition will have a different name in the two places. In Herceg-Novi it is simply "Yugoslavia Coalition - Momir Bulatovic". In Podgorica it is "Yugoslavia Coalition - Momir Bulatovic (Predrag Bulatovic)". This ungainly title can be seen as a straightforward attempt to capitalise on the popularity, or at least general acceptability, of Predrag Bulatovic as a mayoral candidate. Less charitably it can also be taken as an assertion that Predrag Bulatovic is tied into the Momir Bulatovic effort, to forestall any suggestion that his growing popularity is any kind of threat to the party leader. Predrag's visit to Belgrade on 19 May 2000, and pictures of him posing stiffly with Momir Bulatovic and Slobodan Milosevic in Dan the next day, rather feed this impression - Milosevic cannot surely believe that his open support can make the SNP any stronger. <br><br>But the coalition will complicate the interpretation of results as far as the SNP are concerned, since the profile of the coalition as a whole is more radical than that of the SNP alone. While nationalist and radical voters will be secured, marginal voters discontented with the government might not be attracted by this alternative. JUL is a particular embarrassment, since the party attracts almost no votes in Montenegro, and such a close identification with Mrs Milosevic uncomfortably raises the question of whether the "Yugoslavia block" will actually work for Montenegro or indeed only for Serbia. A good result would be unambiguous. But a bad result could be interpreted in too many ways: unattractive coalition, general loss of support for the SNP, rigging by the government. In public the SNP will certainly justify failure in terms of cheating by the DZB (from this point of view a good performance by the LSCG will be the worst outcome for them, since the DZB could not seriously be accused of cheating in favour of the LSCG). But behind the scenes the party will face a painful debate. <br><br>The LSCG too is not without problems. The rise in its support, which accompanied the prominence of the independence issue in late-1999 and early-2000, seems to have halted as political tensions have subsided a little into the spring. Not only that, but the original decision to break up the coalitions had dramatic effects on the party, particularly in Herceg-Novi where there was a bitter split resulting in the expulsion of several members including the local party leader. The rebels disagreed with the leadership's "autocratic" (their word) handling of the issue. Nationwide some of them have split off to found their own party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Although this development is irritating for the LSCG, the new LDP may have trouble finding an electorate of its own and will probably not be much of a threat to the LSCG vote, at least this time. In Herceg-Novi, where disaffected Liberals have preferred to join the SDP, it is not even standing. The LSCG is as eager as the SNP to accuse the government of rigging; after all, it is a card which cannot lose - it can either excuse defeat or make victory the greater. The Liberals tend to be perceived by non-supporters as a single-issue independence party, though they themselves are annoyed with this image and prefer to be seen rather as anti-authoritarian democrats offering a complete alternative to the "DPS/SNP Establishment". <br><br>The Albanian coalition in Podgorica is described in section II above. This coalition will not stand in Herceg-Novi, where the Albanian community is tiny. In Podgorica there is a further coalition of two small Serb nationalist parties under the title "Serb Agreement" (Srpska Sloga), who are unlikely to win seats. These are the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and Serb People's Radical Party (SNRS). The LDP and yet another Communist party - the SKJ/KCG who also stood independently in 1998 - are also standing. In Herceg-Novi a group of citizens are standing as an independent list, as in 1998. <br><br>Issues<br>A. Free and Fair?<br><br>As a result of a new law on voters' lists, passed by parliament in March with both SNP and DZB support, the qualification for eligibility to vote in these elections will be one year's residence in the municipality.18 The number of voters at any one polling station is limited to 1000. <br><br>While agreeing that the new law is fair, the SNP have been warning that the DZB will abuse its position of power and control over structures to manipulate the elections unfairly. As mentioned above, in this they are supported by the LSCG - these two political opposites often sound similar when attacking the government. The accusations are several: (1) that the government is capable of various electoral malpractices including addition of false voters to voting lists; (2) that government media will support the DZB (a confusion of state and party interests); (3) that the DZB will use government money in its campaign; (4) that the large police force will be used to intimidate voters. <br><br>Warnings of government malpractice arise from allegations left over from the 1998 elections, including: breach of the period of silence just before voting day, over-long opening of some polling stations, disappearance of voting boxes. None of this has much impressed the public. But voting lists have been a particular concern. The central voting list is maintained by the Secretariat for Development (razvoj) in Podgorica, while local lists are under the control of the municipal secretariats for administration (uprava), under approval of the mayor. At an early stage in the campaign on 4 April 2000 the SNP called for the elections to be postponed, on the grounds that the government had failed properly to implement the new law on voters' lists, by not publishing changes to the 1998 lists in due time. The SNP claimed to have information that, for example, there existed 1500 voters with the same ID card number. The Secretariat for Development replied that it was doing its best in the short time-frame imposed on it by the new law and indignantly denied the existence of any false voters.19 The SNP repeated on 5 May accusations that government organs were either incompetently or maliciously failing to meet deadlines and provide full information about lists.20 In Herceg-Novi the local SNP has been complaining fiercely that the municipal electoral commission has decided not to open polling stations in three villages which voted heavily for SNP in 1998, the commission replying that the villages are too small (under 100 voters each) to merit their own posts. But on the whole one has the impression that the government machinery has done an honest if flawed job with the limited resources at its disposal. <br><br>The roles of state TV/radio and the government newspaper Pobjeda were the subject of a parliamentary debate concluding in a consensus on 27 March that state media would give equal time to all competing parties/coalitions in the election campaign. Opposition parties expressed scepticism that the agreement would be honoured, while the government pointed out how open and democratic Montenegro was in comparison to Serbia, where such an agreement would be unthinkable. Montenegro TV is governed by a multi-party board; an attempt to remove the head of the station by the SNP, LSCG and (strangely) NS on 29 March failed.21 In general the opposition parties have no difficulty in getting their statements broadcast on government media, though undeniably as in most countries the activities of government figures receive more publicity. <br><br>In support of the claim that the government might use state funds in its campaign, the opposition has cited the busy road works and face-lifting now going on, particularly in Podgorica. Since transport is a leading local issue, the government (it is alleged) is trying to create an illusion of progress to deceive voters. The government respond that city improvements are a normal function of government, and that the timing of current works coincides with spring weather which makes them easier to carry out. Western voters would probably be surprised that so much was being made of what would seem to them normal electioneering by the party in power. <br><br>Police plots to undermine the opposition have not yet been a serious feature of the election campaign. On 24 March, when Momir Bulatovic held a rally in Herceg-Novi, graffiti slogans in favour of Milosevic appeared all over town. The SNP indignantly denied responsibility and accused the authorities of organising the graffiti to discredit the party. Nothing came of the incident, and some of the graffiti are still there, unnoticed on the walls. There was a brief controversy over the identity of a man who carried a large portrait of Slobodan Milosevic at two SNP rallies - interestingly the SNP clearly wished to dissociate itself from this man.22 Later the SNP blamed police disinformation for the prominent publicity given to a reported split in the party over the Yugoslavia coalition, but the accusations had a routine feel and were not pursued.23 The Liberals in particular are prone to talk of pressure being brought to bear on groups of voters by police or DPS activists, but have found it hard to provide evidence. <br><br>The presence of an OSCE team of observers, as in 1998, who will be following all aspects of the electoral process including media coverage, will provide a welcome independent viewpoint on the process, minimising both the temptation for any party to corrupt the fairness of the election, and the likelihood that any attempt would go undetected. Also, just as important, the observers will reduce the scope for cries of foul to cover up any party's embarrassing defeat. It is helpful in this respect that the local OSCE office has built up good relations with the opposition parties as well as with the government. <br><br>However the OSCE presence in 1998 did not prevent complaints from the opposition. This time too both the SNP and LSCG are convinced that the elections will not be fair - that even if there is no illegal malpractice the government's control over money, media and police presents a less-than-level playing-field. The SNP has not ruled out the possibility of a boycott but have not so far floated this possibility in public - wisely since it would immediately dominate the agenda. <br><br>B. National Issues24<br>Contentious national issues have been few so far in a quiet spring. The economy ought to be the big issue but has not taken off. It is the area where most people feel the effects of government policy most strongly, and where the government is most vulnerable during a period of shaky reforms and readjustment from dependence on supplies from Serbia. Voters however seem phlegmatic about the continuing difficulties, seeing them as a continuation of problems stretching back ten years. <br><br>Instead corruption looks like occupying most of the opposition's time. A major parliamentary debate on privatisation in April left the impression that no-one liked the government's handling of privatisation so far, and even that an air of dishonesty hung over parts of it. The SNP, backed up by the LSCG, has done all it can to spread the image of Montenegro as a corrupt state run by a corrupt government under a corrupt president but it is not working for them: voters appear cynical about their politicians, but on the whole do not believe the SNP would be any better if it was in power, and do not take the Liberals seriously as a possible government. As noted above, the SNP has launched a court case against the government over one privatisation - in Herceg-Novi. <br><br>Another arm of the SNP campaign to expose alleged government corruption involves questioning what has become of all the overseas aid supposed to have been coming into Montenegro in recent years. The SNP newspaper Dan has run a major series on this, supported up by statements by Predrag Bulatovic in parliament. It is true that the effects of much of the aid are not visible to the average citizen, and the government is caught between asserting that there has been plenty of aid (so showing that its policy of international engagement is successful, but remaining vulnerable to accusations of "where is it?") and between its own criticisms that donors have been slow to implement their promises (so fuelling SNP accusations that Western donors are poor friends). However it is also true that the SNP accusations try to have it both ways, saying in effect (a) the West gives no aid, only promises; (b) the government are corruptly misusing Western aid to win the local elections.25 <br><br>An immense fuss was created by President Djukanovic's decision to send Easter greetings to the Montenegro Orthodox Church as well as its Serbian counterpart, provoking an apoplectic response from the latter and leading pro-Yugoslavia parties to accuse him of promoting separatism - if he had not sent both greetings he would have come under equal attack from the separatists. This is a no-win issue for Djukanovic: his government and even his own DPS party are divided on this issue but it is unlikely on its own to have influenced many voters. <br><br>The SNP and its allies are still laying immense stress on the "NATO aggression" against Yugoslavia in 1999, which leads them into passionate criticism of the United States. No one doubts that they feel very strongly about this, and that it is a rallying-point for supporters, but it is not gaining any new votes. <br><br>C. Local Issues<br>Individual issues are discussed above in the sections on the two municipalities. A further question is, how large a part have these local issues played in the election campaign and the minds of voters? The campaign in Herceg-Novi seems more likely to be influenced by local factors than that in Podgorica. There are a number of clear local issues, even if these are not actually soluble at local level: how to get and pay for water, what kind of tourists to try to attract, and privatisation of the Simo Milosevic Institute (section III above). In Podgorica the hottest local issues seem to be traffic and parking <br><br>D. Personalities<br>In a campaign without contentious issues, personalities may make the difference. This helps the DZB because of the "Milo" factor: apart from committed SNP and LSCG supporters, the public at large has great respect for the President.26 Prime Minister Vujanovic also has a good reputation, and Mugosa, the DZB candidate for mayor of Podgorica, is a popular local personality. With these strengths the DZB will be disappointed and surprised if it does not retain at least its 1998 vote, and will be hoping for outright victory at least in Podgorica. <br><br>The SNP does not have the personalities to give popular appeal to its message. It has staked everything on nominating Predrag Bulatovic for Podgorica: he is the SNP politician with the best image among uncommitted voters, and if he cannot attract new votes it is safe to say that no SNP politician could. A good result would be a personal triumph for him, but a bad result could not be blamed on him. Behind the inevitable public calls of foul play and rigging which would attend an SNP defeat, a more likely focus of discontent is the party leader Momir Bulatovic, who is already deeply unpopular with neutrals and identified with the Belgrade establishment rather than with Montenegro interests. <br><br>The Liberals face the same difficulty, that their leaders are loved within the party but not much outside. Their chances of increased support ironically ride on pro-independence sentiment, even though they are trying to run a campaign based on better and cleaner government. <br><br>The Belgrade Angle<br>Official Belgrade is also taking an interest in the election results. The natural hope of the ruling group around President Milosevic will be for an SNP victory: if the SNP is growing stronger then maybe the inconvenient Djukanovic government will fall through lack of popular support, offering the prospect of future SNP government in Montenegro, harmony between the republics at the federal level, and slightly simplifying the question of federal elections which ought to be held this year. This perhaps explains why JUL leader Mira Markovic and SRS leader Vojislav Seselj have joined forces with the SNP to help them gain victory - such "help" is not unambiguously helpful, as discussed above. Apart from this, the Serbian and federal authorities have not yet done much to interfere in the elections beyond sustaining the usual barrage of anti-Djukanovic comment in official media.27 The Belgrade authorities could publicly write off defeat for the SNP as DZB manipulation of voters' lists and media. Victory for the DZB would not be welcomed in Belgrade, but there is no sign yet that it would lead to any anti-Montenegro measures in addition to those already in force. <br><br>Bad relations between the federal army (VJ) and the Montenegro government provide an uneasy background to the campaign. Rumours of VJ exercises on the eve or day of the elections have been first asserted then denied, and VJ generals and Djukanovic continue to issue hostile statements - on Djukanovic's side this may be partly from a calculation that keeping alive fear of the VJ may keep wavering voters with the DZB. Meanwhile off-duty soldiers in uniform sit peacefully unarmed in street cafes, looking as if deliberately unthreatening. <br><br>Conclusion<br><br>Local elections in mid-term are often seen as an opportunity for voters to punish the government for the problems of life in general, and the results are not taken too seriously. That will not be the case in these two elections, where all parties accept that the result is of crucial importance for the immediate future of the whole of Montenegro. Whatever the results of these two campaigns, interpretation will be complicated by familiar problems: <br><br>Have the voters passed a verdict on the general performance of the government, or only on local issues and personalities? If the same trend result is observed in both elections this question will be easier to answer. The fact that Podgorica is at stake is relevant here, for the two municipalities together account for around 30 per cent of Montenegrin voters. But the elections remain local elections, and not formally a plebiscite upon the policies of the Montenegrin government. <br><br>Do the voters really care about the result - that is, are they taking the elections as seriously as the politicians and outside observers? Local elections are traditionally cursed with boredom from voters, and if many stay away then victory will simply go to the party best able to motivate its committed support. The size of the turn-out will be important in judging the meaning of the results. After such a pervasive campaign, anything under around 60 per cent would be a victory for apathy. <br><br>How can the SNP vote be analysed? Has the "Momir Bulatovic" coalition helped or harmed it, or merely resulted in a neutral agglomeration of the votes which would naturally have gone to the coalition partners anyway? <br>Nonetheless the results will be eagerly scrutinised at home and abroad for signs about which way public opinion in Montenegro is tending. For this reason it can fairly be said that these elections are much more important to the professional politicians than to the people. In the absence of any other indications except contested opinion polls, these two elections will be the only formal commentary upon two years of DZB government in Montenegro. They will be a very imperfect commentary, but will nevertheless become a basis of political debate for the rest of the year. It is thus useful to speculate on the consequences of various possible outcomes: <br><br>The government needs as a minimum to retain its 1998 level of support. Defeat in Herceg-Novi would be bad but could be survived; defeat in Podgorica would be much tougher to explain away. It could try to attribute a bad performance to local factors, but it would be damaged, vulnerable to accusations from the opposition that it clings to power without popular support. Early general elections would enter the political debate: such an appeal would be resisted by the DZB majority in parliament, but even within the coalition (never a completely happy family) tensions could rise. On the other hand a good performance - better than the 1998 result, with either election won outright - would keep the government on track and strengthen the ruling coalition. <br><br>The SNP needs to win one election, preferably both. A narrow defeat in Podgorica would be honourable but even that would require an increase in the support given in 1998 to the combined opposition coalition partners. They will attribute any bad result to government manipulation of voters' lists and media but internally could enter a period of severe crisis: were the coalitions harmful, or is the SNP generally losing support? Even the leadership of Momir Bulatovic could come into question. But a good performance would give heart to the whole party and provide a platform for a call for general elections and a sustained attack upon the government's record. <br><br>The Liberals want to use the elections to prove they are a serious force growing in strength. Independence is not the main campaigning issue this time but its cause will be advanced if the LSCG does well. Their minimum objective is to continue to hold the balance of power in both places, but if they fail to increase their votes and seats they must regard their campaign as a failure. They can blame a bad result on government rigging, whether there is any or not, or the split within the Liberal family, and claim it does not affect the strength of the independence movement. But a good result for them will have its effect on the SDP too (remembering that the SDP is running alone in Herceg-Novi), and thus may influence the governing coalition a little more towards calling the referendum so long discussed. <br><br>Two elections for local authorities are a fragile base for such sweeping claims by any party. But these elections have dominated the political agenda in the spring of 2000, and have taken on a significance out of proportion to the importance of the powers at stake, almost as though a mock general election were in fact taking place. For better or for worse, these elections will set the tone of political debate in Montenegro for the rest of the year. <br><br>Prediction<br>In 1997-1999 there was a trend of increasing support for the anti-isolation and pro-Western agenda of the DPS under president Djukanovic. The 1998 election established clearly that Djukanovic had successfully carried the electorate with him away from Momir Bulatovic, so that since then Djukanovic has represented the Establishment, meaning the perceived natural government. This is a powerful built-in advantage, and an outside observer has no evidence that that support is waning. On the contrary, the SNP's pro-Yugoslavia message suffers a new blow with every assassination in Belgrade, every new move by Milosevic to strengthen his hold on power. The Liberal recovery after their disaster in the 1998 elections seems to have stabilised for now. Polls indicate that few voters are moving between the three main party blocks, so the campaign is for a relatively small number of uncommitted or apathetic voters. <br><br>In Podgorica the government does not need many extra votes to win the municipality. It has the momentum to achieve this, but the Albanian vote may go nationalist, and it may be a close thing whether the Liberals still hold the balance of power. <br><br>In Herceg-Novi a more volatile (because smaller) electorate is harder to call. The SNP has a solid block of support but is not attracting new voters. No-one knows how the nationalist vote (SNP allies) is holding up but the NATO bombings of 1999 do not seem to have strengthened it. Younger voters, to judge from turn-out at public meetings, favour the DZB/SDP and LSCG. The result could be a win for no-one: neither government nor SNP coalition clearly dominant, with the Liberals (and SDP) holding the balance with representation which has increased, but not by as much as they hoped. <br><br>Appendices<br><br>Glossary of Political Party Acronyms and Alignments<br><br>Government bloc: <br>DZB "Da Zivimo Bolje" (For a Better Life) - Montenegro's governing coalition, comprising:<br>DPS Democratic Party of Socialists (under President Milo Djukanovic)<br>SDP Social Democratic Party (Zarko Rakcevic)<br>NS People's Party (Dragan Soc)<br><br>Pro-Yugoslavia bloc ("Yugoslavia - Momir Bulatovic" coalition):<br>SNP Socialist People's Party (Momir Bulatovic)<br>JUL Yugoslav United Left (Mira Markovic, wife of Slobodan Milosevic)<br>SRS Serb Radical Party (Vojislav Seselj)<br>SNS Serb People's Party (Zelidrag Nikcevic)<br>KPJ Communist Party of Yugoslavia<br>NKPJ New Communist Party of Yugoslavia<br>RSL NP Left Radical Party - Nikola Pasic<br><br>Pro-independence (but mutually hostile):<br>LSCG Liberal Alliance (Miodrag Zivkovic)<br>LDP Liberal Democratic Party (Bozidar Nikolic)<br><br>Albanians in coalition "Zajedno za Malesiju" in Podgorica only:<br>DUA Democratic Union of Albanians (Ferhat Dinosha)<br>DS Democratic Alliance (Mehmet Bardhi)<br><br>Minor Serb parties: (Srpska Sloga)<br>SDS Serb Democratic Party<br>SNRS Serb People's Radical Party<br><br>Independent Communist:<br>SKJ/KCG Yugoslav Communist Alliance/Montenegro Communists</font><br></p>
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