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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslavia Sees U.N. Membership Within Days </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Beti Bilandzic<br><br>BELGRADE (Reuters) - An ally of Yugoslavia's reformist President Vojislav Kostunica said Monday the country could be admitted to the United Nations within days.<br><br>Vladan Batic, a leader of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia alliance that backs Kostunica, said he did not believe objections from Montenegro -- Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation -- would hold up the process.<br><br>Senior Montenegrin officials, who want more autonomy or independence for the coastal republic, have said Yugoslavia should not join international bodies until the federation's future and relations between its constituents are resolved.<br><br>But Batic told reporters in Belgrade all members of the U.N. Security Council who could block Yugoslavia's membership had unofficially said they would let the country join.<br><br>``I think that despite reactions from Montenegro, there are realistic chances that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...will be admitted as a member of the U.N. within the next few days,'' he said.<br><br>Yugoslavia has been stuck in limbo at the world body since 1992 after Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia declared independence from the old Yugoslav federation.<br><br>The U.N.'s General Assembly ruled that the rump Yugoslavia could not continue automatically in the seat of the old Yugoslavia and should submit a new application for membership. Kostunica's administration submitted that application Friday.<br><br>The government of Kostunica's ousted predecessor Slobodan Milosevic had long refused to do so, and outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Nikolic Monday accused Kostunica of violating the constitution, state agency Tanjug said.<br><br>``This is an unauthorized request because the federal government conducts foreign policy and not the president of Yugoslavia,'' Tanjug quoted him as saying.<br><br>In a statement carried by Tanjug, the outgoing government -- which resigned on October 9 -- said neither it nor any of its members had filed for Yugoslavia's readmission to the world body.<br><br>The government said it ``cannot take upon itself any consequences this move (the application) may have on Yugoslavia's state interests.''<br><br>A new government made up of Kostunica's allies is expected to be set up this weekend.<br><br>Batic said Montenegrin leaders were wrong to assert that joining the U.N. would pre-judge talks on Yugoslavia's future.<br><br>``I consider that Montenegro's understanding of this as something that will obstruct the future organization of the state is not correct,'' he said, adding that if Serbia and Montenegro separated they could quit the U.N. and reapply. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>U.S. Urges Belgrade on Election</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer <br><br>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration called on Yugoslavia's new president to accept election results in Kosovo.<br><br>Preliminary results show the party led by Ibrahim Rugova, a moderate, trounced one led by Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The Saturday elections determined seats in city and town halls. Provincewide elections have yet to be declared.<br><br>On Sunday, new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica insisted that a Serb boycott made the vote invalid. Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that while the results were inconclusive, ``the elections were held in a free and fair manner.''<br><br>Boucher said Kosovar Serbs had the chance to register to vote and ``we regret that most of them chose not to do so.''<br><br>The elections were the first in Kosovo since NATO bombing last year forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw Serbian troops and special police, ending a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians, who are in the majority.<br><br>Asked how Belgrade should respond, Boucher said ``generally, we would hope and expect that people in the region would welcome the furtherance of a cause of democracy in the region, and that it's important.''<br><br>Boucher congratulated Kosovars for successfully holding the municipal elections, and called the balloting a key step toward implementing the U.N. plan for general elections and autonomy - but not independence - for the province.<br><br>Kosovo should develop democratic institutions before the province's final status is determined, he said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Kosovo Voters Side With the Rebel Who Took the Path of Peace</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br><br>PRISTINA, Kosovo, Oct. 30 — Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovo Albanian who led his people on a 10-year campaign of peaceful protest for independence from Serbia, was confirmed today as the winner of the elections held on Saturday. His party won 21 of 27 contested municipalities.<br><br>With close to 90 percent of votes counted, international election organizers released preliminary results showing Mr. Rugova's party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, with 58 percent of the votes and the former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci with 27 percent.<br><br>Mr. Thaci, who was political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army before he turned to politics last year after the NATO bombing campaign to drive Serbian forces from the province, won six municipalities. Another rebel commander, Ramush Haradinaj, took about 7 percent. Turnout was close to 80 percent; three municipalities in northern Kosovo populated only by Serbs did not take part in the elections.<br><br>Louis Sell, of the International Crisis Group, an independent research organization, said the results indicated that Kosovo Albanians had voted for stability and the father figure of Mr. Rugova, an intellectual and professor who led a campaign of passive resistance through the 1990's against the government of Slobodan Milosevic. It was also a vote against Mr. Thaci, Mr. Sell said, and the violence associated with many Thaci supporters.<br><br>Despite his clear disappointment, Mr. Thaci said today that he would accept the election's outcome and promised to work together with other parties in sharing power in the local councils, and to continue to work for the people and prepare for general elections next year. <br><br>"I want to assure the citizens of Kosovo that we are here to continue to work for an independent and democratic Kosovo," he said.<br><br>That Kosovo was able, for the first time, to hold free and democratic elections was a victory for the Kosovo Liberation Army, he said.<br><br>Nevertheless, the results represent a blow to Mr. Thaci, 30, who has played the leading role in Kosovo politics since he emerged into public view last year as the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and headed the negotiation team at peace talks with Serbian officials in Rambouillet, France. <br><br>After the NATO bombing campaign ended last June and peacekeeping troops entered Kosovo, Mr. Thaci and his fellow commanders quickly set up their own provisional government and took charge in all 27 of the Albanian-dominated municipalities. <br><br>Although the United Nations administration, which is charged with running the province, has gradually established its power in the territory, Mr. Thaci and his supporters continued to dominate local affairs. Now they will have to relinquish both offices and power in many areas.<br><br>While the newly elected councils will not wield much power, they will have responsibility for education, transport, health care and other local services as part of the United Nations plan to develop Kosovo into a self-governing territory.<br><br>The poll is being seen as an indication of how a general election for a national leader, which could take place by the middle of next year, would proceed. What that means for negotiations on Kosovo's final status is unclear. Mr. Rugova may appear to be more moderate than Mr. Thaci, but he has stubbornly held out for independence for a decade and his first comments on claiming victory on Sunday were to call for immediate independence from Yugoslavia.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Internacional Herald Tribune:The New President of Yugoslavia Gets Sound-Bitten</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Anna Husarska International Herald Tribune<br><br>WARSAW - The Belgrade weekly Nin recently conducted a poll on what Serbs want to do with the former dictator of Yugoslavia. Fifty-three percent of the 2,000 people questioned said Slobodan Milosevic should not stand trial for war crimes anywhere, 30 percent wanted him to face charges in Serbia and 9 percent favored sending him to the international tribunal in The Hague.<br>Belgrade's radio B2-92, whose web site's visitors are a sophisticated group both politically and logistically, reports that 76 percent of those who voted online foresee a trial in Serbia and 14 percent in The Hague, while 2 percent expect Mr. Milosevic to ''continue a political career'' and 6 percent think he will have a ''peaceful retirement.''<br><br>When asked why they expect ''trial in Serbia,'' most Serbs say it is because Serbs have suffered most under the Milosevic dictatorship, so they, as his main victims, should judge him.<br><br>Whether ignorance of the four wars he started and the hundreds of thousands of deaths he provoked is genuine or feigned, it stands in the way of owning up to Serbs' own past - what the Germans, experts in repentance, call Vergangenheitsbewältigung.<br><br>The man who may decide on the fate of Mr. Milosevic, President Vojislav Kostunica, has made clear that he will not deliver his predecessor to The Hague. But on the subject of war crimes and genocide committed in the last decade by Serbs outside Serbia's borders, he sends mixed signals.<br><br>First came the so very welcome words of recognition of guilt. Asked in an interview with the American network CBS, aired on Oct. 24, whether there was any doubt that the Yugoslav army and police were guilty of genocide in Kosovo, Mr. Kostunica said: ''I am ready to, how to say, to accept the guilt for all those people who have been killed, so I'm trying to, taking responsibility for what happened on my part. For what Milosevic had done and as a Serb I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes.''<br><br>''A watershed,'' The Daily Telegraph enthused in London. ''Un geste spectaculaire,'' said Agence France-Presse.<br><br>For foreign dignitaries and officials from the donor organizations, for human rights monitors and for political analysts this was a first, promising sign that the Yugoslav president would courageously confront the past and thus help his nation come to terms with the fact that, yes, war crimes were committed by their leader in their name.<br><br>But then Mr. Kostunica himself felt that he had to protest. Two days after the broadcast, an angry three-paragraph letter was addressed by his chief of staff to the head of CBS asking for explanations for the ''unprofessional and unethical behavior'' of the network.<br><br>There were indeed things to be explained. Someone not used to Western television ways can require training in the art of boiling down a 100-minute exchange to a few sound bites. Someone raised on the state media in Yugoslavia would never dream of putting their new president's remarks on a web site under the irreverent title ''A Madhouse in Yugoslavia.'' as CBS did.<br><br>But no, the problem, as it turned out, was that world media reported these utterances, and such publicity ''could have inflicted much political damage on the president and the forces leading the democratization in Yugoslavia.''<br><br>In other words, publicizing a mea culpa is harmful to the image of the new leader in Belgrade and to his coalition of democratic forces.<br><br>The international community insists that Mr. Milosevic be tried in The Hague. The Serbian people see no need. There are creative precedents to copy: the Hague tribunal for war crimes committed in Rwanda sits in Arusha, Tanzania; the defendants in the Lockerbie bombing are tried in The Hague but under Scottish law.<br><br>But if the Serbs are to accept that Mr. Milosevic be tried in a court set up by the United Nations, the most urgent task is to make them understand what crimes against foreign citizens Mr. Milosevic is indicted for. Once they start accusing him not only of electoral fraud, corruption, nepotism and repression against Serbian media but also of waging foreign wars against non-Serbian ethnic groups, of ordering mass murder and rape of foreign citizens, then they may want to expurgate him from their midst.<br><br>Perhaps then, when Mr. Kostunica says ''Sorry,'' his office will not be rushing to explain that it was a slip of the tongue.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Countries To Share Yugoslav Assets </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By SNJEZANA VUKIC, Associated Press Writer <br><br>ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - Nine years after the former Yugoslavia disintegrated, the new democratic government in Belgrade has acknowledged it is not the only country with a claim to the assets of the former Yugoslav state.<br><br>Yugoslavia is now made up of two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, but it used to have four more: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) always insisted that his truncated Yugoslavia was the only ``successor state'' of the former Yugoslavia, which once extended from the Alps to the Greek border.<br><br>But his successor, Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites), has taken another tack.<br><br>His position - which he confirmed Friday at a Balkan summit in talks with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites), Richard Holbrooke - means the former Yugoslav republics have a claim on billions of dollars in assets. The concession also opens the door for modern Yugoslavia to gain admission to the United Nations and other global institutions.<br><br>It may take years to resolve the claims: Divisions and mutual hostility run deep between Yugoslavia and its former republics. Milosevic opened talks with the breakaway states in 1992 on the issue but they soon stalled.<br><br>``Things are moving ahead, but they're far from being settled,'' said Bozo Marendic, the Croatian negotiator on the issue.<br><br>The four former Yugoslav republics say they should share in the assets and property which old Yugoslavia held in 1990, a year before Slovenia and Croatia broke away - the first to do so. That includes government-owned property in the Balkans and abroad, assets of the Yugoslav army, foreign currency reserves and gold. The Croats estimate the total at $100 billion. They must also share in paying off Yugoslavia's old debts - an estimated $17 billion.<br><br>Under Milosevic, Yugoslavia disputed those numbers. The former republics hope the new leadership will be easier to deal with.<br><br>``Mr. Kostunica said nothing about these concrete disagreements, and I'm eager to hear his views on them,'' Croatia's Marendic said.<br><br>Croatian Vice President Goran Grancic said the question of dividing up assets and debts ``is no longer a political issue, it's a technical question now.'' A Slovene negotiator, Miran Mejak, said there is a ``realistic expectation'' that the talks may resume.<br><br>Still, the negotiations are likely to be slow. Only Macedonia seceded peacefully. The others fought wars which deepened distrust between them and Belgrade.<br><br>Marendic also noted that Belgrade has controlled the vast majority of assets since 1991 and many of them have accrued in value. How much is likely to be a thorny issue.<br><br>The dispute over successor-state status has long prevented normal relations between Yugoslavia and the breakaway countries. Slovenia has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Belgrade until the issue is settled. Croatia recognized Yugoslavia in 1996 but has said relations cannot develop normally until all successor issues are resolved. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian: US shift on independent Kosovo angers allies </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Albanian nationalists are buoyed by Washington's readiness to support a break from Yugoslavia<br><br>Ewen MacAskill in Pristina <br>Monday October 30, 2000 <br><br>The US is ready to break rank with its Nato partners by conceding for the first time that Kosovo can become independent from Serbia. <br>The shift in policy, discussed in secret talks this month between the US special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, and US diplomats in the Balkans, will anger Britain and other Nato members and risks creating a rift with Russia, which retains close ties with Serbia. <br><br>The change of direction emerged in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, as votes were being counted yesterday in the province's first democratic elections. The three big Kosovan Albanian parties all stood on an independence platform. The Kosovan Serbs almost unanimously boycotted the elections, for local authorities. <br><br>The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by the moderate nationalist Ibrahim Rugova, was sweeping to power throughout the province, according to independent observers. The official results are expected today. <br><br>Nato and the UN security council have maintained that, in spite of the Nato-led war last year which forced Serbian troops out of the province, Kosovo should remain a sovereign part of Yugoslavia. <br><br>British officials recently ruled out independence as an option, saying that further fragmentation in the Balkans would increase instability and that a state as small as Kosovo would be unsustainable. <br><br>Security council resolution 1244, passed in June last year at the end of the war, reaffirmed "the commitment of all member states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". <br><br>But a senior US official in Pristina, who spent last week with Mr Holbrooke, has for the first time disputed the widely-held interpretation of the resolution. <br><br>He said that 1244 "explicitly recognises the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia but it does not mean Kosovo cannot be independent". <br><br>US government lawyers spent the past few weeks looking at the resolution in detail and they concluded that it did not rule out independence. <br><br>The US source agreed that independence was fast becoming a reality on the ground because almost half the Kosovan Serbs had left the province and the Kosovo Albanians were setting up their own judicial and political system. <br><br>Acknowledging that few Kosovo Albanians were prepared to consider even a loose federation with Belgrade, he said: "Kosovo will not be pushed back into Serbia." <br><br>The US is unlikely to go public on its policy switch in the near future in case it undermines Yugoslavia's new democratically elected president, Vojislav Kostunica. <br><br>The loss of Kosovo, which is an important historical symbol for Serbia, would inflame Serbian nationalist hardliners. <br><br>The US source ruled out partitioning the province between the northern part, predominantly populated by Serbs, which would join Serbia while the rest of the country, mainly Kosovo Albanians, would enter into a Greater Albania. <br><br>He hoped the Kosovo Serbs and Albanians could reach an accommodation. "They will never be friends sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya... but they will learn to live with one another." <br><br>The elections held in Kosovo on Saturday were for control of the province's 30 municipalities, but the Kosovo Albanians treated them as a referendum on independence. The main contenders were Mr Rugova's LDK and the Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by Hashim Thaci, a nationalist hardliner and former commander of the Kosovan Liberation Army, which fought a guerrilla campaign against the Yugoslav army. <br><br>Mr Thaci wants Kosovo to become independent from Serbia as soon as possible and join Albania. Mr Rugova also wants independence but at a more cautious pace and for Kosovo to be a state in its own right, free of both Serbia and Albania. <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Herald Tribune: Belgrade Applies To Join the UN</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Paris, Saturday, October 28, 2000<br>UNITED NATIONS, New York - The new Yugoslav government of President Vojislav Kostunica on Friday formally requested membership in the United Nations, a UN spokesman said. <br>Yugoslavia, a founding member, has held an uncertain status in the organization since 1992, after Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia declared independence from Belgrade and left only Serbia and Montenegro remaining in the Yugoslav federation.<br>The General Assembly said then that Belgrade should apply for membership, as the others did. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Herald Tribune: Yugoslav Leaders Fear 'Social Anarchy' in Energy Shortage</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Paris, Saturday, October 28, 2000<br>By Michael Dobbs Washington Post Service<br>BELGRADE - The last of Eastern Europe's great anti-Communist revolutions is entering its fourth week, and millions of Serbs are without heat and electricity. Yugoslavia's new leaders fret that ''social anarchy'' looms this winter unless foreign governments provide extensive economic help. <br>The crisis comes home to Olga Mitrovic when the lights go out in her three-room apartment.<br>It is the fifth major power cut in as many days, and Olga Mitrovic, a 55-year-old health worker, is furious. Furious with Slobodan Milosevic for reducing this once prosperous corner of the Balkans to penury and misery when he was the president of Yugoslavia. Furious with the power company for turning her electricity off as lights continue to blaze in a half-dozen nearby high-rise apartment buildings. And furious with the West for failing, as she sees it, to provide necessary aid on time.<br>After the euphoria of the revolution, when cheering crowds stormed the Yugoslav Parliament and state-run Serbian television, forcing Mr. Milosevic to accept outright electoral defeat and step aside this month, a cold economic reality is sinking in.<br>The energy crisis tops a long list of problems facing Yugoslavia's new leaders. It is an emblem for the bankruptcy of the old government and a symbol of the headaches facing Mr. Milosevic's successors as they try to introduce economic reforms while preserving a brittle social peace.<br>Olga Mitrovic calls the state-run electric company on a line reserved for reporting life-threatening power blackouts. Miraculously, she somehow gets through and finds herself talking to the head of the Belgrade power distribution system and a visiting American reporter.<br>''Western politicians promised to help us, but do nothing,'' said Olga Mitrovic, who voted for Mr. Milosevic's opponent, Vojislav Kostunica, in the presidential election last month. ''If help doesn't come soon, the new regime will be endangered. Serbs showed that we want democracy and an opening to the West, but we also cannot survive without hot water, gas and electricity. We are normal people. We want a bath occasionally.''<br>To survive the winter, officials say, Yugoslavia needs $600 million for energy supplies. Russia has refused to deliver natural gas until $300 million in debt is paid by Serbia, the dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation, with Montenegro.<br>Soon the new government is likely to face a brutal choice: Keep the lights on in Belgrade and other cities or meet the monthly payrolls of the police force and army.<br>With its plentiful hydroelectric reserves, Yugoslavia had traditionally been an energy exporter. But over the past few years it became a net importer and now owes billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity to its neighbors. Water reservoirs, which would normally be full at this time of year, have been depleted by a drought.<br>Some of Yugoslavia's energy problems can be traced to the damage that was done last year to the Serbian power grid by NATO air strikes. But the problems are mostly a result of inept economic policies of the neo-Communist Milosevic government, Yugoslav and Western experts said.<br>To remain in power, Mr. Milosevic constantly postponed market reforms because they risked provoking a social explosion. The energy sector, like the rest of the economy, was allowed to deteriorate.<br>Miroslav Labus, Mr. Kostunica's principal economic adviser, said Mr. Milosevic's surprise decision to call a presidential election in September was dictated by the looming energy crisis. Mr. Milosevic and his aides ''knew what was going to happen,'' Mr. Labus said.<br>Mr. Labus, an economics professor, heads a group of experts called G17 Plus, which has effectively taken over the management of the economy and the banking system during the transition from one government to another.<br>The group's headquarters, overlooking Belgrade's central square, are a mix of academic research organization, financial nerve center and never-ending news conference. In a crowded warren of rooms, Mr. Labus and his colleagues negotiate with foreign financiers, issue instructions to the central bank and the customs office and devise a new energy strategy, while fending off an endless stream of reporters and job-seekers.<br>One colleague is Mladan Dinkic, the group's executive director and the top candidate to head the national bank.<br>''The most critical problem we face right now is how to survive the next few weeks,'' Mr. Dinkic said. ''People are already blaming us for what is going on. They assume that because we won the elections, we are already controlling the whole economy.''<br>Around the corner from G17 Plus, at the headquarters of the Serbian electric company, officials said power cuts were likely to continue for some time, even under the best of circumstances.<br>''We are facing the most serious energy crisis in our history,'' said power industry spokesman, Momcilo Cebalovic. ''We are entering the winter with absolutely no reserves.''<br>Mr. Cebalovic and other experts trace the crisis to Mr. Milosevic's failure to undertake market-oriented reforms in the late '80s, when neighboring East European countries were making the transition from communism to capitalism.<br>Although Mr. Milosevic jettisoned Communist ideology in favor of Serbian nationalism, he continued to rely on the old socialist methods of running the economy, and energy prices were therefore kept artificially low.<br>Serbian consumers pay around 1 U.S. cent per kilowatt-hour of electricity that costs about 3 cents to import, and that is sold in neighboring countries for 5 cents or more. Accustomed to low prices, Serbs have come to rely on electricity for heat in winter and have had little incentive to shift to more efficient energy use.<br>For years, the power company was able to replenish depleted energy supplies over the summer, when Serbs traditionally use 30 percent to 40 percent less electricity than in winter. Last summer, however, this cycle was disrupted. Strapped for hard currency, the Milosevic government insisted that the power company run at full capacity, repaying electricity debts to neighboring countries in kind rather than in cash. Maintenance work on thermal power plants was postponed.<br>Instead of cutting costs and making more efficient use of its operations, the electric company has become a socialist dinosaur. Managers say the 62,000-member work force should be slashed by half, a move that has proved politically unacceptable until now.<br>The long-term solution to Yugoslavia's energy crisis is clear enough: the introduction of market prices and the creation of a modern, cost-efficient energy industry. But sharp increases for energy prices seem out of the question at a time when the average monthly salary is around $30, down from about $300 a decade ago. Serbian consumers already are reeling from increases in food prices over the past few weeks.<br>Unable to tackle the root causes of the crisis, Yugoslavia's new leaders are relying on short-term fixes. For example, temporary arrangements have been made with Hungary for gas to heat Serbian homes for the next few weeks.<br>The European Union has promised about $165 million in emergency economic assistance, most of which is likely to go to the energy sector. But Yugoslav officials complain that it is tied up in red tape and is unlikely to arrive before the end of November.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Electronic Telegraph: Kostunica in Russia to revive links</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Ben Aris in Moscow and Alex Todorovic in Belgrade <br>PRESIDENT Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia made a lightning trip to Moscow yesterday to reassure Russia that his administration will not turn its back on Serbia's oldest ally.<br>President Kostunica: emphasised the links between Orthodox Russia and Serbia <br>Ties between Russia and Yugoslavia, both Slavic nations, have always been strong and they are natural partners, but many analysts suspect they could weaken now that Slobodan Milosevic has been ousted. President Putin and Mr Kostunica released a joint statement that pledged economic and technological co-operation. Mr Putin praised the Yugoslav president for overcoming the constitutional crisis three weeks ago without resorting to force.<br>The Yugoslavs are still smarting from last year's Nato bombing campaign and Russia, too, has little love for the alliance as it expands eastwards. The start of the bombing in Kosovo last summer led to angry protests by Russians outside the American embassy in Moscow, which the crowd peppered with ink and stones. To cement the relationship, Mr Putin promised that Russia would provide "tangible" aid to help Yugoslavia rebuild its shattered economy after nearly a decade of war and civil unrest.<br>Yugoslavia relies on Russian fuel and gas to heat the country, but already owes more than £260 million in unpaid gas bills. Mr Kostunica is hoping to secure fuel deliveries before winter, but Russia can offer little else as it hardly has the resources to help itself. Mr Kostunica's trip is a timely piece of diplomacy on his part, designed to reassure Russia that Yugoslavia still considers it a friend and partner, but it also provides him with a useful bargaining chip in negotiations with the West for aid.<br>In the steps of the late Yugoslav leader, Marshal Tito, Mr Kostunica appears poised to strike an independent position between Russia and Western Europe, exploiting their competing interests in the Balkans. On his first visit to Moscow as Yugoslav president, Mr Kostunica emphasised the links between Orthodox Russia and Serbia, saying he hoped the "historical and religious ties" would become stronger.<br>He took with him Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as two other influential Serbian church leaders. The Yugoslav delegation met Russian Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Shortly before Mr Kostunica and Mr Putin met, Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said Russia had always strongly supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, making the point that Kosovo belongs to Yugoslavia.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Milosevic faces party rebellion </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Deposed Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic may be ousted from his Serbian Socialist Party, leaving him open to criminal prosecution. <br>He faces a simmering rebellion within the political party that helped him rule unchallenged for 13 years. <br>In the wake of his earlier fall this month, the Serbian Socialist Party called a convention for November 25 amid signs of a growing move to dislodge Milosevic from the party's leadership, leaving him even more vulnerable to criminal prosecution for ruining Yugoslavia during his rule. <br>Several top–ranking Socialist officials and co–founders of the party, which succeeded the Communist Alliance of Yugoslavia in 1991, have spoken against Milosevic. <br>The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they fear reprisals, said the party could offer Milosevic a title with dignity but without any real role in running the organization. He would be replaced at the helm by a five–member presidency of party moderates. <br>But Milosevic is clearly trying to hold on. He still lives in his residence, protected by troops of the army's elite Guard Brigade. He left his compound for the first time after the October 5 uprising to preside at the party's main board session. <br>Moderated in the party fear it has no future unless it rids itself of the stain of Milosevic. <br>Nebojsa Spaic, a political analyst of the independent Media Center, believes the Socialists will split into rival factions. <br>"One faction will remain loyal to Milosevic, and will gradually disappear," Spaic said. <br>"The other side, if it really splits from the old–style Milosevic party, has some chance of becoming a respectable left–wing party." <br>Earlier this month, 40 long–time party members – some of whom were dismissed of opposing Milosevic, called in an open letter for a top–to–bottom reform of the party to restore basic principles of "social justice and a market economy". <br>The reform movement includes Branislav Ivkovic, the party's Belgrade leader, and two members of Yugoslavia's former collective presidency, Borisav Jovic and Zoran Lilic. <br>"If the Socialist party doesn't purge Milosevic, it cannot hope to become a serious party again," Jovic said. Jovic was once one of Milosevic's closest allies. <br>"Milosevic made catastrophic mistakes, and he must go," said Milorad Vucelic, the party's former vice president. <br>Even some of those recently associated with Milosevic are hinting that it's time for change. Socialist party spokesman Ivica Dacic said "the party must elect new leadership, consisting of uncompromised people." <br>The first sign of a mutiny within Socialist ranks surfaced shortly after the September 24 presidential election in the southern city of Nis. <br>The local party leadership accused Milosevic of a "catastrophic election failure" and demanded his ouster. Similar calls came from party groups in small Serbian towns. <br>"People began raising their voice, and a major democratization of party occurred," Ivkovic said. <br>As a first step toward rehabilitation, the party jettisoned its alliance with the Yugoslav Left, led by Milosevic's ambitious wife, Mirjana Markovic. Her group had branded all supporters of new President Vojislav Kostunica as Western spies and lackeys. <br>Some analysts believe the party may still have a political future in Yugoslavia. <br>"If they manage to implement proposed reforms, the Socialists might be able to rise to power again in three to four years, as it happened in other former communist countries," Belgrade analyst Milica Kuburovic said. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica Disputes CBS Broadcast </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer <br><br>BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica 's office on Thursday disputed a CBS News broadcast that quoted him as acknowledging atrocities committed in Kosovo under the government of his predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic .<br><br>The statement released by Kostunica's office, addressed to the president of CBS News, said the segment aired Tuesday on ''60 Minutes II'' was ``unprofessional and unethical.''<br><br>Kostunica was quoted in the broadcast as saying: ``I am ready to ... accept the guilt for all those people who have been killed. ... For what Milosevic had done, and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes.''<br><br>The interview, which was reported by The Associated Press, was considered the first time a Yugoslav leader publicly acknowledged that Yugoslav forces committed widespread killings in Kosovo last year. Milosevic, who was forced from office this month, never admitted wrongdoing in Kosovo or former Yugoslav republics where he helped instigate armed conflicts.<br><br>Kostunica's office, in a statement translated by the AP, said the journalists conducting the interview taped about 100 minutes of conversation with him, but broadcast ``only a few minutes'' of his answer to a single question, ``and even that was taken completely out of context.''<br><br>The president's office specifically protested excerpts of the interview released on the CBS Web site a day before the broadcast.<br><br>That contained ``a series of untruths and words which President Kostunica did not use,'' his office said. Given the huge amount of publicity the CBS broadcast received in other media, it ``could have inflicted much political damage to the president and the forces leading the democratization in Yugoslavia,'' the statement said.<br><br>Government officials refused to elaborate Thursday about the ``untrue words.'' Cabinet Chief Ljiljana Nedeljkovic, who released the statement, was unavailable for comment Thursday. Her office said she was in a meeting with Kostunica.<br><br>Kostunica, considered a nationalist in his own right, came to power accusing Milosevic of ruinous policies that harmed many nations in the region, including Serbs.<br><br>CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley, who conducted the interview, said the story was edited to concentrate on the two subjects of most interest to international viewers: whether Kostunica would move against Milosevic and whether he acknowledged war crimes.<br><br>``He was very evasive, particularly on the Milosevic question,'' Pelley said. ``We had to go back to him again and again and again to get a straight answer.''<br><br>CBS had quoted Kostunica as saying that ``those are the crimes and the people that have been killed are victims,'' and ``there are a lot of crimes on the other side, and the Serbs have been killed.''<br><br>Pelley said he believed the interview, as aired, was ``absolutely fair.'' And he said he wasn't surprised by Kostunica's statement criticizing CBS.<br><br>``He is trying to stabilize a government with enemies conspiring all around him,'' he said. ``When he took the courageous steps to be frank in our interview, I think he knew that telling the truth was going to cause trouble for him.''<br><br>Kostunica's office said Thursday it felt ``compelled to demand an explanation regarding the unprofessional and unethical behavior of your company in connection with the interview.'' </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>BBC: Kostunica rebuilds ties with Russia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">President Vojislav Kostunica has been stressing Yugoslavia's historic ties with Russia ahead of his trip to Moscow to meet Russian leaders. <br>As well as seeing his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Mr Kostunica will hold discussions with the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexei II. <br>His visit to Russia - his fourth since he assumed the presidency - is his most sensitive so far because of Moscow's staunch support for former president Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Mr Kostunica said he planned to address economic issues during his visit, particularly the need to restart supplies of Russian gas. <br><br>Ambiguous start <br><br>After ambiguity over the result of the Yugoslav election, President Putin is keen to show his support for the new Yugoslav President. <br><br>BBC Russian affairs analyst Stephen Dalziel calls the visit "a fine example of how pragmatism often triumphs in international diplomacy". <br><br>Mr Putin and the Russian parliament were quick to accept the result given out by Slobodan Milosevic's camp, following the Yugoslav presidential election on 24 September. <br><br>Belgrade's old regime accepted that Mr Kostunica had come first, but said he had not achieved the necessary 50% plus one vote. <br><br>Meanwhile, Moscow criticised western governments for suggesting that Mr Kostunica had won outright. <br><br>Mr Putin even offered to act as mediator, if both Mr Kostunica and Mr Milosevic would come to Moscow for talks. <br><br>But our analyst says Mr Putin has already shown himself a skilful enough politician to shrug off the potential embarrassment of Mr Kostunica's arrival in his new position. <br><br>Slav nationals <br><br>Moscow has taken up Yugoslavia's cause ever since Mr Kostunica's election was confirmed, calling for the scrapping of all sanctions imposed on the country by the international community. <br><br>The Chairman of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, Dmitry Rogozin, met Mr Kostunica in Belgrade on Tuesday. <br><br>He carried the message that Moscow was willing to do everything in its power to help end Yugoslavia's isolation. <br><br>Russia has always stressed its friendship with Yugoslavia, because of their shared Slav nationhood and Christian Orthodox religion. <br><br>Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II has repeatedly expressed his concern about the safety of Orthodox places of worship in Yugoslavia, especially those in Kosovo. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor:Kosovo vote energizes Albanians, worries Serbs </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Minority Serbs plan to boycott tomorrow's poll, which could mark a step toward Albanian self-rule. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>KOSOVO MITROVICA, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>In what many see as a popular referendum on independence from Yugoslavia, majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo go to the polls tomorrow to choose municipal leaders in the Serbian province's first-ever internationally supervised elections. <br><br>But minority Serbs plan to boycott the vote, in part to protest attacks against them, 16 months after American-led NATO airstrikes sought to reverse the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians by Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>The significance of the vote - and of Kosovo's final status - has been thrust to the top of the Balkan agenda this week. Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, has conceded that Serbs committed war crimes in Kosovo - but also insists that Yugoslav troops must be allowed to return to the province, if only symbolically. <br><br>But a report commissioned by the United Nations on Monday recommended eventual independence for Kosovo if certain conditions - such as guaranteed safety for minorities - are met. "It's not realistic or justifiable to expect the Albanians in Kosovo to accept rule from Belgrade," the report said. <br><br>"They don't want to live together anymore. I'm very sorry for that, but this is my personal, day-to-day reality," says Bernard Kouchner, the UN's top official in Kosovo. <br><br>"This is normal after centuries of confrontation. You cannot change it, as if with a miracle, in 16 months," says Mr. Kouchner, the former French minister. "How long has it taken in Beirut, Cyprus, in Londonderry [Northern Ireland]?" <br><br>The divisiveness that prevails is easy to see in Mitrovica, a city split along ethnic lines. Despite the presence of heavily armed French peacekeeping troops to prevent ethnic Albanian retaliation against Serbs, a bridge over the Ibar River linking the two sides is a regular flashpoint. <br><br>Skendar Hoti could be called one of the sparks. Three times in the past year, he pushed the limits of tolerance by setting up an office for his firmly pro-independence Albanian political party on the northern, Serb side of town. Three times, that office was burned to the ground. "There is no democracy in even one Serb," he says. "They never showed a shred of proclivity to live with other people." <br><br>Serb officials dismiss Mr. Hoti as a provocateur. After weapons were found in one office, he was detained briefly by UN police. Now he is prohibited from visiting the north. <br><br>"He put a red [Kosovo Albanian] flag in the north," says Oliver Ivanovic, a Serb community leader in Mitrovica. "It's like waving a [matador's] cape in front of a bull. <br><br>"Nationalism is a destructive force, and they are playing the nationalist card," adds Mr. Ivanovic, a moderate. <br><br>But Albanians are wary of the new president, a moderate nationalist, and concerned that Western aid money once destined for Kosovo might go to bolster Mr. Kostunica's pro-democracy position. "People in Kosovo are afraid because of the changes, and some politicians say it was better with Milosevic," says Baton Haxhiu, editor of Koha Ditore, Kosovo's largest-selling Albanian-language newspaper. "But this means they are not ready to be face to face with democratic Serbia. Kostunica has toppled Milosevic, but he has not changed Serbia. Now we have 'rational nationalists.' " <br><br>Moreover, the "substantial autonomy" called for by the UN Security Council decisions also require, eventually, the presence of federal Yugoslav troops - the same forces responsible for last year's ethnic-cleansing campaign that prompted NATO's involvement. <br><br>But "It is a provocation" for Yugoslav troops to return anytime soon," the UN's Kouchner says. "Kostunica knows they would be killed, that it would start a bloodbath." <br><br>He goes on to say that "Serbs have to discover that [Albanian] Kosovars are not criminals or terrorists. They are people." <br><br>Tomorrow's vote comes as Kosovo's final status is again in the spotlight. Meeting other Balkan leaders in the Macedonian capital of Skopje, Kostunica said on Tuesday that he sees a "symbolic presence of the Army [in Kosovo] and one day, when the situation allows it, the issue of the return will come up on the agenda." <br><br>In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes II" that aired Tuesday, he also admitted that Serbs were involved in atrocities in Kosovo and during three other Balkan wars of the past decade. Milosevic and four senior officials have been indicted for war crimes by the international tribunal in The Hague. "For what Milosevic had done, and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes," Kostunica said. <br><br>Kosovo's election pits Ibrahim Rugova - a longtime pacifist, who was tarnished by a wartime meeting with Milosevic - against three main parties that emerged from armed factions of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force. KLA commanders hurt their reputation in the months after the NATO air campaign by abusing civilians, forcibly extracting taxes, and other unpopular acts of thuggery. "The vote is for legitimacy, to know who is who in Kosovo," says Mr. Haxhiu, the newspaper editor. <br><br>The vote is likely to help clarify Kosovo's future, though many problems remain, says Llazar Semini, head of the Kosovo office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, in Pristina. "At the moment, all Albanians will say: 'There should be no Serbs here.' But if you ask: 'Why? Has every Serb committed a crime?' they will say 'No, not every individual.' " <br><br>The risk of failure is high. The UN's Kouchner says he believes the "way ahead" is the continued presence of 36,000 NATO-led troops in Kosovo, huge economic assistance, and "substantial autonomy." <br><br>"This is what we have to do if we want to avoid a Middle East conflict, a new Palestinian crisis, in the heart of Europe," he said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Herald Tribune: Balkan Economic Body Welcomes Yugoslavia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">The Associated Press<br><br>BUCHAREST - Yugoslavia was admitted Thursday into an international Balkan development program, opening the door to further multinational support for President Vojislav Kostunica's efforts to build democracy following the departure of former President Slobodan Milosevic. <br>The German head of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, Bodo Hombach, handed a Yugoslav official, Goran Svilanovic, a large copper key symbolizing Yugoslavia's full membership in the group. <br><br>''The international community grabs the outstretched hand of the Yugoslav people,'' Mr. Hombach said. ''They voted Milosevic out and democratic forces in.'' <br><br>Yugoslavia had been excluded from the organization due to the policies of Mr. Milosevic, who has been widely blamed for the wars and bloodshed in the region over the past decade. <br><br>''A very high price in human lives was paid by all our people,'' Mr. Svilanovic said. ''It will be a challenge for all our neighbors to work for long lasting peace in the region.'' <br><br>Mr. Svilanovic said that Yugoslavia would have a new federal government next week, and that he had been ''warmly welcomed'' by the country's neighbors, including Albania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania - all of which had disputes with Belgrade under the Milosevic regime. <br><br>He added that Yugoslavia hoped to soon join the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.<br><br>The Stability Pact was constituted by the European Union in June 1999. The organization is aimed at providing economic support to nations of Southeastern Europe and promoting democracy in the region. <br><br>Referring to European efforts to reward democratic changes, Mr. Hombach said that $175 million in emergency food, medicine and energy assistance had been promised by the European Union to help the Balkan nation through the winter. <br><br>With nearly 700,000 refugees from a decade of Balkan conflicts, Yugoslavia urgently needs blankets, mattresses, beds, stoves and fuel, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Herald Tribune: Milosevic's Party Moderates Its Tone </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Born-Again Socialists Stress Democracy and Founding Ideals<br><br>By Peter Finn and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Service<br><br>BELGRADE - Facing political extinction, the Yugoslav Socialist Party of former President Slobodan Milosevic is adopting the language of democratic reform in an effort to save itself. <br>There are increasing rumblings among disaffected members of the party that the key to its salvation is ditching Mr. Milosevic, who remains its leader despite being forced to resign the presidency. <br><br>''The Socialist Party of Serbia should turn back to its original principles and become a democratic party of the left,'' said Zoran Andjelkovic, the party's new general secretary, in his first extensive interview since Oct. 7, when a mass street uprising forced Mr. Milosevic to step down in the wake of election defeat. ''It's quite logical to have some changes.''<br><br>Mr. Andjelkovic, who assumed his post after the election, would not discuss Mr. Milosevic. But, tellingly, in a party that was once dominated by Mr. Milosevic, Mr. Andjelkovic did not endorse him, either.<br><br>''It is very difficult and incorrect for me to speak about that,'' Mr. Andjelkovic said when asked about Mr. Milosevic's future.<br><br>One leading Socialist said that a special party congress next month would ''push'' Mr. Milosevic into a face-saving but ''nonactive'' position. By all accounts, the break would be real, and not a political ruse by which he could continue to exercise power from behind the scenes. But that may not be enough for the party's grass-roots members, who were stunned by the election defeat, the mass uprising and its aftermath - in which numerous party officials were forced out of plum jobs in state-controlled companies and institutions.<br><br>Internal dissension flared most publicly in the southern city of Nis, where the leader and deputy leader of the local party branch blamed Mr. Milosevic for a ''catastrophic failure'' and declared that he no longer deserved to be party leader.<br><br>The target of their resentment is apparently holed up in one of his Belgrade residences, surrounded by a high stone wall and metal gates. Troops wearing red berets and carrying automatic rifles have been stationed on the street outside. It is not clear if the tight security is intended to protect Mr. Milosevic or to hold him under house arrest, but officials of the new government have raised a possibility of seeking his indictment on a charge of electoral fraud.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic is in regular telephone contact with party officials, Mr. Andjelkovic said, although he would not discuss the nature of the former president's political activities. <br><br>Allies of the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, say that Mr. Milosevic is attempting to stamp out the rising Socialist dissent.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic's Socialists are descendants of the Communists who controlled the six-republic Yugoslav Federation after World War II.<br><br>Its platform in recent years, many people here feel, was little more than keeping Mr. Milosevic wealthy and in power and dispensing jobs and other favors to people in cities, towns and villages who would back the party. <br><br>In its new, democratic form, the incoming leadership says, it will be something like the left-of-center Social Democratic parties of Western Europe, stressing welfare in a market economy.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent:Kostunica defied over amnesty for dissidents </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade <br><br>27 October 2000 <br><br>In one of the final twists of the Milosevic regime, the outgoing Yugoslav justice minister, Petar Jojic, yesterday raised a fresh challenge to the new president, blocking attempts to pardon the jailed human rights activist Flora Brovina. <br><br>"She was tried because of a serious crime," Mr Jojic told journalists as he dismissed President Vojislav Kostunica's appeal for clemency. <br><br>"Kostunica did not name a single justified reason for me to pardon her," Mr Jojic said. <br><br>Dr Brovina, 51, an ethnic Albanian who has become a cause célèbre for Kosovars, was sentenced by a Serb court last December to 12 years in prison for "supporting terrorism" in Kosovo. Like thousands of ethnic Albanians, she was arrested in 1999 during the Nato air campaign. Her case drew international condemnation. <br><br>Mr Jojic himself attracted international attention earlier this year with an open letter to Carla Del Ponte, head of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, that opened with the words: "To the international whore, Carla Del Ponte." <br><br>The outgoing minister is a member of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj and will remain in his post until Monday. Mr Kostunica's government, which will include a majority of ministers from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, will be inaugurated next week. <br><br>This means that Dr Brovina and at least 900 ethnic Albanians who remain in Serbian prisons since the mass arrests in Kosovo may yet be released within weeks. <br><br>One of President Kostunica's first moves when he came to power earlier this month was the introduction of a general amnesty bill. <br><br>The Yugoslav Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights, a prominent human rights organisation in Belgrade, is working on the draft of the new law, which will, in theory, extend to all victims of political repression under Mr Milosevic's regime. <br><br>Mr Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer, views the amnesty as an important step aimed at showing profound differences between the old regime and the new government. The law is expected to be endorsed by the new federal parliament at its first session next month. <br><br>Many ethnic Albanians have been held in detention without trial for more than 18 months, their lawyers say. Most are young men who were rounded up in their homes and villages for no reason other than being ethnically Albanian. <br><br>But the general amnesty will also extend to Serbs who refused to take part in military actions in Kosovo, and were treated by Milosevic's regime as "deserters". More than 20,000 of them were given five to 20 years in prison for draft dodging. <br><br>* The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) appealed yesterday for urgent aid for Yugoslavia, warning that 700,000 refugees from a decade of Balkan wars faced a "brutal winter". It said that although Yugoslavia, now with a new government, was attracting more aid offers for long-term economic development, "the needs are immediate for the refugees to survive the cold during this transition". <br><br>The agency said it had been hit by a severe funding shortfall, forcing it to cut back on its assistance programme. <br><br>The UNHCR's operational budget for Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro has been slashed to $37.5m (£26m) from $65m, leaving "funds for life-saving aid only, such as heating and food, for the coming critical months". </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica Welcomed Into Balkan Fold, Praised by U.S. </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Kole Casule<br><br>SKOPJE (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica won praise from the United States on Wednesday after telling leaders of neighboring states that Belgrade was now committed to cooperation instead of conflict.<br><br>The Balkan neighbors welcomed Yugoslavia back into the fold after a decade of wars blamed by the West largely on Kostunica's predecessor Slobodan Milosevic .<br><br>Richard Holbrooke, chief architect of Washington's Balkans policy, gave a full seal of approval to the new Yugoslav leader.<br><br>``I congratulate President Kostunica on behalf of the United States,'' Holbrooke told reporters after two hours of talks with Kostunica in the Macedonian capital Skopje.<br><br>``Mr. President, I cannot thank you enough, for the admiration for your achievement is absolutely limitless,'' Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , told Kostunica.<br><br>He said Yugoslavia would be able to fully restore its status at the United Nations ``in the very near future.''<br><br>At the summit, top officials from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Bosnia and Croatia met Kostunica for the first time and said his presence was a sign of an end to Yugoslavia's international isolation.<br><br>But a carefully worded joint statement indicated Yugoslavia's neighbors wanted more action from Belgrade.<br><br>Urges Good-Neighborliness<br><br>``We strongly encouraged the commitment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to follow a policy of good-neighborly relations, reconciliation and mutual understanding in the region,'' the statement said.<br><br>Kostunica succeeded Milosevic 20 days ago after a bloodless uprising forced the veteran leader to admit election defeat.<br><br>``The Balkans need peace and stability and Europe needs a peaceful and stable Balkans,'' he said. ``There is only one way to achieve that -- through political dialogue and economic and other types of cooperation.''<br><br>But Kostunica also said it would take a long time to transform his country.<br><br>``We have the difficult job of a thorough reorganization of the state, constitutional reconstruction, redefining relations with Montenegro and full stabilization of Kosovo in accordance with resolution 1244 of the Security Council,'' he said.<br><br>``None of that will happen in one night. We do not need radical and revolutionary moves, they would be deadly for our still weak democracy,'' said the new Yugoslav leader.<br><br>Hobrooke also said it would take a long time to bring the Balkans back to normal.<br><br>``This a beginning of a very complicated and difficult, probably protracted process which I believe will lead ultimately to the first full integration of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans into an integrated and unified Europe,'' he said.<br><br>``But it will take a long time.''<br><br>Want Proof From Kostunica<br><br>After a decade in which Slovenians, Bosnians, Croatians and Kosovars have all faced conflicts with Serb forces, their leaders want proof that Kostunica is the democrat he claims to be as well as a self-proclaimed moderate nationalist.<br><br>Both Western and regional governments saw the summit as a chance to consign the recent past to the history books and establish a new spirit of cooperation.<br><br>But, despite efforts to demonstrate harmony, the summit also showed there were still serious disputes, with the future of Kosovo topping the list.<br><br>Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said boundaries in the region should not be changed -- a position not shared by Albania which says Kosovo, the Yugoslav province with an ethnic Albanian majority, should have the right to choose independence.<br><br>Kostunica told a news conference after the summit that Kosovo's municipal elections on Saturday should have been put off but he was resigned to the fact they would take place.<br><br>Kosovo has been run as an international protectorate since Serb forces withdrew last year after NATO's bombing campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians.<br><br>Holbrooke, who was in Kosovo earlier in the day, and Kostunica said they had discussed Kosovo but details would remain confidential. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Yugoslavia Is Expected to Rejoin United Nations</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br><br>SKOPJE, Macedonia, Oct. 25 — Yugoslavia will soon apply to join the United Nations, indicating a clear change in policy under its new president, Vojislav Kostunica, the American ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, said today after meeting with Balkan leaders.<br><br>"It is clear that Yugoslavia will join the United Nations in a very short time," Mr. Holbrooke said. "We are very pleased to hear that."<br><br>Mr. Holbrooke, who was the first prominent member of the Clinton cabinet to meet with Mr. Kostunica, said he had long argued over the issue of Yugoslavia's membership in the United Nations with the former president, Slobodan Milosevic, who insisted that his country was the sole successor to the old Yugoslavia, even after four of its republics obtained independence, and he refused to apply to join the United Nations.<br><br>Because of that, the old Communist flag of Tito's Yugoslavia still flies outside the headquarters of the United Nations, which has left issues of the property and liabilities of the former Yugoslavian republics frozen.<br><br>Those countries also urged Mr. Kostunica in a joint communiqué today to respect the equality of the states that emerged from the nation's breakup.<br><br>The issue was just one of many that Mr. Kostunica grappled with today, just weeks into his new job as president, and still without a federal government or even a foreign minister.<br><br>After his meeting with Mr. Holbrooke he also said that he would cooperate with the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but that it was not high on his agenda. "There is an interest for truth of events, but it is not a priority," he said.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica also said he was working on releasing some 800 Kosovo Albanians being held in Serb prisons, and suggested that a law granting them amnesty was a possibility.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica's discussions with Mr. Holbrooke, a longtime negotiator in the Balkans, centered on the Dayton accords that ended the war in Bosnia, as well as on Kosovo and the United Nations resolution under which that province is now governed. The issues of Albanian prisoners in Serbia and the missing Serbs and Albanians were also discussed.<br><br>Mr. Holbrooke played down any differences, saying that the changes in the way Yugoslavia is run following the departure of Mr. Milosevic would be enormous. In particular, he said, there would be an end to the subversion by Milosevic allies and Interior Ministry police.<br><br>Working with Mr. Kostunica on Bosnia would be easier, one senior American official predicted, but serious differences on Kosovo remained.<br><br>"He is a nationalist and he is proud to be one," the official said of Mr. Kostunica. "To a Serb nationalist, Kosovo is part of the Serbian state. But he repeatedly said he was a pragmatist, that Dayton was a part of international law, and that he recognizes that the economic future for Yugoslavia lies in these things. It is encouraging." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Washington Post:Socialists Begin to Break From Milosevic </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Peter Finn and R. Jeffrey Smith<br>Washington Post Foreign Service<br>Thursday, October 26, 2000; Page A28 <br><br>BELGRADE –– Facing political extinction, the Socialist Party of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is adopting the language of democratic reform in an effort to save itself. And there are increasing rumblings among disaffected members of the party that the key to its salvation is ditching Milosevic, who remains its leader. <br><br><br>"The Socialist Party of Serbia should turn back to its original principles and become a democratic party of the left," said Zoran Andjelkovic, the party's new general secretary, in his first extensive interview since Oct. 7, when a popular uprising forced Milosevic to step down following his election defeat. "It's quite logical to have some changes."<br><br><br>Andjelkovic, who assumed his post after the election, would not discuss Milosevic. But tellingly, in a party that was once dominated by Milosevic, Andjelkovic did not endorse him either. "It is very difficult and incorrect for me to speak about that," Andjelkovic said when asked about Milosevic's future.<br><br><br>One leading Socialist said that a special party congress next month will "push" Milosevic into a face-saving but "non-active" position. By all accounts, the break would be real, and not a political ruse by which he could continue to exercise power from behind the scenes. But that may not be enough for the party's grass-roots members, who were stunned by the election defeat, the uprising and its aftermath--in which numerous party officials were forced out of plum jobs in state-controlled companies and institutions.<br><br><br>Internal dissension flared most publicly in the southern city of Nis, where the leader and deputy leader of the local party branch blamed Milosevic for a "catastrophic failure" and declared that he no longer deserved to be party leader.<br><br><br>The target of their resentment is apparently holed up in one of his Belgrade residences, surrounded by a high stone wall and metal gates. Troops wearing red berets and carrying automatic rifles have been stationed on the street outside. It is not clear if the tight security is intended to protect Milosevic or hold him under house arrest, but officials of the new government have raised the possibility of seeking his indictment on a charge of electoral fraud.<br><br><br>Milosevic is in regular telephone contact with party officials, Andjelkovic said, although he would not discuss the nature of the former president's political activities. Allies of the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, say that Milosevic is attempting to stamp out the rising Socialist dissent.<br><br><br>Milosevic's Socialists are descendants of the communist party that ruled the six-republic Yugoslav federation after World War II; its platform in recent years, many people here feel, was little more than keeping Milosevic wealthy and in power and dispensing jobs and other favors to people in cities, towns and villages who would back the party at the polls. In its new, democratic form, the incoming leadership says, it will be something like the left-of-center social democratic parties of Western Europe, stressing public welfare in a free-market economy.<br><br><br>Every day, it moves a bit further from its old form. For instance, the party recently ended its alliance with the Yugoslav United Left, a party chaired by Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic. Some Socialists now revile that organization as little more than a vehicle to enrich its members at the expense of Yugoslav citizens.<br><br><br>The Socialist Party "allowed itself to be governed by" the United Left, said Zoran Lilac, former deputy Socialist leader who resigned from the party in August. "The SPS has forgotten its own identity."<br><br><br>Ivica Dacic, chairman of the Socialists' Belgrade branch, said that the party nonetheless has deep reserves of strength within Serbia--the dominant republic of the current Yugoslav federation--which it can build on despite the changes that have convulsed society here.<br><br><br>"We got 1.9 million votes, the same as we did in 1997, even more," Dacic said of the recent elections. "A party like that cannot disappear, but it must be transformed into a modern party. . . . I think most of the people at the top of the party will be changed."<br><br><br>Andjelkovic said the Socialists have begun to demonstrate their willingness to adapt to the new environment by agreeing with Kostunica supporters to an interim power-sharing arrangement in Serbia. "I don't diminish the victory of Mr. Kostunica," said Andjelkovic. "I respect it."<br><br><br>Andjelkovic said his primary short-term goal is to ensure a respectable showing in elections for the Serbian parliament Dec. 23, although he acknowledged that the party may be forced into a period in opposition. Kostunica's supporters believe the Socialists and their allies will be decimated in the elections, but Andjelkovic called that wishful thinking.<br><br><br>"The SPS is not a party that has to be in power," he said. "But it is quite clear that the SPS is a significant political party and has the structure of support to remain so." He noted that the alliance that backed Kostunica is made up of 18 separate parties and could easily break up, providing the Socialists with an opportunity to find new partners to form a government.<br><br><br>Meanwhile, to maintain its electoral base, Dacic said, the party has "opened a process in which our members from the lowest level are saying what they think." Those thoughts will get their first full airing at the party congress next month. Andjelkovic said he wants the session to be dominated by grass-roots members, not the leadership--a process that would turn the party's internal workings upside down. "We're looking to the future," he said. "And the crucial word belongs to the people on the ground."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LA Times:Serbian Lawmakers OK a Power-Sharing Deal </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer<br><br>BELGRADE, Yugoslavia--Former President Slobodan Milosevic's party opened its last stronghold to democratic forces Tuesday as the Serbian parliament replaced a Socialist-dominated Cabinet with a power-sharing administration to manage Yugoslavia's main republic until Dec. 23 elections. <br> The vote ratified a deal reached after more than two weeks of negotiations following an uprising that forced Milosevic to concede electoral defeat Oct. 6 and yield the presidency of Yugoslavia to Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. <br> Sworn in late Tuesday, the caretaker Cabinet met and acted quickly to fill a power vacuum left by the tumultuous end of the Milosevic era. <br> The Cabinet moved to bring down soaring prices by restoring subsidies on milk and bread production and hinted at price curbs on monopoly providers of other commodities, such as cooking oil and meat. The Socialist-led regime had abandoned subsidies and price controls two weeks ago, claiming that the victorious democrats didn't want them. <br> With temperatures near freezing and scattered blackouts hitting Serbia's cities, the new administration also must replenish dwindling fuel supplies and cover what it estimates to be a $7-million monthly shortfall in pension and unemployment obligations to millions of citizens. <br> Kostunica has narrow formal authority as president of the Yugoslav federation, which consists of Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro. Until Tuesday, his victorious democrats had no jurisdiction over key institutions that sustained Milosevic in power for 13 years. <br> The new president's allies now must establish a new Yugoslav administration to be eligible for tens of millions of dollars in aid pledged by the West to ease a democratic transition here. The Yugoslav parliament that was elected last month is expected to form such a government, without Milosevic's old ministers, as early as next week. <br> Serbia's new 36-member Cabinet is led by a Socialist prime minister, Milomir Minic, deemed by the opposition to be untainted by the corruption that pervaded the old regime. But a few Milosevic loyalists hated by the opposition, including the chief of the secret police, have kept their posts for now. <br> Under the power-sharing deal, two deputy prime ministers--one from Kostunica's coalition and one from the smaller opposition Serbian Renewal Movement--have the same weight as Minic in making decisions. <br> Similarly, the three political factions assumed tripartite command of the four ministries overseeing Serbia's police, courts, media and treasury. They divided the other 21 ministries among them, with the Socialists getting 11 and the other two factions getting five each. <br> They also agreed on the makeup of a commission of 18 nominally nonpartisan judges that will supervise elections for a new Serbian parliament two months from now. <br> Kostunica's 18-party coalition is favored to win those elections and control Serbia's next government. The uprising against Milosevic forced his demoralized followers to agree to hold the Serbian elections nearly a year ahead of schedule. <br> An interim power-sharing deal was agreed upon in principle last week. But it was delayed by bickering over which Socialists would be allowed to keep their jobs and by opposition from the Serbian Radical Party, a onetime ally of the Socialists. <br> In the end, the Socialists agreed to strike some provocative figures from their slate of ministers but kept others, including former Milosevic spokesman Ivica Dacic, who will help run the Information Ministry. <br> They also refused to fire state prosecutor Dragisa Krsmanovic and secret police chief Rade Markovic but hinted that both might be dismissed by the caretaker administration. Milosevic's foes suspect Markovic's hand in the 1999 slaying of crusading journalist Slavko Curuvija and the disappearance two months ago of Ivan Stambolic, a Serbian president of the pre-Milosevic era. <br> The 250-member parliament, dominated by 110 Socialist deputies, ratified the power-sharing deal by a vote of 133 to 1 after 83 Radical Party deputies walked out. It was parliament's last act before its expected dissolution today. <br> The Radicals called the power-sharing deal a coup. They railed in parliament against a series of student and worker takeovers that have ousted Socialist and Radical bosses from scores of hospitals, universities, companies and other state-run institutions. <br> Minic, the new prime minister, told reporters that he agreed to lead the caretaker Cabinet "not because of fear" but "because of a sense of responsibility for Serbia." <br> "A wave of violence and lawlessness has spread over Serbia," he said of the mostly peaceful takeovers. "When the government and security forces are not able to secure peace and respect for institutions and law, the only solution is a political solution." <br> The Cabinet is expected to name a new leadership board at Radio Television-Serbia, which switched abruptly from being Milosevic's mouthpiece to promoting the ideas of the Kostunica allies who now dominate the network. <br> Radical deputies were infuriated when the network refused to telecast Tuesday's parliamentary session, depriving them of a forum for their filibustering against the power-sharing deal. Parliament had voted to order live coverage, but the network pleaded technical difficulties. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Guardian:Delay vote in Kosovo, says Kostunica </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Special report: Kosovo <br><br>Nick Wood in Skopje <br>Thursday October 26, 2000 <br><br>The Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, raised the political temperature in Kosovo yesterday when he called for the province's elections, due on Saturday, to be postponed. <br>He said the ballot, which is being organised by the United Nations, would produce a "mono-ethnic result", referring to an anticipated lack of Serb participation in the vote. <br><br>His announcement came during a summit of Balkan heads of state in Skopje, Macedonia, designed to welcome the change of administration in Belgrade, and to discuss the future of the region. <br><br>"I am not sure that circumstances are such that the product of the elections would be satisfactory," he said. "I think it would be better that these elections [are] postponed." <br><br>The statement is unlikely to be well received among Kosovo's overwhelmingly Albanian population, many of whom see this weekend's polls as a step towards independence. <br><br>Mr Kostunica's comments were a stark reminder of the problems that face the leaders of region after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>The summit was organised at short notice by the South Eastern European Cooperation Process, a group which brings together eight Balkan states as well as Turkey. The meeting was also attended by EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who is setting the groundwork for the EU's summit on the Balkans in Zagreb in November. <br><br>All of the governments stated their desire to see the flow of international aid and investment to the region increased, and stressed their desire for renewed cooperation. A joint statement called for the quick implementation of aid packages agreed to under the stability pact for south-eastern Europe in 1999. <br><br>However, attempts to smooth over the differences were overshadowed by statements from several countries. <br><br>The Albanian president, Rexhep Meidani, demanded that Serbia pay compensation for the shelling of Albanian border towns, carried out by the Yugoslav army during the conflict in Yugoslavia in 1999. He also urged Serbia to support increased autonomy in Kosovo, contrary to President Kostunica's wishes. <br><br>Mr Meidani also demanded the immediate release of Kosovo Albanian prisoners held in Serbia.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica to meet Balkan leaders, US envoy at summit</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">SKOPJE, Oct 25 (AFP) <br>New Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica faced a warm welcome but also close questioning Wednesday from his Balkan neighbours and a senior US envoy at the first such meeting since he took office.<br><br>At a summit marking Belgrade's return into the Balkan fold, Kostunica was notably to hold talks with US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, the most senior Washington official to meet him since Slobodan Milosevic's ouster.<br><br>The one-day summit of heads of state of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia will address peace and stability in a region scarred by conflict in the past decade.<br><br>The EU-backed Balkans Stability pact coordinator, Bodo Hombach, has also joined the gathering as an observer, along with Javier Solana, the European Union's security and foreign policy high representative.<br><br>Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the SEECP, has decribed the summit as an "historical event" but warned against undue expectations.<br><br>"There is a lot of prejudice from the past in this region, so I do not expect that this summit will suddenly provide a solution for all the problems," he said.<br><br>"But it is a good chance to initiate a lot of good things," he said.<br><br>Kostunica's attendance at the meeting of the Southeastern European Cooperation Process (SEECP) will mark the first meeting between heads of state from Belgrade and Skopje since 1995. <br><br>That occasion was followed by a car bomb attack on the Macedonian president, widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Yugoslav secret service, giving Wednesday's meeting particular significance.<br><br>The meeting with Holbrooke, a Balkans veteran who played a crucial role in brokering the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, will be closely watched, in light of the central role the US played in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year.<br><br>The discussion is likely to include talks on the thorny question of the future of the Kosovo province, run by the UN since the end of the NATO-led bombing on Yugoslvia last year, diplomats say.<br><br>International aid is crucial for Yugoslavia after being economically crippled by sanctions, and the country is still excluded from international financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. <br><br>Even the Albanian President Rexjep Meidani has travelled to the summit, despite initial reports that representatives from the country were not prepared to share a conference table with Kostunica due to the decade of Serb-led repression of ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.<br><br>Albanian leaders have nonetheless clearly expressed their reserve over the changes embodied by Kostunica, as the West has rushed to embrace the man who defeated Milosevic.<br><br>The presidents of Bulgaria and Romania, Petar Stoyanov, Emil Constantinescu are present, as are the prime ministers of Turkey and Greece, Bulent Ecevit and Costas Simitis.<br><br>Bosnia and Croatia have been invited to the meeting as observers. They are represented by the chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency Zivko Radisic and Croatian Vice Prime Minister Goran Granic respectively.<br><br>Trajkovski noted that it is the first meeting since the departure of the "Dayton trio", the three leaders who put their names to the treaty for peace in Bosnia, Croat president Franco Tudjman, Alija Izetbegovic, the former Muslim leader as well as former Yugoslav president Milosevic.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica Camp Wins Serbian Government Seats </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Julijana Mojsilovic<br><br>BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslavia took another step out of the shadow of Slobodan Milosevic Tuesday when the Serbian parliament appointed a power-sharing government to run the country's dominant republic until early elections.<br><br>The new government shares power between the ousted Yugoslav president's Socialists, who dominated the old administration, and reformist allies of his successor Vojislav Kostunica .<br><br>Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia also looked certain to be excluded from a new Yugoslav federal government. The Yugoslav federation is composed of Serbia and much smaller Montenegro.<br><br>``At this moment...we have the position that no one from the SPS should get a seat,'' Zoran Zizic, the federal prime-minister designate, was quoted as saying by the Beta news agency after a meeting with Kostunica Tuesday evening.<br><br>Forming the federal government is important to allow Yugoslavia to receive aid and conclude other international agreements with Western governments who have rushed to offer assistance since Milosevic's downfall.<br><br>The main seat of power inside the country, however, is the Serbian government, making Tuesday's parliamentary decision an important advance for Kostunica and his supporters.<br><br>As part of the deal on the government, Serbian parliamentary elections will take place on December 23, when the Kostunica camp has high hopes of sweeping the Socialists from power.<br><br>The formation of the new government will be welcomed by the West, which shunned Milosevic for his role in four Balkan wars and wants to see the network of power he dominated for more than a decade dismantled as soon as possible.<br><br>Socialist Premier<br><br>Under the power-sharing deal, Socialist Milomir Minic, regarded as a relative moderate, becomes prime minister. But he can make decisions only in consensus with two deputies from groups previously in opposition.<br><br>``The time of this government is limited and so are its tasks,'' Minic told parliament. ``Its two main missions are to stabilize economic policy and urgently address the economic needs of the citizens.''<br><br>Years of international sanctions, state mismanagement and corruption have ruined the Yugoslav economy, once fairly prosperous by Socialist standards.<br><br>Reformers said the new government was far from perfect but should at least be able to arrest Yugoslavia's decline.<br><br>``Political reason has prevailed and it's important that we now have the transitional, technical government to avoid a deeper political and economic crisis,'' said Dragan Veselinov, leader of one of the 19 groups which back Kostunica.<br><br>The ultra-nationalist Radical Party, junior partners in the outgoing government, staged a walkout to delay the approval of the government but were unable to prevent it. Of 136 deputies remaining in the chamber, 133 backed the new government.<br><br>Kosovo A Priority<br><br>Minic said Kosovo was also a priority. The province has been an international protectorate since NATO bombing last year drove out Serb forces repressing the ethnic Albanian majority.<br><br>``The government will continue its policy of protecting our people who are in many ways endangered in this province of ours,'' said Minic, a former federal parliament speaker, adding that a United Nations resolution on Kosovo should be strictly implemented.<br><br>Minority Serbs in Kosovo have been the victims of numerous attacks by vengeful ethnic Albanians.<br><br>Cabinet jobs were shared out among Socialists, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) bloc behind Kostunica and another ex-opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement.<br><br>Four key ministries -- interior, finance, information and justice -- will be under joint control. The Interior Ministry has an estimated 85,000 police under its command who were a key element in Milosevic's hold on power.<br><br>A parliament spokesman said the new government would ask Serbian President Milan Milutinovic to dissolve the assembly. After his order, expected Wednesday, the parliamentary president would officially call elections for December 23.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Telagraph:MPs attack Nato role in Kosovo war</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Andrew Sparrow, George Jones, Benedict Brogan and Neil Tweedie <br><br>SERIOUS shortcomings in Nato's conduct of the Kosovo war, including a "limited and disappointing" British contribution, were identified in a report by MPs yesterday.<br>They said that Nato's confused response called into question whether the alliance should repeat the kind of offensive it launched in the Balkans last year. The Commons defence select committee's catalogue of criticism coincided with confirmation that Britain's fleet of 12 nuclear hunter-killer submarines could be out of service for months because of a reactor flaw.<br><br>In angry exchanges in the Commons, the Tories accused the Government of trying to conceal the fact. In its 153-page report, the cross-party defence committee was highly critical of Britain's role in Kosovo.<br><br>It said British planes suffered from a lack of precision-guided "smart" weapons and took part in less than five per cent of all Nato sorties. Its pilots had to be retrained to use unguided, "dumb" bombs.<br><br>The Ministry of Defence told the committee that the accuracy of dumb bombs was "considerable". But during the summer, after the committee had finished taking evidence, a leaked MoD report said that only two per cent of 1,000lb unguided bombs had hit the target.<br><br>"The MoD's professed faith in the great utility of dumb bombing suggests that it has been economical with the truth, if not attempting to mislead us," the MPs said. They criticised the fact that RAF pilots could not communicate securely with one another. It was a "major shortcoming" that RAF airmen were sometimes unable to communicate with their American counterparts.<br><br>"Overall, despite the heroic efforts of air crew and support staff, we must conclude that the United Kingdom's contribution to the air campaign, in firepower rather than support, was somewhat disappointing."<br><br>The report is a blow to the Government, which has sought to claim the Kosovo campaign - and the withdrawal of Serbian forces from the province - as a major success. It also contains what will be seen as implicit criticism of Tony Blair, who appeared at the early stage of the conflict to rule out a ground attack.<br><br>The MPs said it was "unwise" of alliance leaders to have suggested that a humanitarian disaster could be averted from the air. "On the contrary, all the evidence suggests that plans to initiate the air campaign hastened the onset of the disaster."<br><br>The MPs spelt out the difficulties facing a coalition of 19 countries launching Nato's first offensive operation in its 50-year history. They criticised the Nato leadership for failing to agree on its willingness to use military power.<br><br>One of the most serious problems was "lack of an unambiguous determination in all members of the alliance to see the job through". To rule out a ground attack during much of the campaign was "a serious error of judgment" in military terms.<br><br>It also "hamstrung" the alliance's diplomatic leverage and gave comfort to former President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. The MPs said: "Kosovo has, fortunately, dispelled the illusion that Nato is an instrument that can readily be used in a precise and discriminating way to support diplomacy."<br><br>It showed that "the use of military means to manage crises cannot always be approached wearing velvet gloves". Either politicians must be determined to do a job properly or be able to decide not to do it at all.<br><br>The MPs suggested that Nato, which was created as a defensive organisation, should stick to that role. "The hesitant and cumbersome approach of Nato when acting as a crisis management organisation precludes much decisive action. The risks of failure are so immense that the necessary boldness of action is very difficult to achieve.<br><br>"This must lead us to ask whether Nato is really going to be able to overcome those impediments to effective operation we have identified. Unless it can, it will not be guaranteed success in future crises." The MPs said that the scale and brutality of the expulsion of ethnic Albanians had taken Nato by surprise, adding that it "must be counted a failure of imagination in assessing how effectively an adversary like Milosevic was likely to identify the alliance's Achilles heel".<br><br>John Spellar, the armed forces minister, insisted that Nato's intervention could "fairly be counted a success". He added: "The departure of Milosevic's troops from Kosovo, the return of Kosovar Albanians and now the rejection of Milosevic's dictatorship by the people of Serbia has shown that Nato's approach was right."<br><br>Mr Spellar came under fire in the Commons over the withdrawal of the hunter-killer submarines. He was summoned to answer an emergency question after the Ministry of Defence had refused an Opposition request for a statement on the security of the nuclear deterrent.<br><br>The Tories accused Geoff Hoon, Defence Secretary, of trying to "slide out" of announcing the withdrawal. The MoD has admitted that a flaw found in Tireless could affect all seven boats of the Trafalgar class and all five boats of the older Swiftsure class.<br><br>A full inspection of the fleet is being carried out and even those boats declared free of the defect will be in port for weeks. Mr Spellar said the problem did not affect the four Vanguard class boats that carry the Trident nuclear deterrent.<br><br>But defence sources said that without the hunter-killers to serve as escorts the Trident fleet would be left vulnerable. Iain Duncan Smith, the shadow defence secretary, criticised Mr Hoon for refusing to make a Commons statement and for leaving Mr Spellar to take the flak.<br><br>He said: "The Government has tried to avoid giving any full answers on this situation and yet again tried to deny the House and the public the truth about this issue."<br><br>It was a "damning position" that the Opposition had to bring the Government to the Dispatch Box on a matter affecting the defence of the realm. Mr Duncan Smith said that news of the recall of all hunter-killer boats had been slipped out over the weekend when the House was not sitting.<br><br>The MoD said that no snub to the Tories had been intended and that Mr Spellar had answered the private notice question because he was armed forces minister. "Mr Hoon was not in London, but even if he had been he would not have answered the question because it is Mr Spellar's issue."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor:Kostunica gives nod to war-crimes tribunal in Serbia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">But critics warn that the desire to support Serbian democracy compromises any trial. <br><br>By Alex Todorovic <br>Special to The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE <br><br>Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica recently indicated that he is prepared to allow the United Nations' international war crimes tribunal to reopen a Belgrade office to gather evidence against alleged war criminals. <br><br>That would be an important first step, diplomats and analysts say, in confronting the crimes perpetrated in the name of Serbian nationalism. But whether Mr. Kostunica will prosecute or hand over to The Hague for trial those, like former President Slobodan Milosevic, who have been indicted on war crimes charges is still an open question. <br><br><br> Many experts say it is a compromise that Kostunica must make with the West in order to gain the aid needed to rebuild this country - sinking under a decade of international sanctions. <br><br><br>Access to money <br><br>"A Hague tribunal office in Belgrade would meet the American standard of compliance, at least for now," and would allow Yugoslavia access to international financial institutions, says a senior Western diplomat. <br><br>Diplomats say Yugoslavia is still far too unstable to seriously press the issue of war crimes. Their immediate priority is to stabilize Kostunica's still-shaky position and to prevent the political revival of Mr. Milosevic, who resides in Belgrade and remains a potent political force. <br><br>Part of a US foreign aid bill currently in Congress demands evidence of compliance with the tribunal in order for Yugoslavia to gain access to international financial institutions, but the standards for compliance are low, experts say, and European governments are making no demands at all. <br><br>Moreover, the European Union is rushing in with emergency aid to keep social peace over winter as prices skyrocket due to price liberalization. <br><br>"Europeans have made it clear they intend to make Yugoslavia full partners in international financial institutions with no conditions," says Nina Bang-Jensen, executive director of the Coalition for International Justice, a Washington-based advocacy organization for The Hague tribunal. "I see the short-term appeal, but it's a disaster in the long run." <br><br>Critics say the international community is giving Kostunica a free ride on cooperating with the tribunal, and that Western diplomacy appears to be moving toward a compromise position that threatens to undermine the international court. <br><br>"Anything short of extradition compromises the legitimacy of the court," says Ms. Bang-Jensen. <br><br>The tribunal was established in 1993 by a UN charter to prosecute war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Belgrade first opened a tribunal office as part of the 1995 Dayton peace accord that ended the war in Bosnia. But the office was closed in early 1999 when Yugoslav authorities denied tribunal officials access to Kosovo. <br><br>Kostunica's stated position on war crimes is that the UN chartered war crimes tribunal is a puppet of American foreign policy, and he has vowed not to extradite indicted war criminals. <br><br>But he recently indicated to senior Western diplomats that he has "no objection" to the tribunal re-opening a Belgrade office to gather evidence on suspected war criminals. <br><br><br><br>Abiding by Dayton <br><br>"Mr. Kostunica has said he intends to fully abide by the Dayton accords, and that includes re-opening the tribunal office in Belgrade," says British diplomat Robert Gordon, who was present at a meeting with Kostunica along with another senior British diplomat when the issue was discussed. "A new federal government should be in place in two weeks, and we can expect movement after that." <br><br>Critics say the international community is giving away too much for too little, and that a double-standard is being used for Croatia and Serbia. <br><br>"This is precisely the time when a clear message must be sent to the Yugoslav leadership," says Bang-Jensen. "The same standard that was applied to Croatia must be applied to Serbia; a demand for the surrender and transfer of war criminals. All member states are supposed to abide by this, and there is no reason why there should be an exception here." <br><br>Critics say more rigorous demands were made of Croatia. <br><br>"In the fall of 1997, Croatia surrendered 10 indictees to The Hague, in part because the US signaled it took the tribunal seriously, while the new government led by President Stipe Mesic arrested a number of generals. Croatia took tremendous political risks, while Serbia is being welcomed with open arms," says Bang-Jensen. <br><br>"It's uncomfortable to have to deal with justice. It's being regarded as inconvenient to creating a functional bilateral relationship with Yugoslavia," says Jim Hooper, director of Balkan policy at the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization that specializes in crisis prevention. <br><br>Of several options for possible trials, the most controversial scenario is that Milosevic be tried in Belgrade on mere corruption charges. <br><br>A locally held Milosevic trial would not necessarily receive the international community's official stamp of approval, but it may be enough to satisfy Western governments. <br><br>"Even a corruption trial for Milosevic would be accepted by the international community. They might not accept it officially, but would wink at it, so long as long as Milosevic is not free and causing trouble," says the senior Western diplomat. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Yugoslav Leader Admits the Serbs' Role in Fomenting War</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 24 (AP) — Yugoslavia's new president publicly acknowledged today for the first time that Yugoslav forces committed widespread killings in Kosovo last year. Although falling short of an apology, the statements by the president, Vojislav Kostunica, marked the first time any Yugoslav leader had expressed regret for the conflicts in the Balkans. <br><br>In an interview to be broadcast by CBS News tonight on "60 Minutes II," Mr. Kostunica spoke about Belgrade's role in starting — and losing — four Balkan wars in the past decade.<br><br>So far he has refused to extradite anyone, including the man he replaced as president, Slobodan Milosevic, for trial on war crimes charges before a United Nations tribunal in The Hague. But he raised the possibility of trying suspects in Yugoslavia.<br><br>"I am ready to accept the guilt for all those people who have been killed," he said. "For what Milosevic had done, and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes."<br><br>Yugoslav state television broadcast the interview today with a voice-over in Serbian.<br><br>President Kostunica also strengthened his grip on power today by winning important concessions from the Serbian parliament, which approved a transition government to administer the republic until new elections on Dec. 23. Serbia is the dominant of the two republics remaining in the Yugoslav federation; the other is Montenegro. <br><br>Mr. Milosevic's party agreed to share power with reformist forces in the transition government — a major concession because the current administration could have served until regular elections in the fall of 2001. Mr. Kostunica's supporters held only three seats in the 250-member legislature.<br><br>Establishment of new administrations at both the federal and republic levels are preconditions for receiving millions of dollars in emergency aid from the West to rebuild Yugoslavia's shattered economy.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic's Socialists, who hold 110 of the 250 seats in the republic's parliament, agreed to the transition government plan on Oct. 16 but parliamentary approval was delayed because of differences with Mr. Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia on individual appointments.<br><br><br><br>U.S. Official to Meet Kostunica<br><br>PRISTINA, Kosovo, Oct. 24 — Richard C. Holbrooke, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said today that he would meet President Kostunica on Wednesday in Macedonia.<br><br>Mr. Holbrooke arrived in Kosovo today to show his support for Kosovo's first post-war elections, scheduled for Saturday, and to allay ethnic Albanians' concerns over the political changes in Serbia, of which it is technically still a province. <br><br>At a news conference here, he said Mr. Kostunica had suggested that they meet during a gathering of regional leaders in Skopje, Macedonia's capital.<br><br>"I want to hear what he will say," Mr. Holbrooke said. "He is the first democratically elected leader of Yugoslavia ever."<br><br>The meeting will be a continuation of talks held in Belgrade by James O'Brien, special adviser to President Clinton on the Balkans, and will range over all the issues that loom over peace in the Balkans, including implementation of the 1995 Dayton peace accords in Bosnia, the prosecution of war crimes and Yugoslavia's re-entry into the United Nations, Mr. Holbrooke said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The NY Times: Rocket Fired at Serbian Building in Kosovo</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE<br> <br>PRISTINA, Kosovo, Oct. 23 — Unidentified attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade tonight at the last Serbian community remaining in Pristina, the capital of the Serbian province, the NATO-led peacekeeping force said.<br><br>There were no reports of injuries, they said.<br><br>A resident of the building said each apartment on the targeted staircase was occupied by a Serbian family.<br><br>A police officer, either a member of Kosovo's multinational United Nations force or a Serbian officer from the Kosovo Police Service, is billeted in each apartment to bolster security, the resident added. A platoon of British marine commandos is based on the building's ground floor.<br><br>Kosovo's Serbian minority has been a frequent target of ethnic attacks since the arrival in the province of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in June last year. Hundreds have been killed or injured and about 170,000 have fled the province, according to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.<br><br>About 40,000 Serbs fled Pristina, leaving a few hundred living mainly in the apartment block that was attacked tonight.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica Offers Homage to Serb Hero, Nod to Leaders in Bosnia Visit </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br> Balkans: Yugoslav president takes first step toward healing ethnic hatreds, but his prickly nationalism irritates some regional officials. <br><br>By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer<br><br> TREBINJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina--Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica entered the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina to help rebury a Serb nationalist hero Sunday, then rushed to bestow belated recognition on the ex-Yugoslav republic's multiethnic leadership in Sarajevo. <br> The symbolism of the back-to-back events in the country most bloodied by recent Balkan wars was both powerful and contradictory. Since Kostunica replaced deposed strongman Slobodan Milosevic, other regional leaders have welcomed his peacemaking gestures while chafing at his prickly Serb nationalism. <br> Kostunica took his initial step toward healing Bosnia's ethnic hatreds under strong pressure from international officials supervising the ethnically partitioned republic, where more than 200,000 people died in a 1992-95 war. Milosevic, who backed Bosnian Serb fighters in the conflict, never visited postwar Bosnia or moved to normalize relations. <br> "We are opening a new page in our relations," Kostunica declared in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, standing beside the Serb and Muslim members of Bosnia's three-man presidency and its foreign minister, a Croat, after agreeing to hold further talks on establishing diplomatic ties. <br> The 30-minute meeting was arranged on less than 24 hours' notice after Muslim and Croat officials protested that Kostunica's plan to attend a partisan Serb ritual on his first visit to their country was a breach of protocol that undermined his promise to respect its independence. <br> Two weeks into his presidency, Kostunica has also made conciliatory gestures to Croatia, which won its own bloody war of independence from the former Yugoslav federation, and Montenegro, which remains with Serbia in the rump Yugoslavia but is rife with secessionist sentiment. <br> So far, however, he has shown more sensitivity to ethnic Serbs than to those in the Balkans who have suffered at the hands of Serb forces. <br> His appearance here Sunday before 500 Serb nationalists was meant to show that he is one of them. <br> In a brand-new Serbian Orthodox chapel, perched on a hilltop above Trebinje, Kostunica stood reverently throughout a two-hour religious service Sunday for the late Serb poet Jovan Ducic, then sat and applauded another two hours of speeches in the poet's honor. "God bless our president and all Christians," intoned an Orthodox bishop in gleaming gold and white vestments. <br> Serbs revere Ducic for opposing communism and celebrating their ethnic heritage. He moved to the United States when World War II broke out, died in 1943 and was buried near Chicago. He had expressed a wish to be reburied in a church in his hometown, and that became possible when the hilltop chapel was completed this year with $1.5 million in donations from a Serb emigre to Chicago. <br> Aides to Kostunica said he had planned months ago to come to the reburial ceremony as a private citizen. His unwillingness to cancel the visit after taking office became one of the most controversial decisions of his presidency. <br> The Bosnian Foreign Ministry objected, worried that any encouragement from Kostunica to separatist Bosnian Serbs could destabilize the still-volatile country, where mass graves of Muslims killed by Serbs continue to be discovered. <br> Bosnia's top international official, Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch, finally persuaded Kostunica to meet with the Bosnian leadership. <br> U.N. officials sent a helicopter to fly him from Trebinje to Sarajevo for the talks, which were held in an airport VIP lounge. <br> "He decided to go to Sarajevo to prevent the malevolent interpretation that this religious ceremony is a provocative act, which it is not," said Vladeta Jankovic, an aide to Kostunica. <br> But a stridently nationalist mood prevailed among the Bosnian Serb crowd here--the kind of Serbs who turned against Milosevic not for starting ethnic wars but for losing them. <br> Among those present was the wife of Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader who is wanted by an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Many worshipers voiced hope that their territory, an autonomous republic within Bosnia, would eventually become part of Serbia. <br> "If you ask me, we have no borders with Serbia," said Nikola Miljanovic, a 31-year-old businessman here. "I have Muslim and Croat friends, but it would be better for all of us if we were not pushed to live together." <br> Kostunica declined an invitation to speak at the ceremony but was greeted with full military honors by Bosnian Serb cadets. <br> Later, in Sarajevo, a Bosnian journalist asked him whether normal relations between the two countries would bring a formal apology for Milosevic's wrongdoings against Bosnians. <br> Kostunica was cautious. "I am one of those politicians who will not use empty words, empty promises and empty apologies to in some way overcome all the complications of our relations," he said. <br> "With all that has happened, all the crimes that were carried out and the victims there were on all sides, all this can be cured only by the truth. One-sided statements . . . will resolve nothing in our relations." <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LA Times: Yugo Govt Should Be Formed This Week-Kostunica </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By LJUBINKA CAGOROVIC, Reuters<br><br> PODGORICA, Yugoslavia--Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said after talks with political leaders in Serbia's independence-minded partner Montenegro on Sunday that a new federal government should be formed this week. <br> Speaking to reporters after talks with Montenegro's opposition Socialist People's Party (SNP), loyal to ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Kostunica said he accepted the party's candidate for federal premier, Zoran Zizic. <br> Under the constitution of what remains of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, the prime minister must be Montenegrin if the president is from Serbia. <br> The candidate is from the opposition party because the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) boycotted last month's elections, called by Milosevic, and is refusing to serve in the new government. <br> Formation of a new Yugoslav government is regarded as a priority so that the country can handle millions of dollars in foreign aid promised it following the overthrow of the authoritarian Milosevic. <br> To complicate matters even further, the Montenegrin leadership raised the prospect on Sunday of scrapping the present Yugoslav federation and replacing it with a looser partnership of two independent states with some shared authority. <br> KOSTUNICA CALLED FOR SHOW OF GOODWILL <br> The West has made it clear they do not see an independent Montenegro, a mountainous country of just 640,00 people, as a viable option, and are pressing for it to stay with Serbia, which has a population of 10 million. <br> As Kostunica flew in to the Montenegrin capital Podgorica the republic's government denied a report that it was poised to approve a new program for talks with Belgrade based on two independent states with limited shared responsibilities, effectively consigning Yugoslavia to the dust-bin. <br> His visit also coincided with remarks by Montenegrin Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac, a long-time advocate of independence, that the two should separate and forge a loose partnership between sovereign states. <br> Shortly before arriving in Montenegro from a milestone visit to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, Kostunica issued a statement calling on Montenegro's leadership to show good will and not rush into decisions on the republic's status before the formation of a Serbian parliament and government. <br> "Once these institutions are set up it will be possible to initiate meaningful, accurate and, what is very important, democratic dialogue on relations between Montenegro and Serbia," the statement issued by the presidency said. <br> SERB-MONTENEGRIN RELATIONS A TOP PRIORITY <br> A new transitional government in Serbia, the Yugoslav federation's dominant partner, is expected to be formed on Monday, to run the country until new elections in December. <br> Kostunica said in his statement that dialogue between the two republics should start with talks between expert groups, stepping up to contacts between parliamentary delegations. <br> The statement reiterated an earlier pledge from Kostunica that he would call a referendum on the future of the two republics if there was backing for it. <br> It was Kostunica's second visit to Montenegro since taking office, making good on a pledge to make relations with the restive republic a top priority. <br> After his first visit last Tuesday he said he was satisfied with the talks, during which he and Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic agreed that all problems between the two republics would be resolved peacefully. <br> Earlier on Sunday Montenegrin spokesman Miodrag Vucinic said the government "has not received any initiative on defining a new platform for talks with Serbia on relations between the states." <br> He appeared to be responding to a report in the daily Vijesti that the republic's government wpt kith Serbia based on two independent states with some shared functions in the fields of security, foreign affairs and economic and financial policy. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: EU aid to avert winter fuel crisis in Yugoslavia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Stephen Castle in Belgrade <br><br><br>24 October 2000 <br><br>Europe's aid to Serbia should start to flow within four weeks, Chris Patten, the EU's commissioner for external affairs, pledged yesterday as he visited the heart of the Yugoslav state. <br><br>After a meeting with the new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, in Belgrade, Mr Patten outlined plans to get fuel, emergency medicine and food supplies flowing quickly to stave off a winter crisis. <br><br>But the urgency of the situation was underlined when the mayor of the southern city of Nis revealed that his municipality has just a couple of days' supply of fuel remaining, and his colleague from Pancevo described an environmental catastrophe unfolding in her city. <br><br>The European commissioner, making his first visit to Belgrade since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, held a half-hour meeting with Mr Kostunica in the grandiose federal palace in Belgrade. <br><br>Their joint press conference was followed by a pledge from Mr Kostunica to start a "real, profound change in the building of democracy". In a meeting with local mayors, the backbone of opposition to Mr Milosevic's regime, Mr Patten said that many inside the EU "take democracy for granted. <br><br>"You have had to work and literally fight for democracy and have had to show incomparably more courage in standing up for [it] than I have had to do," he added. <br><br>Afterwards Mr Patten told the mayors that 200m euros of emergency assistance pledged by EU leaders at their recent summit in Biarritz would be put in place within weeks. <br><br>"It is still going to be a couple of weeks before we have everything in place but we hope that our assistance will start to be provided during the second half of November," the commissioner said. <br><br>He said the priority was to help the resumption of fuel supplies. Several sectors will be tackled, including oil and diesel for electricity generators to help restore regular power supplies throughout the country; the replacement of damaged equipment in power plants; and the purchase of electricity on the regional grid. <br><br>Early attempts will be made to provide heating for schools and hospitals, medical supplies and emergency food aid. <br><br>The mayors hammered home the scale of the task ahead, none more so than Zoran Zivkovic, mayor of Nis, the southern city that defied Mr Milosevic by accepting fuel aid from Europe under the Energy for Democracy scheme. "Our resources, as far as I know, are for just a couple of days," Mr Zivkovic said, adding that schools and hospitals were particularly vulnerable. <br><br>His colleague from Pancevo, Borislava Kruska, said the bombing by Nato of her city had resulted in an "environmental disaster", with the release of up to 10,000 times the permitted limit of one carcinogenic chemical known as VCM, and eight tons of mercury. Officials said that, during his meeting with the President, Mr Patten raised the question of Yugoslavia's co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The sensitive issue of the fate of Mr Milosevic, an indicted war criminal, has been put to one side as the EU concentrates on shoring up the new regime. <br><br>Mr Kostunica, meanwhile, said that the focus was on the "long-term assistance" he was looking for, although he did not spell out a specific financial target. Earlier this year the European Commission proposed spending 2.3bn euros between 2001 and 2006, but that has not been approved either by the EU member states or the European Parliament. <br><br>* The party of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, agreed yesterday to the demands of pro-democracy politicians concerning the make-up of a new transitional government to rule Serbia until elections in December. The speaker of the Serbian parliament, Dragan Tomic, a crony of Mr Milosevic, confirmed that an agreement had been reached to approve the new government and to hold early elections on 23 December.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Milosevic's camp, pro-democracy alliance resume talks on transition</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">^Associated Press Writer BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Followers of deposed President Slobodan Milosevic delayed Monday"s resumption of negotiations with Serbia"s pro-democracy alliance on forming a transitional government. Talks in Serbia"s parliament stalled over a list of Milosevic loyalists which the 18-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia wants to see removed from the government and other top jobs. Rade Markovic, chief of state security, was blacklisted by new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica"s alliance, as was Branislav Ivkovic, a top official of Milosevic"s Socialist Party. Ivkovic has offered to stay out of the new government, the Politika daily reported in its Monday edition. Monday"s parliament session, which was delayed two hours, was also expected to formally call early Serbian parliamentary elections that have been tentatively scheduled for Dec. 23. Milosevic"s party, which still holds a majority in Serbia"s 250-parliament, broadly agreed last week to reshuffle the government and call elections, but disputes continue over the exact makeup of the transitional power-sharing Cabinet. The Socialists would keep the post of Serbian prime minister, while key ministries, such as police, information, justice and finance, would be run jointly by the Socialists, Kostunica"s alliance and another opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement. Kostunica"s alliance is eager to get rid of the last vestiges of Milosevic"s authority by taking control of Serbia"s government. Pro-democracy officials have accused Milosevic"s allies of "obstructing" the formation of the new Serbian government in order to create chaos. "They want to portray DOS as incapable of running the country as nothing seems to function now," said Nebojsa Covic, a pro-democracy official. He was referring to a lack of heating in Belgrade homes, despite subfreezing temperatures overnight, because the old pro-Milosevic Serbian government did not leave behind any heating oil reserves. On Sunday, a top leader of Kostunica"s alliance, Vladan Batic suggested calling supporters to take to the streets if Milosevic"s people keep opposing the terms for transition. Meanwhile, Zoran Andjelkovic, a negotiator for the Socialists, accused pro-democracy leaders of demanding ever more personnel changes that are opposed by his party. Also Sunday, Kostunica made his first visit in Bosnia since taking office and subsequently held talks in Podgorica, the Montenegro capital, on forming a new federal government. He met with Zoran Zizic of the Socialist People"s Party, the likely new prime minister of Yugoslavia. Seeking to achieve stability in the two-republic federation, Kostunica has offered the party the chance to represent the tiny republic on the joint, federal level and work together with his Serbia-based DOS alliance. The other main Montenegrin party, the pro-independence Democratic Party of Socialists that wants to transform Yugoslavia into a loose alliance of Serbia and Montenegro with only a minimum of central administration, opposes the move. Kostunica"s office in Belgrade issued a statement, urging Montenegrins to "show good will." He also said that, once in place, a new Serbian government would ensure a "meaningful dialogue about future relations between Serbia and Montenegro." Zizic said the country urgently needs a new government in order to start the long-awaited integration into major world organizations. Under Milosevic, Yugoslavia was under punitive international sanctions. By his token visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, Kostunica averted a diplomatic debacle. He had planned to attend the reburial service for a prominent Serb poet in Trebinje, located in part of Bosnia which the Bosnian Serbs seized in the 3{-year war. The Croat and Muslim members of Bosnia"s three-person multiethnic presidency considered it an insult that the new Yugoslav leader, who is a Serb, would choose an event with nationalistic Serb overtones for his first visit. But Bosnian leaders cautiously applauded Kostunica"s brief visit Sunday in which Kostunica told them that "new pages in the relations between Bosnia and Yugoslavia have been opened." <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>IMF's Belgrade trip arouses Montenegrin suspicion</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Oct 23 (Reuters) - A fact-finding mission from two major world lending bodies arrived in Belgrade on Monday and immediately ran into criticism from Montenegro, Yugoslavia"s sister republic in the Yugoslav federation. The presence of two delegations from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has aroused worries in Montenegro that its own efforts to achieve more independence will suffer if such bodies rush to readmit Yugoslavia into the international fold. The two missions are due to spend five days holding talks with the new Yugoslav rulers about the country"s return to the World Bank and IMF, but Montenegrin critics say the Yugoslav federation is not authorised to negotiate on its behalf. "These negotiations will be held between Serbia and those institutions. Montenegro has not given its consent. That is the prevailing mood within the Montenegrin ruling coalition," a source close to the Montenegrin government told Reuters. He was largely echoing demands by many in Montenegro for it to have its own place in the world even after pro-democracy groups toppled Slobodan Milosevic as Yugoslav president. Montenegrin Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac was quoted in a magazine article on Sunday as calling for Serbia and Montenegro to each have full independence, and to form a loose association without any special international and legal status. "Should Yugoslavia be readmitted under its present name that would be a clear signal to Montenegrin authorities to call a referendum on independence," Srdjan Darmanovic, head of the non-government Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) basedin the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, told Reuters. However, Darmanovic said pro-independence forces in Montenegroshould not make problems for Serbia in its efforts to get aid. "Montenegro has been getting foreign aid over the past three years. It"s now Serbia"s turn to get some. Montenegrin authorities do not wish to spoil Serbia"s quick return to the world, but they do not want it to happen under the name of Yugoslavia," Darmanovic said. Nebojsa Medojevic, a Montenegrin member of G17, an independentYugoslav think tank, said the republic should make clear that it did not recognise the federal authorities and therefore gave no mandate to them to negotiate with foreign creditors on its behalf. But Medojevic, who advocates Montenegrin independence, told Reuters that the coastal republic should not block Serbia"s way back to the world, particularly not now when the international community wants Yugoslavia to rejoin its institutions. "It looks like Yugoslavia will rejoin the United Nations by early December and the International Monetary Fund before New Year. Montenegro should lodge a protest to these institutions to make sure they know Montenegro wants its own seat," he said. He said that U.N. special envoy for the Balkans Carl Bildt had made it clear during his recent visit to Belgrade that the U.N. and the United States did not want an independent Montenegro. "That"s why they rush with Yugoslavia"s readmission to these institutions. They want to pre-empt a re-birth of nationalism. The World Bank is talking with Yugoslavia, not Serbia and Montenegro," Medojevic said. The bank and the IMF left Belgrade in mid-1991 when the old Yugoslav federation started to fall apart. Yugoslavia has been expelled from these bodies since 1992 as part of sanctions imposed on Belgrade for its role in wars in Croatia and Bosnia. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Yugoslav Leader Treads Softly at Poet's Rite in Bosnia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br><br>TREBINJE, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oct. 22 — Vojislav Kostunica today made the first visit to Sarajevo by a Yugoslav head of state since war broke out here eight years ago, hastily starting a dialogue of peace to soften what many see as his support for Serbian nationalism.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica had planned today's journey to Trebinje, high in the mountains that divide Bosnia from Montenegro, as a personal and symbolic pilgrimage to honor Jovan Ducic, a Serbian poet and diplomat born here and reburied with great pomp today, 57 years after he died in the United States.<br><br>But the trip to the Serb-ruled part of Bosnia, where many inhabitants still hope to rejoin neighboring Yugoslavia, quickly turned into a highly political act, threatening to raise tensions barely two weeks after a popular uprising swept Mr. Kostunica, the elected president, into power in place of Slobodan Milosevic.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic has long been seen as a fulcrum of the Balkan wars of the past decade, and the instigator of the Serb attack on independent Bosnia that set off a war that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and drove some 2 million of Bosnia's 4.3 million inhabitants from their homes.<br><br>Under pressure from international officials in charge of Bosnia, Mr. Kostunica flew to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, for a short meeting at the airport with Bosnian officials after attending the emotional and patriotic reburial of Mr. Ducic.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica did not venture into Sarajevo itself, a city which was bombarded and besieged by the Bosnian Serbs throughout the war, restricting himself to meeting at Sarajevo airport with Bosnian Croat officials and the Muslim and Serb members of the tripartite presidency that runs the still deeply divided country. He said afterward, "I would say we are opening a new page in relations."<br><br>The immediate goal was to discuss the resumption of diplomatic relations between Bosnia and Yugoslavia, although according to Halid Genjac, the Muslim member of the presidency, talks did not go very far, Reuters reported from Sarajevo.<br><br>Asked if he would apologize for Serbian actions during the war, Mr. Kostunica reiterated his stance that everyone's actions should be examined and that "one-sided statements" would not solve anything.<br><br>"I am one of those politicians who will not use empty words, empty promises and empty apologies to in some way overcome all the complications of our relations," Reuters quoted him as saying. "With all that has happened, all the crimes that were carried out and the victims there were on all sides, all this can be cured only by the truth."<br><br>"We need a return of confidence, an examination of all that happened a few years ago and maybe a few decades ago," Mr. Kostunica added, alluding apparently to the World War II feuds and killings that helped stoke the disputes and wars of the 1980's and 90's.<br><br>In a significant change from previous comments, Mr. Kostunica indicated that he would cooperate with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, which has indicted high-level Serbian officials and generals for their actions in Bosnia and, for his actions in Kosovo, Mr. Milosevic.<br><br>"When it comes to The Hague tribunal, we know it is a part of the Dayton accord and there are elements of it which can and must be implemented and we will take certain steps in that direction," Mr. Kostunica said, referring to the peace accords that ended the Bosnian war and divided the country into the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic visited Bosnia only once during the war, in 1993, when he urged the Bosnian Serbs to accept an international peace settlement which they rejected.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica, a lawyer who espouses Serbian patriotism but has criticized ethnic cleansing and the paramilitaries involved in it, was apparently determined to attend the reburial of Mr. Ducic, despite the evident concern of foreign diplomats who effectively administer Bosnia.<br><br>Jacques Klein, a retired American general who heads the United Nations mission to Bosnia, flew personally to take Mr. Kostunica to Sarajevo. He called the trip a brave one on Mr. Kostunica's part, considering the Yugoslav president is still grappling with the supporters of Mr. Milosevic.<br><br>"Kostunica deserves great credit. His advisers probably would have said, `Don't do this. It's going to cause you problems in Belgrade,' " Mr. Klein said.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica was applauded by hundreds of bystanders as he arrived at the newly-built Church of the Annunciation, where Mr. Ducic was to be buried.<br><br>"Long life, Mr. President," said one onlooker. Following dozens of Serb Orthodox priests in colored robes and glittering miters, Mr. Kostunica accompanied Bosnian Serb politicians around the church and inside for an hours-long service. Beside him stood his host, Mirko Sarovic, vice president of the Serb Republic and a leader of the nationalist Serbian Democratic Party.<br><br>"It's a private visit, but it is turning into a public occasion," said Vladeta Jankovic, a leading adviser to Mr. Kostunica. "People tend to see this as a provocation, which it isn't."<br><br>"This is certainly not meant to be a demonstration of Serb nationalism and that is why he is going to Sarajevo." Mr. Kostunica's visit to Trebinje had been planned long before he had even thought of running for president, Mr. Jankovic said.<br><br>But many Serbs attending saw it as an important political moment. "All these people are from Serbia and for us the border does not exist. Of course, I want this to become part of Yugoslavia, and not Bosnia," said Nikola Miljanovic, a businessman. <br><br>This open desire to change Bosnia's borders alarms the Muslim and Croat inhabitants of Bosnia, many of whom suffered at the hands of Serbian forces during the war. In Trebinje, as in many other places, the Muslims were expelled and their mosques destroyed.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica did not speak at Trebinje and bore an expression of detachment as he stood listening to the speeches and sermons. The occasion was replete with the kind of religious and patriotic symbols that nationalist Bosnian Serb leaders made their hallmark during the 1992- 1995 war.<br><br>A popular Serbian poet, Matija Beckovic, spoke of the miracle that had brought the body of Mr. Ducic back to Trebinje at the very moment that Serbia found freedom and democracy under Mr. Kostunica, who defeated Mr. Milosevic in elections on Sept. 24. His speech won applause at almost every sentence.<br><br>The Church of the Annunciation was paid for by a Serb living in Chicago, and is designed as a smaller version of the Serbian Orthodox monastery at Gracanica in Kosovo.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times:Milosevic builds £2m Belgrade villa</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Tom Walker, Belgrade <br><br>THE ousted Yugoslav dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, is building a £2m villa next door to the British ambassador's residence in the heart of Belgrade's diplomatic quarter. <br>The villa, just off the prestigious Uzicka avenue in the southern suburb of Dedinje, is intended to be a retirement home for Milosevic and his wife, Mira Markovic. <br><br>Belgrade planning officials say work going on at the half-built house shows that despite the events of the last month, the couple still believe they can maintain their position in the Serbian elite. <br><br>Yesterday, workers swarmed over the building, which is near a network of tunnels dating from the Tito era. When construction started a year ago they were told it was for General Nebojsa Pavkovic, Milosevic's chief of staff. Officials now say Pavkovic will move into an older Milosevic house nearby, while the former president intends to take advantage of the new home's better security and more prominent position. <br><br>One local planning official said an inspector sent to ask who was building the house had been confronted by military police. "This is a state property. Go away and don't come back," they said. <br><br>Dobrica Cosic, an author and neighbour whose nationalist writings inspired Milosevic, has been involved in heated arguments over the felling of trees around the site. <br><br>Aides of the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, have said that all new building projects in Dedinje, the preferred home of Milosevic's inner circle, will be investigated in the coming months. <br><br>Mladen Dinkic, a senior Kostunica aide who may head the central bank, has prepared a list of regime insiders who profited from buying D-marks at an "official" rate of six dinars while the street value plummeted to around 40. Among his suspects is a Milosevic minister who has bought a house in the area that appears to be well beyond his means. <br><br>"They have all used this exchange fiddle and put the proceeds into bricks and mortar," said one western diplomat. <br> <br>One option being considered is to requisition illegally bought properties and sell them to foreign embassies as western ambassadors who left before last year's Nato airstrikes return to Belgrade. <br><br>Disentangling the elite from their ill-gotten gains will be a big hurdle for Kostunica, who is resisting western pressure to hand over Milosevic and his closest allies for alleged war crimes. <br><br>At a meeting last week with Carl Bildt, the European Union's special envoy, Kostunica discussed the possibility of allowing the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to set up an office in Belgrade. The issue could be raised again next weekend, when Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, is tentatively scheduled to make his first visit to the new Belgrade. <br><br>Diplomats believe one compromise acceptable to Kostunica would be to allow tribunal prosecutors to participate in trials in Serbia. They have pointed to a precedent under the Milosevic regime, in which tribunal observers were allowed into local courts considering evidence against three Yugoslav generals indicted for their roles in the Croatian war. <br><br>Another Belgrade-based war criminal with an uncertain future is General Ratko Mladic, who faces a genocide charge for his role in the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian conflict. Mladic lives in the suburb of Banovo Brdo, and last week appeared briefly on his balcony to warn off a journalist. The general, still a folk hero in Serbia, is protected by bodyguards and dogs. <br><br>Diplomats say it is unlikely that aid to Serbia will be conditional on the arrest of Milosevic or even Mladic. "War crimes are not a priority and dealing with them is not linked to Yugoslavia's full readmittance to the United Nations," said one source. <br><br>But he added that Kostunica is expected to make an early gesture of goodwill by freeing many of the 900 Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian prisons. <br><br>In return, Bernard Kouchner, the UN head in Kosovo, will press the Albanian authorities to disclose the fate of hundreds of Serbs missing in Kosovo. <br><br>If Cook visits Belgrade before flying on to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, he will be giving tacit recognition that the province is still tied to Serbia. "It's symbolic, and important," said one official, who said Kostunica would ask the foreign secretary for help in securing a future for Serbs in Kosovo. <br><br>Last week ethnic Albanian extremists destroyed a Serbian house just outside the Kosovo border in a mortar attack, further destabilising an exclusion zone around the province that is meant to be patrolled only by Nato's Kfor force. <br><br>Nato officials were monitoring an increase in cross-border firefights in the run-up to municipal elections in Kosovo next weekend. <br><br>For the moment Kostunica remains focused on events in Belgrade, where he appears determined to cling to the vestiges of a normal life. He has been seen buying hamburgers from his favourite kiosks. <br><br>Additional reporting: Alex Todorovic and Emily Milich </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian:Kostunica shows his nationalist colours </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Special report: Serbia <br><br>Jonathan Steele <br>Monday October 23, 2000 <br><br>Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, got his regional foreign policy off to a shaky start yesterday by visiting the Serb part of Bosnia for the re-burial of a nationalist poet who was much admired by the indicted war criminal and former Bosnian leader, Radovan Karadzic. <br>The controversial visit was slightly softened after Mr Kostunica, listening to pleas from Bosnian Muslim leaders and the UN's international administrators, agreed to stop briefly in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo before returning to Belgrade. <br><br>No Yugoslav president has visited Bosnia since it became independent in 1992. Few expected Mr Kostunica to apologise for the three-year siege of Sarajevo and the massacres of Muslims and Croats by Serb forces supported by Slobodan Milosevic, but there were hopes that the new president would break from the past by going first to Sarajevo to announce Yugoslavia's official recognition of the new state. <br><br>Instead, he went to Trebinje in the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, at the invitation of its deputy president, Mirko Sarovic. Mr Sarovic is a member of the party founded by Radovan Karadzic, the one-time poet and psychiatrist who is the most wanted Bosnian suspect indicted by the UN war tribunal in The Hague. <br><br>The occasion was the re-burial of Jovan Ducic, a supporter of the wartime monarchist and anti-communist Chetniks, who died in exile in the US in 1943. As a poet and diplomat Mr Ducic was on the extreme wing of Serbian nationalism. <br><br>Mr Kostunica's decision to honour him sent extraordinary signals, especially as Karadzic's wife Ljiljana attended parts of the two-day ceremony, including the reburial yesterday. Her husband won the Ducic prize for poetry a decade ago. <br><br>In Sarajevo, the Bosnian foreign ministry expressed outrage that Mr Kostunica's first visit would be to the Serb-ruled part of Bosnia rather than the capital, even though Mr Kostunica attended the reburial privately. <br><br>Other Bosnians tried hard to turn the incident into something positive. About 5,000 people were present at the ceremony, including representatives of the Islamic and Jewish communities in Bosnia and the Muslim mayor of nearby Mostar, Safet Orucevic. <br><br>After the ceremony, Mr Kostunica had lunch with all Bosnian Serb leaders except the pro-western prime minister, Milorad Dodik, who left after the event was over. <br><br>Bosnia's chief international administrator, Wolfgang Petritsch, visited Mr Kostunica in Belgrade on Friday in an attempt to persuade him to change the visit. On Saturday, Mr Petritsch's office announced that following the reburial, the Yugoslav president would fly aboard a UN helicopter for an "official visit" to Sarajevo. <br><br>Mirza Hajric, foreign policy adviser to the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-member presidency, called Mr Kostunica's visit a "positive step". "There's a Bosnian phrase: 'Once bitten by a snake you are afraid of a lizard'," he said. "On the other hand we need to give a chance to the new Belgrade leadership." <br><br>Mr Hajric said the Sarajevo talks would be an important confidence-building move and that Bosnia would propose the unconditional establishment of diplomatic relations. <br><br>Jacques Klein, head of the UN mission in Bosnia, said: "The fact that he is coming shows that he has statesmanship character. The Milosevic era is over." <br><br>President Kostunica's nationalism has already alienated Kosovo and Montenegro. His pledge in his inaugural speech to "strengthen the links between Serbia and Kosovo" has irritated Kosovo Albanians and his determination to appoint a member of the main pro-Milosevic party in Montenegro to the prime ministership of the Yugoslav Federation upset Montenegro's ruling party. <br><br>In Zagreb the new democratic government of Stipe Mesic is watching anxiously to see what Mr Kostunica's first moves towards Croatia will be. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian:Give Kosovo independence or face fresh conflict, UN is told </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Special report: Serbia<br><br>Special report: Kosovo <br><br>Jonathan Steele <br>Monday October 23, 2000 <br><br>Strong warnings to the international community not to drop the option of eventual independence for Kosovo because Slobodan Milosevic has been replaced by a democratic government in Serbia are contained in two new reports by international experts. <br>The world should consider moving the largely Albanian-populated former province of Serbia to "conditional independence", according to a report from a commission set up by the Swedish prime minister, Goran Persson, which will be handed to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, today. <br><br>The world would have to guarantee the security of the new state, oversee the protection of human rights for Serbs and other minorities, and integrate Kosovo into the Balkan stability pact, the report says. <br><br>But world powers must also recognise that although UN resolution 1244, which ended the war in Kosovo, kept the territory within the framework of Yugoslavia, that is not tenable in the long term. <br><br>In a separate report a respected think tank, the International Crisis Group, says Mr Milosevic's departure makes it imperative to accelerate a decision on Kosovo. <br><br>It warns that support for hardliners within the Kosovo Albanian community would rise "if the international community's new-found love affair with Belgrade is seen as compromising Kosovo's desire for independence". <br><br>It also says that the west must be careful not to make the wrong gestures to the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica. In a speech given when he was sworn in, Mr Kostunica called for a strengthening of ties between Serbia and Kosovo. <br><br>Under UN resolution 1244 Yugoslavia is entitled eventually to send up to 1,000 troops back to Kosovo for work at border crossings and to guard historical sites. For the UN to grant that right would be "catastrophic", the ICG warns, and would alienate Kosovo Albanians overnight. <br><br>It would be equally disastrous if the Kosovans became convinced that the arrival of a new government had led the international community to rule out independence. <br><br>To show that the Kosovans' right to self-determination is accepted, the ICG has urged the European Union, which holds a Balkans summit in Zagreb next month, to invite not only Mr Kostunica but also Kosovo Albanian representatives. <br><br>The Kosovo commission offers five options for Kosovo's future status. Renewing the current United Nations protectorate for an indefinite number of years may seem attractive but Kosovan Albanian impatience might lead to parallel underground institutions or outright rebellion. <br><br>Partition might satisfy Serbs in Mitrovice but would lead to the forced relocation of most other Serbs as well as the end of the international community's commitment to maintain the multi-ethnic character of all Balkan states. <br><br>Full independence for Kosovo and the end of the UN mandate would be opposed by Russia and China, create anxieties in neighbouring states, and be resisted by Kosovo's Serb and Roma communities. <br><br>Autonomy within Yugoslavia is impractical, the commission argues: "The simple truth is that no Kosovar will accept to live under Serb rule, however notional, ever again." <br><br>The only viable solution, it concludes, is "conditional independence". <br><br>The commission finds that Nato's intervention against Yugoslavia was "illegal but legitimate" and criticises Nato for "major mistakes" in thinking that the bombing campaign would be short and in not anticipating the Serbian revenge attacks on Kosovan Albanians. <br><br>It urges the United Nations to "close the gap between legality and legitimacy" by preparing a new framework for intervention. <br><br>It also suggests that the general assembly produce a declaration which would sanctify three principles that would have to be met before any humanitarian intervention could be accepted: massive civilian suffering, the overriding commitment to the direct protection of civilians, and the calculation that the intervention has a reasonable chance of ending the catastrophe. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ABC News: Plan to name interim government in Serbia hits snag</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Plans to name an interim government in Yugoslavia"s main republic snagged Friday when President Vojislav Kostunica"s allies objected to candidates proposed by Slobodan Milosevic"s party. Serbia"s parliament is to meet Saturday to approve a government to serve until Dec. 23 elections in the Serb republic, the last major bastion of Milosevic support. Although Kostunica assumed the federal presidency Oct. 7, the governments in Yugoslavia"s two republics of Serbia and Montenegro are elected separately. Under a deal reached Monday, Milosevic"s Socialist Party agreed to share power in key ministries _ police, information, justice and finance _ with Kostunica"s coalition and another opposition movement until the elections. But Kostunica"s group, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, objected Friday to at least one Socialist nominated for an undisclosed post _ which could delay parliamentary agreement on the transition Cabinet and the December elections, which requires legislative approval. In a letter to Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Kostunica"s alliance said appointment of "politically compromised" people was unacceptable. The letter singled out Branislav Ivkovic, a top party official who campaigned vigorously against Kostunica"s group in the Sept. 24 election, which brought Kostunica to power and ousted Milosevic after people stormed the streets when Milosevic would not accept defeat at the ballot box. Under the Monday deal, decisions must be taken by consensus in the shared ministries_ a formula Kostunica hoped would prevent Milosevic"s allies from interfering in the December election. "This is not revenge or hatred," Kostunica ally Nebojsa Covic said. "We simply object to any attempt by the Socialists to sneak into the transition government some of the party"s most heavily compromised people." Covic was chosen as deputy prime minister from the Kostunica camp, while Milosevic"s Socialist Party named Milomir Minic, a legislator with a moderate reputation, as its candidate for Serbian prime minister. Meanwhile, the Serbian Radical Party, a longtime Milosevic ally, said its ministers were resigning from the Serbian government "because we do not want to take part in a putsch," a term the radicals have used for the reorganization. The Radicals move had been expected. Serbia"s population is more than 10 times that of Montenegro, and without control of the larger republican government, Kostunica cannot push through democratic reforms. The December election offers Kostunica the chance to capitalize on the euphoria of his rise to power and rid the key Serbian administration of Milosevic stalwarts. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ABC News:Serbian party, facing exclusion, quits government</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The ultra-nationalist Radical Party quit the Serbian government on Friday, a day before a new transitional administration was expected to be formed without any of its members. In a statement the party said the government had been powerless since what it described as a "coup" by the opposition earlier this month, and it was therefore pulling out its 15 members from the 35-strong Serbian government. A transitional government is due to be formed on Saturday by the 18-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) that backed new President Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and the Socialists of ousted Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The Radicals turned down an invitation to take part in the government, saying they did not want to legalise the "coup." The government will run Serbia, the dominant partner in the Yugoslav federation that also includes Montenegro, until new elections scheduled for December 23. The Radicals, led by Vojislav Seselj, had shared power in Serbia with the Socialists and the Yugoslav Left party headed by Milosevic"s wife Mirjana Markovic. Milosevic was swept from power on October 5 by a popular uprising following a presidential election defeat by Kostunica. "On October 5...a coup was organised that illegally took power from the Serbian government, thus preventing it from running institutions, especially the police and state companies," the Radicals were quoted by Beta news agency as saying in the statement. "The Serbian government is no longer in possession of a single instrument of power, and is not capable of carrying out any policy," it added. Although Milosevic was overthrown, the Socialists and their backers continued to control the Serbian government, which is the real seat of power in the Yugoslav federation. However the Socialists recognised that without Milosevic they could no longer run Serbia on their own, and agreed to share power until early elections in which they are likely to lose many of their seats. The Radicals are also expected to do badly. In elections for the Yugoslav federal parliament last month, the party saw their seats reduced from 25 to 4. Under the terms of a deal clinched earlier this week, the Socialists retain the post of prime minister, but the government head will need the agreement of two opposition deputy premiers for all decisions. Parallel talks on forming a new federal government are bogged down over disagreements with Montenegro"s leadership. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Herald Tribune:It's Time to Debalkanize the Balkans</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By George Papandreou .<br>The writer is the Foreign Minister of Greece. He contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times.<br><br>ATHENS - Through the recent elections, the Serbian people have sent Europe a clear message: They want democracy, stability and security. And they want to share their future with us. Now is the time for us to answer. That answer must be a strong yes.<br>Southeastern Europe can be a region reunified with Europe and within the European Union. <br><br>This vision led more than 40 nations last year to develop a unique contract between the international community and Southeastern Europe: it was coined the Stability Pact. In my view, the Stability Pact can be the incubator of a new contract for the Balkans.<br><br>ÊGreece has a clear sense of how this can come about:<br><br>First we need to empower this region that has been historically handicapped, dependent and divided by a world community of competing interests and a babble of conflicting signals. <br><br>This Balkanization of the region - in which great powers competed, fought proxy wars and set up spheres of influence in the absence of democratic institutions - must be replaced by coordination of international efforts. It therefore is an optimistic sign that today, international organizations, the EU, the United States and Russia cooperate in the context of the Stability Pact.<br><br>Second, we need to support cooperation within the region. Regional integration can be achieved as the Stability Pact promotes investment in infrastructure projects, democratic leadership training, institution building and education that will bring us together, stimulate economic development and promote systematic cooperation and respect of international law among the states and peoples of Southeastern Europe.<br><br>In the ever changing world of the 21st century, cultural and educational diplomacy should be a vital political priority. Through culture and education, we can fundamentally transform the Balkans. Cultural exchanges will help promote European integration in the Balkans. Educational exchanges among the Balkan candidate countries will be essential to the establishment of peaceful cooperation.<br><br>Ê In response to the challenge posed by the opening of Central and Eastern Europe, the Brussels based College of Europe has made a commitment to provide the necessary European education channels and training with the establishment of a second campus in Warsaw. <br><br>With the opening of the Balkans, the College of Europe, in close cooperation with the European Commission, should commit itself in establishing a third campus in Thessalonika, providing the region with the same opportunities.<br><br>Already Greece's bustling northern seaport has become a commercial and cultural center for our neighboring countries. Today it is the host of the regional office for the Pact and of the seat of the European Union's Reconstruction Agency for Southeastern Europe. Its academic institutions can provide training possibilities for young leaders from the Balkans on EU laws and institutions.<br><br>Finally we need to integrate the region into the wider European family. This translates into providing a road map for the region with clear standards to be achieved by each country prepared to join Europe: improved systems of governance; an effective market; strong democratic institutions and a thriving civil society.<br><br>Central, therefore, to the future of the region is whether the European Union is willing to commit itself, by action, to the eventual integration of the region into the EU.<br><br>The Serbian people have now offered Europe a chance to transform the Balkan region that has been the spark of so many fires. Clearly, this is no time for a failure of vision.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian: Champagne of revolution quick to go flat in valley of fear </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Special report: Serbia <br>Nick Wood in Presevo Valley <br>Saturday October 21, 2000 <br><br>The handover of power from Slobodan Milosevic's allies to the opposition appears to be making slow progress; nowhere more so than in the Presevo valley, next door to Kosovo and also home to many of Serbia's Albanian minority. <br>The region, about 25 miles south-east of Pristina and tucked between Kosovo and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, has been swamped by interior ministry police (MUP) and Yugoslav soldiers since the end of Nato's bombing campaign in June 1999. <br><br>For the past year, local politicians have complained of constant intimidation and human rights abuses in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medveda, the three main towns with Albanian populations. They say it is a trend that continued even after Vojislav Kostunica was sworn in as president. <br><br>The Albanian mayor of Bujanovac, Riza Halimi, claims that a family of five was forced to flee its home in the village of Buhic on October 9 after the local MUP commander threatened to kill the three sons. <br><br>Mr Halimi says the mother is now being treated in a hospital in Pristina after she intervened when one of the policemen threatened to cut her sons' toes off with an axe. She allegedly suffered knife cuts and bruising at police hands. <br><br>Further north, the Ismajli family tells a similar story. Imirije Ismajli, 50, is still in bed almost a month after she was attacked in her family's home in the village of Ternovac by four masked men wearing overalls and military boots. They said they were looking for money. <br><br>She was beaten around the head and had to go to hospital in Belgrade. When the family complained to the police, they blamed the attack on "Albanian terrorists". <br><br>"We don't see any radical changes in the Serbian police or soldiers," said Mr Halimi. "We have Serbian checkpoints everywhere near the border with Kosovo. It is impossible to enter an Albanian village without being stopped by patrols." <br><br>In Bujanovac, blue-uniformed MUP officers can be seen checking the papers of casual labourers waiting for a day's work in the town centre. Blue armoured personnel carriers, the workhorses of the MUP in Kosovo during the fighting between 1997 and 1999, also patrol the streets. <br><br>The tension in the region is in part due to continued skirmishes between police and the UCPMB, an Albanian guerrilla movement based in the no man's land between the Yugoslav army and the area patrolled by UN peacekeepers in Kosovo. Two policemen were killed last Friday by mines laid by the group near Bujanovac. <br><br>Unlike Kosovo, demands in the Presevo valley for independence from Serbia are few and far between - Albanians here did not opt to form separate state institutions in the past 10 years. <br><br>The main Albanian political party, the Party of Democratic Action, supports Mr Kostunica's alliance, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Dos). It accuses Albanians from Kosovo of being the force behind the UCPMB. <br><br>Speaking in the party offices in Bujanovac, a young man who gave his name as Amir dismissed claims that support for the guerrilla movement was widespread. <br><br>"The police accuse us of supporting the UCPMB. This is the 21st century. I can't imagine myself with an AK-47 running around the forests fighting the police," he said. "What I want is a laptop and job in an office." <br><br>Another man, calling himself Toni, was willing to speak of his hopes for Mr Kostunica - but he would only talk in the kitchen of a nearby cafe for fear of being seen by police speaking to a journalist . <br><br>"In Kosovo, it is easy for people to say they want independence, but we are not free people," he said. <br><br>"They can easily say they do not want anything to do with Serbia. They have Nato troops there and they live safely, but we do not, and that is why, for us, Kostunica is better. <br><br>"When we found out he was going to be president we drank champagne." <br><br>But the changes that Toni and his friends hope for seem a long way off. Under the agreement reached between Mr Milosevic's Serbian Socialist party and Mr Kostunica's opposition alliance, the key ministries of justice, information and police are to be shared equally among appointees from both sides. <br><br>Mr Halimi believes the policy of repression in the Presevo valley will not change until new elections are held for the Serbian parliament on December 23, after which a new Serbian government can be formed. <br><br>"There must be new elections, and when they do come things will be better."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Russia's Main Task Is to Support New Yugoslav Leader </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Roxana Dascalu<br><br>BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Friday promised Moscow's support to help Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's efforts to stabilize his country following the fall of his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic .<br><br>``Our main task is to give support to President Kostunica, because the elections alone cannot solve the problems confronting Yugoslavia,'' Ivanov told Reuters, speaking on the fringes of a conference in Bucharest.<br><br>Ivanov was referring to elections due later this month in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, and to Serbian parliamentary elections on December 23, brought forward after Milosevic gave up power two weeks ago on Saturday.<br><br>He cited ``internal political stability'' among problems facing rump Yugoslavia, mainly relations between Serbia and its smaller sister republic of Montenegro. ''The problems regarding Montenegro and the Kosovo province can only be solved in the context of Yugoslavia's territorial integrity,'' he added, speaking through an interpreter.<br><br>Ivanov called for increased Western contributions to support the reconstruction of Yugoslavia, after the European Union lifted sanctions on Belgrade following Milosevic's fall.<br><br>``The fact cannot be overlooked that Yugoslavia suffered important material losses as a result of the NATO<br> aggression,'' he said in reference to the Alliance's air bombing campaign last year to punish Belgrade for its treatment of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.<br><br>``We hope that the countries which participated in this aggression will become the main donors for the reconstruction of Yugoslavia's economy.''<br><br>Ivanov, who is attending a one-day meeting of foreign ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation group (BSEC), said Russia would maintain an active role in the Balkan region, which was rocked by four Yugoslav wars over the past decade.<br><br>``We are interested in the Balkans becoming a region of peace and stability.''<br><br>Ivanov said he had outlined Russia's position on Yugoslavia, Romania's western neighbor, to his Romanian counterpart Petre Roman during separate talks earlier on Friday.<br><br>``We understand Russia's point of view on the situation in the Balkans, and especially on Kosovo as part of the Yugoslav Federation,'' Roman said after 90 minutes of talks with Ivanov.<br><br>The two foreign ministers also tackled ways to boost economic relations between Moscow and Bucharest, despite the absence of a long-delayed post-communist treaty.<br><br>The treaty has been stalled over Romania's insistence that the text should include reference to Moscow's seizure during World War Two of Romanian territories now part of Ukraine and Moldova, and on the return of a treasure of gold entrusted to Russia for safe-keeping before World War One. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>BBC:Row over Kostunica's Bosnia visit</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Paul Wood in Belgrade <br><br>The new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, has sparked a political row by arranging a visit to the Bosnian Serb republic. <br><br>He will go the south-western town of Trebinje to attend the burial of the remains of the Serb nationalist poet, Jovan Ducic, who died in exile in the United States in 1943. <br><br>President Kostunica has moved to try to calm the diplomatic row over his upcoming visit by calling it a private trip. <br><br>But he's facing new allegations of breaching protocol - and at a very sensitive time when Bosnia prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections. <br><br>Objections <br><br>The Bosnian Foreign Ministry in Sarajevo has already registered its objections to the visit. <br>Now they have been joined by the international community's top official in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, who says Mr Kostunica should be going instead to the capital, Sarajevo. <br><br>He urged the Yugoslav president to remember there was an election campaign and not to give the impression of siding with any one candidate. <br><br>Mr Kostunica had earlier tried to mollify the Bosnians by writing to the foreign minister: "I have no intentions of making a political demonstration out of a religious and cultural event." <br><br>Bosnia and Yugoslavia don't yet have diplomatic relations and in perhaps the most important part of the letter, President Kostunica said he was looking forward to establishing such formal links. <br><br>He also said that although many issues remained outstanding after the end of the war in 1995, these would be resolved completely in accordance with the Dayton agreements. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The ABC News:ANALYSIS-Kostunica's early days: first steps on long road</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Vojislav Kostunica might feel some quiet satisfaction at his first two weeks as Yugoslav president if only he had the time. The 56-year-old constitutional lawyer, catapulted to power on an uprising that forced Slobodan Milosevic to admit defeat in last month"s elections, has plenty to show for the early stages of his presidency. But Kostunica has such a huge task still ahead of him that one of his allies even joked this week he should be taking tablets to keep himself awake day and night. Since taking office two weeks ago on Saturday, the new president"s main achievement has been in restoring ties with the the West, broken off during a decade of Milosevic rule which brought four Balkan wars and international pariah status. He has received and impressed a stream of high-level foreign visitors whose presence in Belgrade would have been unthinkable just a few weeks before, ranging from French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine to U.S. President Bill Clinton"s Balkans envoy. "This is a very smart guy with a very clear vision of how he wants to move ahead," said a Western official who met Kostunica. The new president also felt his grip on power was strong enough to leave the country last weekend for France to attend a European Union summit, where he received a warm welcome. The EU and the United States have both lifted economic sanctions. And after a decade in which Kostunica"s native Serbia has been associated by many of its neighbours with belligerence, he has sent out some conciliatory signals. He dispatched some of his allies to Croatia, visited Montenegro -- Serbia"s estranged partner in the Yugoslav federation -- and plans to attend a summit of regional leaders in the Macedonian capital Skopje next week. TICKING TIME BOMB At home, his supporters have struck a deal with Milosevic"s Socialists to share power in the Serbian government, the real power centre in Yugoslavia, until early parliamentary elections at which they are confident of winning a sweeping victory. And, although his opponents complain of anarchy and chaos as workers boot out Milosevic allies from state companies and institutions, his calm authority and insistence on legality have helped stop revolutionary fervour spiralling out of control. "He managed to do a lot to calm down passions here," said Bratislav Grubacic, editor of the Belgrade newsletter VIP. For ordinary Yugoslavs, the change of power has been reflected in a palpable sense of relief among many and a general opening up of the country"s institutions. Serbian state television, which used to churn out nationalist propaganda, has suddenly started showing the Montenegrin evening news on its second channel. Another station has broadcast a documentary on the work of the War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, which has indicted Milosevic and four associates and was long denounced as a political court run from Washington. But for many citizens, the changes have also meant soaring food prices as artificial controls imposed by the Milosevic government to keep social peace fall away. The prices point to the new rulers" biggest challenge -- transforming a bankrupt, run-down state-controlled economy. "We are facing a real economic and social time bomb," said Jurij Bajec, a senior adviser at Yugoslavia"s independent Economics Institute. "I don"t think people realise the pain of transition. We have needed reforms for the past 10 years but they have always been avoided up until now." FACING UP TO THE PAST The president himself will also have his hands full keeping all his allies on board. Kostunica ran on the ticket of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, a disparate alliance of 18 parties which is likely to prove unwieldy over time. "Who are we going to talk to? Monarchists, to talk about getting a king back? Or Social Democrats, to get a republic?" complained Miodrag Vukovic, a senior adviser to Montenegro"s President Milo Djukanovic. Sorting out the future of Montenegro, which provides Serbia with access to the Adriatic Sea, is another priority for Kostunica. The small republic became increasingly independence-minded during the Milosevic years. The status of the province of Kosovo, currently run as an international protectorate, also has to be addressed. The president must also decide what to do with his predecessor and his allies. Milosevic is said to be still in Belgrade and trying to pull political strings behind the scenes. Many key figures in the state under the authoritarian leader, including the army chief of staff and other security bosses, remain in office. Many Serbs would like to see the former president put on trial at home for abuse of power. Some of Kostunica"s allies would also have preferred him to act more quickly and decisively in purging the state of Milosevic appointees. So far the new president has been quiet on these issues and the broader question of how Serbia deals with its recent past. Serbs have spoken a lot in the past few weeks about the wrongs done to them under Milosevic but little about the violence inflicted on others in the name of a Greater Serbia. "We have to pursue a longer process of getting to know what really happened," newsletter editor Grubacic said. "This will be a very complicated and sensitive process here." (Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Colin McIntyre) ^ </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslav Economy on the Brink of Meltdown </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Crispian Balmer<br><br>BELGRADE (Reuters) - Everyone knew Yugoslavia's economy was sick, but few realized it was at death's door.<br><br>Two weeks after Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) fell from power, the country's new pro-democracy rulers say they have found the cupboard bare -- emergency food warehouses stand vacant, oil reserves are dry and bank accounts empty.<br><br>``There's nothing there. Zero. We don't know what happened to it all,'' said Nebojsa Savic, a senior research fellow at Yugoslavia's independent Economics Institute.<br><br>``We need donations in the ultra-short term just to survive.''<br><br>The longer-term outlook does not appear much rosier.<br><br>A decade of conflict, corruption and sanctions has reduced what used to be the strongest economy in communist Europe to a shadow of its former self, with gross domestic product in Yugoslavia's largest republic, Serbia, cut by at least a third.<br><br>In the absence of meaningful official statistics, the Economics Institute estimates that inflation over the past 12 months was 120 percent, unemployment topped 30 percent and average wages stagnated at 90 German marks ($40) a month.<br><br>``I don't think the new rulers are aware of the scope and scale of the problems they have inherited, but they are aware of the dangers of failure,'' said Michael Graham, the chief representative of the EU executive in Belgrade.<br><br>Winter Months Crucial<br><br>Anxious to win the hearts and minds of the nation, newly installed President Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites) has appealed for Western aid to get the country through the harsh winter months.<br><br>A surge in the cost of food staples since Milosevic lost power has aggravated the situation. Bread has doubled in price and cooking oil tripled, as rigid state price controls evaporate, leaving the poor struggling to make ends meet.<br><br>Many people survive thanks to an estimated 250 million marks of remittances sent home every month by relatives living abroad, and thriving gray and black markets ensure that shops are well stocked with a wide range of consumer goods.<br><br>But a ramshackle energy sector and a poor harvest this year look certain to strain the system to the limits.<br><br>The European Union at the weekend promised Yugoslavia 200 million euros ($173 million) of winter assistance. However, economics professor Jurij Bajec, a senior adviser at the Economics Institute, thought at least $500 million was needed.<br><br>``In order to establish social stability and set the foundations for future growth we need money now to help pay pensions and salaries,'' he told Reuters.<br><br>Whether the West will give that much cash to a country it holds responsible for many of the Balkans' woes is debatable.<br><br>The United Nations (news - web sites)' special envoy for the Balkans, Carl Bildt, made it clear at the weekend that Belgrade could not expect an extravagant supply of aid.<br><br>``You are not interested in making a Third World economy dependent on handouts,'' he said, stressing that direct corporate investment was the way forward.<br><br>Kostunica's economic advisers are committed to a gradual privatization plan, but what would foreign partners find here?<br><br>Good Geography, Poor Infrastructure<br><br>On the plus side, Yugoslavia enjoys a great location.<br><br>It shares borders with seven countries and straddles the Danube river, making it the perfect place to establish a southeastern European presence. With a population of 10 million, it is also the biggest country in the Balkans.<br><br>The Yugoslav people are probably well equipped to cope with the rigors of a market economy, having evaded Soviet control during the Iron Curtain era and then survived both sanctions and the chaos of Milosevic's state-controlled economic system.<br><br>``People here are very entrepreneurial and eager to work,'' said Bajec. ``If we get over this transitional period we will become the powerhouse of southeastern Europe.''<br><br>On the down side, Yugoslavia's infrastructure has been shattered by a combination of neglect and NATO (news - web sites)'s 1999 bombing campaign, while factories have outdated machinery.<br><br>Greece and Italy have already bought into Telecom Serbia and the beer, cement and food processing sectors look attractive.<br><br>However, heavy industry is close to ruin and the banking system is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, destroyed by rampant corruption and political meddling that stripped private accounts to pay for Milosevic's war economy.<br><br>Foreign cash reserves stand at a paltry $385 million and the country is in default on its $14 billion of external debt.<br><br>In addition, political uncertainties remain. Kostunica is struggling to put together a federal government and allies of Milosevic still hold positions of importance. The former president himself threatens to remain politically active.<br><br>``The economy operated in various illegal ways and has survived by a miracle. The trouble is that the brutal reality of the problems have not yet hit home,'' said European Commission (news - web sites) representative Graham.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslav army reforming, but NATO partnership still long way off</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Oct 20 (AFP) <br>Yugoslavia's army may have shown its softer side by staying in its barracks when supporters of the reformist opposition ousted Slobodan Milosevic, but it is still a long way from forgiving NATO for its bombing of Yugoslavia.<br><br>"The wounds are still fresh," General Milen Simic told AFP, referring to the three-month bombing campaign launched by NATO in March last year.<br><br>A NATO official said Thursday that the alliance wants Yugoslavia to join its partnership for peace programme, the first step in the process of integration that most other former communist countries in the region have followed.<br><br>However the soreness of the wounds is evident at Belgrade's War Museum, where an exhibition "Testimony to Aggression" charts the slow break-up of the former Yugoslavia, culminating in NATO's airborne bid to halt Belgrade's crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.<br><br>In pride of place is the helmet and life vest of a US pilot whose F-16 fighter-bomber was shot down by Yugoslav troops during the bombing campaign, which Serbs refer to simply as "the aggression".<br><br>Around it are outlawed cluster bombs the Atlantic alliance later admitted to dropping, a photograph of the decapitated head of a Kosovo Albanian refugee allegedly hit by a NATO bomb and -- under thick protective glass -- the remains of depleted uranium rounds found after the bombing.<br><br>The exhibition, like the state media which until recently were controlled by the regime of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic, makes little attempt at a balanced exhibition, though one of the curators, Lieutenant Colonel Zeljko Zirojevic, says it represents the "objective truth."<br><br>But next to a teeshirt bearing the logo of a Croatian "paramilitary" group, the insignia of Kosovo Albanian "terrorists" and the identity card of a Bosnian "mujahedeen" fighter, there is no evidence to show that Serbs were anything but victims in a decade of brutal conflict.<br><br>But despite the sense of denial at the museum, the Yugoslav army is making efforts to reform. <br><br>It did not intervene in the popular uprising at the beginning of the month when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to oust Milosevic, calming fears that the ex-president might call them out when his police melted away.<br><br>Simic, a two-star general at the army's staff headquarters, said the army had received no order to step in, and admitted the general staff's response to such an order would have been "negative".<br><br>He said the army enjoys good relations with Milosevic's reformist successor Vojislav Kostunica, under whose new leadership the forces plan to "reorganise and modernise".<br><br>"We want to reduce numbers and to increase effectiveness within economic standards, which we hope will rise" after the end of years of crippling international sanctions last week.<br><br>Defence Minister General Dragoljub Ojdanic said on state television recently he was considering turning the conscription army, in which all men serve 12 months, into a professional force.<br><br>The army, estimated at around 85,000 men, was reformed after the former Yugoslavia shrunk into just Serbia and Montenegro in 1992, changing its name from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to the Yugoslav Army (VJ).<br><br>Simic said there was a special unit prepared to return to the breakaway province of Kosovo, administered by the United Nations since the end of the NATO bombing campaign.<br><br>Under the UN Security Council Resolution which set up the UN administration, some VJ troops are allowed to return, but the UN and the NATO-led peacekeepers have said it is too early and Kosovo Albanians have vowed to attack any returning VJ troops.<br><br>Simic said that despite finally having to bow to the NATO forces, his troops "showed great professionalism, military skill and moral strength", as well as preserving most of their military hardware.<br><br>Ironically, it is on the boundary with Kosovo that the Yugoslav army has its most concrete contact with NATO, where contact is maintained in order to administer the boundary and the demilitarised zone that runs along it. <br><br>"We are cooperating well with KFOR, with mutual respect, even though most of its staff are NATO officers," said Simic.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Boston Globe:In silver lining of Serb vote, Montenegro sees a cloud </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 10/19/2000 <br><br>PODGORICA, Montenegro - For years, Montenegrins prayed for Slobodan Milosevic's ouster. Now, many regret that their prayers have been answered.<br><br><br>While relieved that Milosevic is gone, many Montenegrins fear that the little leverage they had for their goal of independence has been destroyed like the Parliament building in Belgrade, whose storming signaled Milosevic's demise.<br><br><br>The 600,000 people of Montenegro, who with the 10 million people in Serbia form what is left of the former Yugoslavia, are worried that the enthusiasm that Europe and the United States have shown for the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, will push their agenda far to the rear of Balkan priorities.<br><br><br>There has never been much international backing for Montenegrin independence, and all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China, are opposed to it. Last week, the US envoy to the Balkans, James C. O'Brien, came to Montenegro to reiterate the US stance, much to the disappointment of Montenegro's president, Milo Djukanovic, who feels the West owes his country something because it stood up to Milosevic.<br><br><br>A conciliatory Kostunica came here on Tuesday, offering to appoint members of Djukanovic's party to Cabinet positions if they agreed to let the federal prime minister's job go to Montenegrins who supported Milosevic. This was part of an elaborate compromise aimed at shoring up the Serbian opposition's hold on power by bringing former Milosevic loyalists into the fold.<br><br><br>Djukanovic rejected the offer, saying that he and Kostunica must first formalize the relationship between Montenegro and Serbia. The two leaders agreed to keep talking.<br><br><br>Like ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Montenegrins have voiced frustration with the apparent lack of Western skepticism about Kostunica's avowed nationalism.<br><br><br>In an interview, Ranko Krivokapic, vice president of the Social Democratic Party, which supports independence for Montenegro, said he is disturbed by that nationalism. <br><br><br>Krivokapic said: ''Kostunica is a democrat, which is good, but he is an ideological nationalist, which is bad. At the nationalist level, he's worse than Milosevic. Kostunica said to me, `You are Serbian, you are not Montenegrin.' His attitude is that there is no such thing as Montenegro, that we are just part of Serbia.''<br><br><br>Since his victory, Kostunica has sought to appease Montenegrins, even suggesting that there be a referendum to rename the nation Serbia-Montenegro, given that the two republics are all that is left of the former Yugoslavia. But Kostunica has ruled out a referendum on independence, and for separatists like Krivokapic name changes are merely cosmetic. They want independence and feel they have earned it.<br><br><br>Other leaders, however, say independence has to be put to the side while Kostunica consolidates power. Savo Djurdjevac, Montenegro's deputy prime minister and the vice president of the People's Party, part of the ruling coalition, urged patience, saying Montenegro needs to concentrate on a new constitutional relationship with the much larger Serbia.<br><br><br>''We have to be patient. Mr. Kostunica and us have to talk for a long time. Knowing Mr. Kostunica and all the other opposition leaders personally, I would say that Mr. Kostunica has a moral obligation'' to renegotiate Montenegro's status within the Yugoslav federation, Djurdjevac said in an interview. ''He is, like me, a lawyer by vocation, and in solving the disputes between Montenegro and Yugoslavia he will not use tanks and guns. He will use dialogue.''<br><br><br>Until Milosevic's ouster there had been real fear that he was going to launch a military offensive here, if only to divert attention from his electoral problems. The Montenegrin police, in combat fatigues and carrying automatic weapons, were deployed all over the capital and throughout the mountainous country. Cars with Serbian license plates were stopped and searched.<br><br><br>Milosevic stripped Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, in a blatant attempt to appease Serb nationalists. Montenegro, by contrast, enjoys a wide degree of autonomy, and controls just about everything within its borders. The notable exception is the continued presence of the Yugoslav army, nearly all of whose soldiers are Serbs, and who are not wanted here by most Montenegrins. Separatists like Krivokapic call it ''a foreign army, an occupying force.''<br><br><br>''Kostunica should withdraw the troops, except at the border,'' he said.<br><br><br>But there's little chance of that. In all his speeches since he won the vote three weeks ago, Kostunica has said Montenegro must remain part of the Yugoslav federation. Many Serbs are sick of Montenegrin complaints.<br><br><br>''The Montenegrins want all the benefits of being in Yugoslavia, but want independence. I think we should let them go,'' said Milena Cvetkovic, who works for a stone-cutting company in Serbia, and who, like many Serbs, considers Montenegro a drag on the economy.<br><br><br>At 60 percent, unemployment in Montenegro is about twice that of Serbia's. The streets, meanwhile, teem with tens of thousands of refugees from Milosevic's wars and neighboring Albania. The country stays afloat on Western aid.<br><br><br>There is no love lost between Kostunica and Djukanovic. At Djukanovic's request, the vast majority of Montenegrins boycotted the Sept. 24 election, in which Kostunica narrowly won more than 50 percent of the vote.<br><br><br>But because the Montenegrins held back a few hundred thousand votes, the boycott helped only Milosevic, whose efforts to steal the election ended only when the uprising of Oct. 5 demonstrated that the majority of Serbs were against him and the majority of police were no longer willing to prop up the regime.<br><br><br>Krivokapic said that if Kostunica was a true democrat, he would allow a referendum on independence. But despite his strong beliefs, Krivokapic remains more a realist than an idealist. Asked if he expected Kostunica to schedule a referendum, he replied, ''Not this millennium.''</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Balkans After Milosevic: Still Perilous Waters</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By ROGER COHEN<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 18 — The removal of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia has opened new opportunities for peace in the Balkan region, but also created a fluid situation where treacherous problems abound.<br><br>For some time, Western strategic thinking on the area has involved the notion that if Mr. Milosevic could be ousted, other problems would fall away. But for a variety of reasons — including the depth of anti-Serbian feeling engendered by nine years of war and the record of Mr. Milosevic's successor — little soothing balm has immediately been felt.<br><br>Vojislav Kostunica, the new Yugoslav president, has been in office for almost two weeks now. He has made clear conciliatory signals toward Croatia, which long battled Belgrade for its independence, and Montenegro, where secessionist currents are strong. Yet his gestures have not convinced a skeptical region.<br><br>"There has been tremendous positive change in Serbia, but it has not had the immediate positive impact on the region that we would have hoped," said William D. Montgomery, the Budapest-based United States ambassador with responsibility for Yugoslavia.<br><br>A new era in the Balkans has opened. Mr. Milosevic, who propelled Yugoslavia into war nine years ago, is gone; Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian president who fanned Mr. Milosevic's flames, is dead; Alija Izetbegovic, the outgunned and stubborn Bosnian president, quit last weekend. It is not surprising that expectations are high.<br><br>But it is not yet clear that Mr. Kostunica is able, or willing, to deliver what America wants. His past nationalism makes some neighbors skeptical, his popularity in the West makes other neighbors envious, and his arrival has come so late in the process of Yugoslav disintegration that it is far from clear that the process can be arrested.<br><br>"The tremors continue from what has been a very strong political shock, and there is some ambivalence in the region," said Zarko Korac, an ally of Mr. Kostunica who visited Croatia last week. "Some people feel that Serbia will now get off the hook too quickly, and there is concern we will get the lion's share of money and attention."<br><br>The American investment in a Balkan breakthrough assuring stability is enormous. Consolidating Serbia's democratic transition and encouraging Mr. Kostunica to reassure Serbia's neighbors are now Washington's twin priorities, officials said.<br><br>With more than 10,000 United States troops still in Bosnia and Kosovo, and hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into Bosnia to consolidate the five-year-old peace there, this two-track policy is rooted in a clear national interest.<br><br>There are encouraging signs. Leaders from Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and other Balkan states are to meet Mr. Kostunica in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, next week — the first such gathering for many years and an indication of the hope engendered by the Yugoslav president.<br><br>But the meeting also illustrates a central point: the problems of the Balkans remain deeply interlinked. Change a border here — in Montenegro or Kosovo, for example — and Bosnia's Serbs may feel justified in demanding union with Serbia or a state of their own. Support Serbia with a lifting of sanctions and Croatia may feel slighted or enraged.<br><br>The question now is how sensitive Mr. Kostunica will be to this regional volatility. Up to now, the signals have been mixed.<br><br>"We would have liked to hear Mr. Kostunica address the Serbs of Bosnia and tell them that while they will always have a special relationship with Belgrade, their future lies unambiguously in Bosnia-Herzegovina," said Jacques Klein, the American who is the chief United Nations representative in Sarajevo. "But it has not happened."<br><br>Rather, Mr. Kostunica has said he respects the 1995 Dayton accords while setting the Bosnian government's nerves on edge by indicating that he may travel this weekend to the Serbian part of Bosnia to attend the emotional reburial of a poet, Jovan Ducic, whose remains are being flown in from the United States.<br><br>When James O'Brien, the special adviser to President Clinton on the Balkans, raised the question last week of the hundreds of Kosovo Albanian detainees in Serbian prisons, Mr. Kostunica said he would examine the matter but also pleaded with the American envoy to "feel the pain that a lot of Serbian families feel over losses in Kosovo."<br><br>This amounted to an appeal for balance. But the fact is the new president has repeatedly shown sensitivity to Serbian national feelings while appearing, up to now, to have difficulty in showing empathy for those in the region who have suffered at the hands of Serbian forces. This stance helped get him elected; it is far from clear that it will be helpful to delicate regional diplomacy.<br><br>The situation in Bosnia remains volatile in the run-up to elections on Nov. 11. Mass graves of Muslims killed by Serbs continue to be discovered, and there have been minor clashes between Muslim and Serbian students. In these circumstances, any encouragement from Mr. Kostunica to the Bosnian Serbs to look to Belgrade before Sarajevo could be destabilizing. <br><br>In Croatia, President Stipe Mesic has welcomed Mr. Kostunica's victory, but has also warned that Yugoslavia must pay war damages for the 1991-95 conflict and insisted on the "importance of applying equal standards in assessing the progress made by each country" in the region.<br><br>Western moves to lift many sanctions on Serbia while people like Mr. Milosevic who have been indicted by the International Tribunal in the The Hague remain at large have enraged many people in Croatia, where the West has made compliance with the tribunal a central issue.<br><br>Mr. Mesic, a moderate liked in Washington, is already under bitter attack from the nationalist Croatian right for being a stooge of the West and undermining Croatia's "war of liberation" by extraditing war- crimes suspects. If Mr. Kostunica shrugs off Serbia's wars and is still embraced by the West, Mr. Mesic's position may be further undermined.<br><br>In Montenegro, the last remaining republic still tied to Serbia in what is left of Yugoslavia, Mr. Kostunica is straining to repair the crippling damage inflicted by Mr. Milosevic. He has the support of Washington because Montenegrin independence is viewed as potentially destabilizing, officials said. As one Western official put it, "The door to Montenegrin independence is now closed."<br><br>But that is not how many supporters of the Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovic, view the situation. Having encouraged Mr. Djukanovic to go his own way in order to undermine Mr. Milosevic, the United States may now have great trouble in controlling the movement. The pressure for independence from Kosovo Albanians may also be difficult to contain.<br><br>Having talked a tough line on both Montenegro and Kosovo in the election campaign, Mr. Kostunica is now sounding far more moderate. But suspicions of him in those two places remain deep. <br><br>Mr. Korac, a leader of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, which backs Mr. Kostunica, said these suspicions would be overcome. "The preoccupation with borders and sovereignty will now subside in the Balkans," he said. "Milosevic kept this alive. He was obsessed, but Mr. Kostunica is not."<br><br>The daunting task ahead of the new Yugoslav president is to convince his wary neighbors that this is indeed the case, while retaining domestic Serbian support won partly through a patriotic message that offered no apology for the devastating costs of Mr. Milosevic's flirtation with a Greater Serbia.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Socialist infighting over fate of former president </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade 19 October 2000 <br><br>The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), dominated for 10 years by Slobodan Milosevic, is fighting for political survival amid signs of fierce infighting over the fate of the ousted president. <br><br>In an indication of the chaos in party ranks, Mr Milosevic's smiling campaign picture was excised from the party's homepage (www.sps.org.yu) last weekend. By Monday morning his image had been restored. <br><br>Branches of the party in Belgrade and other Serb cities want him out. The head of the Belgrade branch, Ivica Dacic, said: "The people gave us a slap in the face in the elections and afterwards. We have to learn the lesson." <br><br>Zoran Lilic, a former highSPS official who left his post in August, said: "Milosevic should resign as head of the party after this debacle. The SPS brought this country to the verge of civil war after the elections." <br><br>So far, only Gorica Gajevic, the powerful SPS secretary general and one of the closest Milosevic aides, has resigned, forced out at an emergency session of the SPS executive. Members set a date for a party congress on 25 November. <br><br>Mr Milosevic, his whereabouts still undisclosed, appears to have lost his ability to pull strings behind the scenes. If he was in control, SPS members say, Ms Gajevic would have clung to her post. <br><br>The man tipped as a potential new leader is Milorad Vuc-elic, sacked as an SPS official by Mr Milosevic in 1998. "The SPS can find a place in Serbia's political life if it becomes a modern party of the left, but that will require radical changes at the top," he says. "The SPS has to see itself as a constructive opposition from now on, or it will be erased." <br><br>The SPS, which claims up to 500,000 card-carrying members, is a restyled communist party, and, under normal circumstances, could expect to capture 15 per cent of the vote. <br><br>Mr Vucelic says the "unnatural marriage" of his party with the JUL, the neo-Marxist party led by Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira, ruined the SPS. "They ruled with arrogance and terror," he says. <br><br>The JUL imposed itself on the ruling coalition, its members driven by a greed to control state-run enterprises. Analysts believe the SPS has so many skeletons in its cupboard it has no choice but to cause chaos for the new government. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Telegraph:Summit will give hope of peace to Balkans</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Julius Strauss in Belgrade<br><br>PRESIDENT Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia is to meet seven other Balkan leaders next week in a summit which will mark the end of the country's regional isolation.<br> <br>The talks, announced yesterday, will be the first face-to-face meeting between a leader of Yugoslavia and the heads of other Balkan states in more than a decade of wars. Diplomats hope that the seizure of power by reformers in Yugoslavia will usher in an era of peace and stability in the troubled region.<br><br>Mr Kostunica has already moved quickly to try to improve ties with Montenegro, Serbia's independence-minded junior partner in the Yugoslav Federation. On Tuesday he held lengthy talks with President Milo Djukanovic. Although no agreement was reached on the future of Yugoslavia, both leaders agreed that a peaceful solution must be sought.<br><br>A more difficult test for Mr Kostunica will come at next month's Balkan Stability Pact meeting, scheduled for Nov 24, when he is expected to meet the head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner. Mr Kouchner said on a visit to Zagreb: "It will be a good occasion to start discussion between the newcoming democrats and the people representing the...UN."<br><br>Kosovo is one of the Balkans' most intractable problems. Ethnic Albanians, who form a 95 per cent majority in the province, insist on being granted independence. Mr Kostunica, by contrast, has vowed to strengthen Serbia's sovereignty over the UN-governed province.<br><br>Serbia has been the motor behind 10 years of turmoil and war in the Balkans which has left the region in a pitiable condition. UN sanctions and corruption have impoverished the Balkan countries. The infrastructure and manufacturing capacity have been ruined.<br><br>Only organised crime has flourished and crosses the ethnic divide. Ethnic Albanian, Serbian and Bosnian gangsters co-operate to smuggle immigrants and drugs into the rest of Europe and stolen cars and money out.<br><br>Balkan leaders say a progressive Serbia is critical to building a more prosperous future for the region. A Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman, Panos Beglitis, said: "The most important factor is the participation of Yugoslavia again. It closes a big black hole in trans-Balkan co-operation, which didn't take off because of Yugoslavia's absence."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: New Yugoslav Leader Tries to Calm Wary Montenegro</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 17 — With a deal for a new Serbian government sealed, President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia turned his attention today to the challenge of forming a federal government and to forging a new relationship with the independent-minded republic of Montenegro.<br><br>Making his first visit to the small coastal republic since becoming president, Mr. Kostunica met with Montenegro's president, Milo Djukanovic, and with members of his ruling coalition, as well as with Orthodox church leaders. Yet the day only highlighted the difficulties he faces and the constitutional muddle that resulted from the recent presidential election, which Montenegro largely boycotted to protest constitutional changes wrought by Slobodan Milosevic. Mr. Milosevic finally conceded power after admitting that Mr. Kostunica had won the first-round of voting.<br><br>The visit today was low-key with no crowds out to cheer Mr. Kostunica, and only a representative from the small People's Party at the airport to greet him. Because most Montenegrins followed their government's call to boycott the elections, few now regard him as carrying any legitimacy in Montenegro, although there is a general feeling of good will toward him.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica said today that he was pleased with his talks. "I am very interested in some more serious discussions about joint relations between Serbia and Montenegro," he said, using a much more considerate tone toward Montenegro than previously.<br><br>Still, Mr. Djukanovic made it clear that he would not participate in a new federal government, and instead would hold out for more recognition of sovereignty for Montenegro, the last Yugoslav republic still joined with Serbia. But he said he would continue discussions with Mr. Kostunica and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia to work out a future relationship with Serbia.<br><br>Montenegro continues to push for a new alignment with Serbia based on a proposal it made last last year to Mr. Milosevic, who ignored it. The plan called for a very loose confederation of sovereign states, each controlling the troops on its soil, but conducting foreign and economic policy together.<br><br>Just before Mr. Kostunica visited, negotiations abruptly broke off on Monday night in Belgrade over efforts to form a government with the Montenegrin Socialist People's Party, a pro-Milosevic party that did take part in the elections and subsequently won most of the parliamentary seats allotted to Montenegro.<br><br>The Socialist People's Party had demanded that Mr. Milosevic's party also be allowed a ministerial post in any federal government, something that Mr. Kostunica's supporters in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia ruled out immediately.<br><br>For 10 days now, since his inauguration as president of Yugoslavia, Mr. Kostunica has been trying unsuccessfully to solidify his position end the growing estrangement of Montenegro from Serbia that began three years ago under Mr. Milosevic. Mr. Kostunica wants to form a federal government that will run the foreign affairs and defense ministries as well as rebuild all federal institutions.<br><br>He has chosen to negotiate a coalition government, and tried to encourage Mr. Djukanovic to send representatives or experts to participate in the government. But the Montenegrin president has rejected sharing power with his Montenegrin opponents, who until recently supported Mr. Milosevic and his aggressive policy against Montenegro.<br><br>"They are not over-enthusiastic with our coalition with the Socialist People's Party, but we shall continue to collaborate with Djukanovic's party," Mr. Djindjic said in an interview with the Belgrade-based radio station B92. "We need passions to calm down."<br><br>Despite his impressive personal victory at the polls, Mr. Kostunica and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia that supported him do not dominate the federal Parliament. By law, if a Serbian is elected president he must appoint a Montenegrin as vice president.<br><br>A coalition with the Socialist People's Party is the most likely outcome. Both sides have agreed to basic principles of cooperation, and either of the party's two vice presidents, Predrag Bulatovic and Zoran Zizic, have been suggested for the post of vice president. <br><br>Yet talks clearly broke off with some rancor on Monday night with the Democratic Party's leader, Zoran Djindjic, saying he would not accept members of the Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia in the government. "We will not tolerate blackmail," he said, and threatening to bypass the federal authorities if he had to get foreign aid into the country. <br><br>The wrangling with the Montenegrins is driven to some extent by their own power struggles, but is also a leftover of the damage wrought by the previous government. Mr. Djukanovic is insisting on the replacement of generals of the Yugoslav Army who served under Mr. Milosevic and whom he blames for raising tension in the region. Mr. Kostunica has so far retained the generals, and has commended them for not using violence against the popular uprising on Oct. 5.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Herald Tribune: Is Milosevic Really 'Finished?'</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">MEANWHILE<br><br>BELGRADE - Is he really finished? The question lingers in the air. I recall scenes from horror movies, especially ''Halloween,'' in which a seemingly dead body rises again and again. I've become superstitious and dare not say ''he's finished'' out loud for fear that something might go wrong.<br>This is probably the result of many years of expecting, hoping and daydreaming that Slobodan Milosevic would finally disappear. I remember street protests during the winter of 1996. We were all so convinced that he was finished then that we could not have felt more defeated and disillusioned when the opposition simply disintegrated.<br><br>What about now? Do I really believe the former Yugoslav president is finished? I notice an absence of exaltation and an overwhelming weariness in people. An old lady confides in me: ''I am so tired, as if I've just finished spring cleaning.''<br><br>These days, especially since Oct. 5, when protesters seized Parliament and the state television buildings in Belgrade, this feeling seems characteristic of people who spent the past 10 years opposing Mr. Milosevic's regime. But the situation is entirely different for those in their 20s. They rejoice in the victory wholeheartedly.<br><br>As I pushed through the crowd in the city center on Oct. 5, past the Parliament building and the state TV building on fire, I remembered friends and companions no longer with us. It hit me like a strong blow, expelling the air from my chest. My mother did not live to see the downfall of Mr. Milosevic. She died two years ago, and I know she lived for that day.<br><br>Many other friends did not live to see it, either: Jelena Santic, a<br><br>ballet dancer and champion of human rights; Aleksandar Kron, a philosopher; Stevan Pesic, a writer; Paja Cirovic, the director of the independent paper Svetlost - my old telephone book has turned into a record of disappearances. The price of the change certainly was not high on Oct. 5, but it is enormous if we include all that happened since Mr. Milosevic's accession to power in 1988.<br><br>The federal Parliament in Belgrade had turned into a Serbian Berlin Wall, and many wanted to take a ''piece.'' Those who lament that today are hypocrites. So many things have been destroyed and ruined in this country, and so many lives wrecked, that it is senseless to expect the people to respect an institution that had been no symbol of democracy and civilized life for 50 or so years.<br><br>Before Parliament was stormed, I made a wide circle around it. I saw people rushing to the center from all directions. Particularly touching was a group coming along Prince Milos Street. They came from the poor, industrial suburbs of Belgrade, their clothes dark-colored. Foreigners who stay in Belgrade's centrally located hotels do not see the depths of despair and poverty at the city's periphery.<br><br>Essentially, the Milosevic regime was so worm-eaten that any organized effort to topple it could have been successful. One could especially see it in the eyes of bewildered police.<br><br>Naturally, the day after Mr. Milosevic's fall was the most difficult one. We felt we were in an interregnum of sorts. The military leadership had not spoken up yet. We heard various rumors about Mr. Milosevic and his family. People feared that he would make a last stand and use his special paramilitary units. Long before the regime fell apart, I was haunted by the fear of how those who came through the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, where they carried out secret, criminal missions, would react.<br><br>I bought all the daily papers. In Politika, which was the Milosevic family's favorite, the world was turned upside down. Vojislav Kostunica, the new Yugoslav president, and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia were heroes, and Mr. Milosevic, his family and party friends, villains and cowards. The situation was the same with state TV. Where were the professionalism and sense of proportion of these ''turncoats''?<br><br>They were lost long ago in the purges and persecutions of the past 10 years. Thousands of professional people left the country. The texture of society changed not only through force and persecution but also through the prevailing poverty and ruin of the middle class. It will take a long time for things to start functioning with any degree of normalcy again.<br><br>This is history, I keep telling myself. The feeling of history is rather odd, not at all pathetic or heroic, but rather like stage fright. The heroes are generally ordinary, inconspicuous men whose role ended before anyone understood it. We can only have the vaguest of ideas about what was happening away from our eyes.<br><br>Perhaps I am a bit afraid of normal life. As if everything that has happened over the past 10 years is going to tumble on my head. You lose so many years fighting for a normal and decent life and then suddenly become aware that the loss is irremediable. How many things haven't I done in my small, limited life? How many books have I left unwritten? Is it possible to exchange the days and months filled with trepidation and helplessness for serenity and inner satisfaction? How can a person live with those he knows are vicious and cruel without feeling an urge to cry out for revenge? It is not a happy prospect.<br><br>I will probably keep coming back to these questions as long as I live. But, under the circumstances, perhaps personal happiness is an unnecessary luxury. I will have to pay for the evil deeds of those who will never experience guilt themselves.<br><br>The writer, a journalist and author of seven books, contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times. It was translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Ljilja Nikolic.<br><br>Kostunica has offered to include representatives of Djukanovic's party in a "government of experts." But Milosevic's Montenegrin allies argue that if they can tolerate their rivals, Djukanovic's party, in a federal government, then Kostunica should be ready to consider Milosevic's Socialist Party.<br><br><br>"I cannot see why the Socialists are the problem," said Zoran Zizic, a senior official in the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, according to the B92 radio station. "We are not fastidious, because now it is not the time."<br><br><br>The only progress Kostunica and Djukanovic made today was to reject Milosevic's threat of military action. In a statement, they agreed that "the parties reached mutual consent on having all disputes that burdened our relations resolved through dialogue."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor: Journalists as freedom fighters </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">John Hughes <br><br>SALT LAKE CITY <br>Mirjana Stefanovic is going home this week. <br><br>She is going home, after an absence of a bit more than a month, to a country recently transformed during her absence. <br><br>Her country is Yugoslavia. When she left, it was in the grip of Slobodan Milosevic, the dictator who, for more than a decade, has spread his murderous influence throughout the Balkans. She returns now after Milosevic has been dramatically toppled. <br><br>Ms. Stefanovic is deputy editor of the Belgrade newspaper Blic. She is a Serb, but one who has little love for Mr. Milosevic. Nor has her newspaper, which has been harassed and hobbled by the Milosevic regime. In her late 20s, she's one of Yugoslavia's brightest post-Communist, and now post-Milosevic journalists. She has spent a month at my newspaper under a program sponsored by the Freedom Forum and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It is designed to give promising editors from less-free countries a look at how the American press works. <br><br>For Stefanovic, it has not been an easy month. She wanted to study our technology and our on-line operation. As a former investigative reporter, she wanted to see how our investigative reporters worked. She wanted to see how the American media could preserve freedom from political and economic pressures. As it turned out, she had to sandwich all this in between the distractions of watching from a distant vantage point a revolution in her homeland. So in the early hours of the morning, she was on the Internet, or on the phone to colleagues in Belgrade, or scanning our Associated Press and New York Times wire services, to find out exactly how the upheaval was faring. <br><br>She was also a useful source of interpretation for, and argument with, some of our writers and editors. Though she detests Milosevic, she believes it is impossible for the fledgling new government at this stage to turn him over to The Hague tribunal as a war criminal. Though she is warm to Americans, she deplores the US-led bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO. In this respect she is at odds with Agron Bajrami, a young editor from Kosovo, who spent a month with us under the same program two years ago. Mr. Bajrami and his newspaper had similarly been harassed by the Milosevic regime, but as an ethnic Albanian, he argued strongly for the NATO bombing. "Without it," he told me by phone after he returned home, "we are finished." <br><br>Both Stefanovic and Bajrami, and their newspapers, have suffered as they sought to tell the truth in the face of oppression. <br><br>As a reporter who published unwelcome stories from Kosovo, Stefanovic was arrested by Milosevic's police and beaten up so badly she could not walk for three days. She was told she could be charged as a spy - with ominous consequences under the Milosevic regime. Her newspaper had to print on a variety of presses, was reduced in size by the regime, was limited in what it could charge for advertising, and was frequently fined. <br><br>Bajrami's newspaper offices were trashed by the Serbian military, who smashed $200,000 worth of computer equipment and $500,000 worth of presses, killing the night watchman. Bajrami himself was in hiding and on the run for 30 days before finding temporary refuge in Macedonia. <br><br>In the past four years, we have played host for a month each year to four editors from Eastern Europe or the former Soviet republics. The first, Andrey Sidorin, had trouble leaving his country of Tajikistan, roiled by an ugly internal war in which 30,000 people had been killed, among them 30 journalists. When he went home, the borders of his country were closed, and he had to hike for six days through the mountains. <br><br>These are journalists who have displayed courage; they represent millions for whom the flame of liberty beckons, even though it may have been hidden for a generation or more. <br><br>As Stefanovic wrote movingly in a column for my newspaper: "How do we Serbians feel about getting our freedom back? About restoring our dignity? I find it difficult to put into words. I have my life back." <br><br>As a journalist, I am particularly sensitive to the struggles of other journalists who face challenges, and sometimes give their lives, in pursuit of freedom. Millions they represent still await the time when they, too, will have their lives back.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor: In the ashes of Serb nationalism </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">An ethnically motivated murder in Kosovo this week indicates that 'Greater Serbia' plan is dead. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>KOSOVO POLJE, YUGOSLAVIA <br>The dirt track in central Kosovo appeared safe enough: a conveyor belt from a nearby mine followed one side; a thicket of brush lined the other. <br>But along that track - just 200 yards from the house of Radosav Ognjanovic, an ethnic Serb - was a lethal surprise that shows how much minority Serbs are under pressure in Kosovo today from majority ethnic Albanians. <br><br>That surprise illustrates, too, how the once-proud myths of Serbian nationalism - a flame fanned to new life by former President Slobodan Milosevic a decade ago right here in Kosovo, which the Serbs call "the cradle of their civilization" - have been turned upside down. Serbs here are even more uneasy now that Mr. Milosevic was ousted by more moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, fearing that ethnic Albanians will now push their case for independence from Serbia even harder. <br><br>Tension between the few ethnic Serbs who remain in Janina Voda village and their ethnic-Albanian neighbors has never been worse. <br><br>So when Mr. Ognjanovic and his friend Lubinko Andielkovic hopped onto a tractor a couple of nights ago, bumped down the road, and hit an antitank mine, the battle lines were quickly drawn. <br><br>Ethnic Albanian police officers who came with United Nations police to investigate were pushed back and stoned. Local Serbs gathered to bid farewell to Ognjanovic, who died in the blast, and to pray for Mr. Andielkovic, who was badly wounded. <br><br>"You will see how Serbs are dying here," said one family friend. "The Albanian terrorists have been attacking several times, and now they have left this family with no hope." <br><br>"Our Albanian neighbors probably did that ... they want to kill all Serbs," said Marina Verica, daughter of the wounded man. At the sound of a distant explosion, she jumped: "Those mad dogs don't know when to stop." <br><br>The angry aftermath is a potent reminder of the animosity that still afflicts Kosovo, more than a year after the 78-day US-led NATO bombing campaign aimed at reversing an ethnic-cleansing campaign against ethnic Albanian Kosovars by Serbian Yugoslav troops. <br><br>After years of repression at the hands of the Serb minority, ethnic Albanians were forced out of Kosovo en masse. As they came back - demanding independence from Yugoslavia, and with NATO troops and a new UN administration to ensure their safety - the sense of revenge was strong. <br><br>Anti-Serb attacks are still routine, such that UN police had to help this village escort mourners and the coffin from another Serb enclave. The UN reports some 430 murders, most ethnically motivated revenge killings, were carried out in Kosovo between mid-June 1999 and the end of the year. So far this year, there have been 205. <br><br>So it is an irony of history - especially for Serbs under fire today - that it was here, on the 600th anniversary of a spectacular Serbian defeat at the hands of the Turkish Army in 1389, that Milosevic spoke of the "talismanic power" of nationalism, and promised that Serbs would "never again be beaten." <br><br>The result has been the worst violence in Europe since World War II, and finally failure, as Milosevic - who has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague - was forced to give up power in Belgrade to President Kostunica two weeks ago. <br><br>"Nationalism existed before Milosevic, but he misused that dream and elevated it to the ideology of the regime," says Slobodan Antonic, a political scientist at the University of Novi Sad. <br><br>"The best treatment for nationalism is that a country experience defeat in war, like Nazi Germany," he adds. "Given that Milosevic managed not to lose one war, but four wars, we can say that Serb nationalism is broken." <br><br>The mine blast Oct. 16, in fact, took place within sight of the stone tower that juts from the rolling fields where the Battle of Kosovo Polje was fought, and from where Milosevic spelled out his plans for "Greater Serbia" to tens of thousands of cheering people. <br><br>Today the monument is protected by a KFOR watchtower. The brass lettering on the monument is telling: Any Serb who "does not come to fight in Kosovo, may he not have any descendants, neither male nor female...." <br><br>Talk of Kosovo being the Serbian holy land is brushed off by local Serbs, however, who say they want to live quietly and are no more than patriots. Prior to NATO intervention in the spring of 1999, that was the exact sentiment of repressed ethnic Albanians, too. <br><br>"It was superb," says Stojanovic Jordan of Milosevic's speech. A relative of the wounded man, he says he has been a member of Milosevic's Socialist Party "since the first day," but stayed in Kosovo throughout the conflict and still works at the railway with ethnic Albanian friends. <br><br>"Nobody supported Serb nationalism," he says. "People supported Serbia, and wanted to protect their country." <br><br>That view is echoed by a local Serb politician, Goran Stankovic, before sitting down to a traditional mourning meal of boiled meat and cabbage, paprika and rough bread. <br><br>"Milosevic is not the only one to blame for what happened here. There wasn't any Serb nationalism," Mr. Stankovic says. "I am a nationalist: I love my nation. But all people in power - even in America - will protect the integrity of their own nation." <br><br>"If there were no Milosevic, we wouldn't be here," agreed Stanislav, another family friend, as others nodded approvingly. Kosovo Serbs voted overwhelmingly for Milosevic in the September election. But now in Kosovo they feel besieged, and even under threat in their enclaves, despite the international troop presence. <br><br>"It's a very difficult task to prevent such a thing," says UN policeman John Wise, a retired Colorado state trooper from Denver, who was at the scene of the mine blast. "You would need thousands more people. We can't do everything." <br><br>Mourners say they are grieving over Ognjanovic's kindness, and random nature of his death. "He fought for unity and fought for everyone," says Vladimir Todorovic, head of the local human rights committee that he says counted the deceased as a member, showing an identity card. "But this is exactly what terrorists do - they don't care about multi-ethnicity."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Milosevic's secret overseas hoard 'worth over £70m' </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Imre Karacs in Berlinand Justin Huggler in Belgrade <br><br>President he may be no longer, but Slobodan Milosevic remains the boss of bosses at the apex of a criminal organisation and has salted away more than $100m (£70m), according to an investigation conducted by the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND). <br>The BND believes Mr Milosevic spread his ill-gotten gains in Russia, China, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon and South Africa. His son, Marko, who was thrown out of China last week and is now believed to be in Russia, is alleged to have deposited millions of dollars in bank accounts in Cyprus and South Africa recently, while Switzerland is also said to be home to millions of pounds of the Milosevic clan's money. <br>The file on Mr Milosevic, leaked yesterday to the German press, names a dozen senior Serbian politicians as cohorts in a mafia that has bled Yugoslavia dry for a decade or more. "Considerable evidence indicates that Milosevic and his entourage constitute an organised crime structure and are engaged in drug dealing, money laundering and other criminal acts," the report said. The file also alleges that about 60 people allied to the ousted Yugoslav president have been ruling the country and have prospered in the shadow of war and chaos. <br>"The near total control of key economic posts by Milosevic followers opened opportunities for illegal capital transfer for personal enrichment and financing for political plans – weapons purchases – and served as camouflage for criminal activity – drug trade," the report alleged. <br>Among the Milosevic cronies named in the report are Dragan Tomic, parliamentary president; Mirko Marjanovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, and Dragan Kostic, the former minister of energy. The long arm of the Milosevic organisation reached the Yugoslav National Bank, the country's Customs and Excise, the airline JAT, the petroleum concern NIS-Jugopetrol and the aptly named communications firm Mobtel. <br>In Belgrade the extent of the Milosevic millions has been speculated on for years, but only rarely has anyone found any proof. <br>With the imposition of international sanctions on Yugoslavia eight years ago, massive smuggling operations began to bring in forbidden goods. The smuggling is said to have been controlled by Mr Milosevic and his cronies, who made vast profits from it. Notable among the profiteers was Mr Milosevic's son, Marko, who fled to Moscow shortly after his father was deposed. <br>The countries named in the German intelligence report have been mentioned in connection with Mr Milosevic's dealings for years, especially Cyprus. <br>Last week, the woman who set up a Nicosia branch of the Belgrade Bank in Cyprus (it was later renamed) was sacked as the head of the bank. Borka Vucic, a 72-year-old woman who is a diehard ally of the deposed president, was marched from her office by armed men and whisked away in a waiting car. Her successor at the bank says he is going to make public the bank's financial records since 1992. <br>Serbian papers report that on Sunday night Ms Vucic returned to her old office in the dead of night for an hour, and it is now rumoured that she was returning to destroy incriminating evidence. Mr Milosevic was the head of Belgrade Bank in the Eighties, and it was there that he met Borka Vucic. <br>Another name to emerge in connection with Belgrade Bank's murky dealings is Miobrag Zecevic, the former head of the Franco-Yugoslav Bank in Paris and best man at Mr Milosevic's wedding. <br>In 1996, the French authorities charged him with fraudulently redirecting 5m Swiss Francs to two banks in Zurich, but the affair was unresolved. <br>Mr Zecevic's successor at the Franco-Yugoslav Bank was Borislav Milosevic, the brother of the deposed president who is still the Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow, where the younger Mr Milosevic is holed up. <br>* Supporters of the new Yugoslavian President, Vojislav Kostunica, tightened their grip on power yesterday with a deal that secures early elections and a place in government in Serbia, the country's dominant republic. The reformers announced a deal setting Serbian parliamentary elections for 23 December and providing a transitional government that will share power among Mr Kostunica's allies and the Socialists of the deposed former president. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Herald Tribune: Serbia's New Respectability Makes Kosovars Nervous </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">PRISTINA, Kosovo - The most routine plans for self-rule in Kosovo have quickly become urgent necessities. Politicians and citizens here say that Vojislav Kostunica's sudden rise to power in Belgrade means that Kosovo must get its political act together, tame its unruly society and show it can stand on its own as a country.<br>''The world is too quick to kiss Kostunica,'' said Vehbi Rafuna, president of the War Invalids Association, which aids people wounded in the battles last year against Serbian security forces. He is one of them, limping from knee wounds. ''And what about us? We must show we are a state and everybody must understand we are a state. This unclear situation of ours can only hurt. We must make moves.''<br>Two weeks ago, the majority ethnic Albanian population in this NATO-occupied province of Serbia, the dominant republic of the two left in Yugoslavia, gave little thought to the political machinations in Belgrade, preoccupied as they were with their own battle for independence. But with Mr. Kostunica now occupying the president's office and Slobodan Milosevic on the sidelines, they fear that the world will forget or obstruct Kosovo's separatist aspirations.<br>The province is hamstrung by its status as an international protectorate administered by the United Nations since the end of the NATO air campaign from March to June last year. <br>Institutions of self-government are few and the ones that exist are poorly run.<br>With President Kostunica pledging an open and democratic government, Kosovo's deficiencies may begin to stand out, people worry. ''Look at our city; look at the garbage lying around,'' said Murat Zhubi, a travel agent in Pristina, the Kosovo capital. ''Last winter, we had no heat. Criminals come here and can rob, get arrested and be on the street within a few hours. Will we deserve independence if this continues?''<br>So Kosovo's ethnic Albanians are pushing ahead with a step-by-step approach toward getting their affairs under control. <br>Municipal elections are scheduled for the end of this month, and the elected officials will replace ad hoc councils formed largely by remnants of the officially disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla group that led the fight against the Milosevic forces before the NATO offensive. <br>After the municipal balloting, Kosovo Albanians want to hold parliamentary elections within six months, followed by a referendum on independence.<br>''We have the right to a referendum and this should be accepted by the international community,'' said Hashim Thaci, head of the Kosovo Democratic Party, the political offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army. ''It's the democratic right of every people.'' <br>In the meantime, he said, ''It's up to us to build local and centralized institutions, and these institutions must be a stable partner for the international community.''<br>Naim Jerliu of the Democratic League of Kosovo echoed that thought: ''The municipal elections are a first step in showing the world we are serious about taking responsibility for ourselves.''<br>In the meantime, Kosovo Albanians are fighting a rear-guard action against the glistening international image of Mr. Kostunica. He is portrayed by many here as a Milosevic in sheep's clothing. Newspapers have prominently displayed a 1998 Associated Press photograph that shows Mr. Kostunica grinning as he held an AK-47 assault rifle.<br>Mr. Kostunica has said many times that Kosovo, still legally part of Serbia despite the current UN administration, cannot break away permanently. But he has also talked in fatalistic terms of being able to imagine a Serbia without Kosovo.<br>He has acknowledged that about 900 ethnic Albanian prisoners were carried off to Serbia before NATO troops entered, and remain in jail. <br>In an interview, he raised a possibility of freeing them, but said he wanted an accounting of the Serbs who have disappeared in Kosovo since NATO troops arrived.<br>''We wait for fuller changes in Serbia,'' said Astrit Salihu, a philosophy professor in Kosovo and independent political analyst. ''Milosevic was not just a person but also a symbol of an ideology of hatred. The Serbs need not only to change their president, but their minds.''<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Herald Tribune: Power-Sharing Pact in Yugoslavia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE - Supporters of the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, consolidated their hold on power Monday with a deal securing early elections and a place in government in Serbia, the country's dominant republic. <br>The reformers announced a deal that sets Serbian parliamentary elections for Dec. 23 and provides for a transitional government sharing power among Mr. Kostunica's allies and the Socialists of the ousted president, Slobodan Milosevic. <br>Although a mass uprising forced Mr. Milosevic to admit defeat in last month's presidential election, the Socialists and their backers remained dominant in the Serbian government, the seat of real power in Yugoslavia. <br>But the Socialists recognized that the defeat of Mr. Milosevic on a wave of pro-democracy sentiment meant that they could not continue to run Serbia on their own. <br>''Our goal was to have early elections because we've found ourselves in a very unpleasant situation where existing institutions in Serbia do not have sufficient authority to rule the country,'' said Zoran Djinjic, a top Kostunica backer. <br>Supporters of Mr. Kostunica, a 56-year-old constitutional lawyer sworn in just over a week ago, were anxious at least to neutralize the Serbian government until the elections, at which they aim to sweep the Socialists from power completely. <br>Mr. Milosevic has been indicted by a United Nations court for Kosovo war crimes. But a leading reformer predicted he would face trial at home on more mundane charges such as vote-rigging and fraud. <br>''That is how the career of a dictator will end, not with a huge crime but with simple fraud,'' Zarko Korac, who has been tipped as a candidate to become Yugoslav foreign minister, told the Croatian weekly magazine Fokus. <br>Under the terms of the power-sharing deal, the Socialists retain the post of prime minister, but the new head of government has to make decisions by consensus with two deputy prime ministers, one from each of the two main reformist forces. <br>Four ministries, including the Interior Ministry, with 85,000 police under its command, will be controlled jointly by the three groups in the deal: the Socialists, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and the Serbian Renewal Movement. <br>''This agreement ensures that the new government works in the interest of the citizens and their future,'' said Zoran Andjelkovic, the Socialists' general secretary. <br>The deal made no mention of the future of the Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, who has also been indicted on war crimes charges. A close Milosevic associate, he has a mandate until 2002. <br>But Vuk Draskovic, the Renewal Movement leader, said the new government would mark an end to violent rule under Mr. Milosevic. <br>''In a couple of days, the centers of state terrorism in Serbia will be stripped of authority,'' he said. <br>Yugoslavia opened up to the outside world with remarkable speed in the first week of Mr. Kostunica's presidency after a decade of international isolation and four Balkan wars under Mr. Milosevic. <br>Mr. Kostunica plans to travel Tuesday to Montenegro, the other republic which makes up Yugoslavia, as he tries to put together a government at federal level. His task is complicated by political differences in Montenegro. <br>Under the federal constitution, the prime minister must be from Montenegro if the president is, like Mr. Kostunica, from Serbia. But because of a boycott of the elections by Montenegro's pro-Western coalition, the only candidates from the coastal republic voted into Parliament last month were from the pro-Milosevic opposition Socialist People's Party. <br>The government of Montenegro's president, Milo Djukanovic, has insisted it will not accept a prime minister from that party. <br><br>Accord on Clearing Danube <br><br>Yugoslavia's new authorities agreed Monday to lift an objection to clearing the Danube of bridge debris left by the 1999 NATO air campaign, Agence France-Presse reported from Budapest. <br>Specifically, Belgrade approved the appointment of a manager to head an international clean-up project, according to Helmut Strasser, head of the Danube Commission, which oversees navigation of the waterway. <br>''Now, I do not see any substantial difficulty in the future in carrying out this project,'' he said, adding that the river could be open again by next summer. <br>The blockage of the Danube has cost some half a billion euros ($435 million) to shipping along the river, notably in countries downstream like Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, the commission said.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: Kostunica Agrees to Transitional Government for Serbia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By CARLOTTA GALL<br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 16 — Slobodan Milosevic's party ceded its last bastion of power today, by agreeing to share duties in a transitional government of Serbia leading to new elections.<br>The deal was reached in the week of negotiations held since a beleaguered Mr. Milosevic conceded the presidency of Yugoslavia to Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia.<br>Elections for the Serbian Parliament, which had been scheduled for next fall, will now take place on Dec. 23, and the last duties of the Parliament now in office will be to approve the transitional government, which will be made up of members from Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and a third party, the Serbian Renewal Movement, led by Vuk Draskovic.<br>Today's developments confirm the collapse of Mr. Milosevic's authority. The Serbian Parliament and government, always dominated by his allies, are where the real power lies in the republic.<br>Mr. Kostunica has been confirmed as president of the federal republic comprised of Serbia and its smaller sister-state Montenegro, but he has had no legal jurisdiction over the Serbian government or ministries, and so had no official control of the police, the courts or the news media, all tools of Mr. Milosevic's rule.<br>But as members of Mr. Kostunica's party threatened to call supporters back onto the streets, the Socialists agreed to share power. Senior representatives of his party negotiated and signed the deal, but Mr. Milosevic himself, who remains president of the party, was absent from the whole process.<br>Zoran Andjelkovic, the new general secretary of the Serbian Socialist Party and formerly head of the party in Kosovo, said his party had agreed to share power with the other two parties to stop the illegal seizure of government institutions and companies, which have been largely managed by the Socialists and their allies. The agreement was also a recognition of Mr. Kostunica's victory in the Sept. 24 federal elections, he said.<br>"Peace, security and stability, safety of people and property are the highest priority," Mr. Andjelkovic said after signing the agreement. "That's why we agreed to form a new joint government."<br>The job of the transitional government will be to lead the country in the 10 weeks until elections and prepare conditions for a fair vote, something that was markedly lacking in the federal elections. <br>The document guarantees "free activity of all political parties and full protection of public and private property," and a commitment to "jointly creating conditions for democratic elections in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect."<br>It also orders the establishment of a steering committee to run the state-owned Radio and Television Serbia. The broadcast media was notoriously pro-Milosevic for years, refusing access to opposition parties and denouncing their leaders until protesters overran its headquarters in Belgrade and burned part of it during an Oct. 5 rally.<br>Mr. Andjelkovic, not noted for his fairness during his years in Kosovo, promised cooperation.<br>"Our goal is to enable citizens to make their decision in the early elections," he said. "We are sure that they will vote on Dec. 23 for a better future, for peace, tolerance and cooperation." <br>Mr. Draskovic said the agreement meant that the various unsolved killings that occurred during Mr. Milosevic's last years in power, including that of his own brother-in-law and bodyguards last year, could soon be solved.<br>"It is an important document," he said. "We'll have to see how it will be implemented."<br>Zoran Djindjic, who led the negotiations on behalf of the Democrats, described the deal as a compromise. "SPS made a concession, agreeing to call early elections, and DOS made a concession by agreeing to enter into this transitional government," he said. "But the first priority of this government is not how to divide up the ministries but to supply the basic living means to people before the winter."<br>Earlier efforts to get Mr. Draskovic to join with the Radical Party of Serbia to dissolve the Parliament had failed, and the Democrats were forced to negotiate with their former foes the Socialists, even as Mr. Milosevic declared that he would continue to lead his party in opposition.<br>Yet Mr. Milosevic's influence on the party seems to have slipped quickly. He will remain president of the party until the Socialist congress on Nov. 25, party officials have said, but calls for his resignation within the party are growing and his portrait was even removed temporarily from the party's Website last week. <br>Some of his top representatives took part in the negotiations, including close ally Gorica Gajevic, who recently resigned from the post of general secretary of the party, and Nikola Sainovic, who formerly was federal vice president and has been indicted as a war criminal. <br>But the Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, now vice president of the party and also indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, is seen as the key figure in the party and appears ready to cooperate with the Democrats. The agreement did not mention new elections for the Serbian president and it seems he may be allowed to serve out his term until 2002.<br>The main loser from the agreement is Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the Radical Party of Serbia, which until now was part of the ruling coalition, but will play no part in the transitional government. Mr. Seselj said on state television this weekend that he refused to take part in the transitional government since it was legalizing "revolution and theft." <br>Mr. Seselj has opposed calling early elections, saying that the Democrats would unfairly win a landslide riding the current wave of enthusiasm for Mr. Kostunica. Judging from his party's poor showing in the federal elections, Mr. Seselj is likely to fare badly in Serbian elections, too.<br>No ministers have yet been appointed, but the three parties will together run the prime minister's office and the four key ministries of interior affairs, finance, information and justice. Decisions in those ministries will be made by a board and by consensus.<br>The agreement was signed by Mr. Kostunica, Mr. Milutinovic and representatives of all three parties. <br>The Sse name ocialists will keep the office of prime minister for one of their members, but all decisions will have to be made by consensus with two vice-premiers, one each from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and the Serbian Renewal Movement. Ministers are expected to be selected in the next few days, Mr. Andjelkovic said.<br>The chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, long an ally of Mr. Milosevic, again expressed his support for Mr. Kostunica to journalists today. He said, however, that he was concerned that part of the Interior Ministry forces and secret service units were not under the control of the authorities.<br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times:Milosevic faces $10bn fraud trial </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Tom Walker, Belgrade <br><br>THE ousted Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic, is facing the growing threat of a trial in Belgrade that could end with his imprisonment for plundering huge sums of money from the state. <br>Legal sources close to President Vojislav Kostunica, Milosevic's successor, say inquiries into the former leader's activities will encompass the fraudulent handling of "anything up to $10 billion" (£6.8 billion). <br><br>This figure includes the contents of private accounts Milosevic froze as Yugoslavia stumbled into war in the early 1990s, public funds that are said to have been misused and the proceeds of racketeering in cigarettes, alcohol, oil and grain. <br><br>To make the strongest possible case against Milosevic, however, lawyers say they may have to concentrate in the short term on hard evidence provided by foreign authorities. <br><br>They will examine banking details provided by the Swiss authorities, which confirmed last week that they had frozen 600 accounts belonging to members of the Milosevic regime, with a value of $57m. Othmar Wyss, the head of the state secretariat for economic affairs, said his investigation would whittle down the account holders to those closest to Milosevic, including his wife Mira Markovic. <br><br>Milosevic's dealings with the domestic Beogradska Bank may be exposed if Borka Vucic, his trusted personal banker, is removed as its head this week. <br><br>The new regime's investigators will also look at attempts by Milosevic, who was untouchable during his 13 years of near-absolute power, to rig last month's elections, which he lost. And they plan to investigate his alleged failure to en-sure that the state television building was evacuated during Nato airstrikes on Belgrade in April 1999. Any finding of wrongdoing could lead to a charge of culpable homicide. <br><br>Kostunica may allow charges to be brought against heavyweights in the former regime such as General Nebojsa Pavkovic, the army chief of staff, whose recent purchase of a £200,000 flat in central Belgrade for his wife Gloria, a cousin of Mira Markovic, raised eyebrows. A military court has previously imposed a suspended sentence on Pavkovic for embezzlement. <br><br>Nikola Sainovic, Milosevic's most trusted adviser, faces a possible investigation into his running of RTB Bor, a copper extraction company that has helped make him one of the richest men in the country. Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president, could be charged over his supervision of reported Milosevic purchases in Greece, including a villa and a yacht. <br><br>Sainovic busied himself last week with shuttling between the Milosevic residence in the exclusive Belgrade suburb of Dedinje and socialist party headquarters. Bodyguards kept watch over the gates to the residence, through which the occasional motorcade came and went, with Sainovic visible in a BMW that followed two armoured Audis with blacked-out windows. <br><br>Senior policemen in Belgrade have advised Kostunica to proceed cautiously, however, warning that Milosevic's cronies may use hired assassins against their accusers. <br><br>Police sources said Kostunica must establish control before Serbian elections, ex-pected on December 24. "Any new establishment will face the menace of organised crime," one former senior officer said. "If they can't buy into Kostunica's alliance they may decide to do some killing instead." <br><br>Leaving aside war crimes, there have been 562 unsolved murders in Serbia in the past eight years, and the gangland culture is strong in Belgrade. "There are about 150 of them out there," said one officer. "They have missiles and explosives, and right now they fall between the two regimes." <br><br>Diplomats are concerned that Kostunica and Zoran Djindjic, his campaign organiser, have diametrically opposed views on how to overcome the gangs. <br><br>Kostunica is adamant that no compromises can be made. Djindjic's supporters include the most feared of police-cum-mafia groups, Frenki Simatovic's Unit for Special Operations, with 200 men at its core and another 1,000 reservists. Many were involved in ethnic cleansing during the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. <br><br>Any rift between Kostunica and Djindjic could benefit Milosevic. Diplomats said Milosevic would have keenly noted Kostunica's first public criticism of Djindjic, who, he said, had no authority to claim Pavkovic was to be replaced as chief of staff. The tension increased after it emerged that Djindjic had given Belgrade's airport authorities approval to let Milosevic's son, Marko, leave the country for Russia. <br><br>Kostunica is on more comfortable ground away from the Balkan intrigue. Yesterday he was given a warm reception by European Union leaders at their summit in Biarritz, where he attended a lunch hosted by President Jacques Chirac. The French leader said he rejoiced in Yugoslavia's "democratic evolution". <br><br>One of Kostunica's first moves is expected to be the abandonment of the name Yugoslavia. Aides say Kostunica believes it became redundant when Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia left the federation. Yugoslavia could be renamed Serbia-Montenegro. <br><br>Milosevic's opponents, however, fear the country's 50% inflation and high crime rate could create opportunities for him to exploit discontent. They say Milosevic will remain dangerous until he is either in court or out of the country. <br><br>"It's like a horror movie," said Dusan Simic, a former editor of Danas newspaper. "You have to wait until the end and then you see the same dreaded hand rising again."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor:Serbia confronts troubled past </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">After 13 years under Milosevic, some Serbs are looking to South Africa as a model for reconciliation. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br>An old saying in the Balkans may have new meaning today, as Serbs begin coming to terms with the often-bloody legacy of ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>"If Serbia is at peace with itself, there will be a peaceful future," the proverb goes. And with the abrupt end of Mr. Milosevic's rule, his hard-line nationalist policies - which led to four Balkan wars and scores of war-crimes indictments, and turned Yugoslavia into a pariah state - are under new examination. <br><br>A reckoning with the past has occurred from South Africa, Mozambique, and Rwanda to wartime Germany and Latin America, as nations pull out of conflict and try to move toward peace. <br><br>There is growing talk of some kind of reconciliation commission beginning work here within months. Serbs say that now they are in need of forgiveness - among themselves, at least - and that to heal their society there must be a public, probably painful reckoning concerning such questions as: What was done to create a "Greater Serbia?" And who carried out "ethnic cleansing" - against ethnic Croats, Bosnians, and Albanians - in the name of the Serbian nation? <br><br>"Now we have Milosevic out, but there is a tendency to scapegoat him and blame him for all this, and that is dangerous," says Sonja Biserko, head of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. "By now, ordinary citizens are aware of what happened, but we must go back to those who did war - open it up, and find who was responsible. <br><br>"Many people don't know why it was wrong. There has been a lot of criticism of Milosevic for losing those wars, but not for starting them," Mrs. Biserko says. "It is important we go through a catharsis and deal with that, acknowledge that we were part of it. Facing the truth will be important for the future." <br><br>A key element could be the international war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. But new leader Vojislav Kostunica, who assumed the federal presidency on Oct. 7, rules out cooperation with the court or handing over the chief suspect, Milosevic. An ardent nationalist himself - but also a constitutional lawyer, who recognizes the need to find out the truth about the past - Mr. Kostunica shares the view of many Serbs that the tribunal is an anti-Serb political court controlled by the West. <br><br>In any event, creating a new government and democratic order in Yugoslavia are Kostunica's top priority, he says, so war-crimes issues "simply take a back seat." <br><br>Reckoning with the past has already begun elsewhere in the Balkans, though, with citizens in Croatia and Bosnia, who after the end of their 1991-95 conflicts began to reject hard-line nationalist aspirations in favor of a more tolerant global view. Still, some Croats protest almost daily their new government's probes into war crimes. <br><br>But as Serbs contemplate their need for reconciliation, they are facing the ghosts of the worst Balkan atrocities from places like Vukovar, Srebrenica, and Racak. <br><br>"The most positive harbinger for Yugoslavia is the nonviolent revolution, and healing is much better, historically, if it is nonviolent," says Stephen Zunes, head of the Peace and Justice Studies program at the University of San Francisco. "It is no accident that Romania [where President Nicolae Ceaucescu was executed on Christmas day, 1989] has had a difficult time." <br>Part of the equation is economic: Ethnic nationalism became a critical force in Nazi Germany, Rwanda, and Serbia when economic times were tough, Mr. Zunes points out. Rebuilding an economy gutted by a decade of sanctions and economic mismanagement, and restoring an infrastructure severely damaged by NATO airstrikes last year will be key. <br><br>But there are other elements, too. "There needs to be some type of truth and reconciliation, but there is a tricky balance between a witch hunt and Latin American amnesties for all," says Zunes. "South Africa is a good model." <br><br>Prodded by then-president Nelson Mandela, South Africa confronted the crimes of the apartheid era. Under a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, perpetrators confessed their wrongdoing in exchange for amnesty, and victims told their stories. Though imperfect - critics say it was wrong that the crimes revealed were not punished - it soothed a troubled society. <br><br>But that case does not apply here in every way. "South Africa was blessed with a vigorous community full of debate and discussion. They had a lot to build on and some very impressive people," says the Rev. John Langan, an expert on ethics and human rights at Georgetown University. <br><br>"They also had a sense of hope and pride, whereas Serbs have lived through a pretty comprehensive experience of failure, and don't have so much to build on," Mr. Langan says. "What may be necessary is a reeducation campaign." <br><br>Some quarter of a million people died in the Balkan wars, and more than 1 million were displaced. The Serb push to "cleanse" Kosovo - considered by many Serbs to be the cradle of their civilization - of ethnic Albanians last year alone resulted in 40,000 dead. <br><br>"To face the facts is a learning process, because this nation should see, so that it doesn't happen again. The education of the mind is the most important part," says Igor Pantelic, a Belgrade lawyer who has defended Serbs at The Hague tribunal. "Once you start this kind of procedure, it is inevitable. A fair and honest appraisal will take years and years." <br><br>Such an appraisal is not coming from The Hague, which Mr. Pantelic criticizes for inconsistent rulings. He notes that "Serbs and Croats don't want to have foreign influence in their business, whether it is dirty or not." <br><br>But he is convinced that all those indicted by the tribunal will face proceedings - if not in The Hague, then certainly in Serbia, where judgment is likely to be harsh. The new, legalistic leadership is also speaking increasingly of arresting the Old Guard - including Milosevic - and trying them for white-collar crimes. <br><br>"The media will play an important role, as in Croatia and Bosnia, because they are opening all the files - the archives, the souls and the minds," Pantelic says. "Slowly and surely they are speaking of who did what. Kostunica could play a big role to settle hot minds and hot heads." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The ABC NEWS:Kostunica Search for Government Hits New Obstacle</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica"s search for a new government hit trouble Sunday when leaders of Serbia"s sister republic Montenegro rejected a deal giving the prime minister"s post to a political opponent. Kostunica, fresh from a meeting in France with European Union leaders who gave him political and financial support, met leaders of the 18-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), his main backers in last month"s elections, to discuss forming a new federal government. A major problem facing the new leader, who ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the elections, is that under the federal constitution the prime minister must be from Montenegro if the president is, like Kostunica, from Serbia. But because of a boycott of the elections by Montenegro"s pro-Western ruling coalition, the only candidates from the coastal republic voted into parliament last month were from the pro-Milosevic opposition Socialist People"s Party (SNP). In a bid to persuade Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic to accept the idea of an SNP premier for Yugoslavia, Serbian opposition leader Zoran Djindjic headed for the Montenegrin capital Podgorica late Sunday for talks with the leadership. Shortly after he announced he was going, however, Montenegro"s ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) rejected the idea, saying in a statement: "We will not accept that kind of trading and will not bargain with Montenegro"s future." And the republic"s Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac said any sort of cooperation with Serbia should be on the basis of Montenegro"s independence, which he said would be achieved "regardless of the international community"s interest to preserve or keep what was left of former Yugoslavia." Analysts said the reiteration of the independence issue, raised frequently during Milosevic"s rule, appeared to be a bargaining tactic ahead of the talks with Serbian politicians. Djindjic was quoted by Beta news agency as saying after Sunday"s meeting that in exchange for what he called "understanding" from the Montenegrin leadership the DOS promised to start "serious talks" on a new relationship between the two republics. Montenegro has long chafed under a federal system which it felt left it virtually powerless under Milosevic"s rule. The DOS is the largest bloc in the federal parliament following the elections, but it lacks an overall majority, leaving control of the assembly in the hands of Milosevic"s Socialist Party and its longtime allies. PARALLEL TALKS ON FORMING NEW SERBIAN GOVT Meanwhile, parallel talks were also going on over the formation of a new government in Serbia, the major partner and key political power-base in the Yugoslav federation, where Milosevic"s Socialists have also been digging in their heels. After talks Saturday night the DOS and Socialists reached broad agreement on a plan to dissolve the Serbian parliament on October 24 and hold new elections two months later. Kostunica supporters, aware that the Socialists have gone back on previous deals for new elections, have given their leaders until Monday to agree to the latest terms after consultation with their members. Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer who likes to operate strictly by the book, says the country needs a new federal government in order to rebuild the economy and process the financial and other aid they have been promised by the West. "I hope in the coming days...in a week to 15 days at most, that we will be able to have a government which can accept everything that is being opened up to us as far as the support of Europe and the democratic world is concerned," he told reporters at the airport on his return from the EU summit. The new president was having talks with Yugoslavia"s exiled Crown Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic, who was making a rare visit to the country from his home in London. Alexander, an outspoken critic of Milosevic, pledged his support for Kostunica soon after the opposition leader took over from Milosevic on a wave of people power. The prince said Sunday that restoring monarchy was not an immediate priority in the country struggling with the legacy of Milosevic. "What we have to do now is to go on with democracy. We can"t waste time," he said after landing at Belgrade airport. But in an interview given to the daily Politika, the Prince said that bringing back monarchy to the Balkan nation was still an open question and it was for the people to decide on the issue. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent:Secret police stay loyal to Milosevic </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Justin Huggler in Belgrade 15 October 2000 <br><br>The revolution on the streets may be over, but behind the scenes in Serbia, other revolutions are still going on. While President Vojislav Kostunica is toasted by EU leaders in Biarritz, his allies at home are still trying to prise the last of Slobodan Milosevic's cronies out of the powerful positions they desperately cling to. <br><br>At the same time, Mr Milosevic's former allies look increasingly keen to ditch the discredited former president. His picture has abruptly disappeared from his Socialist Party of Serbia's website. The Glas Javnosti daily newspaper reported yesterday that the Belgrade branch of the Party of Serbia had sent Mr Milosevic a letter "asking for changes in the party leadership", and saying that "state bodies and a part of the party leadership either made improper decisions or betrayed the party". <br><br>All the while, the deposed Mr Milosevic skulks in his Belgrade villa using, say some, what influence he has left to ensure the transfer of power is as difficult as possible, ordering his allies to delay their departure from positions of influence. <br><br>Perhaps most worrying for Mr Kostunica, much of the State Security, the hated secret police, appears to remain faithful to Mr Milosevic. <br><br>Rade Markovic, chief of the murky organisation, has pointedly neglected to recognise Mr Kostunica as the new president, and a lieutenant-colonel who went over to the Kostunica side says that the secret police is still briefing Mr Milosevic on every development. <br><br>But the regular police have joined Mr Kostunica in their droves. Some of them helped in the storming of parliament, and when the defiant Serbian prime minister, Mirko Marjanovic, issued orders to them to regain control of television and other state institutions last week, they ignored him. The move fell flat, and he had to return to the negotiating table. <br><br>Talks to prise Mr Marjanovic and his colleagues out of power continued into the early hours yesterday. Technically, the government of Serbia – the larger of Yugoslavia's two remaining republics – is still in office, as the elections that swept Mr Milosevic aside were on a federal level. Last week, it threatened to rule on, and yesterday backed away from a deal for Serbian elections to take place on 24 December. Mr Kostunica's allies appear to have agreed to the inclusion of a socialist prime minister in the transitional government that will rule until elections do take place. <br><br>Meanwhile, workers have held their own revolutions in state-owned companies across Serbia to eject Mr Milosevic's cronies from boardrooms. Overall-wearing workers are at the helm of huge conglomerations, invoking workers' committee legislation left over from the days of Marshal Tito. <br><br>In many firms, Mr Milosevic's men are resigning. But workers had to storm their own offices at the Progress import/export plant last week, when the chairman of the board refused to resign and attempted to have them barred from the building. That chairman is Mirko Marjanovic. <br><br>With the people, army and police behind him, Mr Kostunica looks safe from any challenge by Mr Milosevic or the socialists. But enemies are not his only worry – he has said he is getting almost as much trouble "from my friends". <br><br>The Chief of Staff, Nebojsa Pavkovic, tainted by his close alliance with Mr Milosevic, is trying to ingratiate himself with the new president. But as he does so, a row is simmering between Mr Kostunica and Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian kingmaker, who wants Mr Pavkovic replaced with his own man. <br><br>The unpopular Mr Djindjic could never have beaten Mr Milosevic in elections – but Mr Kostunica could not have done it without the support of Mr Djidjic's influential Democratic Party. But now that alliance is unravelling. <br><br>While the Socialist Party, even without Mr Milosevic, won't be winning any elections soon, it is worth remembering that, in all of the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe that had their revolutions a decade ago, "reformed" party cronies and apparatchiks are back in government. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugo reformers win vote deal, get EU boost</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslavia"s revolution looked back on track Friday after pro-Western reformers announced a deal with allies of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic to hold early elections for the Serbian parliament. Supporters of new President Vojislav Kostunica also said they had secured an agreement in principle to form a transitional government to smooth the way for the potentially decisive vote, set for December 24. In a further boost to the new rulers, the European Union endorsed an emergency aid package worth nearly 200 million euros ($173 million) to help Serbia get through the winter. Serbia makes up the lion"s share of federal Yugoslavia, torn apart by a decade of ethnic conflict, and its government oversees an estimated 85,000-strong police force as well as the bulk of the nation"s disastrous finances. Though Milosevic was pushed from office following last week"s mass street protests, his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) still dominates the powerful Serbian assembly. Senior SPS official Nikola Sainovic, who, like Milosevic, has been indicted by the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal, said on Friday he was in daily contact with the former president. Milosevic has not been seen in public since conceding defeat in a live television address one week ago. His opponents say he is still pulling strings behind the scenes and Sainovic confirmed that his boss had remained in Belgrade. MILOSEVIC PARTY THREATENED WITH PEOPLE POWER The SPS, fighting for political survival, tried to renege on an election deal earlier this week, putting the brakes on Kostunica"s drive to reform the economically crippled country. More fiery elements of Kostunica"s coalition had warned that they would bring the crowds back to the streets unless an accord was struck by Friday. "I am under the impression that the people from the SPS came to their senses finally," a prominent Kostunica backer, Vladan Batic, said after cross-party discussions. Further talks were scheduled for 10:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) to finalise the settlement. Kostunica"s 18-party coalition, anxious to get down to the business of government, welcomed news of the December vote. "We believe this will ease tensions, that was the main point. This vacuum we are in is now confined to two months," said Zoran Djinjdic, leader of the Democratic Party. One of the biggest headaches facing Kostunica is the dire state of the economy, with inflation running at some 50 percent a month and the unofficial jobless rate also seen at 50 percent. The Yugoslav Central Bank moved Friday to start the long process of stabilizing the local dinar currency by cutting the de facto exchange rate to 30 dinars to the German mark from 20. As his supporters negotiated a way out of the Serbian parliament stalemate, Kostunica held talks with representatives from Montenegro on forming a federal government. Montenegro is Serbia"s junior partner in the federation, but relations between the two are strained to the point of breaking because of disagreement arising out of Milosevic"s rule. Kostunica has to deal with the complex world of Montenegrin political rivalries to garner support for a new government. "I welcome that Mr Kostunica wants to hear the opinion of all parties in the federal parliament and also of the authorities in Montenegro," Predrag Bulatovic, the deputy head of Montenegro"s traditionally pro-Milosevic party, told Reuters. <br><br>WEST WELCOMES KOSTUNICA <br><br>The new president is due to leave Yugoslavia Saturday for the first time since taking office, to attend a summit of European Union leaders in the French resort town of Biarritz and then to hold talks with the Swiss president in Geneva. The West has moved quickly to restore normal ties with Yugoslavia, and EU leaders agreed Friday to give Belgrade funds for medicines and heating oil and to improve food distribution in Yugoslavia as winter approaches. But even as the international community offered Kostunica the hand of friendship, there was a reminder that he still has plenty of other problems at home. Two Serbian police officers were killed and nine wounded when their vehicles drove over a landmine on a road close to the boundary with Kosovo, the Serbian Interior Ministry said. The ministry statement said the mine had been planted by "members of Albanian terrorist gangs from Kosovo and Metohija," using the traditional Serbian name for the province, which is now under the control of the United Nations. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: Milosevic Ally Quits Foreign Ministry Post</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By ROGER COHEN<br>ELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 13 — The Yugoslav foreign minister, a loyalist to the ousted Slobodan Milosevic, quit today as the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, pursued a steady but scarcely sweeping campaign to assert his authority.<br><br>Foreign Ministry officials said the minister, Zivadin Jovanovic, went to his Belgrade office, collected his things, said goodbye to a few aides and walked out. Mr. Jovanovic's departure was another sign of the haphazard way authority is shifting in this country.<br><br>A week after Mr. Milosevic resigned in the face of a popular uprising, Mr. Kostunica is still battling to take the reins of power. His approach is slow and steady, setting him at odds with Zoran Djindjic, his main ally in bringing democratic change and a man more inclined to move fast in seizing authority.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic, now in theory a private citizen with no more rights than any other Yugoslav, sits in a state villa in the exclusive Belgrade neighborhood of Dedinje protected by soldiers. A member of his Serbian Socialist Party, Nikola Sainovic, said today that he was in daily contact with Mr. Milosevic over policy decisions.<br><br>The country's top military commander, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, long a staunch ally of Mr. Milosevic, remains at the head of the army. While Mr. Djindjic favors moving swiftly to remove Mr. Milosevic from political life and oust General Pavkovic, Mr. Kostunica is more inclined to caution, officials close to Mr. Djindjic and Mr. Kostunica said.<br><br>Mr. Djindjic has a stronger political base than the new president in his Democratic Party, but Mr. Kostunica, whose Democratic Party of Serbia is tiny, has won enormous authority through heading the campaign that overthrew Mr. Milosevic. In practice, the two men need each other, although further tensions appear certain to flare.<br><br>Western governments, eager to consolidate a long-awaited democratic change, are concerned that Mr. Kostunica not lose the political momentum he now has through hesitation, officials said. Mr. Kostunica is to travel to Biarritz, France, on Saturday to meet European Union ministers, who are eager to demonstrate their support for what they call "Serbia's return to Europe."<br><br>In the delicate political conditions set by a transfer of power that is by no means complete, negotiations continued today between Mr. Kostunica's supporters and Mr. Milosevic's party over two central issues: the setting of a date for elections in the Serbian republic and the formation of an interim Serbian government until then.<br><br>Serbia is by far the larger constituent part of what is left of Yugoslavia, and its government runs an 85,000-strong police force that was one pillar of Mr. Milosevic's authority. The former president's party is the largest in the Serbian parliament and controls several of the government ministries.<br><br>After talks today, Vladan Batic, a supporter of Mr. Kostunica, said an agreement had been reached to hold Serbian elections on Dec. 24. Until then, Mr. Batic said, an accord has been fashioned to share control of the most important Serbian ministries between the Socialists and the bloc of parties that propelled Mr. Kostunica to victory.<br><br>But the Socialists did not confirm the election date, previously rumored to be Dec. 17, and it was not immediately clear how power-sharing would work between politicians with diametrically opposing views. Mr. Sainovic, of the Socialist Party, said only that "conditions have been created to lead to an agreement on a Serbian government."<br><br>In practice, the Socialists have to show some flexibility or face the possibility of another outburst of popular ire. But there is little question that Mr. Kostunica's decision to compromise with Mr. Milosevic for now has given the party some breathing space.<br><br>The president is also moving slowly to form a federal Yugoslav government. A central difficulty is the uneasy relationship between Belgrade and the other Yugoslav republic, Montenegro.<br><br>Milo Djukanovic, the president of Montenegro, has congratulated Mr. Kostunica on his victory, but has given no indication that the situation in Serbia will change a central thrust of his policy, which has been to try to create the conditions for the possibility of Montenegro's independence.<br><br>As the price for his cooperation, Mr. Djukanovic is known to want sweeping changes in the Yugoslav Army because of its aggressive stance in recent years in Montenegro. But it is precisely such changes that Mr. Kostunica seems reluctant to make because of his overriding concern with stability.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Kostunica faces fresh clash over army chief </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Justin Huggler in Belgrade <br><br><br>14 October 2000 <br><br>A rift has opened up between Yugoslavia's new President, Vojislav Kostunica, and some of his most powerful backers, including Serbia's king-maker, Zoran Djindjic, even as Slobodan Milosevic's allies in the Serbian government backed down yesterday and agreed to hand over power. <br><br>At the heart of the dispute are two generals with blood-spattered pasts: the Chief-of-Staff, Nebojsa Pavkovic, who commanded the federal army, the VJ, in Kosovo, where its soldiers are alleged to have committed atrocities; and Momcilo Perisic, who stands accused of shelling civilians in Croatia. <br><br>Powerful voices in the coalition that backed Mr Kostunica for President are demanding that General Pavkovic be sacked as Chief-of-Staff and replaced with General Perisic. Chief among them is Mr Djindjic, whose support was vital in Mr Kostunica's campaign. <br><br>But the appointment of a chief-of-staff lies directly in the President's hands, and Mr Kostunica has let it be known he wants to leave the general staff unchanged for the time being. He has even complained publicly that Mr Djindjic is making policy statements without his approval. <br><br>General Headquarters reacted furiously when Mr Djindjic suggested Mr Pavkovic might be persuaded to resign last week, issuing vague threats of "negative consequences". <br><br>But some at least among Mr Djindjic's faction are refusing to back down. "Kostunica must get rid of Pavkovic within a week," said Zoran Zivkovic, mayor of Nis and a close aide to Mr Djindjic. <br><br>Others looking for General Pavkovic's scalp sought to play down the division. "There is no rift between us, only a difference of opinion," said Zoran Korec, a leading member of the alliance behind Mr Kostunica. <br><br>The office of General Perisic, the favoured candidate to replace General Pavkovic, was fanning the flames. "I won't say how deep the division in DOS goes, but even the slightest division is enough for General Pavkovic and the other leading generals to be sacked," said Dragan Vuksic, and adviser to General Perisic. <br><br>"The majority of officers are against Pavkovic," claimed Mr Vuksic. "If he isn't sacked, they may act to remove him." <br><br>Also in the anti-Pavkovic faction's sights is Dragoljub Ojdanic, the federal Defence Minister, who has been indicted by the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague. <br><br>General Pavkovic is certainly unpopular. At Mr Kostunica's swearing-in ceremony he was booed by onlookers – it is rare for a soldier to be heckled in Serbia. He has a murky past, as commander of the VJ in Kosovo, where its soldiers have been accused of atrocities. But he has not been publicly indicted by the Hague tribunal. <br><br>General Perisic is accused of shelling civilians in Zadar in the Croatian war in 1991, and has been tried in absentia for war crimes by a Croatian court and sentenced to 20 years. But he, too, has not been publicly indicted by the Hague tribunal. <br><br>Ask Mr Zivkovic why the chief-of-staff should be changed and you get an answer worrying for Serbia's nascent democracy: "We want Perisic because he's our man," he said. General Pavkovic was close to the Milosevic regime, while General Perisic was highly critical of the former president at the time of the Nato air attacks. <br><br>But there is a personal grudge, too. "Pavkovic called up 12 out of 70 Nis city councillors to serve in Kosovo," complains Mr Zivkovic. "Eleven of them were from my party." <br><br>The row simmered on yesterday even as Mr Milosevic's allies backed down from threats to seize back power and agreed to new elections in Serbia on 24 December. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica gets lift from U.S. in effort to form government</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ President Vojislav Kostunica received a strong boost Friday from the United States in efforts to keep the Yugoslav federation together. The support came from U.S. Balkan envoy James C. O"Brien, who told the president of Montenegro that Washington opposes independence for the smaller Yugoslav republic. Although Kostunica assumed the Yugoslav presidency on Oct. 7, he must cut deals with the leaderships of the two republics _ Serbia and Montenegro _ to wield real power. At a meeting in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, O"Brien urged Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic to begin talks with Kostunica "on maintaining Yugoslavia." "The U.S. does not favor independence for Montenegro," O"Brien told reporters in Podgorica. Even though Djukanovic opposed then-President Slobodan Milosevic, he boycotted the Sept. 24 presidential election and has said he does not recognize the results. After his talks with O"Brien, Djukanovic indicated in a statement he would cooperate with the pro-democracy government in Belgrade, despite his earlier refusal to recognize Kostunica. "It is of utmost importance that the democratic government in Montenegro ... gives full contribution to strengthening the new authorities in Belgrade," Djukanovic"s statement said. "There is hope that new possibilities will open for a political dialogue in good faith between Podgorica and Belgrade," the statement said. Meanwhile, Kostunica was trying to extend his control over the Serbian government _ still controlled by Milosevic"s followers _ by getting Milosevic"s former allies into agreeing to new parliament elections. Late-night talks between Kostunica"s allies and former Milosevic allies in Socialist party broke up early Saturday without sealing a deal on holding elections in Serbia. Kostunica aide Vladan Batic said there was an agreement in principle for the current Serbian government to resign. Parliament would then approve a new transition government with representatives of both camps, after which the legislature would dissolve pending new elections, possible on Dec. 24. The Socialists, however, said differences still remained before a deal could be signed. "We are negotiating nicely as always, democratically," said the pro-Milosevic Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, as he left the meeting. Asked when elections would be held, he replied: "When we reach an agreement." Kostunica ally Nebojsa Covic, who attended the talks, blamed the Socialists for the delay. "They are buying time, not realizing their time is up, just as their president, Slobodan Milosevic," Covic said, quoted by the Tanjug news agency, In Podgorica, O"Brien said that "Serbia, Montenegro and the federal government (of Yugoslavia) should enter good faith negotiations on maintaining Yugoslavia." For the last two years, Djukanovic had repeatedly threatened to call a referendum on independence. The West had urged restraint, fearing such a move could trigger another Balkan war. Strong sentiment for independence exists among many of Montenegro"s 600,000 people. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>CS Monitor: A troubled transition in Serbia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">President Clinton lifted sanctions yesterday. But a parliamentary struggle could mean more unrest. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br><br>The glaziers of Yugoslavia are everywhere, replacing windows broken in last week's "revolution" that brought President Vojislav Kostunica to power. <br><br>But as trucks laden with plate glass offload at the steps of the burned-out parliament building, and store owners fit new panes, tensions are building over the renewed influence of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic and his allies, which could lead to violence - and more broken glass. <br><br>The pro-democracy movement has given Milosevic cronies until today to agree to new elections in the Serbian parliament - a preliminary agreement earlier this week was abruptly rescinded - or face renewed street protests. There were signs yesterday that a deal might be struck, but many Serbs were anxious about the next steps. Milosevic allies still controlled the police force. <br><br>"No doubt Milosevic is pulling the strings. They want to slow down people's anger and momentum," says Bratislav Grubacic, editor of the VIP newsletter in Belgrade. "The sense of revenge is great, and if people go back on the street again, there could be a slaughter." <br><br>From his well-protected home in a Belgrade suburb, Mr. Milosevic reportedly is meeting with a stream of backers, energizing supporters in a way that appeared impossible just days ago, when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to force Milosevic to accept defeat in Sept. 24 elections. <br><br>The result is a power struggle that on Wednesday saw the powerful parliament of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, declare it would halt cooperation with Mr. Kostunica's transition team. Both the Yugoslav and Serbian parliaments are controlled by Milosevic's party and its allies. Senior generals also warned against the "negative consequences" of top-rank purges planned by the new leadership. <br><br>Also a problem for Kostunica are emerging differences in his 18-member coalition, and policy freelancing by some members. Pro-Milosevic managers are being pushed out of factories, mines, and hotels by angry staff in dramatic confrontations across the country. Milosevic's Socialist Party accuses the new leaders of bringing "lawlessness and violence" to Serbia. <br><br>"I cannot justify all that's going on," Kostunica said in an interview with The New York Times. "On the surface there is a peaceful, democratic transition, but below the surface is a kind of volcano, not so controlled." <br><br>"I am having almost as much trouble from my friends as from my enemies," he added, in executing the transfer of power. <br><br>One senior pro-democracy leader, Zoran Djindjic, warned on Wednesday that if the Serbian parliament didn't agree to new elections by today, then "we will call the people to the streets to demand new elections." He said the Serbian parliament - which was not up for election in the federal vote that brought Kostunica to power - was overplaying its hand: "It's a fact of life they have no control over 80 percent of the processes in the country." <br><br>On Thursday, however, he reported that a crisis might be averted: "I think we have an agreement that it should be done in a political way, through elections and through some kind of cooperation to keep the country stable without economic or energy crisis." <br><br>Part of the problem, Serb analysts say, is that Kostunica's legal insistence on doing the transfer of power "right" is being taken advantage of by more ruthless adversaries. <br><br>"Kostunica is underestimating what could happen still. He is a very nice person, and very legally inclined, so maybe he can't understand what crooks they are," says Mr. Bratacic. "Milosevic can't reverse the process and retake power, but he can cause trouble. We are dealing with people [who] are not willing to give up power, and if a civil war results [in their view], so be it. <br><br>"With this behavior, [Milosevic] will really force people to kill him. People will say, 'We must hit the snake in the head,'" he adds. "Kostunica must now become a mature politician, or he will be lost." <br><br>Pro-Milosevic forces appeared to be consolidating what remained of their grip on power. The Socialist Party announced the replacement of its hard-line chief Gorica Gajevic with the more moderate Zoran Andjelkovic, who now heads a Serb-run Kosovo government. <br><br>On top of domestic problems, Kostunica has been swamped with European and American visitors, and shows of support from around the world. President Clinton yesterday lifted an oil embargo and flight ban against Serbia, echoing moves earlier this week by the European Union. In a written statement, Mr. Clinton said the US has "a strong interest in supporting Yugoslavia's newly elected leaders as they work to build a truly democratic society." US diplomat William Dale Montgomery arrived in Belgrade Wednesday, and more senior officials are expected soon. <br><br>But the burden of leadership seemed a heavy load for Kostunica, whose appeal to voters has been in part because he had no political background. "It is true he is inexperienced," says Aleksa Djilas, a historian and public-policy scholar currently at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "He is also a decent person who believes in the rule of law. His advantage is that a lot of people voted for him. And the fact that he has not behaved like a revolutionary could be helpful in the long run." <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The FT: Kostunica wins key Serbian power centre</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By Irena Guzelova and Stefan Wagstyl in Belgrade<br>Published: October 13 2000 17:50GMT | Last Updated: October 13 2000 18:06GMT<br> <br><br> <br>The last vestiges of power slipped from ousted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Friday as his supporters prepared to agree the dissolution of the Serbian parliament. <br><br>Backers of the new president Vojislav Kostunica said elections would most likely be held on December 24 for the Serbian republic's government which controls key functions, such as the police. <br><br>They also said they were close to forming transitional governments for the Yugoslav federation and the Serbian republic for the two months until the poll. <br><br>The developments encouraged Mr Kostunica to confirm that he would accept an invitation to attend the European Union summit in Biarritz on Saturday. The European Commission said it would provide E200m ($172m) in emergency aid to help Yugoslavia through the winter, including funds for fuel. <br><br>Dissolving the republic's government will enable Mr Kostunica's supporters to consolidate power and remove fears, both in Serbia and overseas, of a possible Milosevic comeback. <br><br>The Serbian parliament is dominated by Mr Milosevic's Socialist coalition and is more powerful than its federal counterpart. Mr Kostunica's supporters said the tone of the Socialist party members was conciliatory. <br><br>"The moderate wing of the Socialist party has prevailed," said Cedomir Jovanovic, spokesman for the 18-party anti-Milosevic alliance. <br><br>The talks between the supporters of Mr Kostunica and Mr Milosevic came after nearly a week of arguments over the make-up of four key ministries in the transitional government - namely police, justice, finance and information. <br><br>Mr Milosevic appeared on Friday to have lost an internal party struggle to a moderate faction which wants to remodel the party on democratic lines. Mr Milosevic's portrait was removed from the first page of the party web-site, but he still remains party leader. Many Socialist party members have been trying to bring pressure on the leadership to remove Mr Milosevic. <br><br>Borislav Jovic, a Socialist party member and former president of Yugoslavia who split with Mr Milosevic in the mid-90s, said: "There is no other solution but to find a compromise. We should establish a government which will have the largest possible support. We are in a period where we need tolerance and not permanent confrontation." <br><br>Mr Kostunica still faces the delicate issue of establishing full democratic control of the police and army. But stamping his authority over the relevant ministries - interior and defence - is big progress. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:Kostunica offered support from Montenegro</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Stefan Wagstyl in Belgrade<br>Published: October 12 2000 18:43GMT <br> <br>Vojislav Kostunica, Yugoslavia's newly-elected president, on Thursday won support for his effort to consolidate his victory over ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic from Serbia's smaller sister republic of Montenegro. <br><br>However, within Serbia a power struggle continued between Mr Kostunica's reformists and die-hard supporters of Mr Milosevic, who appeared to be trying to enlist elements of the police. The reformists have threatened more demonstrations unless Mr Milosevic's supporters fulfil a pledge made earlier this week to dismiss the Serbian government and hold early elections. <br><br>The message of support from Montenegro came from Miodrag Vukovic, an aide to pro-west Montegrin president Milo Djukanovic, who expressed support for Mr Kostunica's efforts to create a multi-party interim government. Mr Kostunica, who is due to visit Montenegro on Friday, went out of his way to assuage Montenegro's concerns by suggesting in a television interview that if Montenegrins agreed democratically to pursue independence then that will had to be respected. <br><br>In Washington, US president Bill Clinton expressed support for Mr Kostunica declaring the oil embargo and flight ban would be lifted immediately but financial sanctions would stay in place for some time longer. The International Monetary Fund said it would soon welcome back Yugoslavia as a member. An IMF mission is expected in Belgrade as soon as next week. <br><br>Meanwhile, in Serbia, the reformists have begun to exert control on the economy through the central bank. Mladan Dinkic, reformists' candidate for bank governor, announced that the current bank administration had agreed to start reducing the huge amount of Yugoslav currency in circulation in an effort to stabilise the dinar and begin limiting inflation. <br><br>The central bank would buy dinars from commercial banks using foreign exchange from reserves put at $410m. Mr Mladic's officials said they hoped to have access soon to $1.4bn in blocked overseas accounts. The funds are badly needed to buy winter fuel. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Cristian Science Monitor:A troubled transition in Serbia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">President Clinton lifted sanctions yesterday. But a parliamentary struggle could mean more unrest. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>The glaziers of Yugoslavia are everywhere, replacing windows broken in last week's "revolution" that brought President Vojislav Kostunica to power. <br><br>But as trucks laden with plate glass offload at the steps of the burned-out parliament building, and store owners fit new panes, tensions are building over the renewed influence of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic and his allies, which could lead to violence - and more broken glass. <br><br>The pro-democracy movement has given Milosevic cronies until today to agree to new elections in the Serbian parliament - a preliminary agreement earlier this week was abruptly rescinded - or face renewed street protests. There were signs yesterday that a deal might be struck, but many Serbs were anxious about the next steps. Milosevic allies still controlled the police force. <br><br>"No doubt Milosevic is pulling the strings. They want to slow down people's anger and momentum," says Bratislav Grubacic, editor of the VIP newsletter in Belgrade. "The sense of revenge is great, and if people go back on the street again, there could be a slaughter." <br><br>From his well-protected home in a Belgrade suburb, Mr. Milosevic reportedly is meeting with a stream of backers, energizing supporters in a way that appeared impossible just days ago, when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to force Milosevic to accept defeat in Sept. 24 elections. <br><br>The result is a power struggle that on Wednesday saw the powerful parliament of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, declare it would halt cooperation with Mr. Kostunica's transition team. Both the Yugoslav and Serbian parliaments are controlled by Milosevic's party and its allies. Senior generals also warned against the "negative consequences" of top-rank purges planned by the new leadership. <br><br>Also a problem for Kostunica are emerging differences in his 18-member coalition, and policy freelancing by some members. Pro-Milosevic managers are being pushed out of factories, mines, and hotels by angry staff in dramatic confrontations across the country. Milosevic's Socialist Party accuses the new leaders of bringing "lawlessness and violence" to Serbia. <br><br>"I cannot justify all that's going on," Kostunica said in an interview with The New York Times. "On the surface there is a peaceful, democratic transition, but below the surface is a kind of volcano, not so controlled." <br><br>"I am having almost as much trouble from my friends as from my enemies," he added, in executing the transfer of power. <br><br>One senior pro-democracy leader, Zoran Djindjic, warned on Wednesday that if the Serbian parliament didn't agree to new elections by today, then "we will call the people to the streets to demand new elections." He said the Serbian parliament - which was not up for election in the federal vote that brought Kostunica to power - was overplaying its hand: "It's a fact of life they have no control over 80 percent of the processes in the country." <br><br>On Thursday, however, he reported that a crisis might be averted: "I think we have an agreement that it should be done in a political way, through elections and through some kind of cooperation to keep the country stable without economic or energy crisis." <br><br>Part of the problem, Serb analysts say, is that Kostunica's legal insistence on doing the transfer of power "right" is being taken advantage of by more ruthless adversaries. <br><br>"Kostunica is underestimating what could happen still. He is a very nice person, and very legally inclined, so maybe he can't understand what crooks they are," says Mr. Bratacic. "Milosevic can't reverse the process and retake power, but he can cause trouble. We are dealing with people [who] are not willing to give up power, and if a civil war results [in their view], so be it. <br><br>"With this behavior, [Milosevic] will really force people to kill him. People will say, 'We must hit the snake in the head,'" he adds. "Kostunica must now become a mature politician, or he will be lost." <br><br>Pro-Milosevic forces appeared to be consolidating what remained of their grip on power. The Socialist Party announced the replacement of its hard-line chief Gorica Gajevic with the more moderate Zoran Andjelkovic, who now heads a Serb-run Kosovo government. <br><br>On top of domestic problems, Kostunica has been swamped with European and American visitors, and shows of support from around the world. President Clinton yesterday lifted an oil embargo and flight ban against Serbia, echoing moves earlier this week by the European Union. In a written statement, Mr. Clinton said the US has "a strong interest in supporting Yugoslavia's newly elected leaders as they work to build a truly democratic society." US diplomat William Dale Montgomery arrived in Belgrade Wednesday, and more senior officials are expected soon. <br><br>But the burden of leadership seemed a heavy load for Kostunica, whose appeal to voters has been in part because he had no political background. "It is true he is inexperienced," says Aleksa Djilas, a historian and public-policy scholar currently at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "He is also a decent person who believes in the rule of law. His advantage is that a lot of people voted for him. And the fact that he has not behaved like a revolutionary could be helpful in the long run." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:U.S. and Yugoslavia to Renew Diplomatic Ties</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By ROGER COHEN<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 12 — The United States and Yugoslavia signaled today that they would move quickly toward the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, which were severed as NATO began its 11-week bombing campaign here last year.<br><br>A first meeting between James O'Brien, the special adviser to President Clinton for the Balkans, and Vojislav Kostunica, the newly elected Yugoslav president, produced no precise timetable for restoring diplomatic ties but demonstrated that a willingness to resolve the matter existed on both sides.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica, who has criticized American "meddling" in Serbia before and since taking office, said there had been "a gap in communication" between Belgrade and Washington — a tactful way of describing often bitter hostility. But he added, "We hope we will bridge that gap and our relations normalize."<br><br>The meeting came as Mr. Clinton lifted the oil embargo and the ban on American flights to Yugoslavia that had been imposed in 1998 after President Slobodan Milosevic cracked down on Kosovo Albanians. Mr. Clinton said more significant sanctions, like the denial of much-needed lending from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, would be reviewed as the democratic transition that began last week with a popular uprising against Mr. Milosevic proceeds.<br><br>In a statement in Washington, Mr. Clinton said: "We have a strong interest in supporting Yugoslavia's newly elected leaders as they work to build a truly democratic society. The removal of these sanctions is a first step to ending Serbia's isolation." Yugoslavia is made up of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro.<br><br>The United States is particularly eager to consolidate the fragile democratic change in Serbia because it is crucial to bolstering the chances of an enduring peace in the Balkans, where four wars in the last eight years have involved a sizable commitment of American resources to an unstable corner of Europe.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica said today that he respected the 1995 Dayton agreement that brought peace to Bosnia, in effect committing himself to respecting Yugoslavia's border with Bosnia and the arrangement that grants Bosnian Serbs considerable self-rule in 49 percent of a Bosnia with a weak central government.<br><br>He also committed himself to United Nations resolutions that provide for wide Albanian self-government in Kosovo.<br><br>Speaking after a 90-minute meeting, Mr. O'Brien said Mr. Kostunica had agreed to "work through some technical issues, with an aim to establishing diplomatic relations." Those issues include a need for him to consult with the Yugoslav Parliament over a decision that is delicate in the light of widespread anti-American feeling here.<br><br>Any over-eager embrace of the United States would tend to undermine Mr. Kostunica's political standing at this stage because a majority of Serbs might see it as a form of moral surrender. Although the new president has enormous good will on his side after the uprising that forced Mr. Milosevic to finally concede defeat in last month's election, his hold on the levers of power is as yet partial.<br><br>In the light of the delicate political situation and the enduring hostility over the NATO bombing, Mr. O'Brien said Mr. Kostunica did not want to appear to be "picking favorites" and favored a restoration of diplomatic ties with Washington that would be simultaneous with "normalizing" relations with Western European nations. This seems likely to occur within the next several weeks, officials said.<br><br>The remaining sanctions provide Washington with some leverage in discussions over whether Mr. Milosevic, who has been indicated by the International Tribunal in The Hague, should stand trial for war crimes. But it was clear that the United States, whose first priority is the consolidation of long-elusive democracy in Yugoslavia, would not push Mr. Kostunica to try the ousted leader or deliver him to The Hague in the near term.<br><br>The Serbian uprising ended not with the violent removal of Mr. Milosevic but with a handshake between him and Mr. Kostunica that sealed an accord on the passage of power. What guarantees, if any, were given to Mr. Milosevic, who remains under guard in Serbia, are unclear.<br><br>The former leader's domestic position appeared to weaken today as his Serbian Socialist Party said their hard-line secretary general, Gorica Gajevic, a woman intensely loyal to Mr. Milosevic, had been replaced by Zoran Andjelkovic, an official from Kosovo.<br><br>The party called a special congress for Nov. 25, and one of its deputies in the Serbian Parliament, Miloje Mihajlovic, said Mr. Milosevic should quit on that occasion because he had lost the support of the members.<br><br>It also appeared that a political rift had opened up between the Socialists and the Yugoslav Left Party of Mr. Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic. The parties, allied in the election they lost to Mr. Kostunica, said they would run separately in Serbian parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica appears quietly certain that his tempered political stance is steadily eroding Mr. Milosevic's support. <br><br>While insisting that Yugoslavia must become more democratic and open to the West, the new president has been sharply critical of the NATO bombing campaign and of the war crimes tribunal, which he has described as a pawn of American political interests.<br><br>Today, Mr. Kostunica renewed his criticism of the United States, but in far more muted terms, saying it had shown scant "understanding" of the political process in Serbia.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Guardian:Factory anarchy alarms Kostunica </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">The new Yugoslavia Workers hound old guard while prisoners of the Milosevic regime still wait for freedom <br><br>Special report: Serbia <br><br>Jonathan Steele in Belgrade <br>Friday October 13, 2000 <br><br>Ex-President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party announced leadership changes yesterday in an effort to stop the exodus of senior members as more and more factory directors switched loyalties under pressure from workers. <br>But there were signs too that the 18-member coalition, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Dos), which brought Vojislav Kostunica his election victory, was also nervous about the wave of strikes and factory occupations. <br><br>"Some of this is spontaneous, some of it is not," Mr Kostunica was quoted as telling the New York Times. "It is something that worries me." <br><br>The new government is preparing to open Yugoslavia's economy to foreign investors now that sanctions are being lifted and does not want industrial anarchy to develop. "I'm having almost as much trouble from friends as from my enemies," Mr Kostunica added. <br><br>Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president, was named a vice-president of the Socialist party in an apparent attempt to stop him defecting. A longtime Milosevic loyalist, Mr Milutinovic has made ambiguous remarks about his future and earlier this week suggested he might resign as president. <br><br>Since then, Mr Milosevic has succeeded in persuading the Serbian parliament - still controlled by the Socialists and their allies - to delay moves to dissolve itself and hold early elections. <br><br>Mr Milutinovic had no party job and his nomination to become a Socialist vice-president was seen as a way of buying his allegiance. <br><br>The party's secretary-general, Gorica Gajevic, resigned after taking the blame for the catastrophic performance in the Yugoslav elections. She was succeeded by Zoran Andjelkovic, an ultra-hardliner who was the last Serb governor of Kosovo before Serb forces withdrew last summer when Nato-led peacekeepers arrived. <br><br>Serbia's deputy prime minister and Radical party leader, Vojislav Seselj, threw another spanner into the tense negotiations over forming a new Serbian government yesterday when he made his party's agreement conditional on an end to the takeovers of facto ries and companies which had Socialist party cronies as directors. He described the wave of purges and occupations as part of a "coup". <br><br>"The coup leaders are taking control of one institution after another. That's a criminal act," Mr Seselj declared. "They will have to execute us or lynch us if agreement is not reached." He also urged Mr Kostunica to name a federal Yugoslav prime minister as soon as possible, and "bring things back into the institutions". <br><br>Mr Kostunica is also causing some worry among his supporters by failing to announce any changes in the army high command. Although General Nebojsa Pavkovic, the chief of staff, expressed his loyalty to the new government, he was a longtime Milosevic supporter. General Momcilo Perisic, who leads a small party in the Dos coalition, said last weekend that sacking General Pavkovic would be one of the new president's first acts. <br><br>The forced resignations continued yesterday, with two bosses quitting Beopetrol, a big fuel importer with links to the Socialists and the neo- communist Yugoslav Left (JUL) party of Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic. <br><br>At the Lola Corporation, a large engineering plant a few miles from Belgrade, the general manager, Branko Vlahovic, told the Guardian: "I don't know what the Socialist party's future can be." <br><br>A party member himself, he saw the writing on the wall a few days before last week's uprising in Belgrade which toppled the Milosevic regime. Three days earlier, he agreed with the company's two trade unions on a general strike "for truth". This was the diplomatic wording for an end to the election fraud and for Mr Milosevic to admit defeat in the polling on September 24. <br><br>Mr Vlahovic put no obstacle in the way of scores of workers who went to Belgrade for the mass protests. They were promised full pay for the day. <br><br>"We cooperate with many other big state companies so we cannot work without connections," he said in explanation of his Socialist party membership. "That's why the general manager has to be close to government." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times: Pro-Milosevic camp tries to regain ground</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova and Stefan Wagstyl in Belgrade<br><br> <br>Supporters of ousted Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday mounted a determined bid to recapture control of the security forces. <br>They snubbed attempts by Vojislav Kostunica, newly elected president, and his colleagues to reach multi-party agreement on this and the formation of a transitional government. <br>The moves were the biggest setback so far for Mr Kostunica in his efforts to consolidate power following his poll victory over Mr Milosevic. <br>The Serbian government, dominated by Mr Milosevic's allies, which had widely been expected to resign following talks earlier this week, instead called on the police to seize control of companies and institutions taken over in popular revolts in recent days. <br>It indicated it would appoint Serbian prime minister Mirko Marjanovic to head the police after Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic resigned on Monday. Milosevic supporters accused Mr Kostunica's supporters of violence and illegal acts in seizing control of enterprises ranging from the Dunav insurance group to pharmaceuticals factories and hospitals. <br>"State bodies, especially the prosecutor's office and the police, are obliged to take urgent actions in accordance with the law against the organisers and the perpetrators of illegal actions," said a government statement. It said control over Belgrade radio and television should be returned to the authorities. <br>Democratic leader Zoran Djindjic on Wednesday night warned the overthrown government to co-operate or he said the democratic parties would call the people back onto the streets. <br>However, by early Wednesday evening there was no sign of police taking action. Leaders of the 18 parties that make up Mr Kostunica's alliance who are trying to run a temporary informal administration, met to discuss their response. <br>They said Mr Milosevic was still active behind the scenes. "Milosevic is our main concern because he is still our biggest threat," said acting prime minister of the federal government,Miroljub Labus. "Their strategy now is to do everything they can to turn the economy into chaos." Mr Labus's colleagues said Wednesday's action would greatly complicate Serbia's transition but emphasised there was no turning back. <br>It was not clear on Wednesday night whether the democratic parties would seek the removal of army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic, one of Mr Milosevic's staunchest allies.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times: Clinton to Scrap Belgrade Embargo on Oil and Travel</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By DAVID E. SANGER<br><br><br>WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — President Clinton is to announce on Thursday that he is lifting many of the trade and economic sanctions against Yugoslavia that were intended to speed the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, immediately ending the ban on American flights and an embargo on oil to the country, senior administration officials said. <br>Mr. Clinton will make a commitment to join with the European Union in sweeping away a variety of additional sanctions over the next several weeks, except for those specifically intended to keep Mr. Milosevic, his family and their political allies from sending millions of dollars in assets overseas.<br>But administration officials said they would retain, at least for the time being, the so-called "outer wall" of sanctions that prevent Yugoslavia from receiving aid from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.<br>That last sanction — a critical one, because foreign investors are unlikely to return to the country without guarantees from those international institutions — will remain in place until the United States has discussed Mr. Milosevic's legal fate with the new government of President Vojislav Kostunica. [Page A10.]<br>"What we needed to do immediately is open the psychological and the economic spigots, get the oil flowing, get the airplanes in," a senior Clinton aide said this evening. Some of the lifting of the sanctions will be more symbolic than substantive — the embargo on oil was notably toothless. However, the ability to trade with the United States is widely considered a prerequisite for economic recovery. <br>The official said that delivering Mr. Milosevic to the international criminal tribunal at The Hague, where he has been indicted on charges of war crimes, may not be a prerequisite for the removal of the rest of the sanctions. He said that the Clinton administration may be satisfied if Mr. Milosevic stands trial in Yugoslavia. <br>"Obviously Milosevic is an issue," the official said. "But it may be an issue that takes care of itself, either because they change their minds, and turn him over, or they try him themselves."<br>So far Mr. Kostunica, who has challenged the legitimacy of the the Hague tribunal as a tool of American policy, has said he would not turn over his predecessor. And even if he decides that removing Mr. Milosevic from the scene will serve his interests, it is far from clear that his tenuous hold on the levers of state power, many of which are still in the hands of Milosevic allies, would give him the power to determine Mr. Milosevic's fate.<br>All these questions will be raised, officials say, as the first American diplomats arrive in Belgrade over the next day to begin discussions with Mr. Kostunica's new government, being formed after last week's popular revolution. Two senior officials are already on their way: William Montgomery, the coordinator of the office of Yugoslav affairs, which is based in Budapest, and James C. O'Brien, the special adviser to the president for democracy in the Balkans.<br>While the first sanctions will be lifted this week, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces embargoes, is working to track financial flows out of Yugoslavia.<br>Already, officials say, there is evidence that Mr. Milosevic's cronies are using the almost nonexistent controls over banks, resulting from the upheaval of recent weeks, to funnel millions of dollars out of the country.<br>One American official said the movement of funds was "reminiscent of Ferdinand Marcos's last days" in the Philippines. It took years to track the former Philippine president's holdings, and even then only a fraction were recovered.<br>Even before Mr. Kostunica has consolidated his power, there is considerable debate in Washington over the extent to which the economic sanctions contributed to Mr. Milosevic's downfall.<br>Not surprisingly, White House officials believe that they played a significant role. Even aides to Mr. Clinton who have previously expressed great skepticism about the usefulness of economic sanctions — especially the sanctions on Cuba — insist that because so many nations worked together in cutting off Yugoslavia's access to goods and financial markets, popular discontent with Mr. Milosevic rose to the surface rapidly.<br>"The reason that people finally rose up and said we are going to get rid of this guy is that their lives are hard," said one of Mr. Clinton's closest aides. "This was a case in which sanctions played a big, big role." <br>But Richard N. Haass, a Brookings Institution scholar who served on the National Security Council under President Bush and has published two lengthy studies of sanctions and their effectiveness, disagreed. <br>"Sanctions at most played a modest role, and those who are suggesting that they were critical in recent events are simply wrong," he said in an interview today. Referring to the peace talks in Ohio that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995, he said: "Sanctions didn't get Milosevic to Dayton; that was the NATO bombing and the Croatian Army. And sanctions couldn't stop the massacres in Kosovo. They had a contributing effect, but not a decisive one."<br>Mr. Haass agreed with the administration, however, that turning over Mr. Milosevic should not be a prerequisite for breaching the "outer wall" of financial aid. "The goal is to make Yugoslavia a normal European country," he said. "I would not make coughing up Milosevic the No. 1 priority. After all, he was largely killing his own people, and he can be tried in his own country."<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Yugoslav Chief Upset at Some of His Allies</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 11 — President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia said today that he was having "almost as much trouble from my friends as from my enemies" in the transition from the rule of Slobodan Milosevic and that he was concerned that his own authority was being compromised.<br>But Mr. Kostunica expressed confidence that Mr. Milosevic's allies could not stage a comeback, even though they appear to be trying, and that difficulties in negotiating a transitional government for Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia, would be resolved.<br>He said that he looked forward to his first meeting, on Thursday, with President Clinton's Balkan adviser, James C. O'Brien, and other senior American officials and that he was eager to begin a new, more balanced relationship with Washington, including a rapid re-establishment of diplomatic relations broken with the NATO bombing war last year. <br>"The United States has done too much meddling in our internal affairs," Mr. Kostunica said in an interview. "Now it's meddling less than usual, so this will have a positive influence." If re-establishing diplomatic relations is in his competence as federal president, he said, he will do it quickly.<br>Mr. Kostunica spoke in the offices of the federal president in the Palace of Federations as a small number of aides rushed in and out amid a cacophony of telephones, both land lines and cell phones.<br>In the interview, Mr. Kostunica said that some members of the 18- party coalition that supported his presidential candidacy were making policy statements that had not been cleared with him and were using extra-legal procedures to take control of certain ministries and companies that have been run by those close to Mr. Milosevic.<br>"I cannot justify all that's going on," he said. "On the surface there is a peaceful, democratic transition, but below the surface is a kind of volcano, not so controlled."<br>Mr. Kostunica spoke as a leading member of Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party, Branislav Ivkovic, said that the current Serbian government would not resign and that the current prime minister had also taken the job of interior minister, which controls the police.<br>But Mr. Kostunica said he was confident that early elections for a new Serbian Parliament would take place, as agreed, on Dec. 17. While some parties in the Parliament "are fighting for seats" in a temporary government until those elections, "others are fighting to overturn the outcome" of the popular will, he said. But they would not succeed.<br>Another Kostunica ally with ties to the old regime, Dusan Mihajlovic, warned that Mr. Milosevic had begun to organize his allies to create difficulties and even chaos, including lifting some price controls, that could be blamed on Mr. Kostunica and his team. "We have information that Milosevic is pulling the strings," Mr. Mihajlovic said.<br>Mr. Kostunica has said that he does not recognize the legitimacy of the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague and would be against handing Mr. Milosevic over. <br>Some of Mr. Kostunica's allies, worried that Mr. Milosevic is creating difficulties for the new order, are speaking openly of putting him on trial in Serbia. In Washington, administration officials repeated today that the United States would not press for Mr. Milosevic's extradition right now. Some administration officials believe a trial within Serbia would be the next best thing.<br>Mr. Kostunica's allies are talking about a domestic trial of Mr. Milosevic, perhaps on charges of election fraud, to get him out of political life. <br>Mr. Kostunica expressed concern that some of his own allies in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, or DOS as the coalition is known, were providing ammunition for the complaints of chaos and illegality made by the Socialists and Serbian Radicals. "Some members of DOS are not so much eating away at my authority — that they cannot do," Mr. Kostunica said. "The problem is that they are compromising that authority." <br>In particular, he and his aides said, the Democratic Party leader, Zoran Djindjic, who leads the strongest party by far in the coalition, is trying to consolidate the popular revolt against Mr. Milosevic, but in a way that has sometimes caused anger. <br>The best-known example was Mr. Djindjic's effort to put an ally, a well- known businessman, in charge of the Customs office after ousting the old minister. The appointment of Mr. Djindjic's ally caused an uproar among other political leaders and it was rescinded in a day. <br>In companies, banks, institutes and universities, Milosevic managers are being ousted, usually by workers tired of political bosses.<br>"Some of this is spontaneous, some of it is not," Mr. Kostunica said. "Some of it is comes from within, and some from the outside. And some of these actions are from people who are in connection with or appear on behalf of DOS or even myself, which is not true. But all together, it's something that worries me."<br>He said that the image of crime and chaos, part of any transition, was harmful. "But we'll settle all this among ourselves," he said. "But if it's an excuse for any foreign intervention, that would be the problem."<br>Mr. Djindjic has also made announcements that Mr. Kostunica has not approved. For example, Mr. Djindjic said that the Yugoslav Army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, would be fired. Mr. Kostunica, who met with the army command today, said he had no intention of firing General Pavkovic — at least for now. The general became a popular hero for his efforts to defend Kosovo. Mr. Kostunica also has no interest now in stirring up a quiescent army while he and his allies try to ensure they control the Serbian police.<br>Mr. Kostunica and his allies obtained the resignation of the Serbian interior minister, Vlajko Stojiljkovic, who ordered the police to attack protesters. But they have not succeeded yet in winning the job for themselves. Mr. Djindjic thinks it is crucial to protect the revolution, and tonight he offered joint control over four key ministries: Interior, Justice, Finance and Information.<br>But if the other parties do not agree to a new transitional government by the end of the week, Mr. Djindjic warned, the opposition will call thousands of people into the streets. Again, Mr. Kostunica seems less than enthusiastic over revolutionary tactics.<br>Mr. Ivkovic's statement to Radio B-92 was a form of challenge. "The Serbian government will go on ruling the republic since it was elected on a four-year mandate and it is the only body that can make legal decisions," he said. Another Serbian government statement, read on YU-Info, a television station close to Mr. Milosevic, accused the opposition of "fomenting violence and lawlessness" and taking over companies and ministries illegally. It urged the police to act and said control of television should be returned to its owners in the state and city.<br>But the police did not respond. And Mr. Djindjic said: "That government can declare itself not only legal but omnipotent but it's a fact of life they have no control over 80 percent of the processes in the country. We are tired of haggling and manipulations."<br>Mr. Kostunica and his staff also bridled at another Djindjic announcement that usurped federal presidential powers.<br>Mr. Djindjic said that Miroljub Labus, an economist, would become provisional prime minister of Yugoslavia. But Mr. Kostunica said today that he would choose a prime minister from Montenegro, as the Constitution required, who would be a member of the Socialist People's Party. The party won nearly all the seats in Montenegro because of an election boycott by the republic's president, Milo Djukanovic.<br>Mr. Kostunica will travel to Montenegro on Friday to meet the local party leaders and Mr. Djukanovic. They will discuss a new federal government and begin to talk about a new, more equal relationship between Serbia and tiny Montenegro within Yugoslavia.<br>Mr. Kostunica said today that he was not wedded to the name Yugoslavia, especially after all the wars of secession, and once favored "The Union of Serbia and Montenegro." <br>"The question is not the name but what sort of state we want," he said. "If the ties are too loose, we lose the sense of unity."<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LA Times: A Survivor Anticipates Milosevic's Day in Court </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Yugoslavia: Journalist's widow is one of a growing group that wants to see justice served--in Serbia. <br><br><br>By PAUL WATSON, Times Staff Writer<br><br><br>BELGRADE, Yugoslavia--Branka Prpa visited her husband's grave Wednesday to mark his death 18 months ago and, in her thoughts, to tell him his fight is finally over.<br> Slavko Curuvija was a newspaper editor who stood up to ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic like no other. The journalist died April 11, 1999, bleeding to death from gunshot wounds on the street outside his home. He was shot 100 yards from a police station.<br> Curuvija's widow is a historian with the quiet dignity of a woman who has found her own peace. But when street protests forced Milosevic from power last week, she wasn't able to celebrate.<br> "I remember thinking, 'One cannot be happy when one awaits freedom with the dead,' " Prpa said. "In such moments, you always think that our dearest ones, who died in the struggle against our dictator, needed only a little bit more time and they could have been with us to see it."<br> Although street protests drove Milosevic from office, he continues to wield some power as head of the Socialist Party. On Wednesday, his party and its allies still claimed control over much of the government of Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia's two republics.<br> Prpa is one of a growing number of people here who want Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, to avoid the easy way out and to not offer amnesty to political killers and kidnappers. They want to ensure that justice is done--not in some international court, but here in Serbia.<br> There is no doubt in Prpa's mind who ordered her husband's slaying last year less than three weeks into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 78-day air war against Yugoslavia, when challenging Milosevic was tantamount to treason.<br> "Of course, I believe that Slobodan Milosevic is guilty," she said. "It is impossible otherwise, in the middle of the war, in a state of emergency, to kill a man in the middle of the road and then the murderers just walk away.<br> "And for a year and a half, no state organs give any statement regarding the killing of Slavko Curuvija. I am a very serious person, and I don't believe this is possible in a state without it being known at the very top--especially because we all know that this state functioned in a pyramidal system and the top decided everything."<br> About 500 slayings remain unsolved in Serbia after 13 years of Milosevic rule. While not all of them were political, Prpa and others want the files checked again for any hint that Milosevic or his lieutenants had a hand in the killings.<br> While everyone here wonders when Milosevic will dare to show his face in public--he is believed to be staying at one of his homes here--Prpa imagines the day when she will see him in handcuffs in a local court.<br> "I just want it to be possible for us to be normal people in the future," she said. "It's a duty we have to fulfill for future generations. It is not for me anymore--because no one can bring back the dead--but for those who are coming, so that something like this can never happen again."<br> Yet though Kostunica's 18-party coalition has tried over the past week to bring the Serbian government, the last bastion of the Milosevic regime, under control through negotiations, the former leader's forces still wield considerable influence. On Wednesday, in another serious setback, Serbia's pro-Milosevic prime minister, Mirko Marjanovic, said he was asserting control over the republic's 100,000 police officers.<br> The Yugoslav military also threatened Wednesday to resist Kostunica's effort to get rid of top commanders who were loyal to Milosevic. In a statement issued after Kostunica met with chief of staff Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic and other army leaders, the military warned of "possible negative consequences of increased attacks and attempts to discredit certain individuals of the Yugoslav army."<br> Kostunica claims publicly that his alliance has full control over Serbia's police forces, but other leaders of his coalition have contradicted him, saying that some units remain loyal to Milosevic--especially those of the secret police.<br> The secret police are suspected by many here in the slaying of Curuvija, who constantly attacked Milosevic's regime in his newspaper Dnevni Telegraf and magazine Evropljanin. Several months before the NATO air campaign began, the journalist also co-signed and published an open letter to Milosevic that accused the president of ruining the country and bringing shame upon Serbs.<br> Curuvija's photo, a rugged image of a smiling man with a gray-flecked beard, stands just behind his wife's shoulder on a mantle of wood polished to a warm gloss. A couple of months before he was killed, Curuvija said something that Prpa later realized was a hint that he knew what was coming.<br> "He often said, 'They can stop me only if they kill me,' " Prpa recalled. Then, sounding more like a historian than a widow, Prpa explained that she doesn't believe in heroes. "Slavko Curuvija stayed in Belgrade, fully conscious that his life was in danger. He was not a hero.<br> "But there are moments in one's life when you don't want to cross the line of compromise anymore, and when you are ready to even sacrifice your life for that," she said. "For the first time, I understood that doesn't exist only in literature or movies, that it has become my own reality."<br> Curuvija's written words were like an acid that seeped into the cracks of Milosevic's regime and ate it away from the inside, making it simpler to topple than many had dared imagine. <br> "If he had had the opportunity to choose whether he would like to die at the age of 49, in the way he did, or to die of old age at 80, without rebelling, I think he would choose the first option," his wife said.<br> But while Prpa wants to see Milosevic put on trial, Serbian human rights lawyer Nikola Barovic believes that justice is a word better left to university lecturers.<br> He has spent the past seven weeks trying to find Serbia's former president, Ivan Stambolic, the mentor who raised Milosevic from obscurity only to have his protege turn against him. Men in a white van kidnapped Stambolic on Aug. 25 while he was jogging near his Belgrade home.<br> There have been repeated claims by anonymous sources that Stambolic is being held in a Serbian prison. The Justice Ministry has denied that he is, or ever was, in jail. <br> Another tip came Tuesday, claiming that Stambolic is imprisoned in the southern town of Leskovac. Once again, the ministry issued a denial.<br> Although Barovic is careful not to accuse Milosevic's regime directly, he offers clues that suggest the perpetrators were connected to the former leader. For one thing, there was the almost complete silence about Stambolic's disappearance in the state-run media, which only briefly reported the kidnapping and speculated that business associates had turned on Milosevic's former mentor.<br> Barovic said he could probably finger a few suspects linked with Stambolic's kidnapping. But he won't. By not publicly identifying the people he suspects, Barovic hopes they will sense which way the wind is blowing and free Stambolic, if only to save themselves.<br> Since 1991, when the Yugoslav federation began to break apart in a series of brutal wars, Barovic has been hunting for victims of political kidnappings and has learned that keeping his mouth shut is a small price to pay for getting his clients back alive.<br> With Kostunica's "democratic revolution" unfinished, and rogue elements of Serbia's police still answering to Milosevic loyalists, Barovic said justice is still just a theory, and he can't imagine when Serbia might see it in practice.<br> "As a lawyer, I'm not really interested whether someone will be found guilty or not guilty, or go in front of the court at all," he said. "In the last 10 years, I was never really interested in who kidnapped someone, why they kidnapped, who gave the order and who was technically involved.<br> "The only question for me as a lawyer was: 'Does my client get to go with me in my car to his home or not?' " <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Washington Post: Beware Yugo-phoria</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Bob Dole<br>Thursday, October 12, 2000; Page A25 <br><br><br>The civilized world has waited over a decade for the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic and his bloodstained regime. Unfortunately, the euphoria over Vojislav Kostunica's accession to the presidency of the rump Yugoslavia has seriously clouded the judgment of a number of American and European policy makers. <br>Kostunica's election was a democratic triumph for the Serbian people. But it does not mean that Kostunica is a democrat or Serbia a democracy. This obvious point merits repeating as Western policy makers rush to embrace Kostunica. He is an unknown quantity, his brief biographical sketch revealing only a deep--and apparently contradictory--faith in constitutional law and Serbian nationalism.<br>To bring things into perspective, we need to remember that Croatia's late president, Franjo Tudjman, was also democratically elected--and more than once. His tenure was marked by cronyism, discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, repression of electronic media, and irregularities in the judicial system. The new government of Croatia has been working hard for nearly a year to dismantle Tudjman's cronyism and establish the rule of law. It has also cooperated with the Hague tribunal and turned over indicted war criminals. But Croatia has yet to be admitted to the European Union.<br>Nevertheless, some Western political leaders are advocating that in addition to immediately being relieved of all sanctions, the rump Yugoslavia should be brought rapidly into the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and international financial institutions. This view ignores the reality that building a genuine democracy in Serbia will be extremely difficult and time-consuming, given its recent history of violence, institutionalized corruption and cronyism. The possibility that Slobodan Milosevic will remain politically active will make the task even more daunting, if not impossible.<br>What is needed in Serbia is radical reform to establish the basics of democracy: equal rights for all citizens, irrespective of ethnic or religious background; freedom of the press; rule of law; and an economy devoid of corruption and cronyism. Also essential is a campaign to tell the citizens of Serbia the truth about the crimes perpetrated by Milosevic in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.<br>At the same time, Kostunica must establish a cooperative relationship with the democratically elected leadership in Montenegro and Kosovo. As urgent as internal reform is the need for a fundamental change in Serbia's external relations with its neighbors--Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia--which have been victimized by its brutal aggression and territorial aspirations. Greater Serbia must die with the Milosevic regime.<br>To help achieve such sweeping change, the United States and its allies will need to build a system of incentives that rewards democratic progress and withholds the inclusion of Serbia in various international institutions and forums until critical measures are taken. Specifically, the West must make clear that for Kostunica and his regime to be embraced as a democracy and allowed to participate fully in international organizations, he must:<br><br>* Reject any role for Milosevic in Serbia's political life.<br><br>* Ensure that all ethnic minorities in Yugoslavia are treated as equal citizens with the same rights as ethnic Serbs.<br><br>* Treat Montenegro as Serbia's equal and work with the democratically elected government of Montenegro to establish new terms for the relationship between the two republics.<br><br>* Withdraw support from extremist Serbs in Kosovo who are inciting violence in areas such as Mitrovica and pledge to work with NATO in Kosovo.<br><br>* Publicly renounce the idea of a "Greater Serbia" and all territorial claims beyond the borders of Yugoslavia, in particular Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.<br><br>* Firmly commit to cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague and agree to hand over all indicted war criminals in the territory of rump Yugoslavia, including Milosevic and Ratko Mladic.<br><br>* Like Slovenia and other states, reapply for U.N. membership, rather than restating Milosevic's assertion that the rump Yugoslavia is the sole and legitimate successor to the former Yugoslavia.<br><br>Kostunica may not be able to take all of these actions at once. Nevertheless, until they are taken, Serbia will neither be on the road to democracy, nor ready to join Western democratic institutions.<br>Only by setting the same high standards for Serbia that have been set for all other post-communist states in Central and Eastern Europe can we ensure that true democracy will take hold. And only by building genuine democracies in the territory of the former Yugoslavia can we guarantee regional stability and prevent a recurrence of the violent aggression of the past decade.<br>The writer, the Republican presidential nominee in 1996, is chairman of the International Commission on Missing Persons in Bosnia.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Times:Kostunica under siege as activists rush for power </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">FROM MISHA GLENNY IN BELGRADE <br> <br>THE authority of Yugoslavia's new President is under siege as angry workers and activists, acting in his name, rush to seize businesses, assets and lucrative senior jobs in an uncontrolled raid on the power of the old regime. <br>One Western diplomat in Belgrade said yesterday: "There is a danger that unelected forces are amassing considerable power and these could turn President Kostunica into little more than a figurehead." <br><br>If Mr Kostunica does not act more decisively, he could be left hugely popular but effectively powerless as his rivals seize the initiative, warned the diplomat. <br><br>The overworked President yesterday received Hubert Védrine, the French Foreign Minister, and other foreign dignitaries. Just 48 hours after his inauguration, with a tiny inexperienced staff around him, Mr Kostunica is struggling to deal with international issues as disparate as the International Monetary Fund and Serbia's complex relationship with its sister republic, Montenegro. <br><br>But it is the domestic turmoil which may pose a greater challenge. With the partying over, the revolution has taken on a dramatic momentum of its own. <br><br>Since Monday, workers have been storming the offices of factories, banks, universities and the civil service throughout Yugoslavia and using threats and force to expel their old bosses. Directors of most big companies are known to have close links with the Milosevic regime and, it seems, their employees are now bent on revenge. <br><br>At the weekend, activists had wrested control of the National Bank, the Serbian police and the Customs' office from Milosevic supporters. <br><br>Fearing that the situation was running out of control, the leaders of Mr Kostunica's political backers, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), yesterday distanced themselves from the sackings. <br><br>Zarko Korac, a leading member of DOS, which backs Mr Kostunica, said that a crisis meeting was held late on Monday to discuss the issue. <br><br>"A large number of people are hiding behind our name," Mr Korac said. But, crucially, he admitted that the DOS was involved in some of the dismissals. <br><br>Mr Kostunica's greatest threat may come from the radical wing of the coalition backing him, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, heading by Zoran Djindjic, so far his closest ally but a potential rival. <br><br>Djindjic supporters have claimed they felt they had no choice but to install their own people in key posts, for fear of a backlash by pro-Milosevic forces who, they claim, are still active in the army and secret services. <br><br>Even Zoran Sami, a leading member of Mr Kostunica's own party, admitted that the DOS had ordered the takeover of key state institutions to head off deeper chaos. "We want to begin the necessary changes as soon as possible to extract the country out of a deep crisis," Mr Sami said. <br><br>Radoman Bozovic, a former Prime Minister of Serbia, was believed to be in hiding yesterday after he was beaten up by angry staff at Genex, one of Belgrade's largest holding companies. <br><br>Miners at the Kolubara complex, whose strike last week was crucial in the anti-Milosevic uprising, celebrated victory yesterday as news spread that their director, Milan Obradovic, had been sacked. <br><br>Milovan Zunjic, the director of Yugoslav Coal Production, who had threatened miners with violence before the revolution if they did not return to work, was also fired. <br><br>Vladimir Stambuk, a close associate of Mirjana Markovic, Mr Milosevic's wife, was dismissed as dean of the University School of Political Science, by the Teachers' Council, which is dominated by the DOS.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Times:Officials deny that Milosevic has fled the country </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">FROM DANIEL MCGRORY IN BELGRADE <br> <br>HE has not been seen for five days, but senior Yugoslav officials dismissed rumours last night that Slobodan Milosevic had slipped out of the country and escaped to Moscow. <br>Many in political circles believe that the ousted President is still holed up in his mansion, known as the White Palace, on the outskirts of Belgrade. The mansion is shrouded from public view by thick woodland that runs the entire length of the perimeter fence. The only entrance is via a pair of imposing white steel gates, behind which Mr Milosevic's hand-picked army of bodyguards remains out of sight. Such is the reputation of former President that no members of the public dare approach the house, while diplomats living near by prefer not to speak of their neighbour. <br><br>When students decided to march on the White Palace on Monday night, the new Government swiftly ordered thousands of police to block the road to it. This was the first time that police had been seen in any numbers since they melted away as demonstrators staged their uprising last Thursday. <br><br>Some of Mr Milosevic's own special force of bodyguards were briefly seen on the perimeter of the police lines. <br><br>President Kostunica knows precisely where Mr Milosevic is, but he is not saying. The French delegation led by Hubert Védrine, the Foreign Minister, who visited Belgrade yesterday, tried their best to tease information out of the lugubrious Mr Kostunica about the old enemy's whereabouts, but were met with a shrug. Mr Kostunica told them: This is a more important matter for you than it is for us. <br><br>His staff say that Mr Kostunica is fed up with Western politicians only wanting to talk about an out-of-work President, but they emphasise that Mr Milosevic will not be allowed to flee. <br><br>The latest rumour of his escape came from Velimir Ilic, a leading opposition figure and the Mayor of Cacak, who claims that he led the charge into the parliament building on Thursday. <br><br>In a cryptic radio interview, Mr Ilic said reliable authorities had told him that Mr Milosevic and his wife, Mira, had gone to Moscow, but he gave no details of how the former President had managed to get away without anyone seeing him. The clue that Mr Milosevic had in fact gone nowhere came soon after this rumour swept Belgrade, in the rapid response by the police to the students' march on the White Palace. <br><br>The police did not bother to barricade the former President's other residence, which is only a short walk away in the Boulevard of Peace in the wealthy suburb of Dedinje. <br><br>Many believe that Mr Milosevic has not moved from the White Palace throughout this crisis and that he and his wife are still inside and still enjoying the lavish comforts provided by the state. <br><br>Senior officials from the Socialist Party said last night that they had not been to see the man who had said on television was still their leader. One official said: We haven't seen him. He has not seen us. <br><br>Instead they mocked the Pentagon, which confidently reported last week that even as the parliament building was being ransacked, Mr Milosevic had fled to his villa near the Romanian border on the first leg of his escape. <br><br>Pentagon officials gave detailed briefings how this property, on Lake Bor, was fitted with a nuclear-bomb proof bunker which was purpose-built as his command post in the event of war. <br><br>A few hours later, Mr Milosevic made nonsense of this intelligence by being filmed with a Russian delegation sitting in armchairs at the White Palace. He was also filmed in the main reception room a day later, saying that he was relinquishing his job to spend more time with his family.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:European Union Moves to Embrace Yugoslav Leadership</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 10 — The world began to embrace the new Yugoslavia and its new president, Vojislav Kostunica, in earnest today, with the visit here of the French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, representing the European Union.<br><br>Praising the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic, Mr. Védrine said: "I have come here to express my admiration to Mr. Kostunica and the Serbian people. Together they have written a huge page in the democratic history of Europe."<br><br>Mr. Védrine arrived the day after the European Union lifted some major sanctions against Yugoslavia and promised $2 billion in aid. Mr. Kostunica will attend a European Union summit meeting in Biarritz, France, probably on Friday.<br><br>Though his own domestic politics remained unsettled, with a good deal of political jockeying, Mr. Kostunica also moved to improve relations with the United States, whose policies he has often criticized, not least NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia over Kosovo. James C. O'Brien, the chief Balkan adviser to President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, is expected here Thursday.<br><br>The United States is eager to restore diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia after Mr. Milosevic's departure and to build a relationship with Mr. Kostunica. <br><br>In a telephone interview, Mr. O'Brien said he "looks forward to a good discussion" with Mr. Kostunica, hoping "to begin to create a normal relationship" and offer help, if wanted, to build democratic institutions after 13 years of Mr. Milosevic's rule. <br><br>Mr. Védrine has kept close touch with Mr. Kostunica, who regards improving relations with Europe as more important and less harmful to Serbia's interests than warming ties with the United States. Still, Mr. Kostunica describes himself as by no means anti-American, but wary of a superpower that, as the guarantor of the 1995 Dayton agreement, kept Mr. Milosevic in power much longer than necessary.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica said today that the European Union's decision to lift sanctions against Yugoslavia will "enable us to move closer to what always has been our natural environment — Europe." The United States is also expected to lift most sanctions, but the process is more cumbersome legally.<br><br>The situation remained muddled with the government of Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia. Mr. Kostunica and his allies in the 18- party coalition that supported his candidacy continued trying to assert control over the powerful government of Serbia and its Parliament, which was not up for election on Sept. 24. But they found new resistance from Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party and the Radical Party of the ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj.<br><br>The Serbian Parliament will be disbanded for new elections on Dec. 17, but there is bitter fighting over ministries in the temporary government that is supposed to rule until then.<br><br>Both the Socialists and the Radicals said they were suspending talks on a new, provisional, all-party Serbian government until "the end of riots, violence and lawlessness in cities and against the citizens of Serbia."<br><br>The complaint is seen as a bit disingenuous, given the pattern of Mr. Milosevic's rule, and seems a cover for bargaining about jobs — in particular the Interior Ministry, which controls the police. Mr. Seselj wants that job for his party, and the Socialists want it for themselves, but Mr. Kostunica's allies insist that they must have it to protect their victory over Mr. Milosevic.<br><br>Some Kostunica allies warned tonight that they would bring more popular protest and pressure to bear on the Serbian Parliament if it did not stop obstructing the new order. Velimir Ilic, the mayor of Cacak, a center of the opposition to Mr. Milosevic, said today, "Serbs are so eager to see changes, and I do not know who will protect Socialists, and how, if they continue to drag their feet."<br><br>But the way Mr. Kostunica's more revolutionary allies have moved to assert control over the police, customs operations and some state- owned companies, sometimes with the aid of armed men, has caused wider complaints.<br><br>Major banks, ministries, university faculties and important companies and factories were being taken over, but often by employees who are trying to restore rights, like university autonomy, stripped from them by the Milosevic government. Often, too, companies are removing managers imposed on them by the ruling parties, often the Yugoslav United Left party of Mr. Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic.<br><br>There is concern among the Kostunica group, too. A statement from his economic and policy advisers today appealed to "all employees and those in managing positions in institutions and companies to protect property and prevent various abuses."<br><br>Today, for example, former Prime Minister Milan Panic, a Serbian- American, regained control of a pharmaceutical plant that had belonged to his ICN Pharmaceuticals and was taken over by the Serbian government last year. The government failed to pay the factory for its goods and then took it over. This evening, after a visit and calls by Mr. Panic, shareholders of the Galenika factory met at the request of workers and agreed to return majority ownership to ICN.<br><br>An important member of the coalition that backed Mr. Kostunica, Zoran Djindjic, complained today that the Socialists and their allies were also meddling with the police. State Security, led by a Milosevic ally, Rade Markovic, "is still closed to us," Mr. Djindjic said, warning that telephone tapping had resumed after a break of a few days.<br><br>"There are attempts of consolidation within Secret Service," Mr. Djindjic said. "We have warned them we do not want conflicts. We expect that the people from that service realize that the situation has changed."<br><br>Mr. Kostunica is also trying to mend fences with Serbia's smaller sister republic, Montenegro, and its president, Milo Djukanovic, who wants a new constitutional arrangement with Serbia in a Yugoslavia that would look more like a confederation.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica, as federal president, is chairman of the Supreme Defense Council, which consists of the Serbian and Montenegrin presidents. He announced that the council would meet on Wednesday — the first time it has met in years and the first time Mr. Djukanovic has attended since he broke away from Mr. Milosevic in 1998. But the meeting has been delayed because Mr. Djukanovic is recovering from a minor road accident.<br><br>After meeting Mr. Kostunica, Mr. Védrine and his wife took a walk in central Belgrade and discovered the ambivalence felt by many here toward the NATO countries that bombed Yugoslavia last year over Kosovo.<br><br>France and Serbia have traditionally warm relations, and Mr. Védrine began his walk at a large monument to the two countries' alliance in World War I.<br><br>One man said, "Vive la France!" and others clapped. But another man shouted: "Aren't you ashamed to show your face here? I have my children here. You bombed them."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Cristian Science Monitor:Hurdles for new Yugoslav regime </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">France's foreign minister arrived Oct. 10 for talks, as Kostunica grappled with legacy of Milosevic rule. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>There is no script for the democrats of Yugoslavia who are now grappling with the legacy of 13 years of authoritarian structures left behind by ousted President Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Just days after a popular uprising brought him to power, new President Vojislav Kostunica and his allies are moving faster and more lithely than expected to gain control of state institutions, the Army, and police, analysts say. <br><br>But Mr. Milosevic still lingers in Yugoslavia, and his vow to remain in politics casts a long shadow that could spell trouble. At stake is security in the Balkans, and the speed with which Serbia - after a decade of involvement in bitter ethnic wars - is welcomed back into the European fold. Kicking off an expected stream of foreign dignitaries, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine arrived in Belgrade yesterday. <br><br>"This opposition is more disciplined, organized, cohesive, and prepared than others were in Eastern Europe. They had 10 years to think these things through, and they know what they are doing," says Jim Hooper, director of Balkan policy for the International Crisis Group in Washington. "They are very smart and moving quickly. We're going to see a 100-day plan, but the course of it will be set in the first week." <br><br>After an apparent array of machinations to manipulate the Sept. 24 vote to his benefit and, when that didn't work, cancel it, Milosevic grudgingly confirmed Mr. Kostunica's victory Oct. 6. But experts say it will take time and significant effort to dismantle Milosevic's far-reaching influence at the federal level and in the technically more powerful republic of Serbia. "He hasn't accepted it, despite his public words.... He can exert a real influence on his party and could be very dangerous," Mr. Hooper says. "As long as Milosevic is there, it is a sign to other hard-liners to hang in and ride it out. They can't leave him as a legitimized political figure in Serbia. That is the worst of all possible scenarios." <br><br>Milosevic's Socialist Party already seems to be playing the spoiler by refusing to hand over key ministries, including the post of police chief. The new leadership finds that unacceptable. "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia insists on the Ministry of Police, and there will be no compromise over this," opposition leader Nebojsa Covic said yesterday, according to Reuters. <br><br>Kostunica has made clear that he will not send Milosevic - branded the "Butcher of the Balkans" in the 1990s - to The Hague war crimes tribunal. The legalistic Kostunica views the tribunal as a biased arm of American and Western policy. But the new leadership increasingly speaks about tough local justice and bringing charges in Serbia for crimes such as manipulating elections and stealing state funds. <br><br>Still, while Kostunica and his 18-party coalition take hold of the levers of power - and try to keep from squabbling among themselves for influence - there has been much to make them smile. <br><br>Senior hard-liners loyal to Milosevic, including federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic and Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, resigned Oct. 9. Serbian parties have agreed to dissolve their powerful parliament - which was not at stake in the recent federal vote - paving the way for elections in December. Such moves were not without argument. "This is highway robbery," complained Vojislav Seselj, Serbia's ultranationalist deputy prime minister. "You will not get our blessing for a coup." Later, he was pelted with stones by an angry crowd, prompting his bodyguards to fire in the air. Student demonstrators also staged a march toward the Milosevic home in a suburb of Belgrade, but were turned back by police. <br><br><br>The new leadership plans to create a transitional government of economic experts, and has begun to examine Yugoslavia's dire economic plight, marked by 50 percent unemployment. "We want to implement Polish shock therapy, Scandinavian social security systems, and Slovenia's model of gradual privatizations," economist Mladjan Dinkic, who is considered likely to be named governor of the Yugoslav central bank, told state television. "It takes brains, not a fist, to create an economic miracle." <br><br>The Army and police have both pledged support, though senior ranks are packed with Milosevic supporters. Defense Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic has tried to rally Milosevic loyalists, declaring that the political chaos is "inciting plans of our proven [foreign] enemies." <br><br>There reportedly have been two tussles over control of the police, but the resignation of the pro-Milosevic interior minister - who commanded some 100,000 police - is seen as a blow. <br><br>But the situation remains confused. Yesterday, senior opposition leader Zoran Djindjic said there were sectors in the police that were "closed to the democratic process." Three days before, he had declared police were "practically immune to orders that could bring them into conflict with the people." <br><br>That view is shared by military analysts in Belgrade, though few rule out some rear guard or freelance action. "I think this story about the Army and police is finished. Now, Kostunica has complete control," says Miroslav Lazanski, military commentator for the Vecrnje Novosti daily newspaper. <br><br>"The new coach of the football team wants new players, and he will have a new defense minister and chief of staff," Mr. Lazanski says. "I think the former president has no chance of causing trouble for Kostunica. I hope the future for the Yugoslav Army is for peace, even as a member of NATO." <br><br>Many analysts have been surprised by the relatively smooth transition. "Anyone in Yugoslavia who doesn't respect this moment is stupid," says Igor Pantelic, an attorney who has defended Serb clients at The Hague tribunal. "[Milosevic] can buy a week or two, and provoke something. But after that, what?" Anything in the Balkans is possible, he says, but notes: "In our neighborhood we have very strong NATO forces [36,000 in Kosovo, 10,000 in Macedonia and Albania, and 20,000 in Bosnia] that can defend us. Plus there would be the reaction of the people - a lot of them have arms in their hands. <br><br>"This nation has suffered enough," he adds. "We were the last black hole in this region, and that is unacceptable. There is huge work before us." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:Workers take charge of the directors' suites</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Stefan Wagstyl and Irena Guzelova In Belgrade<br>Published: October 10 2000 19:43GMT <br> <br>Strike committees, workers' committees, lock-ins and lock-outs. Yugoslavia was on Tuesday awash with reports of workers revolting against their Milosevic-era managers and taking over the directors' suites. <br><br>It happened in Novi Sad, in the state lottery company, in Nis, in the tobacco works, and in Belgrade University, where teaching staff and students expelled the rector and his administrators. <br><br>Even by the standards of the overthrow of Communist regimes in eastern Europe the developments in Serbia have followed unprecedentedly fast on the heels of the defeat of the autocratic leader Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Workers took full advantage of Yugoslav's social ownership traditions in which, under socialism, ownership rights were shared between the state, trade unions and workers' representatives. <br><br>Under Milosevic these distinctions mattered little because real power was controlled by his Socialist party and his wife, Mira Markovic's JUL party. With Milosevic rule crumbling, the workers have taken the communist rhetoric literally and taken charge of their enterprises. <br><br>This has generated scenes of mounting confusion over the last few days, culminating in dramatic scenes on Tuesday. In some enterprises Milosevic-period managers locked themselves in their offices for fear of attack. In others, workers hid to avoid security guards loyal to the managers. Arguments also broke out between competing groups of workers' committees, and between existing workers and people sacked for dissent in the Milosevic years who claimed they should return to head the new management. <br><br>A security guard at Dunav insurance's headquarters told a visitor: "Come back in two or three days. There is nobody in charge today." <br><br>The Democratic Opposition of Serbia, the anti-Milosevic umbrella grouping, encouraged people to take action but warned against excesses. Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic party, said: "Citizens have said that they want fast and rapid changes. . . But this can't be a justification for any kind of arbitrariness." <br><br>Some Serb analysts sympathetic to Mr Kostunica also urged the president to restrain his followers to prevent a witch-hunt. "There's a danger they will do what the previous government did in appointing their own people," said Srdan Bogosalvljevic, a public opinion pollster. <br><br>Aleksandar Vlahovic, a consultant with Deloitte and Touche, the accountancy firm, said: "This must stop soon or there will be chaos." <br><br>Miroljub Labus, head of a crisis committee set up by the newly-elected president, Vojislav Kostunica, said the new authorities' priority was in dealing with urgent problems such as fuel shortages, not investigating companies that may have profited from their association with the Milosevic regime. <br><br>Mr Labus said that in those companies where there were outside shareholders, their interests would be taken into account once the initial worker managements were in place. But this may take time as control over the economy is largely in the hands of the Serbian republican government for which elections will not be held until mid-December. <br><br>Resolving ownership disputes arising from the excesses of the Milosevic era, when some companies were allegedly illegally privatised and others allegedly illegally nationalised will be a complex problem for the new administration. Mr Labus said new privatisation laws would be a high priority. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:Parties quit Kostunica talks</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Stefan Wagstyl and Irena Guzelova in Belgrade<br>Published: October 10 2000 19:52GMT <br> <br>Plans to form an interim government next week in support of Vojislav Kostunica, the newly elected Yugoslav president, suffered a blow when two of the four likely coalition partners walked out of talks. <br><br>The Socialist party of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic and the Radicals, led by the ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj, said they were pulling out because the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), the anti-Milosevic umbrella grouping, was encouraging criminality. The Radicals said that everything Mr Kostunica had done amounted to "a putsch, violence against the constitution and the law, and banditry". <br><br>Miroljub Labus, acting prime minister of an informal transitional government established by the DOS, said that the new administration knew it was acting without a formal mandate basis but he hoped the situation would be resolved with the formation of an interim government. <br><br>As Mr Kostunica sought to dismantle the remains of Mr Milosevic's power, workers' committees were on Tuesday taking control of scores of Yugoslav public sector organisations and throwing out managers appointed by Mr Milosevic. <br><br>The Zastava car factory, the Dunav insurance company and the big Genex trading company were among state-controlled business where employees battled to establish their authority. <br><br>In the health ministry, the doctors' trade union took charge following the resignation of the health minister. At Beogradska Banka, the largest bank, the directors resigned, including Borka Vucic, the chief executive known as Mr Milosevic's personal banker. <br><br>Mr Labus said Serbia must avoid chaos. But he said workers had to act to protect socially-owned assets and prevent managers taking away money and destroying documents. <br><br>Tuesday's events followed the decision late on Monday to call elections in mid-December for the Serbian republican government, to follow last month's federal presidential poll in which Mr Kostunica defeated Mr Milosevic. <br><br>The existing republican government is expected to be dissolved in the next few days, which could heighten the sense of uncertainty. <br><br>Meanwhile, western leaders are continuing to express support for Mr Kostunica and preparing to extend aid. Hubert Vedrine, the foreign minister of France, which now holds the EU presidency, was in Belgrade on Tuesday. He said the "absolute priority is to do everything to help with the installation and consolidation of the new democracy". <br><br>Bodo Hombach, head of the south-east Europe stability pact, the main vehicle for aid for the Balkans, is due to visit Serbia on Wednesday, with Italy's prime minister, Giuliano Amato following on Thursday. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ABC News:Down, But Not Out</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Experts: Milosevic Dreams of Return to Power <br><br>By Sascha Segan<br><br>Oct. 9 — Slobodan Milosevic has one goal, political psychologists say: to return to power as leader of Yugoslavia.<br> Milosevic has tried various approaches since the Sept. 24 election that boosted Vojislav Kostunica to power.<br> First, he tried to overturn the elections; that failed. When the Serbian people revolted and set his own parliament building on fire, he disappeared, only to return and announce he did not want to abandon politics. He said he wished to remain at the helm of his own Socialist party, offering an opposition challenge to Yugoslavia’s new leadership.<br> Make no mistake, Milosevic won’t be loyal to anyone but himself, and he won’t be satisfied with being in opposition, analysts say.<br> “I would doubt extremely that he is giving up on the power that he has had and would like to have again,” says Richard Bloom, coordinator of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle University in Prescott, Ariz. “The question for him is, ‘What do I do to increase the probability of getting back to where I want to be?’” <br>Landing On His Feet <br>Milosevic is certainly startled by the events of the past few weeks,but he’s a patient man who regularly turns crises to his advantage, says Jerrold Post, professor of political psychology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.<br> “This is a man who went from being the Butcher of Belgrade to the Peacemaker of Dayton, oozing charm from every pore,” says Post. Milosevic is a master of playing the victim, the hero, and the martyr, turning on his allies and doing anything necessary to maintain ultimate power, he says.<br> “This man is a true political calculator,” Post says.<br> Milosevic charmed American negotiators during the 1995 discussions in Dayton, Ohio, that led to the end of the civil war in Bosnia. He can appear reasonable, but his charm is “malignant,” according to a personality profile prepared previously by Post.<br> Power comes before all things for Milosevic, Post and Bloom say. The fate of the Serbian people certainly doesn’t figure in his plans; they’re just pawns to serve his power, the experts say. Money also isn’t that important to Milosevic, except as a way to build power, Post says. The ex-dictator is said to have millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts.<br> “Most of the money he used to maintain control. He didn’t live particularly ostentatiously,” Post says.<br> Milosevic certainly won’t retire willingly, the political psychologist says.<br> “For him to be out of the limelight is equivalent to death,” says Post. <br><br>Family First <br>Fewer than a dozen people in the world matter to Milsoevic — his wife, his close family, a few cronies, the experts say. Milosevic and his wife Mira work as a unit, and it’s them against the world, says Bloom. Post calls her a Lady Macbeth-type, even more brutal than her husband.<br> “He and his wife, they kind of made … a contract with each other that it’s a very dangerous world out there, and the name of the game is to grab all you can, being concerned with you and your loved ones but not being concerned with the others,” Post says.<br> Kostunica is just one of “the others” in Bloom’s assessment of Milosevic. People aren’t people to Milosevic, but rather “objects that can be used to satisfy goals, also objects that could be potentially dangerous,” says Post.<br> He says Kostunica, with his nationalist credentials and his appeal to the Serbian heartland, presents the ex-dictator with some problems.<br> “Kostunica is by no means this traitorous opposition he’s tried to paint several other opposition figures in the past as,” Post says. <br><br>Sane But Dangerous <br>Milosevic is dangerous, but not insane, Post warns. He’s a pragmatic survivor who will do whatever it takes for power.<br> “He’s got a lot of narcissistic qualities in his personality, but he’s certainly in touch with reality,” Post says.<br> But a sane ex-dictator shouldn’t be confused with a reasonable one, the analysts say. Milosevic won’t change, and he’ll eventually betray any compromises he makes with the West.<br> “If what you’re really interested in is a rule of law, and some kind of representative democracy, and some kind of viable human rights and civil rights, he is always a danger because his strategic goals do not include that sort of thing,” Bloom says. “It all comes down to his desire for power.” </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Daily Telegraph:Doubts about Kostunica</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">FOLLOWING the euphoria of last week's revolution, Vojislav Kostunica moved yesterday to consolidate his rule in the face of obstruction from the Serbian president and parliament. <br><br>Momir Bulatovic resigned as Yugoslav prime minister, thus bringing down the federal government. The main political parties reached agreement in principle on forming a transitional Serbian administration of experts. Vlajko Stojiljkovic, one of five people indicted by the international tribunal in The Hague for war crimes in Kosovo, resigned as Serbian interior minister. <br><br>Fresh elections for the Serbian parliament were announced for December, but had yet to win approval from the Serbian President, Milan Milutonovic, another indicted war criminal, and Serbian MPs loyal to Slobodan Milosevic.<br><br>The EU matched these developments by lifting the oil embargo and the flight ban. It also made clear that one of the priorities for aid would be clearing the Danube of debris from last year's Nato air war.<br><br>So far, so good. The EU's initial moves to bring Serbia in from the cold are nicely calibrated with the removal of obstacles to the full exercise of presidential powers by Mr Kostunica. The task now for the EU and the United States is to ensure that the two continue in step.<br><br>The West has intervened in the disintegration of Tito's Yugoslavia to uphold the principle of self-determination. The same principle should be applied in judging Mr Kostunica's approach to the territories that Milosevic tried to incorporate in a Greater Serbia. Kosovo may lie close to any Serbian nationalist's heart, but there is no hope of ethnic Albanian agreement to union unless attitudes in Belgrade change radically. <br><br>Montenegro, which was edging out of the Yugoslav federation, remains suspicious of Serbian intentions. And in Sarajevo they doubt whether the advent of Mr Kostunica will strengthen the fragile construct prescribed for Bosnia-Hercegovina at Dayton.<br><br>These doubts about the new Yugoslav leader are warranted. He is a much more consistent nationalist than Milosevic. He wants to hold on to the rump federation with which his predecessor was left after being thwarted in Bosnia. And he challenges the right of the Hague tribunal to try Serbs indicted for war crimes.<br><br>That issue has been put on the back-burner by the Western powers. They will be watching first to see how Mr Kostunica deals with the Serbian MPs and Milosevic henchmen still occupying top civilian and military posts. But it remains the ultimate test of the new president's willingness to reintegrate his country into Europe. <br><br>Yugoslavia became a pariah because it tried to force its will on its neighbours and thereby dragged in Nato and the UN in their defence. It is right that those responsible for this revanchism should be brought to account. If Mr Kostunica and the Serbs do not accept that, they do not deserve wholehearted Western support.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:Serbian election 'by December'</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Stefan Wagstyl and Irena Guzelova in Belgrade<br>Published: October 9 2000 19:48GMT <br> <br>Vojislav Kostunica, Yugoslavia's newly elected president, was on Monday night close to success in his attack on the Serbian parliament, a key power base of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic. <br><br>Opposition leaders said an early election would be called in Serbia for mid-December, as they sought to capitalise on Mr Kostunica's victory in the presidential poll and on the popular support demonstrated in last week's storming of the federal parliament. <br><br>However, by late Monday night, Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president and a close ally of Mr Milosevic, had still not dissolved parliament and called elections. Demonstrators vented their anger outside the Serbian parliament by shouting and hurling bricks at Vojislav Seselj, leader of the ultra-nationalist Radical party, who is under pressure to switch allegiance from Mr Milosevic to the opposition. <br><br>The tensions flared as the democratic opposition scored other significant gains with the resignations of two pro-Milosevic ministers, the revoking of draconian press restrictions and progress in the formation of an all-party transitional government, which might include Mr Milosevic's socialist party but not Mr Milosevic himself. <br><br>In Brussels, the European Union partially lifted sanctions against Belgrade, removing an oil ban. EU ministers also removed an air travel ban, which had earlier been suspended. But they left in place financial sanctions aimed mainly at businesses linked with Mr Milosevic. <br><br>On the foreign exchange markets, the Yugoslav dinar strengthened dramatically from about 40 to the Deutschemark to some 25. <br><br>In Beijing, the Chinese authorities turned back Mr Milosevic's playboy son Marko and forced him to return to Moscow, where he had earlier taken refuge after fleeing from Belgrade. The move is a big blow for the Milosevic family, which has long enjoyed Beijing's support and has business interests in China. <br><br>The democratic opposition is bent on early elections in Serbia to secure control of the republic's government, which enjoys stronger powers than the federal institutions. <br><br>Opposition leaders said that despite Monday's events they expected to secure a dissolution of the Serb parliament as soon as this week. They drew heart from the resignations of Momir Bulatovic, the federal prime minister and long-time Milosevic ally, and Vlajko Stojiljkovic, the Serbian interior minister. <br><br>Mr Kostunica will also draw satisfaction from an announcement from Montenegro, Serbia's western-leaning sister republic, that it would participate in talks. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Cristian Science Monitor:After Milosevic exit, time to clean house in Yugoslavia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Serbia's pro-Milosevic government resigned yesterday, as European leaders eased an oil embargo and other international sanctions. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>In the end, the people of Yugoslavia have reclaimed their country. After 13 years of harsh sanctions and isolation caused by the authoritarian rule of strongman Slobodan Milosevic, people took to the streets, backing up their democratic vote and bringing his reign to an end. <br><br>Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, is moving to consolidate his hold on power days after the popular uprising. In a significant boost, the Serbian parliament - separate from the Federal parliament, and controlled by Milosevic allies - resigned yesterday. Parliamentary elections are expected to be held Dec. 19. <br><br>Milosevic's ouster came after people blocked roads throughout the country last week, closed down the largest coal mine - disrupting electricity - and persuaded the military and police not to crack down. <br><br>Those events continued to reverberate as workers stormed a state-run textile factory in Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, demanding the removal of managers loyal to Milosevic. <br><br>Serbs are stunned and still celebrating noisily, since their protests for years were met with brute force and tear gas. Most predicted that the final push of democracy against dictatorship would result in bloodshed. <br><br>Instead, as smoke rose above the sacked parliament and state television last Thursday, riot police gave up their shields and truncheons and fled before hundreds of thousands of protesters. Across Serbia, ordinary people witnessed extraordinary moments of change that add up to a defining moment in European history. <br><br>"Mothers kissed their sons, and husbands told their wives: 'Here are the keys, and there is money,' as if they knew they might not come back," says Alexander, an eyewitness to events who did not want to give his last name. From his town of Cacak, 60 miles south of Belgrade, he watched people drive to the capital to protest. "They were determined. It took 10 years, but then they came to Belgrade to do their job." <br><br>Clearly emotional at Yugoslavia's first-ever peaceful and democratic transfer of power, Mr. Kostunica told parliamentarians after his inauguration on Saturday: "To me, it appears that everything that has been happening is a dream, but a dream that is true when I wake up. <br><br>"If there is something this nation lacks after all the tests, and after all the suffering, all the hardship, it is peace and calm in the most basic sense of the words." <br><br>Kostunica is just beginning the tricky game of consolidating power, though Western leaders vow to immediately end Yugoslavia's isolation. European Union foreign ministers moved quickest, lifting embargoes on oil and commercial flights yesterday and easing other sanctions. A $2 billion aid package over seven years is on the table, and the Americans also want to help. <br><br>But Milosevic's legacy of four disastrous Balkan wars - which gave the term "ethnic cleansing" to the war crimes lexicon - a decade of sanctions and impoverishment, and last year's 78-day NATO bombing campaign, will not be so easily forgotten. <br><br>The Cacak convoy - 13-miles long and carrying a bulldozer to remove police checkpoints - was one element of the opposition strategy that unnerved security forces and forced the democratic victory. "The police saw that these guys [from Cacak] were serious. They had no emotion, no adrenaline. They were cool as a cucumber," Alexander recalls of the first police checkpoint outside Cacak. "The mayor came and negotiated for three minutes, but in that time men with crowbars and hammers pushed two of their vehicles into a ravine." The police gave way. <br><br>Important moments also occurred at the Kolubara mine complex south of Belgrade, where more than 7,000 miners refused to work and faced down the chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army. In Belgrade, the scale of the street protest reminded many of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. <br><br>At the coal mine, a standoff on Wednesday galvanized opposition supporters and showed the first cracks in police might. Miners had never protested Milosevic's rule in that way. "I was surprised to see thousands of cars from everywhere in Serbia, there to support the miners and bring them food," says Natasha Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. "People said, 'The police can arrest and kill us, but they can't begin production without us,'" she recalls. "Then I asked a policeman, 'What if you get the order to attack?' and he said 'Nobody can order us to attack civilians.' " <br><br>The prelude climaxed with the mass demonstration Thursday in Belgrade in front of the parliament building. Early on, police fired a single volley of tear-gas canisters, but the crowd did not disperse. Opposition leaders had given Milosevic until that afternoon to concede outright defeat in Sept. 24 elections. But the embattled president was silent. <br><br>"There were three times more people than ever before," says Nebojsa Spaic, a protest veteran with the independent Media Center in Belgrade, who was not far from the front line on the parliament steps. <br><br>The Cacak convoy was there too, with the bulldozer - and their resolve. "I saw that those Cacak people were willing to go all the way, and it encouraged us," Mr. Spaic says. <br><br>There were surreal scenes: A boy, about two years old, escaped his parents and got through the police line and somehow walked along the parliament steps. A dog wandered along also, with an opposition "He's finished" sticker on his side. Then a man broke through, and from the steps waved everyone forward. <br><br>"The crush started, and so did the running battle," Spaic recalls. "They [police] did not shoot, use water cannons or horses, and they could have." <br><br>The action shifted to the nearby state television building, and a gun battle there. Emerging from the smoking building, pro-government journalists were set upon by the crowd. "I saw a TV presenter for Radio-Television Serbia, Staka Novovic, who had presented the 3 p.m. news," Spaic says. "She had mud in her hair, and so much spit on her face that her make-up had run. Then I understood it was all over. Now we are entering the period of real transition." <br><br><br>Since then, the parliament building and TV station have become an attraction for "tourists" of the revolution. Couples holding hands stray from one smashed window to another, peering past jagged glass at aged velvet chairs that escaped the fire, or piles of documents. Among them lie election ballots, all dutifully marked for Milosevic, and presumably meant for stuffing ballot boxes. <br><br>Milosevic conceded defeat just before midnight Friday, and the streets echoed with the blaring horns and whistles of Yugoslavia's revolutionaries. <br><br>But all that mattered to those who visited the ruins was the example of years of misrule. "See, look at Milosevic!" cried one man, pointing out a pig's head that had been placed on the burned chassis of a car. The slogan "He's finished" - referring to Milosevic - was painted in black on the wall behind. <br><br>Students swept up glass and ash, but a steady stream of people just walked around the building, slack-jawed at what they had wrough. Some picked through the debris for souvenirs. <br><br>"The system is collapsing, in the same way it did in Eastern Europe in 1989," says Zarko Korac, an opposition leader whose day of revolt included delivering a message on state-run Politika television. <br><br>" 'This is the property of the people now,' I said when I went into Politika," Mr. Korac recalls. The managers left through the back door and the elevator was shut down, so he ran up to the 17th floor studio. "There was music, and then all of a sudden I appeared and people were startled - I didn't know so many people watched Politika," he says. " 'Welcome, this is the new TV. It's free now,' I announced, and then left it to the journalists." <br><br>The result of all these moments was an unexpectedly violence-free coup, a mixture of both revolution and democracy that toppled a die-hard regime. <br><br>"This is a weird, strange ending of the collapse of the Berlin Wall," Korac says. "This was a mutant system, but it was more similar to a communist totalitarian system than a democracy. It was based on fear, lies, manipulation and the secret police. <br><br>"Everybody says 'We are liberated! We are free!" he adds. "Do you know how I felt when I learned that state security is no longer taping our calls?" </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Yugoslav Elections Planned as Shift in Power Takes Hold</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 9 — The new president of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, took a firmer hold on power today, with the resignation of two crucial allies of Slobodan Milosevic and the announcement of early elections to the Serbian Parliament. <br><br>One of those who resigned, signaling the further dismantling of the old federal government, was the Yugoslav prime minister, Momir Bulatovic. Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, who controlled the Serbian police, also resigned.<br><br>In other encouraging news for the new government, the European Union lifted major sanctions and pledged to contribute about $2 billion in aid to help rebuild Yugoslavia.<br><br>Milan Milutinovic, the president of Serbia — the most important of the two remaining republics that comprise Yugoslavia — and leaders of the parties in the Serbian Parliament agreed to dissolve it and call elections for mid-December, probably on Dec. 17.<br><br>The Serbian Parliament, which had been controlled by Mr. Milosevic with the Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj, was not up for election on Sept. 24, when Mr. Kostunica defeated Mr. Milosevic for the federal presidency and elections were held for the federal Parliament.<br><br>Yet it is in Serbia and in its government where real constitutional power lies, not in the federal government. Under Mr. Milosevic, constitutional distinctions mattered less in a system he controlled.<br><br>But under Mr. Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer, the distinctions between the narrow competency of the federal government and the broad powers of the Serbian one will have greater impact. After new elections, almost sure to include voting for a new Serbian president, conflicts within a fragile opposition suddenly in power could become more obvious, and Mr. Kostunica's power may be less sweeping than it appears now.<br><br>In this half-finished revolution, when Mr. Kostunica's allies consider Mr. Milosevic's continuing control over the Serbian police and special police their greatest danger, dismantling the Serbian power structure has been crucial.<br><br>The new government made an important start today, with the agreement for new Serbian elections and the resignation under pressure of Mr. Stojiljkovic, the interior minister. But Rade Markovic, the chief of the secret police, has still not resigned and is feeling more confident about his position, a political leader said tonight.<br><br>New Serbian elections should do much to wipe out the parliamentary position of Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party and its coalition partner, the Yugoslav United Left of his wife, Mirjana Markovic. For that reason alone, said Ognjen Pribicevic, an adviser to a leader in the new government, the agreements today matter.<br><br>"The Socialist Party will be over for now, that's the most important thing, which means that Milosevic will be over," he said. "It means we are entering a new time."<br><br>He is also very concerned about the situation in the manifold layers of the Serbian police that Mr. Milosevic pampered and nurtured, even if they were unwilling to shoot at protesters last week.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica's allies want the Interior Ministry job for themselves in what would be a provisional, all- party Serbian government to run the republic until the December elections. But negotiations bogged down today with the parties currently in the Serbian Parliament, especially with Mr. Seselj, who wants more seats in the new government but who also spoke trenchantly and bitterly about the extra-legal revolutionary capturing of institutions by some of Mr. Kostunica's supporters.<br><br>"We are not willing to legalize this putsch," Mr. Seselj said. "We have been robbed of the police. Everything being done now is unlawful, and we refuse to give it an umbrella of legitimacy. If there a chance to put things back into legal and constitutional boundaries, we will play along. Revolution is revolution, and a putsch is a putsch. It is honorable to be a counterrevolutionary today."<br><br>Mr. Seselj has broken with Mr. Milosevic and helped Mr. Kostunica challenge election fraud. But he is also trying to protect his party, which could suffer badly in new elections, and negotiate a better deal with the new democratic forces.<br><br>A supporter of Mr. Kostunica, Dragan Veselinov, a party leader from Vojvodina, answered: "This is not about a coup, this is not about a putsch. This is about the will of the people. The people have taken power. That's what this is about. The people spoke at elections you convoked."<br><br>He criticized the Milosevic coalition for hanging on when it has been so thoroughly repudiated and said: "You are the former ones. You are ghosts from the past. This nation is watching you for the last time. Your faces will no longer be around in December. In nine and a half weeks, people will only see smiles here."<br><br>The bitterness is real. Mr. Kostunica talks of constitutional legality, but others in the coalition that backed him fear that if they move too slowly to assert control over every powerful institution, Mr. Milosevic and his allies will take advantage of legal niceties and stage a comeback.<br><br>It is an awkward mix, conceded Cedomir Jovanovic, a top aide to the opposition campaign manager Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party. "We started a process and our intention now is to legitimate that process," Mr. Jovanovic said. "But to slow it down or even stop it would be dangerous."<br><br>Mr. Seselj's presidential candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, carried the accusation further. "You would have never proved electoral theft if we had not helped you," he said. "Everything else that carried over into Serbia — which was not at issue in this election — is a putsch. It is not the people's will for you to go into universities and take over," he said.<br><br>"Now you're looking for the government of Serbia to provide you with a veneer of legality," Mr. Nikolic said. "You break down doors. You depose and fire people, you come in with guns and pistols. Have any of these here present dictators, as you routinely call them, ever put a gun to any of your heads?"<br><br>Mr. Seselj then warned that "this revolution, too, will soon start eating its children," especially over the issues of money, benefits and privileges that power brings.<br><br>Despite the criticism, however, the Parliament will be dissolved and a new Serbian government will be negotiated, with opposition membership, that will further dismantle Mr. Milosevic's control.<br><br>The newly elected federal Parliament is still squabbling, but the resignation of Mr. Bulatovic, the prime minister, makes it more likely that his Montenegrin Socialist Party will go into coalition with Mr. Kostunica's supporters in the federal government.<br><br>Because the September election was boycotted by the Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovic, the pro- Western leader, he has no seats in the new Yugoslav Parliament. But Mr. Kostunica wants to find a federal government, possibly made up of technicians and experts, that Mr. Djukanovic can tacitly support, at least until new federal elections could take place.<br><br>A decision by the Serbian parliament to reject a motion to scrap a Milosevic law banning political activity at universities brought a few hundred students to protest outside the Parliament. They booed Mr. Draskovic and staged a march on Mr. Milosevic's home in the suburb of Dedinje, which was easily deflected by the police.<br><br>There was a moment of drama when Mr. Seselj, a bruising figure, left the Parliament, and some protesters, saying that he was obstructing democratic change, scuffled with his bodyguards. A weapon was fired into the air, but no one was hurt.<br><br>There were more moments of revolutionary revenge today. Workers attacked Radoman Bozovic, a Milosevic ally and director of Genex, the largest state-run import-export company. He tried to flee from his car, but he was caught and beaten. His bodyguards snatched him and moved him into a nearby building for safety. Later, Mr. Bozovic resigned.<br><br>In a plaintive appeal, Yugoslavia's Defense Minister, Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, urged Mr. Milosevic's allies to rally. Otherwise, he said in an open letter, the Serbs might face extinction as a people, saying that "disunity among the Serbs is inciting the plans of our proven enemies" to occupy the country, referring to allegations that the new government here is subject to NATO control.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LA Times:Montenegro President Injured in Car Crash </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Balkans: Some fear that the incident in the Yugoslav republic was in fact an assassination attempt by Milosevic's allies. <br><br>By CAROL J. WILLIAMS, Times Staff Writer<br><br>PODGORICA, Yugoslavia--President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro suffered unspecified injuries and was hospitalized Monday night after his limousine crashed on a mountain road despite a security cordon meant to protect a figure whose defiance of Slobodan Milosevic was crucial in toppling the Yugoslav dictator.<br>News of the crash initially triggered alarm in top government offices here because it was assumed to have been an attempt on the pro-Western president's life. One senior official blurted out after hearing of the crash: "There is no way this was an accident! There is no way this wasn't a setup!"<br>A terse government statement surfaced on Montenegrin television five hours after the crash, and it contained neither pictures of Djukanovic, who reportedly was recuperating, nor any footage from the crash scene. In a region rife with conspiracy theories, official attempts to play down the incident could unleash fears of hard-line retaliation if Djukanovic fails to appear in public soon to show that he is not seriously injured.<br><br>Milosevic Loyalists Still Control Armed Forces<br>Although euphoria has reigned in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, since Milosevic retreated from pro-democracy demonstrators in Belgrade, the capital, on Thursday, razor-sharp tensions still prevail in Montenegro, the federation's smaller republic. Milosevic allies still control the federal armed forces and authoritarian political parties here that claim to represent Montenegro in the Yugoslav parliament.<br>Many here fear that Milosevic is still capable of setting his loyalists against Djukanovic allies in a battle for control of Montenegro. If the suspicious car crash proves to be the work of forces still loyal to Milosevic, Montenegrins may speed up their quest for independence.<br>Djukanovic has about two-thirds support in this republic of about 700,000 residents, but he is regarded as a traitor by many of the rest. He always travels in an armored motorcade with escort vehicles ahead and behind his limousine. The failure of that security vigilance to prevent the 4 p.m. crash cast further suspicion on the contradictory accounts of what happened near the mountain town of Cetinje, 20 miles southwest of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital.<br><br>Conflicting Accounts of Events, Injuries<br>Three sources close to Djukanovic said a vehicle suddenly appeared in front of the limousine after the forward cars of the motorcade had sped past, although police usually clear the road ahead of the motorcade and halt traffic at crossroads. Two of the sources said it was a car that suddenly pulled in front of the president's vehicle, but the other insisted that it was a motorcycle.<br>Colleagues and confidants of the president gave conflicting accounts of his injuries as well as the possibility that the crash was not accidental.<br>"This is a very dangerous situation," said Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan, one senior official still unconvinced that the crash was an innocent mishap. "The initial reports are that it was an accident. But I want to see the reports on the police investigation."<br>A family friend leaving the hospital where Djukanovic was being treated said the president suffered a back injury but was in relatively good condition. The television report of the government statement gave no specifics of his injuries, only that he was "recovering successfully."<br>"It's nothing," insisted poet Jevrem Vrkovic, another Djukanovic friend. Vrkovic said the president had injured his foot, but he acknowledged that he had not seen Djukanovic.<br>Another source close to Djukanovic said the president injured his neck when the speeding limousine veered off the road to avoid hitting the intruding vehicle, became airborne as it soared up an embankment and rolled 360 degrees before landing upright. It was not known whether the president was wearing a seat belt, but many in the Balkans regard seat belts as unmanly.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The New York Times:Kostunica Walks Tightrope to Consolidate His Authority</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 8 — The Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, struggled today, his first in office, to consolidate his authority over Serbia and his own allies, trying to find a balance between revolutionary justice and legality in the post-Milosevic era.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica is president, but some in the 18-party coalition that backed him are afraid that his concern for legal niceties may prove costly in the uneasy vacuum of power that has followed Slobodan Milosevic's ouster.<br><br>Already, there have been serious behind-the-scenes struggles for control of the police, the courts, the banking system and customs authorities.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica's coalition has formed a "crisis committee" that is a kind of parallel government to the Serbian authorities who were beholden to Mr. Milosevic. They are moving through institutions one by one, trying to ensure support for a new democratic authority.<br><br>"We are against revolutionary transformation, but there are always people for revolutionary change," said Dragor Hiber, a member of the crisis committee.<br><br>Veran Matic, the president of ANEM, the Association of Independent Electronic Media, said the greatest danger to Mr. Kostunica "is the question of the unity of the democratic opposition." <br><br>Mr. Kostunica's problems range from the enormous to the bizarre. One of the most bizarre concerns the visit on Tuesday of the French Foreign Minister, Hubert Vedrine. Mr. Vedrine, along with President Clinton — who called Mr. Kostunica today — and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, were convicted in absentia of war crimes in a pre-election propaganda exercise here. Formally, Mr. Vedrine and the others face arrest and 20 years in jail, and their photographs are up on wanted posters in police stations and at the airport.<br><br>Kostunica officials are afraid that the police may embarrass Mr. Vedrine at the airport. Mr. Kostunica can sign an amnesty, but that is considered politically awkward here. The public prosecutor can void the conviction, but the process is clumsy. So the officials are working, quietly, on the police not to act.<br><br>Mr. Clinton spoke to Mr. Kostunica this evening for five minutes to congratulate him. Mr. Kostunica has been reluctant to have William Montgomery, the ambassador who has been running the "Yugoslav embassy in exile" in Budapest, to be appointed the American ambassador in Belgrade when relations are restored. Mr. Montgomery's office in Budapest helped to run and fund the anti-Milosevic campaign, which Mr. Kostunica regarded as overt meddling in Serbia's affairs.<br><br>But Mr. Kostunica would go along with the appointment, his aides say, if all sanctions against Yugoslavia are lifted, including the so-called outer wall, which blocks Yugoslav access to international financial institutions — and thus to crucial loans and credits.<br><br>Control of the police is a significant issue. The police did not in any serious way oppose the mass protest last Thursday that led to the burning of the federal Parliament, helped along by some prior agreements made with the opposition.<br><br>In today's issue of the daily Politika, Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democratic Party, the backbone of the opposition, said the police "had reorganized, stabilized and realized what the interest of the people is, and the police have become practically immune to orders that could bring them into conflict with the people."<br><br>But knowledgeable officials say former police and security officials with connections to Mr. Djindjic attempted to take provisional control of Belgrade police headquarters on Friday morning and again this morning, telling the chief of police, Gen. Branko Djuric, to hand over his authority and his firearm. General Djuric called other opposition officials, with whom he had promised cooperation, and said he would shoot himself first. He asked for protection and someone to guard him at night. The situation has continued, but with the intervention this morning of Mr. Kostunica himself, it appears to have been calmed, officials said.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic's head of state security, Rade Markovic, is also said to have contacted Mr. Kostunica's aides complaining about death threats from former security officers, and has discussed resigning. Mr. Kostunica met privately today with top security officials.<br><br>On Friday, at the lucrative Customs Department, a close Milosevic ally, Mihalj Kertes, was pressured by armed men working for the opposition to leave office. Weapons were reportedly found in Mr. Kertes' office. To the surprise of Mr. Kostunica and some of his allies, a businessman named Dusan Zabunovic, who is considered close to Mr. Djindjic and owns an import company called M.P.S., was appointed head of customs. The selection caused such an uproar among the opposition leaders themselves that it was rescinded the same day.<br><br>There was another drama at the courts, with senior Milosevic judges like Milena Arezina, chief judge of the Serbian trade court, ordering the destruction of documents relating to sensitive cases, like the government takeover of the I.C.N. pharmaceutical company owned by Milan Panic, a Serb-American, and the cases against ABC Produkt, a publisher that owns an independent daily newspaper, Glas Javnosti.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Washington Post:Montenegro Uncertain of Future</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Daniel Williams<br>Washington Post Foreign Service<br>Monday, October 9, 2000; Page A16 <br><br>PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Oct. 8 – The dramatic changes in Yugoslavia are being viewed with deep ambivalence here in the capital of Montenegro, the federation's smaller, Mediterranean side republic. There's relief over Slobodan Milosevic's departure, but fears that the triumph of democracy in Belgrade diminishes one of the main arguments for independence. <br><br><br>"What happened in Belgrade was good for Belgrade. What it means for us is very unclear," said Eduard Miler, who is directing a play at the National Theater portraying life in Yugoslavia as hell.<br><br><br>Besides Serbia, Montenegro is all that's left after a decade-long exodus of Yugoslav republics from their Communist-era union. While Milosevic was in power, the case for Montenegro's eventual independence was easy to sustain; the West viewed him as the embodiment of evil, and Montenegro's stand against him was regarded as heroic.<br><br><br>But now that there is democracy in Belgrade, what is the point of separation? Montenegro's population is a mixture of Serbs and Montenegrins who speak the same language and largely share the Orthodox Christian faith. In the new context, the independence-minded government of President Milo Djukanovic is struggling to figure out how to present its case.<br><br><br>"I'm afraid we will just be looked at as troublemakers," Foreign Minster Branko Lukovac said in an interview today.<br><br><br>So far Djukanovic has resisted the temptation to declare outright independence, which would put the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, in a difficult position just as he is trying to consolidate his hold on power. Kostunica insists that both Montenegro and Kosovo – a province of Serbia – should remain part of Yugoslavia.<br><br><br>Djukanovic is pressing for talks with Kostunica to "redefine our relationship," Lukovac said. "We see Kostunica as a partner for dialogue."<br><br><br>From the Montenegrin point of view, such talks should lead to effective independence for the republic of 600,000 people while retaining open borders with Serbia and fluid economic relations.<br><br><br>"We have a funny situation. We are happy that Milosevic is gone, but the problem of our relations remains. Our position is for a new contract with Serbia," Lukovac said.<br><br><br>He expressed concern that Montenegro has lost its position as a staunch opponent of the Milosevic regime. He said the United States and Western Europe may be more interested in shoring up Kostunica than in fulfilling Montenegro's desires.<br><br><br>"In some ways, we were a tool of the West in pressuring Serbia," Lukovac said. "The problem to be resolved was Serbia, not our independence. Now interest will be on Belgrade."<br><br><br>In Washington, a senior Clinton administration official said Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright had spoken "at least" twice with Djukanovic last week to assure him of continued U.S. support. "The basic message to him and to others is, yes, we're going to work with the new Serbian government, but we're going to keep up our work with you," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We've told them quite clearly that we're not going to forget about the others in the region."<br><br><br>Despite their misgivings, Montenegrins express relief that a ruler they considered dangerous has fallen. There was fear that Milosevic would provoke a conflict with Montenegro to whip up support for staying in power.<br><br><br>No one expects Kostunica to threaten Montenegro's stability. Some even hope that the era of conflict in the Balkans is at an end, which would help restore the tourist business that once made up two-thirds of Montenegro's foreign-currency income.<br><br><br>To boost their arguments for independence, advocates fall back on history and the tragedy of having been linked with Serbia. Montenegro was once an independent kingdom, and has its own poets, heroes and easy-going Mediterranean personality. In any case, separatists ask, why should Montengro be required to remain part of a political corpse? "Yugoslavia is dead. It really exists just in the minds of Serbia," said Jevrem Brkovic, a prominent writer.<br><br><br>Brkovic distrusts Kostunica and the Serbs who brought him to power. "They voted him in because Milosevic failed to create a greater Serbia," he said. "They haven't repented for what was done in the name of Serbia."<br><br><br>Brkovic is a confidant of Djukanovic and has advised the president to hold a referendum. He believes 75 percent of voters would choose independence. Other analysts say the margin would be slimmer – perhaps 60 percent.<br><br><br>Younger Montenegrins want to get on with their lives, feeling that they have lost a decade in the chaos and isolation brought on by wars in the Balkans.<br><br><br>"I was 17 when the conflict began," said Yelena Vujovic, a public relations director for the National Theater. "We haven't lived a normal day since."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Cristian Science Monitor:Yugoslavia's populace coming to terms with their accomplishment</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor<br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br>The swearing in of Vojislav Kostunica Saturday evening as Yugoslavia's first popularly elected president marks the end to the last vestiges of state-imposed communism in Europe. <br><br>It's also a historic seal on a bloodless revolution that brought to a close Slobodan Milosevic's 13 year reign. Tired of the four Balkan wars instigated by Mr. Milosevic - which spawned the term "ethnic cleansing" - and a decade of international sanctions and isolation, Yugoslavia's populace is now coming to terms with the magnitude of their accomplishment. <br>"We lived in a system without democracy. It exists now," said Mr. Kostunica, the law professor after taking the oath of office late Saturday. He admitted to the legislators assembled in a makehift parliament building in Belgrade that the speed of the transfer of power was "like a dream." <br><br>Indeed, in the streets of Belgrade this weekend there's euphoria and a sense of disbelief. The relatively peaceful overthrow of Milosevic came after years of massive rallies by opposition parties that generally met with brute force and tear gas. Almost all expected that the final push against the autocrat would result in a huge loss of life – and possibly fail. <br><br>But when the first waves of protestors on Thursday surged forward against the teargas swirling around the ornate federal parliament building, the police put up little resistance, and then fled. <br><br>This weekend, many Serbs came to visit the site of the uprising as if to confirm that it had happened. With the crunch of broken glass underfoot and the smell of smoke still thick in the air, the charred parliament building is now a destination for "tourists" of the revolution. <br><br>Couples holding hands stray from one smashed window to another, peering in at aged velvet chairs that escaped the fire, or piles of documents. Among them were piles of ballots from the 24 September election, all dutifully marked - by someone – for Milosevic, and apparently meant for stuffing ballot boxes. <br><br>It was nearly two weeks ago, that the opposition led by Kostunica declared an outright victory in the first round of voting. Milosevic and the electoral institutions under his control said the margin of victory was too thin; a second round run-off was required. But Kostunica and his supporters had other plans. <br><br>Milosevic conceded defeat just before midnight Friday, and the streets echoed with the blaring of horns and whistles of Yugoslavia's revolutionaries. The US and European nations have vowed to lift international sanctions as soon as possible - possibly as early as Monday - and to welcome Yugoslavia back into the European fold. <br><br>But in Belegrade the streets are still full of loud drum-beating, dancing, and drinking celebrants, who charge up and down the main streets in cars, waving Serbian and Yugoslav flags. <br><br>And at the ruins of the parliament building, a steady stream of people simply walk around the building, slack-jawed at the work that they - the people - have wrought. Men take pictures of women in front of piles of cars destroyed during Thursday's uprising. Others picked through the revolutionary debris for souvenirs. <br><br>"See, look at Milosevic!" cries one man, pointing at a pig's head that had been placed on the gray-black burned chassis of a car behind the building. Stuck in the pig's mouth is a business card for Vreme, an opposition magazine. The protest slogan "He's finished" - referring to Miolsevic - is painted in black on the wall behind. <br><br>President Kostunica's message is one of reestablishing law and order, and of no revenge - including against Milosevic, who is indicted for war crimes at the United Nations international tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic says that he will be spending more time with his family, but will be leading the opposition now. He heads Yugoslavia's largest political party. <br><br>Kostunica, who is also an ardent Serb nationalist, vows that he will restore Yugoslav control over Kosovo - which remains under international administration - in a "civilized" way. <br><br>Despite years of authoritarian rule, Serb analysts say their countrymen are ready to embrace democracy. "Serbia has the capacity and the intelligence, and in Serbia civil society has been very strong," says Natasha Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. <br><br>"We can talk about what happened, and open our borders. That is invaluable for the future."<br><br>People working in the judiciary called opposition officials to warn them of the destruction of the files, some of which was stopped. There was a similar incident at the Foreign Ministry, though of lesser importance.<br><br>Indicative of the problems was the drama on Saturday at the main state bank that clears payments between businesses, an organization known as the Zavod za Obracun Placanja, or Zop. The crisis committee was told that Milosevic officials were transferring large sums of money to private companies to pay for pre-election government purchases of cooking oil and sugar.<br><br>The company that created the bank's electronic data system agreed to crash the computers to stop the transactions, but allow for the payment of important benefits like pensions. The crisis committee then appointed Zivko Nesic, general manager of the bank until fired in 1998, to manage it.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica and his allies are also trying to assert control over the Serbian government and Parliament, which did not go through new elections. It has been dominated by Mr. Milosevic's coalition, which was allied with the Serbian Radical Party. If, however, the Radicals realign themselves with the Serbian Renewal Movement, another party that was sometimes in opposition and sometimes allied with Mr. Milosevic, they could bring down the current government. Both those parties fear that new elections, which Mr. Kostunica wants in both the federal and Serbian parliaments within the next 90 days, will devastate them.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica is trying to convince the Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, a wavering Milosevic ally who was also indicted by the war crimes tribunal, to dissolve the Serbian Parliament on the grounds that new elections are required to restore political stability. Mr. Milutinovic, not known for bravery, is being told that now is the time to move or face charges.<br><br>If he does not help, and the two other parties do not play along, Mr. Kostunica and his allies are prepared to call for tens of thousands of citizens to rally in front of the Parliament, a form of threat.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:Kostunica struggles to form alliances</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova and Stefan Wagstyl in Belgrade<br>Published: October 8 2000 19:30GMT | Last Updated: October 9 2000 07:27GMT<br> <br>Vojislav Kostunica was on Sunday fighting to bolster his position by forming political alliances after his weekend inauguration as Yugoslavia's new president. <br><br>As he sought to win over supporters of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic, Mr Kostunica's aides revealed the extent of the country's economic crisis. <br><br>Mladjan Dinkic, a leading economist, tipped as a future central bank governor, said Yugoslavia needed $500m in immediate aid, and called for a donors' conference to plan longer-term support and an end to sanctions. <br><br>In a first act of support for the new government, European foreign ministers are expected to begin lifting sanctions against Belgrade when they meet in Luxembourg on Monday. <br><br>Romano Prodi, European commission president, on Sunday sent a message to Belgrade lauding Mr Kostunica for his "courageous stand" in favour of democracy. <br><br>"Europe has long said that it would welcome a democratic Yugoslavia with open arms and we look forward to carrying out that promise," he said. <br><br>However, Mr Kostunica's campaign to buttress his position has been complicated by Mr Milosevic's refusal to abandon the political scene. Even though Mr Milosevic has conceded defeat, he has pledged to stay as leader of the Socialist party. <br><br>Mr Kostunica has had lengthy talks between his opposition block and other parties over allocation of seats in the Federal parliament. <br><br>In parliament, his majority depends on an alliance with Montenegro's pro-Yugoslav party, which has until recently supported Mr Milosevic. By late yesterday it still was not clear which side they would back. <br><br>It was reported at the weekend that Marko Markovic, Mr Milosevic's playboy businessman son, had fled to Moscow with his wife and son. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times:EU to start lifting sanctions on Yugoslavia</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Dan Bilefsky in Brussels<br>Published: October 8 2000 20:03GMT | Last Updated: October 9 2000 07:47GMT<br> <br>European Union foreign ministers were set to begin lifting sanctions against Yugoslavia on Monday, in a gesture of support for the new government of President Vojislav Kostunica. <br><br>The lifting of the sanctions, imposed last year after President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown in Kosovo, marks a new era of economic and political reconciliation between the EU and Yugoslavia. President Jacques Chirac of France, which currently holds the EU's presidency, has already signalled the group's support by inviting Mr Kostunica to attend this week's EU summit in Biarritz. <br><br>At Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, ministers are expected to remove a ban on all commercial flights to Yugoslavia and lift an oil embargo imposed on Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo war. Ministers will also discuss expanding a "white list" of companies exempt from financial restrictions in a move to help kickstart Serbia's ailing economy. <br><br>An EU freeze on financial assets held by people related to the Milosevic regime and a visa ban on the former president and his entourage are expected to remain. An international arms embargo will also stay in place, having been imposed not by the EU but by the United Nations. To help cement diplomatic ties as speedily as possible, ministers will discuss sending a high-level delegation to Belgrade this week, comprising the foreign ministers of France and Sweden, Chris Patten, external affairs commissioner, and Javier Solana, EU foreign affairs representative. <br><br>However, some European officials have expressed concerns that Mr Solana's prominent role in Nato's bombing campaign when he was Nato secretary-general could make him unwelcome in the Serbian capital. <br><br>EU ministers are expected to consider an aid package of E2.3bn ($2bn) over a seven-year period, drawn up by the European Commission in case Mr Milosevic was ousted from office. This summer, governments turned down the Commission proposals on the grounds that aid for Serbia would come at the expense of other states in the region. <br><br>However, with next year's EU budget still under review, the Commission plans to send an assessment mission to Serbia as early as this week to determine how much funding is necessary for economic reconstruction. <br><br>EU officials shrugged off suggestions that Mr Kostunica's resistance to co-operating with the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague could hamper relations. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Chicago Tribune:Attack reflects Yugoslavs' anger toward Milosevic</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Tom Hundley<br>Tribune Staff Writer<br>October 8, 2000 9:01 p.m. CDT<br><br>POZAREVAC, Yugoslavia -- Bambiland was locked and shuttered Sunday afternoon, and Milan Vlasic, a man of NFL linebacker proportions, looked as if he had just been demoted.<br><br>Although he was a bit vague about the precise nature of his duties, Vlasic, 22, used to be "the chief" at Bambiland, a dismal little amusement park built by Marko Milosevic, the bad-boy son of Yugoslavia's ex-president.<br><br>Last week, when tens of thousands of demonstrators in Belgrade stormed the federal parliament building and brought down the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, a handful of demonstrators attacked Bambiland to register their resentment of his son's rule in Pozarevac, a provincial city that is the Milosevic family's hometown.<br><br>The demonstrators roughed up a security guard and fired shots into the empty amusement park before police chased them away, according to Vlasic. Then they smashed up several other businesses owned by the 26-year-old first son, including a disco, an electronics store, a radio station and a cafe.<br><br>For many people in Yugoslavia, Marko Milosevic, with his spiky bleached-blond hairdo, shady friends and impunity from the law, epitomized the crude venality and criminality of his father's regime. The attack on these symbols of the Milosevic family's petty tyranny in Pozarevac is a measure of the anger and frustration that ignited last week's revolution.<br><br>But Vlasic doesn't quite understand that.<br><br>"This was not a political object. It was a playground for little children," he said as he guided a visitor past the park's beach volleyball court, a pretend pirate ship and -- the crown jewel -- a swimming pool now filled with slime-green water.<br><br>"Everything that Marko did in this town was for the people. This park was his dream for 10 years. Before it was a garbage dump," he said.<br><br>"I only wish you could meet him, meet the man they were writing such terrible things about. This 26-year-old man was smarter than a 60-year-old," said Vlasic, sighing.<br><br>Bambiland opened a few weeks after the 1999 NATO bombing campaign ended. The regime billed it as a symbol of Yugoslavia's resilience and determination. Most people saw it as an example of the Milosevic family's odd disconnect from reality.<br><br>The park did a brisk business mainly because school children were forced to go there by school principals who owed their jobs to Milosevic's party.<br><br>"Marko could have been a spoiled child, like any president's son," said Vlasic. "But he tried to do something good for this town. People just don't understand."<br><br>Slavoljub Matic, the Democratic opposition leader in Pozarevac, said he does not think young Milosevic was misunderstood by the people of his hometown. Feared and loathed would be more like it, Matic said.<br><br>Residents of Pozarevac are less likely to remember Marko for his keen sense of civic responsibility than for the time he pistol-whipped a handicapped patron in the toilet of his disco.<br><br>Marko complained that the man had given him a "funny look." It later turned out that the man was partially blind.<br><br>Matic, who served on the Pozarevac City Council, recalled a time when he questioned why Marko had received an extraordinarily sweet deal on a local theater he wanted to convert into a nightclub. For his effrontery, Matic received a barrage of death threats.<br><br>"All his methods were illegal. He thought he could always get what he wanted through fear, by threatening people," Matic said.<br><br>Marko demonstrated his business acumen as a trader in black-market cigarettes and gasoline. He hung around with a fast crowd and showed a real talent for crashing expensive cars.<br><br>In Pozarevac, Marko's "friends" were the muscular young men with shaved heads and black leather jackets who drove around in Jeeps with tinted glass and no license plates.<br><br>"Marko controlled the police here, he controlled virtually all functions of the municipality, and of course Mira Markovic was also complicit in all of these activities. It was only harm that they brought to this town," he said. Markovic, the influential wife of Slobodan Milosevic and a deeply despised symbol of the regime, is Marko's mother.<br><br>Matic said he first sensed that the elder Milosevic's grip on power might be slipping last June, when students at Pozarevac's high school were "invited" to hold their end-of-the-year party at Marko's disco.<br><br>"The high school kids tore up the invitations. The school principal was in huge trouble. And it was then that I realized that Milosevic was finished. Every kid was showing us what his family thought," said Matic.<br><br>When the votes in the Sept. 24 presidential election were tallied, Milosevic had failed to carry his hometown.<br><br>Last week, after he was finally forced to yield power, jubilant opposition supporters wanted to trash the Milosevic family homestead, but Matic and others in the opposition coalition blocked them.<br><br>"The house was untouched. We think it should be preserved as a monument to remind us of what the Family Milosevic has done to us," said Matic.<br><br>Meanwhile, Marko boarded a jet for Moscow on Saturday with his wife and young son. He is not expected to return.<br><br>Back at Bambiland no one had told Vlasic.<br><br>"No, no, no, it's not true," the faithful retainer insisted on Sunday. The idea of Marko abandoning his beloved Pozarevac was apparently unthinkable</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times:Milosevic's family flees to Moscow</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Tom Walker, Belgrade, and Stephen Grey <br><br>THE playboy son of Slobodan Milosevic fled Yugoslavia with his family yesterday amid growing signs that the ousted dictator and the henchmen who sustained his brutal regime will escape trial for war crimes. Opposition leaders claimed that Milosevic's cronies were trying to loot state coffers and smuggle money abroad. <br>Vojislav Kostunica was sworn in as president before parliament last night, completing the transfer of power 48 hours after a momentous uprising against Europe's last communist regime. Kostunica was greeted with a standing ovation and loud cheers from deputies. After taking the oath of office he told them that he was determined to preserve the unity of Yugoslavia. <br><br>Milosevic's son, Marko, left Belgrade for Moscow at 8.30am aboard Yugoslav Airlines flight 132 accompanied by his wife Milica and one-year-old son Marko. This was the grandson whom Milosevic had mentioned in his resignation address to the nation on Friday, when he finally accepted that he had lost the election two weeks ago and said he intended to spend more time with his family. <br><br>Marko Milosevic, 26, who amassed a multi-million-pound fortune after his father's regime granted him concessions to import tobacco and alcohol, was known for his love of fast cars and guns. He once held a machine pistol to the neck of a disabled boy whom he accused of looking at him. <br><br>Marko Milosevic's departure followed a confrontation with opposition supporters in the family's home town of Pozarevac. After a crowd stoned his Rolex cafe and smashed a sign outside his Madona nightclub, he drove through the protesters, shouting abuse, then sped away as they surged towards him. <br><br>There was no indication that Milosevic or his wife and political partner, Mira Markovic, were preparing to go into exile. <br><br>However, sources close to Kostunica claimed that Milosevic, whose brother Borislav is Yugoslavia's ambassador in Moscow, had come close to fleeing after he failed to mobilise the army and anti-terrorist police against opposition supporters massed in Belgrade. <br><br>First Milosevic summoned General Nebojsa Pavkovic, his chief of staff, who told him no drivers could be found for tanks poised to roll into the city. Then he turned to anti-terrorist units, which also refused orders to quell the uprising. <br><br>According to the sources, Milosevic ordered the air force at Batnica airbase, north of Belgrade, to prepare the government's Falcon-50 jet for a flight to Athens on Friday. But the aviation authorities rejected the flight plan and Milosevic was effectively grounded. <br><br>Russian officials who mediated between Milosevic and Kostunica said the former president now believed that as long as he remains in Yugoslavia he will be safe from the international criminal tribunal in the Hague, which wants to try him for war crimes in Kosovo. <br><br>Kostunica - whose inauguration had been delayed by procedural wrangling between his coalition and Milosevic's socialist party - does not recognise the tribunal. He has refused to hand over Milosevic, despite pressure from the United States and European countries that had supported the Yugoslav opposition. <br><br>"It would be pretty foolish for the White House to make noises about putting Milosevic on trial in the Hague," said a source close to the Kremlin. "They know Kostunica can't and won't deliver. They know that is probably never going to happen." <br><br>European Union foreign ministers meeting tomorrow are expected to lift sanctions against Belgrade and offer £1.2 billion in aid without insisting that Milosevic be handed over as a condition of the package. They will promise immediate assistance and a programme lasting up to six years partly to pay for reconstruction following last year's Nato airstrikes. "We don't expect Milosevic to be delivered up as part of the deal, certainly not immediately," said a senior diplomat. <br><br>Another said: "We are largely abandoning the stick, but we will continue to wield a pretty big carrot." <br><br>Tony Blair and Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, were said to be "fully committed" to putting Milosevic on trial. However, they indicated that nothing should interfere with reconstruction. "There is a possibility that Milosevic could be tried in Yugoslavia," a Foreign Office spokesman said. <br><br>Milosevic has been indicted for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Four senior figures in his regime, including President Milan Milutinovic of Serbia, face similar charges. Another 20 Serbs, among them Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, have been indicted over atrocities elsewhere. <br><br>Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal, will urge western governments to avoid making deals with Kostunica unless he co-operates. "This is not just about Milosevic," a tribunal official said. "We expect rapid progress in dealing with all these cases." <br><br>As speculation intensified that some members of Milosevic's circle were preparing to escape, American officials said central banks in Europe had been instructed to look out for suspicious financial transactions originating in Serbia. <br><br><br>Two British policemen held in Belgrade on suspicion of spying said they were repeatedly beaten and feared they would be killed. Adrian Prangnell and John Yore flew into Heathrow last night after nearly 10 weeks in detention. <br>"We were subject to beatings. It's a side of things I want to forget for a little while," said Prangnell. "At one point we stopped in a clearing in the woods and a man came from a lorry with some rope. At that point I thought something unpleasant was going to happen." <br><br>He said they were still shocked at their release. "At midday yesterday John and I were walking around the exercise yard in the military prison." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Financial Times: Milosevic hails Kostunica as victor</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade and Stefan Wagstyl in London<br>Published: October 6 2000 19:00GMT <br> <br>Slobodan Milosevic abandoned his grasp on power on Friday night as he conceded defeat in a television address where he congratulated Vojislav Kostunica on his victory in the September 24 elections. <br><br>In a brief recorded adress he said: "I congratulate Mr Kostunica on his electoral victory and I wish much success to all citizens of Yugoslavia. <br><br>"I intend to rest a bit and spend some more time with my family and especially with my grandson Marko and after that to help my party gain force and contribute to future prosperity." <br><br>It was an admission that his days of power were over after his last ally, Russia, deserted him and hailed Mt Kostunica as the rightful president. <br><br>Moscow's move came as Mr Milosevic's power continued to crumble and his allies deserted the former strongman. <br><br>The constitutional court, which had earlier tried to annul Mr Kostunica's election victory, on Friday ruled in his favour; the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church prepared to bless Mr Kostunica and political parties in Montenegro and in Serbia which had previously backed Mr Milosevic said they would work with Mr Kostunica. <br><br>Opposition activists prepared to have Mr Kostunica sworn in as president as soon as possible, probably in the next few days. <br><br>After Thursday's storming of the Parliament and other public buildings, the atmosphere in Belgrade on Friday was calm. Thousands of people remained in the streets celebrating as the drama of the end of Mr Milosevic's brutal rule unfolded. <br><br>Mr Milosevic himself indicated that he had no intention of fleeing the country or leaving politics. It emerged yesterday that he had not abandoned Belgrade but had seemingly hidden with his wife Mira Markovic and other close associates in his heavily-fortified villa in a Belgrade suburb. <br><br>There he was apparently visited by Igor Ivanov, Russian foreign minister, who came out from the meeting saying that Mr Milosevic had renounced the use of force but intended "to continue to play a prominent political role in the country" as the leader of its largest political party, the socialists. <br><br>Earlier, a statement attributed to Mr Milosevic was read on a station controlled by his wife's political party. It said that "violence and destructive riots jeopardise the functioning of the state". But there was no confirmation of Mr Milosevic's whereabouts nor any sign that he had ordered any movements of the security forces. <br><br>During a one-day trip, Mr Ivanov also called on Mr Kostunica and delivered a personal message from president Vladimir Putin. Mr Ivanov said he "congratulated Mr Kostunica on his victory in the presidential elections." <br><br>News of the Russian endorsement was welcomed by western officials, including US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who said: "This is very, very important." <br><br>President Jacues Chirac of France, which currently holds the EU presidency, emphasised the union's support by inviting Mr Kostunica to an informal EU summit in Biarritz on ctober 13-14. Mr Kostunica said he would attend if domestic conditions allowed. <br><br>EU officials said foreign ministers meeting on Monday would probably lift a European oil embargo and end a flight ban but other measures - financial sanctions and a visa ban - would not be removed until late. The EU will also consider aid for Serbia. <br><br>In the summer governments turned down plans from the European Commission to set aside E2.3bn for 2000-6 in case Mr Milosevic was ousted. The decision created fears in the Balkans that aid for Serbia would come at the expense of other south east European states. However, Chris Patten, the European external relations commissioner, said yesterday he expected ministers now to earmark new funds for Serbia. <br><br>In Belgrade, the central bank on Friday halted the sale of hard currency, presumably to maintain reserves and block capital flight. Opposition leaders said they were physically standing guard at the bank and the government treasury to prevent any effort by Mr Millosevic's supporters to remove funds. <br><br>Meanwhile, two Britons and one Canadian held since August on suspicion of terrorism were released. Another Canadian remains in custody. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Times: Misha Glenny - The Balkans</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Successful force now faces uncertain future <br><br>FROM the minute I saw the workers and peasants of central Serbia march down Knez Milos Street, I knew that these enraged men with arms like legs of mutton would not be leaving Belgrade before they finished their job. <br>Not a few them were carrying weapons. If the order to shoot had been made, the police and the Army would have found themselves with a real battle on their hands. <br><br>These men knew how the day would end. But on Friday morning most other Serbs could scarcely comprehend how deeply their lives had been changed by the 12 hours that saw them seize back their dignity and their future that languished in Slobodan Milosevic's dungeon. <br><br>Many were convinced that he would wrongfoot the opposition at the last moment. It was not until I talked to the most senior opposition leaders on Thursday morning that I realised they had broken a psychological barrier. Cedomir Jovanovic of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) told me: "We are going to storm the parliament and take key state institutions." <br><br>Mr Milosevic's opponents had at last understood that they would bring him down only by using his favoured political currency, naked force. They would not be able to sustain the general strike and the extreme pitch of people's anger for more than a few days. On Thursday, it was do or die. <br><br>Serbia's revolution has come 11 years after those in Eastern Europe. <br><br>Leaving aside the mayhem that he provoked in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Mr Milosevic has inflicted unimaginable damage on the Serbian state. <br><br>He gutted its judiciary and filled its civil service and education system with witless sycophants. The state-run media earned a special place in the Serbs' misery as it daily regurgitated the mantras of Mr Milosevic's anachronistic authoritarian ideology. <br><br>The police and the military did not guarantee citizens' wellbeing, but was the ultimate sanction of one man's power. The economy is corrupted to the point of collapse, serving only the hugely powerful mafias whose influence will now wane. <br><br>All this was made possible by Mr Milosevic mobilising a rancid, bullying nationalism that became the main motor of destabilisation in the Balkans. Far from achieving his proclaimed national goals, his policies saw Serbs driven out of areas in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo where they had lived for centuries. <br><br>Vojislav Kostunica and the other members of the new leadership in Belgrade face an enormous task in trying to heal those wounds. The constitutional order with its multiple parliaments is a complete mess. Serbia's relationship with Montenegro is profoundly confusing. <br><br>Solving this conundrum is not helped by the fact that Mr Kostunica's relationship with the Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic, is cool at best. <br><br>If that wasn't enough, Mr Kostunica's powers as Federal President are quite limited and Mr Milosevic's coalition is the most powerful force in the federal parliament. For that reason, Mr Kostunica and his allies are wooing the SNP, which used to support Mr Milosevic in Montenegro, in an attempt to block the influence of Mr Milosevic's alliance in parliament. <br><br>Furthermore, Mr Kostunica's opposition movement is a broad front in which cracks are already beginning to appear. The new President is overwhelmingly the most popular figure in Serbia. But he could not have swept aside Mr Milosevic without the assistance of several key men. The most important of those is Zoran Djindjic, whose Democratic Party was the backbone of the protest movement. <br><br>According to insiders, the two men, both ambitious, distrust each other. Those are the two figures upon whom the Serbs will depend to solve their most pressing problem. <br><br>The nationalism that led to war in Yugoslavia was fashioned for the sole purpose of winning power for Mr Milosevic in 1987. Thirteen years later, many Serbs have conveniently forgotten how they supported his project in the first place. They have suffered severely for their mistake. <br><br>There has been much uninformed criticism in the West about Mr Kostunica's nationalism. That criticism is based largely on his opposition to American policy in the region and to the Nato campaign over Kosovo in particular. Expressing approval of the Nato campaign within Serbia brings to mind the idea of turkeys voting for Christmas. <br><br>But it is also Mr Kostunica's legitimate democratic right to criticise American policy (everybody else does). The key point is that he is a democrat. He will attempt to solve any problems through negotiation and not violence. <br><br>The process of rehabilitation will still be exceptionally difficult. Serbs will have to address the issue of the war crimes committed either by them or in their name. <br><br>A more public recognition by the West of the crimes committed against Serbs would certainly move the process along. Western Europe must be deeply engaged in assisting the reintegration of this confused, traumatised country. <br><br>An unstable Serbia blocks the regeneration of the entire Balkan peninsula; an undemocratic Serbia can always threaten to destabilise Bosnia and Kosovo. <br><br>There is now a democratic Serbia, but it is by no means yet stable. Thanks to the people's uprising in Belgrade, however, this country and the Balkans, at last, have a real chance. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>THE NEW YORK TIMES: Milosevic concedes defeat: Yugoslavs celebrate new era</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By STEVEN ERLANGER<br><br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 6 — Bowing to a vast popular revolt against him, a pale Slobodan Milosevic resigned tonight as Yugoslavia's president, ending 13 years of rule that have brought his country four wars, international isolation, a NATO bombing campaign and his own indictment on war crimes charges.<br><br>Vojislav Kostunica, a 56-year-old constitutional lawyer of quiet habits and a firm belief in a future for Yugoslavia as a normal country within Europe, is expected to be inaugurated as president on Saturday.<br><br>An already exuberant and chaotic Belgrade, celebrating its extraordinary day of revolution on Thursday, exploded with noise as the news of Mr. Milosevic's resignation, made in a short speech on television, quickly spread. Cars blasted their horns; people banged on pots and pans from balconies, blew whistles and danced in the street.<br><br>Mr. Milosevic appeared on television about 11:20 p.m. — shortly after Mr. Kostunica announced, on a television phone-in program, that he had met Mr. Milosevic and the army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, this evening, and that both had congratulated him on his election victory on Sept. 24.<br><br>The resignation deal was helped along by Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov of Russia, who met with Mr. Kostunica and Mr. Milosevic today. Mr. Ivanov was carrying assurances that if Mr. Milosevic gave up power now, the world would not press for his extradition to face war crimes charges in The Hague, senior Western officials said tonight.<br><br>"I've just received official information that Vojislav Kostunica won the elections," Mr. Milosevic said in his television address. "This decision was made by the body that was authorized to do so under the Constitution, and I consider that it has to be respected."<br><br>Mr. Milosevic spoke with a straight face after an extraordinary set of manipulations on his part — of the Federal Election Commission and the highest court in the land — to deny Mr. Kostunica outright victory.<br><br>Speaking of how important it is for political parties to strengthen themselves in opposition, Mr. Milosevic said he intended to continue as leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia after taking a break "to spend more time with my family, especially my grandson, Marko."<br><br>Despite his brave words, it is unlikely that the Socialist Party, with its own future to consider, will keep Mr. Milosevic as its leader for long. The remarks seemed part of a deal to save him a little bit of face.<br><br>There is deep resentment in this semi-reformed Communist Party — Serbia's largest and best organized, in power since World War II — of Mr. Milosevic's indulgence of his wife, Mirjana Markovic, who began her own party, the Yugoslav United Left. Ruling in coalition, the Socialists saw more and more of their positions, powers and benefits going to the United Left. <br><br>The reaction in Belgrade was immediate and loud.<br><br>Tanja Radovic, a 23-year-old student blowing her whistle furiously on Knez Mihailova Street, said: "He's gone. It's finally true. We had too much of him, it's enough. This is the end of him and all these thieves."<br><br>Dragana Kovac, 31, said: "I'm happy, and not just because of him, but because of her. He should have spent more time with his family starting 10 years ago."<br><br>Ilija Bobic said: "I wish all my family were alive to see this. My father used to say that the Communists would finish quickly. He was wrong, but it came true, finally."<br><br>Mr. Bobic stopped, then said: "We all know it won't be better quickly here. But now you can talk. You're not afraid of the phone, of being an enemy inside, of having to join the party to have a job."<br><br>The United States and Europe have promised a quick lifting of international sanctions against Yugoslavia, as well as aid, once Mr. Milosevic goes. The sanctions include a toothless oil embargo and a flight ban, currently suspended. But financial sanctions and a visa ban aimed at the Milosevic government are likely to remain in place for now.<br><br>The United States and Britain have urged that Mr. Milosevic be handed over to the war crimes tribunal, and continued to do so publicly today. But Mr. Kostunica, who considers the tribunal a political instrument of Washington and not a neutral legal body, has made it clear that he will not arrest Mr. Milosevic or extradite him.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica's vow was also intended to give Mr. Milosevic the security to leave office, so that an electoral concession did not have to mean, as Mr. Kostunica said, "a matter of life or death."<br><br>Foreign Minister Ivanov came here today to deliver a similar message, Western officials said tonight.<br><br>If Mr. Milosevic conceded and renounced power, even after the pillars of his rule collapsed this week, he and his family would be allowed to remain in Serbia, they said. But no Western country would say so publicly, given the United Nations tribunal's indictment.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica has pointed out that if democratic and international stability is at stake, the requirement to pursue those indicted is secondary under international law.<br><br>The collapse of Mr. Milosevic's position came soon after Mr. Ivanov met him this morning in Belgrade. This afternoon, the Constitutional Court suddenly issued its ruling approving Mr. Kostunica's appeal of the election results. <br><br>The official press agency Tanjug said on Wednesday night that the court had decided to annul the main part of the Sept. 24 presidential vote, implying a repeat of the election. But then the court said that in fact Mr. Kostunica had won the first round outright, with more than 50 percent of the vote, precisely as he has insisted. It was another example of Mr. Milosevic's manipulation, but this time to others' ends.<br><br>Then the speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Dragan Tomic, one of Mr. Milosevic's closest allies, announced that he would convene that body on Monday to recognize Mr. Kostunica's election as federal president. He addressed a letter to Mr. Kostunica this way: "To the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."<br><br>The election of Mr. Kostunica — carried to power first by the votes of a majority of Serbs, and then by an uprising by even more of them — will present difficulties and opportunities for Montenegro and Kosovo, both parts of Yugoslavia.<br><br>The Western-leaning president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, will find himself offered a new deal within Yugoslavia that will be aimed at blunting the effort toward independence. That may quickly undermine Mr. Djukanovic's governing coalition in Montenegro, which contains parties firmly backing independence.<br><br>Mr. Djukanovic boycotted the federal elections, allowing Milosevic allies to win all of Montenegro's seats in the federal Parliament. Those allies are now likely to make a deal with Mr. Kostunica, abandoning Mr. Milosevic, and leaving Mr. Djukanovic in effect powerless in a Belgrade that could quickly become the center for democratic life in the Balkans.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica will also offer Kosovo a high degree of autonomy. While outside powers recognizes Yugoslav sovereignty over Kosovo, Mr. Milosevic was a perfect foil for Kosovo Albanian desires for independence, which have only grown stronger since NATO intervened on the Albanians' behalf in the 1999 bombing war.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica says he will live within United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, governing Kosovo, but will insist on the return of Serbs who fled during the war.<br><br>In his television appearance, Mr. Milosevic thanked those who voted for him and even those who voted against him, "because they lifted from my soul a heavy burden I have borne for 10 years," he said. He also said a time in opposition would be good for the left coalition, to allow them to purge those who got into the party "to feed some personal interest," an extraordinary comment for a leader who allowed a form of state- sanctioned mafia to develop.<br><br>"I congratulate Mr. Kostunica on his election victory and wish for all citizens of Yugoslavia great success during the new presidency," he concluded.<br><br>In his own television appearance, Mr. Kostunica described his meeting with Mr. Milosevic. "It was ordinary communication, and it's good that we met, because there was a lot of fear over the peaceful transfer of power, especially last night," Mr. Kostunica said.<br><br>"This is the first time for many years in this country that power has been transferred normally, in a civilized manner," he said.<br><br>And he said he pointed out a lesson to Mr. Milosevic: "I talked about how power, once lost, is not power lost forever. You can regain it. This is something that all my experience taught me. The other side couldn't even imagine something like this, but now the other side has accepted this, and it is getting used to this lesson."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>DAILY TELEGRAPH: Welcome Kostunica - but with serious reservations</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Noel Malcolm<br>'I can't tell you what a relief it is - to think it's all over at last," one senior Foreign Office official said to me. "When I think of all the trouble this Balkan business has given us, the phone calls, the conferences, the endless crisis management - now we just want to get back to normal life."<br><br>I sympathised, of course, knowing that even Foreign Office officials are human. But that conversation took place in November 1995, after the Dayton peace agreement on Bosnia. The Kosovo crisis had merely been left on one side; the first outbreaks of violence, by frustrated and radicalised Albanians, began only a few months later.<br><br>As the diplomats breathe their sighs of relief today, contemplating the fall of Milosevic, are they making the same mistake? In one important sense, the answer has to be "no". The role played by Milosevic in the tragic recent history of the former Yugoslavia was different from that of any other factor: he really was the primary cause of the wars, the massacres of Bosnians and Albanians, and indeed the sufferings of his own people.<br><br>That does not mean that, without Milosevic, the old Titoist Yugoslavia would still be there today, delighting the tourists with its gipsy music, "socialist self-management" and other items of folklore. There were plenty of reasons why Slovenes, Croats and others might have wanted to go their separate ways. The point is simply that, without Milosevic, the unravelling of Yugoslavia could have taken place peacefully - no Vukovar, no Srebrenica, no Racak. With Milosevic gone, there is no reason to expect horrors of that kind to be seen on ex-Yugoslav soil again.<br><br>On the other hand, the consequences of a decade of Milosevic's rule cannot be wiped from the slate as quickly as the man himself. His policies created problems that had not existed before, such as the quasi-partition of Bosnia. And they also helped to radicalise nationalist feelings in the minds of many former Yugoslavs - above all, among the intellectuals of Serbia, some of whom are now coming to power. There will, alas, be no shortage of Balkan problems to deal with; those Foreign Office officials cannot put away their aspirin bottles just yet.<br><br>The biggest unresolved issue is Kosovo, where Western governments have just missed a golden opportunity. If they had announced, while Milosevic was in power, that Kosovo would definitely become independent, the Serbian people could have accepted such a political fait accompli as the final loss inflicted on them by Milosevic's policies; they could then have drawn a line under it, and got on with building normal politics in a post-Milosevic and post-Kosovo Serbia. Instead, the unresolved problem of Kosovo will poison Serbian politics for years to come.<br><br>This will be the case under almost any government in Belgrade; but the problem may be particularly acute under Vojislav Kostunica, the new president, who has campaigned on Kosovo for much of his adult life - from 1974, when he criticised Tito for giving too much autonomy to the Kosovo Albanians, to last year, when he posed for photographers in northern Kosovo with an assault rifle in his hands. One of the things Mr Kostunica may start pressing for is the return (agreed to in theory by the West at the end of the bombing) of a small number of Serbian troops to Kosovo. There could be no surer way of jeopardising the fragile progress made so far in that territory.<br><br>Another issue that still simmers is the status of Montenegro, the junior partner in the Yugoslav federation. Mr Kostunica was elected on the basis of a new federal constitution, pushed through by Milosevic in the summer; the Montenegrin government, which was not properly consulted, refuses to recognise this constitution.<br><br>Meanwhile, Kostunica is forming a federal government which depends on the support of the old pro-Milosevic party in Montenegro - an embittered opposition to the Montenegrin government. Somehow he has to negotiate a new federal constitution, which means riding both these horses at once. Recent talk of outright secession by the Montenegrin authorities may have been largely gamesmanship; but the game is a serious one, and it is still in progress.<br><br>Then there is Bosnia. The fact that, five years after Dayton, the Western media have lost all interest in the place does not mean that Bosnia's problems have been solved. Bosnia is still a non-functioning state and a potential trouble-spot, pinning down thousands of Western troops. The effects of ethnic cleansing have not been reversed; rather, they have been strengthened, both by the failure to return refugees to their homes, and by the Dayton constitution, which gives the "Republika Srpska" half of Bosnia, an official ethnic identity and strong local powers.<br><br>Just in the past year the picture did start to improve, as the return of non-Serb refugees to Republika Srpska accelerated. Part of the reason for this was the feeling among Serb politicians there that they had no choice but to co-operate with the rest of Bosnia, as they could not expect any support, either economic or diplomatic, from Belgrade.<br><br>That factor has now changed. No one in Bosnia can forget that Mr Kostunica was an enthusiastic supporter of Radovan Karadzic during the Bosnian war; he also denounced the Dayton accord, not because it gave too much power to Republika Srpska, but because it gave it, in his view, too little.<br><br>This does not mean that Mr Kostunica is going to start up some new project of Serb nationalist adventurism in Bosnia, let alone in Croatia or further afield. He has more than enough problems at home to be getting on with. And if he does succeed in building a new, democratic society there, one consequence will be that Serbs may learn to think in a new way, critically examining their own recent past and questioning some of the claims of Serbian nationalism - including ones made by Mr Kostunica himself. That, in the long term, is the most important reason why we should all wish him success.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Csmonitor: Court declares Kostunica winner</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Aleksandar Vasovic <br>Associated Press<br><br>BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA <br>(AP)—The Yugoslav high court on Friday declared opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica the winner in presidential elections, boosting his drive for power after a popular uprising swept away the pillars of Slobodan Milosevic's 13-year rule. <br><br>Milosevic, whose whereabouts have been a mystery since Thursday's street protests, met Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and denounced the unrest. <br><br>After days of hesitation by Moscow, Ivanov expressed support for Kostunica's victory, stripping Milosevic of his main international ally. But Ivanov suggested that Milosevic, who has been indicted on war crimes, will try to keep a role in Yugoslav politics. <br><br>"He said he intends to play a prominent role in the political life of the country,"Ivanov said. <br><br>Ivanov would not confirm the location of their meeting, but Milosevic said it took place in Belgrade. <br><br>"It was agreed that violence and destructive riots jeopardize the functioning of the state,"Milosevic said in a statement, broadcast by a TV station operated by his allies. <br><br>Such behavior "weakens the state, which is only in the interest of the country's enemies,"he said. <br><br>Milosevic's statement was seen in Belgrade as an indication of the Yugoslav leader's stubborn defiance in the wake of an electoral defeat and massive uprising Thursday in which his allies in the security forces, media and the parliament seemed to melt away. <br><br>The United States, which had cheered the prospect of a Balkans without Milosevic, rejected any future role for him in Yugoslav politics. "This is something we cannot support,"said Sandy Berger, the U.S. national security adviser. <br><br>"He is still an indicted war criminal and has to be accountable, we believe, for his actions," Berger said in an interview. <br><br>Milosevic also appeared to lose his last legal basis for keeping power. <br><br>The opposition had asked the Yugoslav Constitutional Court last week to declare Kostunica the outright winner in the Sept. 24 election. The government had acknowledged that he outpolled Milosevic in the five-candidate race but said he fell short of a majority, requiring a runoff. <br><br>Nebojsa Bakarec, a legal adviser to Kostunica, said Friday he received an official ruling from the court in the opposition's favor. Efforts to contact the court were unsuccessful because the report was received after the close of business hours. <br><br>Two days earlier, the same court had reportedly invalidated parts of the elections, a move the opposition had denounced as an attempt to buy time for Milosevic. <br><br>The apparent reversal by the court, which Milosevic had packed with loyalists, may indicate that Milosevic has given up any hopes of holding onto power and instead has decided to try to carve out a role for himself in national politics. <br><br>By accepting defeat, Milosevic could prevent a split between his party and its wing in Montenegro, which has already acknowledged Kostunica as the president-elect. If the Montenegrin wing backs Kostunica, he could have enough seats to keep Milosevic allies out of the government. But if the Montenegrins stick by Milosevic, the Yugoslav leader could maintain a strong voice in government. Montenegro and the larger, dominant Serbia make up the federation of Yugoslavia. <br><br>Ivanov, carrying a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, met earlier with Kostunica, saying he "congratulated Mr. Kostunica on his victory in the presidential elections." <br><br>"I am convinced that we are gradually getting back to normal and I believe the crisis is behind us,"said a visibly pleased Kostunica. <br><br>The move by Russia—the last major European nation to back Kostunica—won praise from an exultant U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. <br><br>"This is great news,"Albright said, giving a thumbs up. "We are very glad that Russia has now joined the rest of Europe and us in congratulating the victory of President Kostunica." <br><br>The United States and the European Union promised economic sanctions on Serbia — the dominant republic in Yugoslavia—would be lifted once Kostunica was in place as president, and promised new aid to the country. <br><br>Meanwhile, Kostunica and his supporters continued to consolidate their control after huge crowds danced and sang in celebrations all night long, fed by the excitement of having seized Yugoslavia's parliament and other key symbols of Milosevic's regime. <br><br>About 200,000 people gathered in front of parliament Friday, hoping to watch Kostunica be inaugurated. One of their posters read: "Slobodan, are you counting your last minutes."But Kostunica's personal secretary, Svetlana Stojanovic, said the ceremony was postponed until he can reconvene parliament, possibly this weekend. <br><br>Worries eased about Milosevic's launching a military counterattack. Most police commanders have joined the groundswell behind Kostunica. The private news agency Beta quoted an army press service officer, Col. Dragan Velickovic, as saying the armed forces would not "interfere in the democratic process." <br><br>Tanjug and other state-owned media—formerly a key support of Milosevic's regime—were broadcasting or publishing apologies Friday for their past support for Milosevic. Serb television occasionally flashed its logo during broadcasts with the slogan: "This is the new free Serbian television."State-owned or past pro-Milosevic dailies issued special editions Friday, reflecting the change in their editorial policies. <br><br>Several hundred people from the opposition stronghold of Cacak marched down an avenue behind a brass band on Friday. A lone traffic policemen watched from his hiding place inside the entrance to an office building. <br><br>"God forbid that they see my uniform,"said the terrified officer, who declined to identify himself. <br><br>While Russia was keen to establish ties with any new government in Yugoslavia, it also faced the question of its old ally's future. <br><br>Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency cited Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov as saying there had been no discussion about granting asylum to Milosevic. Vladimir Yermoshin, the prime minister of Belarus—a former Soviet republic that has also been suggested as a refuge for Milosevic—said there has been no request for asylum. <br><br>Governments of the two Balkan neighbors—Bulgaria and Romania—ordered their armed forces to remain alert against any attempt by Milosevic or his allies to slip out of Yugoslavia. <br><br>"He's trapped and a wounded animal,"said former Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic, who ran against Milosevic in 1992. "He has to be given a chance to go somewhere." <br><br>Milosevic's regime began teetering Wednesday when police caved in to defiant coal miners striking in central Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic. After that, the movement gained stunning momentum. <br><br>A crowd Thursday—including tough miners, factory workers and farmers—stormed the parliament. They set fires, tossed portraits of Milosevic out of broken windows and chased the feared riot police away. <br><br>Soon the state television building was on fire, too. Its front door was crushed by a front-loader. Then came word that at least two police stations had also succumbed to the crowds. <br><br>Many police tossed away their clubs and shields, absorbed by joyous flag-waving crowds. Others were beaten senseless by angry, often intoxicated, young toughs. The director of Serbian state television and one of Milosevic's closest allies, Dragoljub Milanovic, was beaten with sticks. <br><br>Tanjug said two people were killed and 65 injured in the rioting. All but 12 of the injured were treated and released from hospitals, Tanjug said. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Guardian: Milosevic admits defeat</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Ousted president congratulates rival and tells Yugoslav TV he wants to spend time with his family<br>Special report: Serbia <br><br>Jonathan Steele in Belgrade <br>Saturday October 7, 2000 <br><br>The most hated man in Europe, Slobodan Milosevic, finally threw in the towel last night and congratulated Vojislav Kostunica on his victory in the September 24 Yugoslav presidential election. But the ousted dictator showed he still has deluded hopes of a political career. <br>Speaking on television after a meeting earlier yesterday with the Russian foreign minster at one of his Belgrade residences, Mr Milosevic said he would spend time with his family before returning later to public life. <br><br>"I congratulate Mr Kostunica on his electoral victory and I wish much success to all citizens of Yugoslavia," he said in a television address. "I intend to rest a bit and spend some more time with my family, and especially with my grandson, and after that to help my party gain force and contribute to future prosperity." <br><br>The speech triggered a huge celebration on the streets of the Yugoslav capital. Firecrackers exploded and horns blared throughout the city. <br><br>Deprived of power by election defeat and the loss of support from the army and police, and of sanctuary in most of the world by his indictment as a war criminal, Mr Milosevic earlier yesterday had put on a brave smile and welcomed Moscow's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, to tea at his villa in the suburb of Dedinje. <br><br>Seated on chintzy white sofas behind drawn curtains, Mr Milosevic told his Russian guest that he firmly intended to stay in political life as head of the Socialist party of Serbia. <br><br>He condemned Thursday's storming by demonstrators of the parliament and the state-run television station, actions that led the police to join the revolt in the streets and hastened his regime's collapse. <br><br>According to Mr Ivanov, who held a press conference after his talks with Mr Milosevic, the ousted president criticised "the violence and riots as jeopardising the functioning of the state". <br><br>While the rest of Yugoslavia has moved into a new era, Mr Milosevic seems unable to see how far he has fallen. He even risks repudiation by his colleagues. The Socialist party is reported to be in turmoil, with resignations mounting as erstwhile collaborators rush to distance themselves from him. <br><br>Late last night, Mr Kostunica, said he had spoken to Mr Milosevic and army commanders to try to quell fears that troops and police might intervene in the popular revolution. Mr Kostunica said on television: "There are guarantees that the shift of power will this time go smoothly." <br><br>No one in the Serbian capital seemed interested last night in hunting Mr Milosevic down or trying to ransack his many homes. People had clearly taken to heart an appeal for calm by Mr Kostunica. <br><br>Speaking from the balcony of Belgrade's town hall at Thursday night's victory party, the new leader had urged a jubilant audience "to drive the man away, but not with the violence which he used on us for so many years". <br><br>The only target of serious looting was a central Belgrade perfume shop called Scandal, owned by Mr Milosevic's mafioso son, Marko. It was ransacked on Thursday and yesterday crowds queued patiently to file past and peer through the broken windows. <br><br>Meanwhile, people in the state sphere were changing sides as easily as changing clothes. The constitutional court - which brought things to a head by trying to nullify the September 24 election results and suggesting a rerun - yesterday announced that Mr Kostunica had indeed won. <br><br>The anger ignited by the court's original decision, which led thousands of Serbs to loot the parliament and set fire to the TV centre, had by yesterday turned into a festival atmosphere. Massive crowds came out to celebrate the triumph of Mr Kostunica, as well as to see the site where what is being called a revolution reached its climax. Drums were beaten and flags waved. <br><br>Some revolutions are about social equality, others seek to end political dictatorship. The Serbian Autumn was fuelled by a thirst for normality. <br><br>Under the portico of the parliament, Slobodan Zhuric, 33, a shopkeeper, was acting as a volunteer guard preventing sightseers from going inside. <br><br>"We had reason to be angry with Milosevic for Kosovo, but the west had no reason to bomb us," he said. "Milosevic lost all credibility when he surrendered." But what he wanted above all, he said, was "to have a president we can exchange, if we find we don't like him". <br><br>Near Mr Milosevic's villa is Beli Dvor, the so-called White Palace, the presidential guards could not disguise their grins yesterday when we asked if they had celebrated on revolution night. "No comment," said one as he gave it all away with a toothy smile. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Sleepless In Belgrade </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Misha Savic <br><br> A young woman danced on a police van, then jumped down to give a policeman a kiss and a whirl to the strains of "I Will Survive." Across the capital in the wee small hours of Friday the young danced, the old wept and the police laid down their arms to join the opposition jubilee. <br><br>After a tumultuous day which saw huge crowds storm the bastions of Slobodan Milosevic's regime, the streets of this capital of 2 million inhabitants turned into a gigantic party, awash in the red–blue–white bands of the Yugoslav flag and fists waving the traditional three–finger Serbian unity sign. <br><br>"We came to Belgrade to finish with him and that's what we did," said Janko Bacic, 41, brandishing a bottle of brandy in one hand and a trophy leg pulled off a chair in the parliament building in the other. <br><br>Bacic was one of tens of thousands of farmers and working class rural Serbs who'd converged on the capital early Thursday for massive demonstrations called by the opposition. By nightfall they believed they had won. Milosevic was gone and they were in no hurry to return home. <br><br>"Yes, I fought with this," Bacic said, waving the chair leg. "We're lucky the police didn't open fire." <br><br>Much of the police force had surprisingly quickly abandoned their posts in front of parliament and other state buildings. By early Friday, they were mingling with crowds, hugging the very people they had for years threatened with tear gas and truncheons. <br><br>There was no word of Milosevic's whereabouts in more than 24 hours, although opposition leaders believed he was in hiding in eastern Yugoslavia. Opposition leaders urged the masses to keep up their street vigil until dawn, amid fears that tanks and armored vehicles – symbols of Milosevic's 13 years of iron rule – might try to intervene. <br><br>"Belgrade must stay up all night, Serbia must stay up all night so that we can defend our victory," opposition leader, Velimir Ilic, told the tens of thousands gathered in front of the Yugoslav parliament. <br><br>The crowd didn't need much persuading. <br><br>In front of the domed building, three youths gleefully stubbed out their cigarettes on an official, framed portrait of Milosevic, one of the many thrown out, along with a flurry of documents, from parliament windows throughout the day. <br><br>Many residents of Belgrade, who'd been startled to see first the parliament, then the headquarters of state–run TV spewing flames Thursday as protesters forced police to flee, joined the celebration in the streets and muse over what their future. <br><br>"I'm not sure if I prefer to see him stand trial for all his misdeeds or not hear about him ever again," said bank clerk Jovan Malekovic, 59. <br><br>Yet the dizzying swiftness of Thursday's uprising took its toll. Several dozen people were reported injured and two others were killed in the melee. A number of policemen, as well as the head of Milosevic's infamous propaganda tool, the state–run television, suffered severe beatings at the hands of rioters unleashing decades of pent–up anger. <br><br>With nightfall, windows of businesses believed to be owned by Milosevic's cronies were reduced to heaps of shattered glass as looters took to the streets. <br><br>Opposition leaders kept calling for restraint, pleading the supporters not to mar the triumph. <br><br>For many, like 81–year–old Katarina Jakovljevic, the apparent demise of Milosevic's authority was a dream come true. <br><br>"I was young when Communists came to power," tearful, tired–looking Jakovljevic said, recalling 1945. "I think they are really through now. I waited 55 years for this day." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>He may run, but Milosevic cannot hide from justice </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">What Now For Serb Leader? <br><br>By Marcus Tanner <br><br><br>The War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague is preparing to expand its indictment of Slobodan Milosevic from crimes against humanity to the much graver charge of genocide. The move came as crowds in the streets of Belgrade sought to achieve what Nato bombs and international sanctions had failed to do – drive the Yugoslavian President from power. <br><br>Mr Milosevic has defied public anger before. In the spring of 1997, despite months of nightly street protests in Belgrade and other cities, he held on to power long enough to set off another war over Kosovo. <br><br>He has consistently managed to divide the opposition, rigging elections and intimidating, discrediting or coopting potential challengers for so long that he did not seem to believe that this time they would remain united. <br><br>The prospect that he might at last be ousted has caused fierce controversy in the West. In the interest of getting him out, some have been prepared to contemplate allowing Mr Milosevic to go into exile, probably in Russia, and to ease his peaceful road to retirement by offering immunity from prosecution. That has outraged the officials who have spent years seeking to bring him to justice. <br><br>"Right now, he is only charged with crimes against humanity in relation to Kosovo," said Paul Risley, the spokesman for Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor in The Hague. "Potentially, his charges could now be as serious as genocide." <br><br>The indictment could be changed by extending the range of charges against Mr Milosevic from Kosovo to include Bosnia and Croatia, Mr Risley said. He might then be charged with overall responsibility for the bloodshed in Croatia in 1991 and in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. <br><br>Mr Milosevic's responsibility would then include the Serb massacre in Vukovar, in eastern Croatia, the shelling of Dubrovnik, the ethnic cleansing of north-west Bosnia's Muslim population and the killings in Srebrenica and other towns in eastern Bosnia. <br><br>Until now, the crime of genocide has been levelled only at the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military strongman, Ratko Mladic. But Mr Risley suggested thetribunal might be about to point the finger at Mr Milosevic as the supreme figure to whom all the others were responsible. <br><br>Jiri Dienstbier, the UN human rights envoy, suggested on Tuesday that the West and Russia might let Mr Milosevic off entirely. "The most important thing for Mr Milosevic is to have guarantees that if he leaves power he will not be prosecuted and he will not spend the rest of his life in prison," Mr Dienstbier said. <br><br>Tribunal officials are appalled at the signal such an offer would send to other national leaders accused of atrocities. But Mr Risley said an immunity offer would also throw into a tail-spin the Hague court's existing verdicts. "To allow such an individual as him to go free would make a mockery of any of the tribunal's efforts to prosecute people below him." <br><br>Lawyers for the 35 men already sentenced by the tribunal are thought to be preparing petitions for their clients' early release should the Serbian strongman go free. <br><br>They include Tihomir Blaskic, the Bosnian Croat general sentenced to 45 years in 1999 for the massacre of more than 100 Muslims in Bosnia in 1993. <br><br>The flurry of action comes amid fears that the Yugoslav leader will flee his rebellious capital and seek sanctuary inside Russia or Belarus, two of Serbia's staunchest allies over the past decade. <br><br>Mr Risley says the prosecutor will formally ask Russia to arrest Mr Milosevic if he leaves Belgrade for Moscow. <br><br>If the prosecutor releases the extra charges, it will be impossible for any state to offer Mr Milosevic sanctuary without becoming a virtual outlaw in the eyes of the UN. Strengthening Mr Milosevic's indictment might also affect the charges against his four cabinet associates, Milan Milutinoviv, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and Vlajko Stojiljkovic. <br><br>Ms del Ponte is expected to act on the extra charges after she receives final dossiers on Serb atrocities in Kosovo in the course of her visit to Pristina today. <br><br>Mr Dienstbier's statement came as Ms del Ponte was in Bosnia for a meeting with the "Mothers of Srebrenica" group, representing relatives of 8,000 Muslim men massacred by Serbs in the eastern town in July 1995. <br><br>The survivors of the Srebrenica bloodbath pressed Ms del Ponte on Wednesday for an indictment of Mr Milosevic for his role in the single worst massacre in the Balkan wars of the Nineties.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Milosevic down, but not necessarily out </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Andy Darley <br><br> Opposition leaders in Yugoslavia have set up a "crisis committee" to govern the country after the toppling of Slobodan Milosevic, according to reports today. <br><br>The committee's main task will be to secure public order and peace, an opposition source said. <br><br>The news comes as opposition leader Zoran Djindjic warned that Slobodan Milosevic had taken refuge in a bunker in Bor, near the borders with Romania and Bulgaria, with some of his closest allies. <br><br>Mr Djindjic warned that the ousted president may be planning a counter–coup, although neutral observers in Belgrade say the momentum built up by the popular revolt is now unstoppable. <br><br>It is reported that Yugoslav army high command is meeting this morning to decide its reaction to the events of the last 24 hours. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The LA Times: Milosevic Foe Is No Great Fan of the U.S. </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By JIM MANN, Times Staff Writer<br> <br> WASHINGTON--Vojislav Kostunica has long been a determined opponent of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. But that doesn't mean he is an unquestioning supporter and admirer of the United States.<br> Kostunica, who outpolled Milosevic in the Sept. 24 presidential election and on Thursday appeared to be finally forcing him from power, has some personal and political qualities that undoubtedly endear him to official Washington.<br>Vojislav Kostunica <br> Democratic Party of Serbia challenger Vojislav Kostunica apparently unseated Yugoslav President <br> Slobodan Milosevic in Sept. 24 elections, and protesters are demanding that Milosevic step down. A look at Kostunica: <br> Employment: President of Democratic Party of Serbia since its founding in 1992.<br> Personal:Born 1944 in Belgrade; married, no children.<br> Education: Bachelor of law degree, master's and PhD from University of Belgrade.<br> Academics: Elected assistant lecturer at Belgrade Faculty of Law in 1970 but quit during political purges four years later. Served as editor in chief of several prominent law and philosophy periodicals.<br> Politics: Helped establish the opposition Democratic Party in 1989. The same year, he declined an offer to resume his tenure as a professor at University of Belgrade, continuing his work with the Belgrade-based Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory. Served in the Serbian parliament from 1990 to 1997.<br><br>Source: News reports <br> He is a constitutional lawyer who once translated the Federalist Papers for his country. He talks regularly about the rule of law, freedom of the press and an independent judiciary--ideas that have never featured prominently in Milosevic's political lexicon.<br> Kostunica, 56, was also a determined anti-Communist, who was dismissed from a university teaching job in 1974 for criticizing the regime of Yugoslavia's longtime Communist leader, Josip Broz Tito.<br> And yet, Kostunica also has built a record as a moderate Serbian nationalist who has been willing to contest American policies he views as heavy-handed or domineering.<br> He has made it clear that he opposes war crimes trials for Milosevic and other Serbian leaders, and has called the Hague tribunal "an instrument of American policy, and not of international law." In the early 1990s, he supported the right of Bosnian Serbs to secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina.<br> Washington officials, from President Clinton on down, have been careful to emphasize that they do not expect to see eye to eye with Kostunica on all issues.<br> "I have said before, the opposition candidate, who, according to all unbiased reports, clearly won the election, obviously has strong differences with us," Clinton said Thursday. "This is not a question of whether he agrees with us. All we want for the Serbian people is what we want for people everywhere--the right to freely choose their own leaders."<br> From the Clinton administration's point of view, whatever disagreements the United States has with Kostunica are almost beside the point--first, because Kostunica seems to believe in bringing democratic change to Yugoslavia, and second, because virtually anyone would be preferable to Milosevic.<br> Even though they needed Milosevic to seal a deal to end the war in Bosnia, the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have been at odds with him for most of the past decade, culminating in NATO's air war over Yugoslavia last year.<br> Kostunica grew up as a Serb within Tito's Yugoslavia. During the early 1970s, he was working as a law professor at the University of Belgrade when he was asked to give his support to the Communist regime's dismissal of a political dissident at the school. Kostunica refused and was eventually fired himself.<br> He went on to co-found the Democratic Party, and later became president of a splinter group, the Democratic Party of Serbia. For years he was obscured by other, flashier opposition leaders, who were consistently outmaneuvered by Milosevic.<br> During his presidential campaign, Kostunica repeatedly attacked Milosevic for bringing Yugoslavia to a point where it is politically isolated, war-weary and weakened by economic sanctions.<br> "We want a normal life in a normal state," Kostunica said.<br> The prospect of a return to normalcy was something for which Milosevic could hold out little promise.<br> Yugoslavs' realization of that fact helped form the basis of the public statements by the Clinton administration and its allies.<br> The West has made it plain that if Kostunica's election victory was honored and he became the next president, the sanctions against Yugoslavia could be lifted.<br> Yet, during his campaign, Kostunica also hinted at nationalist views that may turn out to be more important in the future than they seemed last month.<br> He called for adoption of the Serbian national anthem used in the 19th century.<br> He refused to say what should happen to Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb leaders who have been charged with war crimes at the court in The Hague.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>US has fears for what happens next in Balkans</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Stephen Fidler in Washington<br><br> The demise of Slobodan Milosevic will be regarded by the administration of President Bill Clinton as a final vindication of his decision last year to wage war against the Serbian strongman over the fate of Kosovo. <br><br>But US officials said the satisfaction of seeing Mr Milosevic unseated would be tempered somewhat by the knowledge that the development would throw up a whole raft of new issues. <br><br>The evident victor in the Yugoslav elections, Vojislav Kostunica, is viewed in Washington as a strongly nationalist politician, who may even be somewhat hostile to the US. <br><br>The most immediate question would be under what conditions he would be able to take power. Balkan experts said last night that, if the protests continued, there would be a growing risk of chaos and bloodshed, which could inhibit a peaceful transfer of power. <br><br>Even if the takeover took place in the best of circumstances - and starting long before last year's war against the Nato allies - Serbia's economy, the most important in the Balkans, has been severely weakened by years of sanctions. <br><br>Mr Kostunica's assumption of office may also encourage a reaction from militant ethnic Albanian nationalists in Kosovo, who are seeking full independence from Serbia, a formal admission of which the US and its allies have so far resisted. <br><br>The US has opposed the creation of further micro-states in the Balkans, believing Kosovo should be governed as an autonomous region within a democratic Serbia. A strongly nationalist government in Belgrade would make that outcome difficult to achieve. <br><br>"Nobody should be under any illusion that Milosevic out and Kostunica in will make everything into a field of dreams. It won't," said a senior administration official yesterday. But he added: "This would allow us - the US and Europe - to finally integrate Serbia into its rightful place in Europe. It would make that project much more realisable." <br><br>The main vehicle for bringing about Balkan integration into Europe and the world economy - the so-called Stability Pact, which brings together the European Union, the US and other countries together with international organisations - has been severely handicapped by the absence of the main power in the Balkans, Serbia. <br><br>"A new government in Belgrade, even quite a nationalist government, would change the whole complexion of the region," said a senior Defence Department official yesterday. <br><br>One question has been whether the US public insistence that Mr Milosevic be tried as an indicted war criminal in The Hague has provided a further incentive for him to cling on to power. US officials were still insisting yesterday that the position remained unchanged. <br><br>"The sonofabitch belongs in The Hague, convicted and in jail," said one. But the same official conceded that there could be circumstances in which Washington would accede to a different outcome. "We don't want to signal flexibility on this point for a variety of reasons. . . It's a dilemma I wouldn't mind us having, but we don't have that dilemma at the moment." <br><br>US officials said Russia's role in encouraging a transfer of power had been ambiguous. They said Moscow's actions - if not always its public statements - suggested Russia would prefer Mr Milosevic to survive in power, not least because his demise would be viewed as a success for western policy. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Kostunica pledges elections within 18 months</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade<br><br> Vojislav Kostunica on Thursday night gave his first televised address to the Serbian nation as elected president of Yugoslavia and said that he would hold new federal elections within a year and a half. <br><br>Only a few hours earlier demonstrators had stormed the national television station which his rival, Slobodan Milosevic, used as his main mouthpiece. Mr Kostunica said that he was confident that he would soon take up his position as president and appealed to the crowds to avoid violence. <br><br>"For the past years our lives have been far too exciting. People would like some peace and normality, that is something I saw in their faces during my campaign," he said. <br><br>Mr Kostunica said he had been promised that international sanctions on the Balkan country would be lifted by next week. He said France, the current European Union president, had promised that sanctions against Yugoslavia, which include an investment ban and an oil embargo, would be a thing of the past as of Monday. "Sanctions will be lifted because Serbia has shown its real democratic face," Mr Kostunica said. <br><br>He promised not to take revenge on the Milosevic regime and its servants and reiterated his criticism of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which last year indicted Mr Milosevic and four other top Yugoslav officials for alleged war crimes in Kosovo. He made clear he would not co-operate with the tribunal in handing over Mr Milosevic, saying the Yugoslav constitution did not allow extraditions and denouncing it as an "American court". <br><br>Mr Kostunica said that once a new parliament was elected in 18 months' time at the latest he would ask the new government to redraw the constitution. <br><br>He promised to work to bring together Yugoslavia's polarised society and said he wanted to re-open talks with Montenegro, Serbia's sister republic in the Yugoslav federation, which has taken a series of unilateral steps towards independence to distance itself from the Milosevic regime. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The FT: Milosevic's rule looks over as army meets</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade and Stefan Wagstyl in London<br><br> Slobodan Milosevic's 13-year rule over Yugoslavia appeared to be over as army commanders met on Friday morning to consider their response to Thursday's mass protests that saw opposition forces storm the federal parliament, take over state television and the official news agency and begin negotiations with security forces. <br><br>Celebrations continued in the streets of Belgrade overnight. Cheering demonstrators sat on their car roofs waving flags. There was no sign of security forces in the centre of Belgrade. Although police stood by during the protests, scores of people were injured and there was a news agency report that a girl had died during the protests and several other people had been injured. <br><br>State-run television, until Thursday the mouthpiece of the Milosevic regime, referred to Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader who defeated Mr Milosevic in presidential elections last week, as "the Yugoslav president". Tanjug, the state news agency, declared Mr Kostunica "the elected president of Yugoslavia". <br><br>Mr Kostunica asked people to remain on the streets in case the security forces attempted to regain control over night. However, it appeared there was virtually no prospect that Mr Milosevic could make a comeback after the reverses of the day. <br><br>In his first televised address as elected president Mr Kostunica said he would call new federal elections as soon as possible and added that he would renew dialogue with the pro-western republic of Montenegro, which forms part of federal Yugoslavia. He said he had been promised that international sanctions would soon be lifted. <br><br>Earlier, asserting his presidential prerogative, Mr Kostunica called the parliament into a session that was due to start early on Friday. "Serbia hit the road of democracy and where there is democracy there is no place for Slobodan Milosevic," he said. <br><br>Western governments welcomed the developments. US president Bill Clinton said: "The people of Serbia have spoken with their ballots, they have spoken on the street." P.J. Crowley, the US National Security Council spokesman, said: "We hope that Milosevic will recognise reality and step aside peacefully. We also recognise that he is certainly capable of engineering a last stand." <br><br>There was intense speculation over the whereabouts of Mr Milosevic and other leaders of the regime. Late on Thursday night opposition sources said Mr Milosevic was in a bunker protected by troops near the eastern Serbian town of Bor. <br><br>Earlier, Mr Milosevic responded to the protests with a condemnation issued by his Socialist party, which pledged to "fight against violence and destruction". <br><br>The day began with news from the pro-Milosevic constitutional court that last week's presidential polls might be annulled, cancelling Mr Kostunica's victory and leaving Mr Milosevic in office. <br><br>This fired demonstrators who converged on Belgrade in thousands of buses and cars, bringing excavators to remove roadblocks. Police made few attempts to interfere. <br><br>Once inside the parliament, a symbol of Milosevic rule, demonstrators smashed windows and threw documents and pictures from the building. <br><br>Using a bulldozer, they stormed the television station, mouthpiece of Mr Milosevic, forcing it off air. <br><br>Later, it was reported that opposition supporters stormed a building housing the executive of the Socialist party. Police guarding the building fired tear gas, but could not prevent demonstrators from breaking in.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Choices are limited in ex-dictators' club</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BY RICHARD BEESTON, DIPLOMATIC EDITOR<br><br> DESPITE the dangers, Slobodan Milosevic and his family have a number of choices if they decide to escape Serbia and live out their days abroad. <br>The most obvious and attractive bolthole would be Russia, which for centuries has had close cultural and religious ties to Serbia. Mr Milosevic's brother is the Yugoslav Ambassador to Moscow and the two men have a wide circle of contacts and friends among the Serb expatriate community and among members of the Russian ruling class, including former communists, businessmen and military figures. <br><br>It is possible to imagine Mr Milosevic and his wife spending the rest of their days in relative comfort in or near Moscow with their privacy and security guaranteed by the authorities. The one serious obstacle is the Kremlin leadership. Although sympathetic to Mr Milosevic, it is more eager to strengthen its relations with the West, in particular America and the EU. Harbouring an indicted war criminal could develop into an unpleasant diplomatic row with damaging consequences. <br><br>In that case, Mr Milosevic would have to look further afield, to countries less bound by international law, such as China and Cuba, or rogue states such as North Korea, Iraq and Libya. Beijing has certainly built up its commercial relations and political ties with Belgrade since Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in the Yugoslav capital during last year's air campaign. However, for a man like Mr Milosevic, who has spent most of his life living in the close-knit Serb community, the prospect of living out his days in an entirely alien environment would be too awful for him to bear. <br><br>The same is true of the other rogue states scattered in remote corners of the world. He also knows better than anyone the dangers of putting his safety in the hands of dictators who might one day be tempted to give him up to the international community as part of some deal. <br><br>Britain and America have insisted repeatedly that Mr Milosevic is an indicted war criminal at The Hague and that he should not be allowed to escape justice and go into exile to retire peacefully. They have made it clear that they will use their considerable diplomatic muscle to track him down wherever he goes and force any host country to hand him over to the UN. <br><br>His safest bet might be to try to come to an agreement with his opponent, Vojislav Kostunica. Mr Kostunica has repeated often during the past weeks that he has no intention of handing Mr Milosevic over to the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. As a trained lawyer, he challenges the legality of the court and as an elected President he insists that his primary duty is to protect Serbia's citizens, including his enemy, Mr Milosevic. <br><br>It is conceivable that the two men could come to some arrangement similar to that which occurred in the former Soviet bloc countries after the collapse of Communism a decade ago. Mr Milosevic might have to answer charges of vote-rigging, corruption or the harassment of dissidents. <br><br>But, like some of the senior communist leaders in East Germany, he might have to serve only a short term in prison before being allowed to retire to a private life, possibly in northern Montenegro, his birthplace, where he still commands strong support. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Political triumph of the man in the van </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BY IAN COBAIN <br><br> JUST three months ago, Voji-slav Kostunica was at the helm of a political organisation derided as "the van party" because you could cram all of its members into the back of a small truck. <br>He walked unrecognised through the streets of Belgrade, where he had lived for years in the same small flat and regularly dined in the same restaurants. Moreover - and this perhaps is the true mark of a Balkan political nonentity - he had never bothered to hire a bodyguard. <br><br>So when Mr Kostunica was slipping triumphantly last night into the position vacated by Slobodan Milosevic, greeting his countrymen and women with the words "Good evening, liberated Serbia" many of them could have been forgiven for rubbing their eyes and wondering who on earth he was. <br><br>Mr Kostunica is a 56-year-old constitutional law professor, married and without children, who is said by those who know him to have three pre-eminent characteristics: a formidable intelligence; great consistency; and also an unquenchable sense of Serb nationalism. <br><br>He was born in the capital, the son of an officer in the pre-war Yugoslav Army, and studied law at Belgrade University. His anti-communist credentials were established early on when, in 1974, he was sacked from the university's law school after denouncing the jailing of a colleague who had dared to criticise Tito's regime. <br><br>By the mid-1980s he was a well-known figure within the Serb nationalist intelligentsia but when Mr Milosevic, who was eager to build his own nationalist appeal, held out the offer of a job, Mr Kostunica refused. <br><br>In 1992 he joined the flamboyant opposition figure, Zoran Djindjic, to form the Democratic Party, the first organised challenge to Mr Milosevic, but just a year later he was walking out, complaining that the party was not nationalist enough. He then set up the "van party", the Democratic Party of Serbia, and formed an alliance with Vuk Draskovic's conservative Serbian Renewal Movement, although they split up a few months later after a period of intense personal rivalry. <br><br>For the next few years he distinguished himself largely by attacking every plan that was aimed at ending the series of wars across the Balkans, including the Dayton Accords, with the result that even Mr Milosevic's aides denounced him as leading a "war party". <br><br>When the leading members of the Serbian Opposition formed an alliance in 1996, Mr Kostunica was notable for his absence and since then he has been careful to avoid any of the public squabbles that have done so much to erode the country's confidence in other political parties. <br><br>However, his reputation for uncompromising nationalism brought him back into the spotlight during the war in Kosovo. Many people noted that he had never struck any deals with President Milosevic, or been tainted by holding any prominent office, and that he had not appeared to attempt to enrich himself. <br><br>When Mr Milosevic announced his plans last July for nationwide presidential elections, most of the opposition parties agreed to nominate Mr Kostunica as their candidate. During the election he continued to attack Nato and Western "interference" in Serbia's affairs, while saying that he hoped that his country would one day be admitted into the European Union. <br><br>While some of his views may not be welcomed in London and Washington, Mr Kostunica is at least considered to be a democrat, unlike Mr Milosevic. He says he won a clear victory in the ballot on September 24, and insisted there could be no second round of voting. What is not so clear, however, is what plans Mr Kostunica might have for Mr Milosevic. In the past he has said that he would never surrender his political enemy to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. <br><br>But last night, with chants of "Arrest Sloba" ringing around the city, he declared: "Serbia hit the road of democracy, and where there is democracy there is no place for Slobodan Milosevic." <br><br><br>Belgrade: The Serbian Opposition said last night that it was in contact with the Yugoslav Army but declined to give details. "We have contacts with the army," Cedomir Jovanovic, who heads the election headquarters of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc, said. <br>He said Momcilo Perisic, a former army chief of staff who now heads his own opposition party, was talking to the army but did not say where. Reuters </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Times: Good evening, liberated Serbia </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Countdown to revolution <br><br> <br>SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S state was burning to the ground last night as a million people seized Belgrade in a ferocious outburst of revolutionary power. <br>The federal parliament went up in flames in the early afternoon before a vast crowd stormed Radio Television Serbia, a hated symbol of Mr Milosevic's regime, and turned it into a blaze that spewed thick black smoke across the city centre. <br><br>By mid-evening, Serbs from across the country were celebrating in a joyous hysteria as Vojislav Kostunica, the Opposition leader who claimed victory in last month's presidential election, told them: "Good evening, liberated Serbia". A Serbian revolution had begun. <br><br>"We are living the last twitches of Milosevic's regime," Mr Kostunica told the crowd. "Democracy has happened in Serbia. Communism is falling. It is just a matter of hours." <br><br>He later got down to business, calling an emergency session of both houses of parliament and broadcasting on state television a promise to open the media to all political parties. <br><br>Late yesterday evening, there were reports that Mr Milosevic had fled by helicopter and plane to Moscow; that three Antonov's had taken off from a military air base near Belgrade; that he was in a bunker; that the SAS was sending a snatch squad to arrest him. Whichever, if any, was true, there was no doubt on the ground that his 13-year rule was over. A laughing Opposition leader, Dragoljub Micunovic, told me: "He's finished. There's no way back for him now." <br><br>Parliament was torched at the very start of the mass demonstration. Police launched dozens of teargas canisters into the crowd, but demonstrators on the steps of the parliament responded by charging into the building, led by Cedomir Jovanovic, a leading member of the Opposition. <br><br>"We just went for it," he told me with a broad, victorious smile on his face. "We took the parliament." Young men armed with rods and sticks began sacking the building, smashing windows, trampling on typewriters and telephones and burning pictures of Slobodan Milosevic, whose own headquarters were even then being ransacked by protesters. <br><br>In scenes unprecedented even in the troubled Balkans, groups of youths armed with improvised weapons were roaming the city, smashing anything associated with the Government. Members of the Resistance movement seized the old offices of the independent Radio B92, and broadcast victory messages. <br><br>Students and workers went on to occupy all the main media centres. At seven o'clock, they seized TV Serbia's second studio in the district of Kostunik and began broadcasting "Freedom Television". <br><br>Battling through a poisonous fog of teargas that hung over the city for most of the afternoon, the crowd re-formed again and again to take complete control of the city. Police vehicles were overturned, smashed and set on fire and by six o'clock the entire police force had retreated to its stations. Terrified officers handed their shields and batons to the demonstrators and promised never again to move against the people. <br><br>In Majke Revrosime Street in old Belgrade, I watched as police fled for their lives as the mob forced its way into the building and began ripping apart everything in sight. Even 70 members of the Unit of Special Operations stripped off their uniform, helmets and weapons and left them for the crowd to gather up. <br><br>All day, the city was ringing with the deafening roar of a million people singing this revolution's hymn: "Slobodan, Slobodan, Save Serbia, Kill Yourself." <br><br>This was no longer just the students and intellectuals who took to the streets of Belgrade in 1991 and the winter of 1996-97. Yesterday's revolutionary anarchy was bolstered by hundreds of thousands of peasants and workers who streamed into the city. <br><br>By nightfall, Belgrade had been transformed into the big-gest party Serbia has seen as people sang and danced in the streets to folk music blasting out of loudspeakers. "This is the end of ten years of darkness and the start of a new Serbia," a woman of 80 told me in tears. "The nightmare's over. He's finished! He's finished," Dragan Nikolic, a delirious 25-year-old student shouted. <br><br>The day's events began early as a vast movement of people left their homes in convoys of up to a thousand vehicles. Veljo Ilic, the opposition leader from the militant stronghold, Cacak, led his people in a convoy headed by bulldozers which smashed through a police blockade, scattering them in all directions. <br><br>When 25 buses and 300 lorries and cars from Kragujevac, led by the local Democratic Party chief, Vlatko Rajkovic, encountered 50 members of the special forces on the entrance to the Belgrade motorway, they attacked them, beat them, then stripped them of their flak jackets, helmets and weapons. <br><br>By midday, several thousand tough-looking workers had gathered in front of the federal parliament where they were greeted by police firing teargas and live ammunition in the air. <br><br>The tension was almost unbearable. It was almost possible to touch the anger of hundreds of thousands of Serbs as they streamed towards Tasmajdan Park in front of parliament. Inside the headquarters of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, leaders were planning lists of demands that amounted to nothing less than the seizure of power. <br><br>Between three and four o'clock, as a million people waited excitedly for the proclamation of Dr Kostunica's victory, the police moved in. I saw children and old women in exceptional distress as they tried desperately to escape the teargas fired into the crowd. <br><br>But that was the signal for revolution. The parliament was stormed and a huge group of muscle-bound young men charged towards Radio Television Serbia. A ferocious battle broke out in which live ammunition was used and at least one girl was killed. <br><br>But after an hour, the police were in full retreat and the furious crowd began destroying everything in sight before setting the building alight. <br><br>Within minutes, the building had become a huge blaze surrounded by ecstatic youths. The people of Serbia look to have brought to an end one of the most despised men in recent European history. <br><br><br>Countdown to revolution <br><br>April 14: Opposition demands early elections<br>July 27: Milosevic sets presidential elections for September 24<br>Sept 24: Milosevic fails to get required 50 per cent of vote<br>Sept 25: West accuses President of manipulating the result<br>Sept 27: Kostunica warns "there will be no bargaining"<br>Sept 28: Federal Electoral Commission gives Kostunica 48.96 per cent to Milosevic's 38.62 per cent<br>Sept 29: Kostunica claims he won 52 per cent of the vote<br>Sept 30: Electoral commission demands rerun of poll<br>Oct 4: Opposition sets October 6 deadline for Milosevic to concede defeat; Kolubara mine seized<br><br><br>Oct 5: Demonstrators seize parliament and television station <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Is Milosevic Finished? </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">State News Agency Hails Opposition Leader as ‘President-Elect’ <br><br>B E L G R A D E, Yugoslavia, Oct. 6 — It looks like the end of the road for Slobodan Milosevic. The Belgrade police stood aside for demonstrators.<br><br> One day after massive rioting sent the Yugoslav president into hiding, his military appears to be ready to look the other way.<br> According to Tanjung, until yesterday a Milosevic mouthpiece news organization, the leaders of the armed forces have decided to take no action against the people unless their facilities or personnel are threatened. <br> Yesterday, people from across the nation gathered in Belgrade, celebrating in the streets, after opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica declared himself president. <br>Taking Back Belgrade<br>Called first by the opposition to protest the results of a controversial election, it turned into a riot when the news broke that Milosevic would have until the middle of next year to call for new elections. <br> At first, police used batons and teargas in an attempt to subdue the crowd. But the mass of humanity flowing into Belgrade was too much, and soon the parliamentary building was in the hands of the people. <br> Perhaps the biggest moment of the day was when state-run media suddenly abandoned their loyalty to Milosevic, now believed to be hiding in a bunker near the Romanian-Bulgarian border, and referred to Kostunica as “president-elect.”<br> Describing the day as a great moment in Serb history, Kostunica said that he hoped the U.N.-imposed sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia would be lifted. He declared that France had promised to lift the sanctions at a European Council meeting on Monday.<br> Once the sanctions are lifted, he said, “Everything will start to be normal — the economic recovery of the country will be like a medicine to our soul.” <br><br>Slobo’s Last Stand?<br>Milosevic, who had refused to quit as president after 13 years in power and elections Sept. 24 that named Kostunica the popular leader, was believed to be surrounded by loyal troops in his in eastern Serbia bunker.<br> Russia said this morning that it would not consider asylum for Milosevic, under indictment for war crimes. <br> “We are a long way from looking at the question in that way,” Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told the Interfax news agency. <br> Russia has been one of Yugoslavia’s—and Milosevic’s—firmest allies and President Vladimir Putin earlier ordered Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to fly to Belgrade.<br> But the biggest key to the unrest has been the military. And with no troop movements reported across the nation, it appears to have spoken without saying a word. <br><br>Milosevic’s Whereabouts in Doubt<br>Milosevic was not seen all day today, but rumors that he had fled were fueled by reports that three large Anatov transport airplanes had flown out of Belgrade from a military airport near the city.<br> The leader of one Serb opposition party, Zoran Djindjic, said Milosevic had retreated with his “closest associates” to the eastern Serbian town of Bor, close to the Romanian and Bulgarian borders, and warned he might be preparing to try to regain power.<br> “I suppose that he may be preparing a coup,” Djindjic said on Serbian state television, “That would be very bad if he now pushed people further into conflicts.” By nearly 5 a.m. local time, there were no reports of a Milosevic-led attack.<br> Milosevic’s suburban Belgrade home appeared to have been vacated, U.S. intelligence sources monitoring the still developing situation said late today. <br><br>We Want the Airwaves<br>Yugoslav police did not put up a fight when protesters attempted to take over the state-run Belgrade TV building on Thursday. Reports from journalists on the scene claimed some soldiers and policemen were spotted smiling and shaking hands with demonstrators.<br> Serbian television went blank for several hours then broadcast a written message: “This is the new Radio Television Serbia broadcasting.” <br><br>‘Good Evening, Liberated Serbia’ <br>Addressing a huge rally in downtown Belgrade after demonstrators stormed the parliament building, Kostunica said Milosevic had been defeated.<br> ”Good evening, liberated Serbia,” Kostunica told the jubilant crowd.<br> “Serbia is running a victory lap at this moment and along that track there is no Slobodan Milosevic,” Kostunica declared.<br> The crowd chanted: “He’s finished!” and “Arrest Sloba!”<br> An air of jubilation reigned in the streets of Belgrade with extraordinary scenes of rioting and ransacking in the city.<br> The level of defiance was unprecedented in Yugoslavia’s 55-year history since World War II. <br> Very few police were seen at the height of the protests. <br><br>ABCNEWS.com’s Dada Jovanovic in Belgrade, Rebecca Cooper in Washington, Sue Masterman in Vienna, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. <br> Western Leaders Support Protesters <br>Western nations have urged Slobodan Milosevic to quit to avoid bloodshed.<br> In Washington, President Clinton offered his support for the demonstrators, but said the U.S. military would not intervene.<br> “I think the people are trying to get their country back, and we support democracy and the will of the Serbian people,” Clinton said. “The United States stands with people everywhere who are fighting for their freedom.”<br> In London, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Milosevic to step down. “Go. Go now. Go before any more lives are lost, before there is any more destruction,” he said.<br> German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged Yugoslav security forces not to fire on their own people and said violence in Belgrade would trigger “resistance” from the international community.<br> In Russia, a traditional ally of Yugoslavia, Foreign Ministry officials met to discuss the situation in Belgrade.<br> President Vladimir Putin, who was returning to Moscow from a four-day visit to India, renewed a mediation offer, which has so far drawn no response from either side.<br> White House officials said Washington would maintain contacts with Russia, which it regards as an important intermediary in the effort to persuade Milosevic to step down. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>CSMONITOR: Push for break point in Belgrade </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Today's protests are billed as an all-out bid to force Slobodan Milosevic from office. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>and Alex Todorovic <br><br><br>BELGRADE and PODGORICA, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>On the frontline in the spiraling political standoff in Yugoslavia sits a young man named Bane. He is one of several thousand students blocking the main north-south highway on the edge of Belgrade. <br><br>"Of course I'm a bit scared," says the veterinary student, warily eyeing some 100 helmeted riot police nearby. "This has to be the end of the regime, or else I have no hope," says Bane, unwilling to give his last name. <br><br>The students' determination evoke images of a similar pro-democracy standoff in China's Tiananmen Square a decade ago. But Belgrade is not Beijing. The students here are not alone. The resolve of anti-Milosevic protesters is deepening, and their numbers are growing across Serbia. <br><br>Opposition leaders – in what they're billing as a final push to drive President Slobodan Milosevic from power after nearly a week of general strikes – have called on all of Yugoslavia for a make-or-break march on Belgrade tonight. <br><br><br>The standoff between democracy and dictatorship could lead to violence, analysts say, in the wake of the contested Sept. 24 election, which opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica claims he won. <br><br>"Strictly speaking, you can't remove Milosevic without some trouble," says Srdan Darmanovic, head of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Serbia's sister republic of Montenegro. "I don't like violence, but the Serbian people feel they must test the armed forces and police – not to fight them, but to test them. Otherwise, Milosevic will not step down." <br><br>A nationwide strike that began Monday has brought parts of Serbia to a standstill. But Milosevic – who admits that Mr. Kostunica won more votes than he did in the earlier election, just not enough to avoid a runoff – has shown no signs of moving aside. Yesterday, his government began carrying through on Tuesday's promises of arresting strike leaders and using "special measures" against "organizers of criminal activities." <br><br>Police in full riot gear and flak jackets yesterday arrested several miners at Kolubara coal mine – the largest of hundreds of work stoppages nationwide. And about 30 miles southeast of Belgrade, in Pozarevac, Milosevic's hometown, police arrested several truckers who were blocking a main road. But elsewhere in the country, roadblocks remained in place for a third day. <br><br>Tonight's march, timed to coincide with a strike by the Council of Trade Unions, (the nation's largest labor organization and in the past a firmly pro-Milosevic group) is a bid to send a definitive message that a second-round runoff vote, scheduled by Milosevic for Sunday, is unacceptable. <br><br>Regime opponents have been here several times in the past decade, only to be beaten back by riot police with plastic shields, body armor, blue helmets, and truncheons. <br><br>"This time, this will be resolved only in a direct clash between the Serbian people and the regime," Mr. Darmonovic says. "Milosevic always puts his opponents in a situation of 'double regret.' if you move one way, you regret it. If you move the other, you regret that, too." <br><br><br> <br>But evidence is mounting that the strike action is beginning to bite. Work stopped at coal mines has meant power outages across Serbia, and in the capital Belgrade, mountains of trash have been growing as garbage collectors refuse to work. <br><br>Many private shops have closed their doors. Signs on a number of them read: "Closed due to robbery" – a reference to alleged vote rigging by the regime. <br><br><br><br>Opposition defiant <br><br>"The government is branding us saboteurs and enemies, so why don't they put us on trial?" Kostunica asked some 40,000 supporters at a rally in Kragulevac. "Let them dare. Milosevic is the biggest creator of chaos in Serbia." That defiance came as the government warned that it would not tolerate "violent behavior" that might "threaten citizens' lives." Tough measures, it added, would also "apply to media that are financed from abroad and are breeding lies, untruths, and inciting bloodshed." <br><br>Police in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, have succeeded in blocking demonstrators from marching onto one of the three bridges that have been rebuilt since their destruction by US-led NATO airstrikes last year. Opposition leader Nenad Canak made a special dig at the regime by cutting a ribbon there – mocking a ceremony that Milosevic himself is meant to carry out. <br><br>"We are all afraid of Milosevic's next move, because he still controls the police, and a certain number of generals are loyal to him," says Miodrag Vukovic, an adviser to Montenegro's pro-Western president, Milo Djukanovic. "Now he is acting like a wounded lion, and he can opt for conflict." <br><br>One element of the equation that may affect a political solution – even as Washington pushes Russia, a traditional ally of Milosevic, to convince the Serb leader to move aside – is Milosevic's indictment by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. <br><br>Pushed through during the NATO campaign to push federal forces from Kosovo last year, the indictment appears now to be a two-edged sword. <br><br><br><br>War-crimes charges <br><br>A UN human rights official in the former Yugoslavia has asked that Milosevic be guaranteed freedom from prosecution if he steps down peacefully. But a spokesman for UN Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte responded that far from dropping the indictment, she is working to expand charges against the Yugoslav leader. And the Clinton administration has made clear that it would expect Russia to hand over Milosevic if he visits Moscow. <br><br>A foreign policy adviser traveling with President Vladimir Putin on a trip to India told reporters yesterday, "Russia continues consultations with all parties who are not indifferent to the fate of Yugoslavia." Mr. Putin has invited both Milosevic and Kostunica to the Kremlin for talks. He is due back in Moscow today. <br><br>Kostunica has vowed that if he takes office, he will not hand over Milosevic. "That indictment brings us a lot of headache," because it means that "for him these elections are a question of life or death." <br><br>There is another reason Serbs in general don't trust the tribunal, says one Balkans analyst, who asked not to be named. "It would be better for Serbia's future development if Milosevic were tried in Serbia rather than The Hague," the analyst says. "If he is tried in The Hague, many Serbs feel that it is Serbia itself that would be tried. On the basis of a healthy society, it would be better if they did it themselves." <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>LATIMES: Milosevic Foes Celebrate Victory at Coal Mine</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">From Associated Press<br><br><br> KOLUBARA MINE, Yugoslavia -- In a startling boost for Slobodan Milosevic's foes, police sent to take control of a striking coal mine abandoned their posts today after running up against huge and fearless crowds.<br> The turnout gave opposition forces hope that the Yugoslav president's regime was mortally wounded.<br> "The battle for Serbia was won here," cried one jubilant opposition leader, Dragan Kovacevic.<br> The stunning and swift turn of events was unprecedented in a former communist nation with no history of major worker uprisings. It caught even top opposition figures off guard. They rushed to join more than 10,000 protesters at the Kolubara mine complex and predicted Milosevic's quick demise.<br> Opposition leaders issued an "ultimatum" for Milosevic to resign by 3 p.m. Thursday-- the time set for a large rally in the capital, Belgrade, to demand he accept election defeat.<br> "This flame will engulf the whole of Belgrade," said Vladan Batic, an opposition leader.<br> In an open letter today to Milosevic, challenger Vojislav Kostunica said "it will be better for you to recognize" electoral defeat or risk "the danger of open clashes" nationwide.<br> Milosevic, however, gave no immediate impression that he had run out of options.<br> The head of the Yugoslav army, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, pledged support for Milosevic in runoff elections planned for Sunday. The opposition is boycotting the runoff, claiming Kostunica was the outright winner of Sept. 24 elections and Milosevic rigged the results to force a second round.<br> "Serbia has risen so that one man would leave," Kostunica told cheering workers and their supporters at the Kolubara mine near Lazarevac, about 25 miles south of Belgrade.<br> Only hours earlier, police in riot gear had poured in and occupied the strip mine complex in an attempt to break up the largest of the nationwide strikes against Milosevic. But the police couldn't contain a swelling crowd that heeded the workers' cry for help.<br> With sunset approaching, the police gave up. Most withdrew from their barricades and were mingling with strikers inside the compound.<br> Supporters of the strikers streamed in on foot and in convoys of vehicles. One bus pushed aside a police car blocking its way.<br> A few police remained guarding some areas of the mine, but made no attempt to control the joyous crowd.<br> From the beginning of the civil disobedience campaign launched this week to force Milosevic to concede defeat in the election, the mine was a pivotal point. It employs 7,000 workers and supplies major power plants.<br> On Tuesday, the Milosevic government had threatened "special measures" against leaders of strikes and road blockades, and Belgrade's prosecutor issued arrest orders for 13 opposition leaders involved in organizing the walkout at the Kolubara mine. None of the arrests has been carried out.<br> The mine walkout was the forerunner of other strikes: the state telecommunications company workers announced they would stay off the job and city bus drivers and garbage collectors in Belgrade refused to work.<br> "This is (Milosevic's) end," said a Kolubara mine worker, Dragan Stamenkovic. "Now the workers have risen."<br> The opposition also pressed its claims of election fraud in Yugoslavia's Constitutional Court.<br> The tribunal met in emergency session to hear claims by the 18-party opposition coalition that Milosevic's cronies manipulated election results by using a sophisticated software program.<br> Opposition leaders said they had obtained a copy of the program and would use it to illustrate how the vote was rigged to favor Milosevic. But the court is full of Milosevic loyalists and has rendered a number of controversial verdicts.<br> Information Minister Goran Matic claimed the opposition "committed electoral fraud" and was now trying to provoke violence by "discrediting and denying the validity of the result."<br> Milosevic concedes that Kostunica outpolled him in the five-candidate race but says Kostunica fell short of an absolute majority.<br> The government is pushing ahead with plans for the runoff, where voters will mark paper ballots bearing the names of Milosevic and Kostunica. The opposition insists it is pointless to participate because Milosevic will simply cheat again.<br> In July, the Milosevic-controlled parliament changed the constitution, removing any requirement for a minimum voter turnout.<br> Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, meanwhile, repeated the position that regardless of the election outcome, Milosevic can remain in office until his current term expires in June.<br> There were also signs that Milosevic's control over the media, until now the principal propaganda pillar of his regime, was fraying.<br> The main state-run daily in the northern province of Vojvodina declared today that its editorial policy would switch from following the government line to reporting on events objectively. Its Wednesday edition for the first time carried numerous reports on opposition activities.<br> With momentum building for the opposition, some leaders of Thursday's planned rally have predicted it could be the final blow for Milosevic.<br> "I'm telling the army and police that we won't stop," said Zoran Zivkovic, the mayor of Nis, the nation's third-largest city. "Don't try to stop us. If you try, shoot but we'll do the same. We are going to Belgrade to finish off what we had started in the elections."<br> Kostunica told Russia's government ORT television that a Russian offer of mediation was "interesting" but that he could not afford to leave Yugoslavia.<br> "We are in a situation where it is difficult, I would say irresponsible, to leave the country," he said.<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>INDEPENDENT: Yugoslavia ballot must be rerun, court rules </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By Steve Crawshaw, and Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade <br><br><br>5 October 2000 <br><br>Yugoslavia's constitutional court tried to throw a lifeline to the beleaguered President, Slobodan Milosevic, last night by annulling part of the contested election. <br><br>The decision was immediately denounced by the Serbian opposition whose supporters won a decisive victory yesterday by forcing police to abandon a crackdown on striking miners. A mammoth demonstration in Belgrade has been called for today, to demand that Mr Milosevic recognise his defeat in the 24 September presidential election and stand down. <br><br>The court ruling was put out in an ambiguous one-sentence report by the official news agency, Tanjug. A legal expert, Dragor Haiber, said the opposition took the ruling to mean that a rerun of the first round of the presidential election should be held, with all candidates competing. The results of parliamentary and local elections would remain valid. "If this is it, it can only mean that the thief is looking for another chance to steal again," Mr Haiber said, referring to Mr Milosevic. <br><br>The court decision came in response to an opposition challenge of the election results, which according to Mr Milosevic put the challenger Vojislav Kostunica ahead but without an outright victory. The opposition was seeking a recount of the first round. <br><br>As the opposition to Mr Milosevic gathered force, Serbs rose up yesterday in defence of striking miners. In an embarrassing turnabout, police in riot gear sent to quell a strike in Kolubara were forced to abandon their posts after thousands of people swarmed to the site. <br><br>After pouring in to Serbia's largest mine, where thousands have been on strike since last week – the police appeared to lose their nerve. The zigzag signals were typical of the uncertainties that have increasingly begun to mark the tactics of the Yugoslav regime. <br><br>When truckloads of police arrived at the Kolubara mine, it seemed that confrontation was inevitable. Increasingly, however, Serbs are reacting to the intimidatory tactics by showing less fear, not more fear. <br><br>A police colonel simply asked strikers to "leave the premises peacefully within a reasonable period". But no deadline was set, nor did the strikers show any intention of obeying the instruction. "The authorities" are an increasingly elusive concept, in Serbia today. It is clear that Mr Milosevic is desperate to stop the opposition rot. But nobody knows how many in the police or the army are ready to help him, let alone to use violence, to achieve that aim. Local police seem increasingly ready to support the protesters. <br><br>Mr Kostunica addressed more than 10,000 people at the mine last night. According to journalists at the scene, the police cordons that had been positioned in the afternoon faded away as Mr Kostunica stepped forward. <br><br>As daily demonstrations continue to roll on, the opposition gave Mr Milosevic until 2pm (GMT) today to recognise his defeat by Mr Kostunica. <br><br>In a further blow to the President, the Socialist People's Party (SNP) in Montenegro, his political allies in Serbia's sister republic, said yesterday that they were debating whether to take part in Sunday's run-off vote called by Mr Milosevic. The opposition is boycotting the poll on the grounds that he will falsify the results. <br><br>Today will see what looks set to be the biggest rally Belgrade has ever seen. So far, the rallies have been scattered in cities across the country. For today's, everybody has been invited to converge on Belgrade. If police try to block their path, that may itself lead to clashes with dramatic consequences. But brute force no longer seems likely to put an end to the changes that are already under way. Mr Kostunica predicted in an interview with The Independent yesterday that Mr Milosevic's days in office were numbered, and that the situation was changing by the hour. <br><br>"The change will happen very quickly. The moment we get rid of Milosevic, the poison will be taken out of the body politic," he said. "The police and the army are aware that they can't follow Milosevic to the end." <br><br>Goran Matic, the Yugoslav Information Minister, was yesterday still eager to counter-attack, accusing the opposition of "electoral fraud". But there is no doubt the authorities are rattled. <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Press and unions desert Milosevic</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BY OUR FOREIGN STAFF <br><br><br> <br>THE campaign to topple President Milosevic won new defectors yesterday from media and trade unions previously considered loyal to him. One pro-government daily changed editorial line and reported the protests for the first time. <br>In a sudden switch in editorial policy, Dnevnik, the main loyalist daily in the province of Vojvodina, gave the anti-Milosevic campaign front page treatment. It thus became the first newspaper founded or financed by the regime to change its policy since the presidential election. Dnevnik's managers, editors and workers signed a petition demanding "the true results" of the disputed September 24 poll. <br><br>As the opposition intensifies the protests in an attempt to obtain recognition of what it says was an outright victory by Vojislav Kostunica in the election, a paper factory, Matroz, made a surprise announcement that it would not be able to provide stocks to newspapers controlled by the state. <br><br>Until now, Matroz, a state-controlled concern, limited its production to state-run papers, and only offered the remaining paper to privately-owned and independent papers for a prices twice as high as for state newspapers. <br><br>Mr Milosevic lost more support when a big trade union considered close to the government threatened to call a strike. The Association of Unions of Serbia, which boasts 1.8 million members, said it would call members out on strike later if the authorities failed to provide "the truth" on the election results. <br><br>"We demand that by Wednesday at 8:00 pm the latest, the truth expressed by the citizens at the September 24 vote be presented and fully respected," said a statement signed by Tomislav Banovic, the union's leader. <br><br>If "complete and authentic results" of the vote were not announced by the deadline, the assocciation"will call all its members on a general strike," the statement said. <br><br>With the momentum steadily turning against Belgrade, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan slapped down a reported proposal by a UN human rights official that war crimes charges against Mr Milosevic should be dropped if he left office. Mr Annan said in a statement that he was "surprised to learn" of remarks attributed to Jiri Dienstbier, special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the situation in Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia, suggesting that the indictment against Mr Milosevic should be dropped if he stepped down. <br><br>Mr Annan said that, under the statute of the Hague-based UN War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the question of indictments "falls within the exclusive competence of the prosecutor and the trial chambers acting as independent organs of the tribunal." <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>THE TIMES: Revolution in Belgrade</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">FROM MISHA GLENNY IN BELGRADE<br><br><br> <br>THE Yugoslav presidential election result was annulled by the country's supreme court last night as Belgrade confronted the prospect of all-out revolution over President Milosevic's refusal to cede power. <br>The constitutional court ruled that there had been irregularities in the "voting process, counting and confirmation" of the September 24 election. But it was not immediately clear whether this would bring an end to Mr Milosevic's rule or was simply a delaying tactic on his part. <br><br>The court was ruling on an appeal by Mr Milosevic's opponent, Vojislav Kostunica, who had asked it to declare that he had won the poll outright and should take office. <br><br>But members of the court are known to be Milosevic supporters and if the vote, or parts of it, were ordered to be repeated, it might buy Mr Milosevic more time in power. <br><br>Mr Kostunica, whose supporters had earlier given the President until 3pm today (2pm BST) to quit, said: "At first glance it might look like a concession by Slobodan Milosevic, but I am afraid that it's a question of a big trap and so there's no need to be euphoric. <br><br>"In any case, I think that Milosevic is weaker than ever today, which is evident from the fact that he must use various tricks to gain time." <br><br>Mr Kostunica also published an open letter warning the President that if he did not step down, the country faced armed conflict. "Believe me, it will be better for you to recognise this, for Serbia, Yugoslavia, Europe and each citizen of this country, including you and me," he wrote. "There is no point in me telling you how dramatic the situation is. We are faced with the danger of open clashes in Serbia." <br><br>The letter was published as Mr Milosevic's power base appeared to crumble as tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated in Belgrade and 30,000 people descended on the mines of Kolubara to disperse an 800-strong force of riot police sent in to break the strike launched last week. In astonishing scenes, protesters waved flags, jeered at the police and proclaimed the victory of the Serbian revolution. <br><br>"Serbia has arisen," they chanted before breaking into the hymn of the nationwide protest, "Slobodan, Slobodan - Save Serbia, Kill Yourself". <br><br>The Serbs have found their Solidarnosc, the political analyst Ivan Vejvoda said in a reference to the strikes that brought Poland to its knees in 1980, "and Kolubara is their Gdansk shipyard". <br><br>With mines across the country the focus of the protests, civilians bore down on the pits in their thousands, forcing the police to retreat at speed. Up to 300 lorries and other vehicles carrying thousands of people took to the roads to assist the striking miners as they formed a human blockade to prevent the 800 police armed with batons and shields from breaking into Tamnava West mine. <br><br>"At the rate this is going, we will soon have half of Serbia here," Predrag Videnovic, the Opposition spokesman in the local town Lazarevac, said. By early evening, the entire mine complex was under the control of laughing and singing crowds in jubilant mood, with the police nowhere to be seen. <br><br>Mr Kostunica, who diverted his car to lend his support to the protest, was stuck in the chaos as a vast convoy of vehicles streamed out of Belgrade, led by activists from the student movement, Resistance. <br><br>Another unit of some 500 special police tried to block the progress of two senior Opposition leaders at the front of a Resistance convoy bringing food and support from Belgrade. They, too, dispersed. <br><br>The country is now in the grip of a full-blown revolution and today the capital is braced for as many as two million people to pour in for a mass rally. <br><br>Yesterday the city witnessed the largest anti-government demonstration yet as some 30,000 students blocked one of the main bridges across the Sava river. Police observed them but did not intervene, and by last night the students had thrown up blockades across the city. <br><br>Belgrade's postal workers demanded that Mr Kostunica be declared President by the end of the day or they would join the general strike, while the huge copper mining complexes at Bor and Majdanpek in the east also downed tools. <br><br>Cracks also appeared in the bastion of Mr Milosevic's power, the state-run media, when two editors resigned and three were sacked from the main daily, Politika. Desimir Cantrak became the first journalist to resign from Milosevic's most powerful tool, Radio TV Serbia, saying he could no longer associate himself with its editorial policy. <br><br>The city of Aleksinac, a stronghold of Mr Milosevic's SPS party that was heavily bombed during Nato's Kosovo campaign, delivered a devastating blow to him when its civil servants joined the protests paralysing the streets. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>WASHINGTONPOST:"An Aggresive Coward" Surveys His Options</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By R. Jeffrey Smith<br>Washington Post Foreign Service<br>Wednesday, October 4, 2000; Page A25 <br><br>PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct. 3 –– President Slobodan Milosevic has seen it all before: angry street protesters convulsing the country's capital, an emboldened opposition making him the butt of public ridicule, and some vital institutions--the media, state-run companies--starting to slip from his grasp. <br><br><br>This was the scene he encountered in Belgrade today, much as he did in March 1991 and December 1996.<br><br><br>Milosevic's playbook in past confrontations was first to get tough, putting riot police and troops on the streets. He hinted at that option today, as his government threatened "special measures" against "subversives" and police broke up a few street barricades, blocked a Belgrade protest march and arrested a few people.<br><br><br>But ultimately, he got people out of the streets in the past by buying them off with partial concessions. This time, though, as the latest challenge to his authority gains momentum, Yugoslavs note that he has no concessions to offer, no political maneuvering room. This time, the demonstrators want nothing less than his departure.<br><br><br>The question now in Belgrade is whether history will repeat itself, leaving Milosevic in place as the only Communist leader in Europe to hold power continuously since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Or is this moment fundamentally different, with the opposition united in the inflexible goal of forcing his resignation?<br><br><br>Dragoslav Avramovic, a former Yugoslav treasury official celebrated for ending the country's hyperinflation, once called Milosevic "an aggressive coward," a man who rushes forward in a bullying way but stops fearfully at the edge of a potential abyss.<br><br><br>But even if he abandons that caution and attempts armed suppression of his own citizens, many observers say things have gone too far for him to succeed.<br><br><br>A month ago, they note, police were arresting students just for wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Resistance!" Then came the Sept. 24 presidential election, in which opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica out-polled Milosevic, winning just under 50 percent of the vote by official count--and an outright majority by the opposition's count. Today, countless protesters are turning out on the streets, refusing to support the government's demand for a runoff ballot.<br><br><br>News reports from Belgrade and interviews by telephone from here in the NATO-occupied province of Kosovo indicated today that Yugoslavia was more and more paralyzed by a strike organized by the political opposition.<br><br><br>Belgrade bus drivers blocked roadways for a second day; more than 5,000 shouting people attempted to march on Milosevic's residence; electricity was cut in places because striking miners are denying coal to generating plants; and workers at a state-run cigarette factory paraded joyously in front of a mock coffin adorned with Milosevic's picture. Scores of emboldened shopkeepers have plastered their shuttered doors with signs saying "Closed Due to Theft." Police deployed on the streets were meant to signal Milosevic's resolve. They used force to clear some highway blockades; they hunted for 20 people that state media accused of "criminal" acts; and they arrested protesting high school students in Belgrade, a municipal lawmaker in the Belgrade suburb of Zemun and the president of the Belgrade Public Transportation Union, news reports said.<br><br><br>But whether Milosevic can stage a real crackdown is in question. The long-term loyalty of the police is uncertain. Non-government media are reporting low-level defections from the security apparatus, with at least one riot police commander being reassigned because he opposed any crackdown. This evening, a group of policemen in Belgrade beat an apparent Milosevic supporter who deliberately drove his car into a group of protesters, according to the non-government news agency B2-92.<br><br><br>No one knows whether the army would support a crackdown. The chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, said last week that the army would not interfere in the election impasse. But news reports today said that Pavkovic personally called on striking coal miners and told them that unless they return to work, they risked being drafted and forced back to to their jobs as members of the military.<br><br><br>In the 1991 and 1996 crises, Milosevic's heavy-handed repression served in part to enrage the protesters and galvanize additional public support. In the end, the protests dissipated only when, in the first episode, Milosevic agreed to end the ruling party's control of a television station, and in the second, when he agreed to accept his party's defeat in elections that handed control of a dozen key municipal governments to the opposition.<br><br><br>This time, he could be desperate enough to try to get by with force alone. He is staring at the possibility of losing control over the instruments of power that have sustained his power since 1989--first as president of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, and then of Yugoslavia itself.<br><br><br>Also at risk would be the untouchable status enjoyed by his politically vocal wife and his children, of whom he is enormously protective. And he would be less able to evade an international warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes in Kosovo.<br><br><br>Whatever he decides on the use of force, Milosevic seems certain to press ahead with the runoff election on Sunday. If Kostunica follows through with a vow to boycott the vote as a government fraud, Milosevic would emerge as the legal victor and claim a new four-year term in office.<br><br><br>Milo Djukanovic, president of Montenegro--Serbia's smaller, pro-Western partner in the Yugoslav federation--declared on Russian television today that this could mean the country would have two rival presidents--Milosevic and Kostunica--creating enormous instability.<br><br><br>But even with a new claim of electoral support, Milosevic's position would hardly be assured, according to polls that indicate his popularity is sinking. In a national poll taken three weeks ago, Kostunica was preferred over Milosevic by at least 5 percentage points in every population category except three--citizens older than 60; those who had not completed primary school; and those who earn less than $12 a month.<br><br><br>Slavoljub Djukic, 72, author of four books on Milosevic, said that Milosevic's usual pattern is that "he gives up to one who is stronger. The moment he finds himself weak, he stops. That's in his nature. At least it was until the moment he was indicted for war crimes. From that moment, he is not the same man. He is now in position to defend not only his power, but also his life. So now he acts differently."<br><br><br>Djukic says there is one thing he is sure about: Milosevic will never take the street protesters' chanted advice to "kill yourself and save Serbia." One of the salient facts of Milosevic's past is that both his parents committed suicide. But for him, such an option is out of the question, Djukic said. "He is a man who wants lasting life and lasting rule. The tragedy of his parents made no impact on him. He is ruthless on that matter. He never even mentions it."<br><br><br>Djukic made no attempt to predict the outcome of the crisis. "The problem with Milosevic is that he makes moves that no one expects."</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>Will Russia offer a graceful exit for Milosevic? </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">The West hopes Moscow can negotiate a peaceful transition of power for a close ally. <br><br>By Fred Weir (fweir@online.ru) <br>Special to The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>MOSCOW <br><br>As pressure increases at home and abroad for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to leave office, Russia is seeking to play a key role as intermediary. <br><br>A nudge from Moscow has helped to persuade Mr. Milosevic to back down at least once before, and might present the best chance for a peaceful exit from the present crisis, Russian experts say. <br><br>President Vladimir Putin, in the middle of a four-day state visit to India, has offered to meet with Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica – the opposition candidate who outpolled him in Sept. 24 elections – "to discuss means of resolving the current situation." <br><br>Milosevic has yet to make a formal reply. Mr. Kostunica reportedly is willing to travel to Moscow as early as tomorrow, if formally invited. <br><br>But opposition protests are mounting against a runoff vote set for Sunday. "Yugoslavia is on the brink of explosion, and the key issue now is to ensure stability," says Yevgeny Kozhokhin, director of the official Institute of Strategic Studies, a think tank that advises the Kremlin on foreign policy. "Unfortunately the West is whipping up tension there with its tough demands that Milosevic step down and face trial as a war criminal.... Russia, which has never regarded Milosevic as a war criminal, is the only country in Europe that can step in and play the role of honest broker." <br><br>US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday that Moscow's role should be to persuade Milosevic to accept defeat and leave office. "We have all been in very close touch with our Russian counterparts," Dr. Albright said. "I think it is evident from their perspective that Kostunica won the first round. They have said that." <br><br>But experts close to the Kremlin say the matter is not quite so clear. "The official results may have been faked, but the opposition claims might be phony as well," says Alexander Karasyov, a Yugoslavia specialist with the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies. "If we can bring the two sides to a negotiating table, they may agree to hold a second round under tight international scrutiny. Why should anyone fear this, especially if it avoids violence?" <br><br><br>Russia, a traditional ally of fellow Orthodox, Slavic Serbia, is the only European state to retain close links with Milosevic. His brother, Borislav, is the Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow. Russia strongly opposed last year's NATO bombing campaign over the mistreatment of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and Russian diplomacy may have been instrumental in persuading Milosevic to accept a humiliating peace that handed the southern Serbian province over to Western administration. Serbia and Montenegro make up what remains of Yugoslavia. <br><br>"It was only when Russia became actively involved in seeking a diplomatic exit that the war came to an end," asserts Mr. Karasyov. "This shows that the Serbian people trust Russia and will accept solutions mediated by us, while Western demands will only stiffen their resentment." <br><br>Since last year's Yugoslav war, Russia has defied NATO by sending millions of dollars in aid to Belgrade and remains the embargoed country's sole supplier of oil and gas. Earlier this year, Moscow hosted a visit by Yugoslav Defense Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic, who, like Milosevic, has been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague. "Western pressure only strengthens Milosevic's hand," says Sergei Romanenko, a Balkan expert with the Institute for International Economic and Political Studies in Moscow. But, he warns, "Russian intervention, unless it is very carefully thought out, runs a similar risk of giving Milosevic more political space to maneuver. Basically, the internationalization of the situation has been disastrous." <br><br>Russia may be the only country that can offer Milosevic a credible avenue of escape from his enemies at home and abroad. But a sanctuary offer would require at least the tacit agreement of the West, since Russia – a member of the United Nations Security Council – could not be seen acting alone to aid an indicted war criminal. "Under the right circumstances, Russia is ready to take part in solving this problem," says Mr. Kozhokhin. "The main priority ... is the urgent need to prevent the situation in Yugoslavia from flying out of control." <br><br>"The era of Milosevic is coming to an end in Yugoslavia, and Russia is the one country that can help bring that about peacefully," says Alexander Konovalov, an analyst with the independent Center of Strategic Assessments in Moscow. "We can also assist Milosevic and his family to retire from the scene, though it would probably be best if they didn't come to Russia," he says. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>CSMONITOR:Milosevic digs in as strikes build </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Tuesday, the Yugoslav leader sent out Army and police officers to crack down on nationwide strikes and protests. <br><br>By Scott Peterson and Alex Todorovic <br><br><br>BELGRADE AND PODGORICA, YUGOSLAVIA <br><br>In Belgrade and city after city across the industrial heartland – including President Slobodan Milosevic's hometown of Pozarevac – the trolley-bus bells and the rumble of traffic have been replaced by drumbeats of protest. <br><br>Thousands of coal miners have dropped their picks, prompting the government to impose power cuts across the country. Factory workers and farmers have added their voices to the chorus for change. And even state-controlled media workers have walked off the job. "This time is it.... We can't go on like this," says student Milan Nikolic, as students nearly shut down the capital yesterday. <br><br>Anti-Milosevic demonstrations are nothing new. And it's not yet clear whether the strikes will force Milosevic to step down. Yesterday, he appeared to resort to tactics he's successfully employed in the past, like sending out the Army's chief of staff and police officers to quash the demonstrators. But the difference this time – and the deep threat to Milosevic's power base, analysts say – is that many who once provided unquestioned loyalty are taking up the call for democratic change. <br><br>Popular protests during 13 years of tough Milosevic rule – marked by four wars and nearly a decade of international sanctions – have in the past ended in clouds of tear gas and severe truncheon beatings by loyal police units. In the latest crisis, Army and police forces have for the most part let the demonstrators alone. <br><br>But foreign and local analysts alike say the victory of opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica in Sept. 24 presidential elections has energized opponents of the regime like never before. <br><br>"For the first time, people have a sense that they are all together, and on the same side against the regime," says Stojan Cerovic, a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, and a former Belgrade columnist. "It's new, and might really grow into something impressive. There is something very strong, something mythical when coal miners strike. It reminds people of the 19th century, and of Poland's democracy born in the shipyards." <br><br>Mr. Kostunica's name will appear on the ballot of a second round of voting due Sunday. But the opposition leader says vote tallies from the first round show he won an outright victory. He refuses to take part in a runoff against Milosevic, who claims the vote was close enough to warrant one. <br><br>Instead, he called for a civil disobedience campaign to force Milosevic from office. "I don't like to use the word revolution, but what is happening now is a revolution – a peaceful, nonviolent, wise, civilized, quiet, and smart democratic revolution," Kostunica said on Monday. <br><br>Despite a slow, rain-swept start on Monday, the strike has seen the anti-Milosevic opposition – united behind one leader for the first time in years – grow in unprecedented ways. "This protest is activating people who have previously watched from the sidelines," says Slobodan Cvejic, a Belgrade sociologist. <br><br>Some 4,500 miners stopped work at the Kostolac mine in eastern Serbia Sunday, and another 4,000 have struck at Serbia's largest coal mine, Kolubara, south of Belgrade. Farmers and bus drivers blocked roadways with tractors and buses. Crowds scuffled – at times good naturedly – with police officers trying to remove their license plates. In some cases, protesters responded by attempting to remove police-car plates. <br><br><br>But Milosevic seems to be testing the opposition's strength, and a crackdown is still possible. In a rare television appearance Monday, he warned in a 20-minute speech that success of the Western-backed opposition would bring war and a loss of national identity. <br><br>"Yugoslavia would inevitably break up," Milosevic said. "Our policy guarantees peace, while theirs' [guarantees] clashes and hostility." Yugoslavia risked being "occupied by foreign forces," he said. <br><br>Despite estimates that many among the armed forces voted against Milosevic, the thinking among military commanders was unclear. One Belgrade daily reported that the head of a special police unit was transferred from the capital because he would not deal harshly with demonstrators. <br><br>But yesterday, Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic turned up at the Kolubara coal mine and ordered the striking miners back to work. Some police officers seemed more active yesterday as well. They prevented about 500 people gathered on a highway near the northern town of Novi Sad from reimposing a roadblock. And in the southern industrial town of Kragujevac, they stopped protesters setting out on a protest drive to Belgrade. <br><br>"Strikes are not enough [to unseat Milosevic], says Radha Kumar, a Balkans specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "So much depends on the Army and security police. If they begin to see that Milosevic's days are numbered, then they will step out of the picture and ... he will have to go." <br><br>But among the most surprising developments for the opposition are spontaneous strikes by the state-controlled media. Erupting almost by the hour, journalists are demanding objective reporting on the events shaking the country. <br><br>The opposition physically took over government-controlled TV in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia's second largest city. In one of several similar cases, the entire 150-member newsroom at Belgrade's Studio B television station walked out Monday. <br><br>"We can't sit in that building and pretend we don't see the crowds on the street below," says journalist Jadranka Jankovic. "We were tired of being ashamed in front of our friends and family," the computer staff of Vecernje Novosti, Yugoslavia's largest daily, said in a statement. <br><br>But in another sign that the strike has spread far beyond traditional antigovernment segments of society, the 100,000-member Council of Trade Unions – an organization that has always been loyal to the regime – says it will join the strike tomorrow unless Milosevic acknowledges defeat. <br><br>"This crisis presents Milosevic with a simple question: Do I want to be a dictator? Because that's his only option if he wants to remain in power," says Slobodan Antonic, a Belgrade political science professor. "For Milosevic to remain in power would require far more repression than he is used to dealing with." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>GUARDIAN:Pit strike leaders accused of sabotage </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">Government begins crackdown on wave of demonstrations as students blockade streets of Belgrade<br><br>Special report: Serbia <br><br>Gillian Sandford in Belgrade <br>Wednesday October 4, 2000 <br><br>In the first direct challenge to the wave of demonstrations against President Slobodan Milosevic, 11 striking miners and two Serbian opposition leaders were ordered to be detained on suspicion of sabotage yesterday. <br>The miners are members of the strike committee at Serbia's largest coal mine, Kolubara, where 4,500 workers have been on strike since Friday. <br><br>The two opposition leaders, Nebojsa Covic and Boris Tadic, visited the mine on Sunday night, when police sealed off the area. Mr Covic is the leader of the Democratic Alternative, a relatively small party within the opposition. Mr Tadic is deputy head of the larger Democratic Party. <br><br>The Belgrade public prosecutor demanded an investigation, saying there was a suspicion that they had "been accomplices in criminal sabotage". <br><br>Meanwhile, in the Yugoslav capital, tens of thousands of students walked out of exams and joined hands to form chains across major highways. <br><br>Anti-riot squad police stood by in blue camouflage fatigues as the students moved down the road toward Beli Dvor, the white palace of President Milosevic, shouting "Save Serbia and kill yourself, Slobodan" to the accompaniment of blaring car horns. <br><br>Two coachloads of the intervention squads were guarding Mr Milosevic's home, but the students sought disruption, not confrontation and when the road was blocked, they diverted to a square and another road. <br><br>Another group of tens of thousands of students marched from Plato square to Autokomanda square, just below the leafy suburb of Dedinje, home of Belgrade's rich. <br><br>The embattled government issued a statement threatening to crack down on the opposition, calling them subversive elements waging warfare through strikes and blockades. <br><br>In a statement, read on state television, it was announced that judges could jail those involved in civil disobedience for two to three months. <br><br>Dissenters in the judiciary were told to resign. But opposition leaders and supporters remained defiant and insisted that Mr Milosevic accept his landslide election defeat. They claim their results show that presidential challenger Vojislav Kostunica won the election outright and that the regime committed massive voting fraud. <br><br>A campaign of strikes and civil disobedience combined with legal appeals is being used to pressure the state election committee, which claims Mr Kostunica was not the outright winner of the presidential poll and is calling for a second round. <br><br>The opposition has ruled out participation in Sunday's planned run-off. <br><br>"No one has the right to so bluntly annul the people's will," said Mr Kostunica. <br><br>The opposition claims that a computer diskette thrown through a window of the Yugoslav statistics office building has provided them with evidence of the real results of the election on September 24. <br><br>Mladjan Dinkic, leader of the G17 independent think tank told a news conference: "We've got the proof now, but the electoral commission is the one to present the real results to the public." <br><br>Across the country, particularly in towns that fell to the opposition in last month's elections, strikes and blockades are crippling all activity. <br><br>On Monday night miners at the Kolubara complex ignored an appeal to return to work by the Yugoslavia army chief, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic - the first time Mr Milosevic has called on the military to help end the protests. <br><br>"We are under pressure from the police, psychological not physical pressure," said Predrag Stepanovic, a member of the strike committee. <br><br>After the general failed to resolve the coal mine impasse, the government struck back at opposition-run cities and towns across country by introducing four-hour power cuts allegedly triggered by the strike. Electricity was lost in parts of capital Belgrade for four hours as well as cities such as Nis and Novi Sad. <br><br>The campaign of civil disobedience is the most serious challenge yet to Milosevic's 13-year rule. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>FINANCIAL TIMES:Milosevic's forces make attempt to crack down</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade and Stefan Wagstyl in London<br>Published: October 3 2000 18:58GMT <br> <br>Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's security forces on Tuesday made sporadic attempts to crack down on protestors campaigning to force him from office as widespread unrest hit Serbia for the second day running. <br><br>In a television statement, the government threatened to punish "subversive" activity and warned of "special measures" against protest organisers and against those media that were "inciting bloodshed". But the police response varied across the country, with officers arresting protestors in some places and appearing to tolerate demonstrations elsewhere. <br><br>Meanwhile, the international community maintained the pressure on Mr Milosevic to order a recount of the vote in last week's presidential election. Jiri Dienstbier, a top United Nations official and the first senior international official to visit Yugoslavia since last week's election, said in Belgrade: "The results must have been manipulated." <br><br>Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader, claims he won but the government's election commission said he scored less than the required 50 per cent for an outright victory and must enter a runoff against Mr Milosevic in a poll to be held this Sunday. <br><br>On Tuesday, the opposition claimed to have secured spectacular new evidence of election fraud. It said a computer disc containing detailed poll data had been thrown out of window of the Yugoslav Statistics Office in Belgrade on Monday into the hands of demonstrators. The G17 independent think-tank said the disk provided proof of how the results had been manipulated. <br><br>The first signs of the protests hitting the economy also emerged on Tuesday with the state-owned power utility imposing cuts. Its move follows a coal miners' strike which started on Friday at the country's largest mine, Kolubara. The Kolubara miners early on Tuesday refused to resume work in defiance of orders from Nebojsa Pavkovic, the army chief, who visited the mine in south Serbia. <br><br>Elsewhere, the main railway line between Serbia and Yugoslavia's smaller pro-western republic Montenegro was blocked for a second day and road blocks were set up in and around a string of towns in central and southern Serbia, the opposition heartlands. <br><br>In Belgrade, a crowd of about 50,000 students and others marched through the city. Riot police prepared for action when the protestors approached the elite suburb where Mr Milosevic has his official residence. But the mood lightened when the police agreed to lead the students back to the city centre. However, the Otpor student movement reported that one of its activists was missing and an independent radio station said that the leader of the Belgrade public transport workers' trade union had been arrested after Monday's strikes. </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>TELEGRAPH:Swiss freeze £57m in 'Milosevic bank accounts'</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Fiona Fleck in Berne<br><br>SWITZERLAND has frozen £57 million from about 100 secret bank accounts linked to Slobodan Milosevic.<br>It was the first time that the Swiss authorities have taken such measures against a current head of state. The disclosure by Kaspar Villiger, the Swiss finance minister, came in response to a parliamentary question by MP Jean Ziegler.<br><br>Yesterday Mr Ziegler said banking regulators believed that the accounts were used to purchase arms and supplement the pay of Belgrade's MUP military police force, which is loyal to Milosevic. He said: "This is scandalous as Switzerland is supposed to cracking down on this kind of business." <br><br>The fate of the funds depend on whether Milosevic stays in power. Mr Ziegler said: "If a new government comes to power, they will demand the funds back." Ottmar Wyss, the head of export sanctions at the Swiss Economics Ministry, said some of the 100 accounts belonged to Yugoslav companies, while others were held by some of 300 Milosevic cronies who appeared on an EU blacklist last year. None was in the president's own name.<br><br>Western officials believe Milosevic and his entourage have plundered as much as £3.4 billion from Yugoslavia. In recent years, Switzerland has frozen the assets of the former dictators Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti, Mobuto Sesi Seko of Zaire and Sani Abacha of Nigeria.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>THE TIMES: Belgrade vows to punish strikers </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">FROM MISHA GLENNY IN BELGRADE<br><br>THE Serb Government vowed to "prevent and punish" harshly any "subversive" behaviour yesterday as police began to arrest ringleaders of the widening campaign of civil disobedience that paralysed the country for a second day. <br>Fears are increasing that the military will step in to break the miners' strikes that brought blackouts across much of Nis, Yugoslavia's third largest city. In a dramatic stand-off in the early hours yesterday, the 7,500 miners on strike at the Kolubara complex, the country's largest coalmine, fiercely rebuffed offers of hefty pay rises by the Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Army, as he screamed insults and threatened them with court martial. <br><br>Last night the Belgrade public prosecutor called for the arrest of 11 miners on the strike committee at Kolubara and two opposition leaders - Nebojsa Covic and Boris Tadic - on suspicion of sabotage. The pair visited the mine on Sunday when police were sealing it off. Mr Tadic is deputy leader of the Democratic Party and Mr Covic leads the Democratic Alternative, a smaller party. <br><br>The Opposition, aiming to force President Milosevic to concede outright defeat in the September 24 elections, is braced for a massive clash of wills with the Government today as it plans a huge operation, dubbed Serbia Comes to Belgrade, bringing hundreds of thousands of Serbs from outside the capital to swell Belgrade's protests. <br><br>In London Robin Cook said that Mr Milosevic was doomed. "I do not know when Milosevic will leave, but it is the beginning of the end," the Foreign Secretary said. "He never had much credibility; he now has no more legitimacy." <br><br>The Serb Government gave a warning that anyone preventing "the free flow of traffic, the functioning of vital industries and normal work in factories and hospitals", would face the force of the law. <br><br>It also pledged not to tolerate the activity of media organisations or political movements financed from abroad and said: "Special measures will be used against those involved in subversive activities." It claimed that the campaign organisers were driving Serbia towards bloodshed. <br><br>Despite the threats, most of Serbia remained paralysed as lorries, tractors, buses and cars blocked roads. Strikes crippled most of the main towns and cities. <br><br>In Uzice, train drivers joined the strike, bringing the main rail connection between Serbia and Montenegro to a halt. In Novi Sad in the northern province of Vojvodina, demonstrators were preparing to take control of the main government television centre, one activist said. <br><br>In Belgrade many shops and factories were still open, but support for the protests appeared to be growing. More than 20,000 people took to the streets in three rallies. <br><br>Even before the government warning, police had begun to arrest trade unionists and student protesters. At 4am yesterday in New Belgrade several policemen took away Dragoljub Stosic, leader of the strike committee at a main depot of Belgrade's Public Transport Company, when he refused to remove buses blocking the depot entrance. <br><br>At least ten others were arrested in Belgrade for disturbing the peace and then sentenced to between 10 and 20 days in prison. In the Kolubara stand-off, the Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Army, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, arrived at the site accompanied by two armoured cars. He demanded to see the strikers, but according to one worker, it took the general 45 minutes to grasp that they saw this as a political cause. "Pavkovic's mood turned from nice to nasty," the striker said. "He threatened to place us all before a court martial for disrupting vital supplies to the Yugoslav military." The strikers insisted that they would go back to work only when Vojislav Kostunica, the Opposition leader, was recogised as President of Yugoslavia. General Pavkovic stormed out screaming at the strikers that "he would throw everything he's got at us". The Government has warned miners that it will bus Serb miners in from Kosovo to reopen the plant. <br><br>Observers say that Mr Milosevic hopes the strikes will lose momentum by next week, giving him victory, but there is no sign of that so far.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The NY Times: Milosevic Attacks Opponents on TV</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By STEVEN ERLANGER<br> <br> <br>ELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 2 — As a general strike hit much of Serbia, President Slobodan Milosevic went on national television today to implore his citizens to reject the designs of what he called a traitorous opposition and to re-elect him. <br><br>His challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, who says he won the presidency outright in elections on Sept. 24, made a triumphant visit to several thousand striking mine workers, promising them that Mr. Milosevic will not steal their victory from them. Mr. Kostunica vowed again that he would not participate in a second-round runoff that Mr. Milosevic has called for Oct. 8. <br><br>"Thank you for what you've started, just hold on and we will finish this struggle together," Mr. Kostunica told the workers and their families at the Kolubara mine, 30 miles south of Belgrade. They shouted his name and called him "president." <br><br>It was a day of high drama, with Mr. Milosevic's sudden television appearance the best indication that the opposition's efforts to organize a general strike were having an impact. The opposition is trying to force Mr. Milosevic to relinquish his office to Mr. Kostunica, but Mr. Milosevic showed little sign of going willingly.<br><br>While Belgrade was relatively unaffected, other towns throughout Serbia were brought to a halt, including Nis, Novi Sad, Cacak, Pancevo and Uzice. Roads and railways were blocked, schools and businesses were shut and two major coal mines vital to Serbia's electricity continued to be idled by striking workers. Thousands of students rallied all over the country, leaving their classes.<br><br>The opposition says its strike efforts will peak on Thursday, with efforts to bring hundreds of thousands of people to a large rally in Belgrade.<br><br>In his first television address since the election Sept. 24, Mr. Milosevic said a victory by Mr. Kostunica and the opposition would mean the subjugation of Yugoslavia, its further disintegration and its occupation by foreign forces. He said the world "is not attacking Serbia because of Milosevic but Milosevic because of Serbia," a line he used before, in the 1992 Serbian presidential campaign.<br><br>Saying that "my conscience is clear," Mr. Milosevic insisted that he was speaking from disinterested motives, and he seemed less to threaten than to plead with citizens not to choose the side of the same NATO countries that bombed Yugoslavia. <br><br>"I believe I have a duty to caution the citizens of our country to the consequences of activities financed and supported by the governments of the NATO countries," he said. "People can believe me or not. My wish is that they do not see the validity of my warnings too late, that they do not do so once it is too late to right the mistakes citizens made by themselves in their naïveté, shallowness or ignorance.<br><br>"By yielding their country to others, to a foreign will, they are also yielding their own lives and the lives of their children and many other people to a foreign will," Mr. Milosevic said.<br><br>"The leadership of the democratic opposition, with the money that they have received from abroad, is buying, blackmailing and scaring citizens and organizing strikes and violence in order to stop production, work and any activity — to stop life in Serbia," he said, and he vowed to protect the nation.<br><br>But his attack on his opponents as traitors and NATO dupes was an echo of his failed campaign before the first round, where even by the count of his own Federal Election Commission, he lost to Mr. Kostunica by more than 10 percentage points.<br><br>Many Serbs said they found Mr. Milosevic's tone much more personal than in any of his past speeches.<br><br>"The speech showed a weak Milosevic in some panic," said Zarko Korac, an opposition leader who is also a psychologist. "His highness came out from behind others and got down into the mud, throwing insults with the very vocabulary that voters rejected during the elections."<br><br>But unless the opposition can force Mr. Milosevic from office before then, he will hold the runoff on Sunday with Mr. Kostunica's name on the ballot — and possibly win by default, declaring himself duly elected.<br><br>But Mr. Kostunica says to take part in the runoff would be to recognize theft. And because the opposition sees Mr. Milosevic as having stolen the first round, it also sees no reason to trust that he will not try to do the same in a second round. <br><br>"They've stolen everything — our lives, history and now the elections," Mr. Kostunica told the miners at Kolubara, an hour from Belgrade, who have stopped producing the coal on which half of Serbia's electricity depends. "But we will not allow them to do this. This time we have caught him with his hand in our pockets. There will be no second round. The elections are over."<br><br>Mr. Kostunica seems to mean it, and he shows no signs of changing his mind despite some calls for him to alter his stance and participate in a second round regardless, to put an electoral coup to Mr. Milosevic. <br><br>In an earlier news conference, Mr. Kostunica criticized both Russia and the United States for acting like "great powers." President Vladimir Putin of Russia today invited both Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Kostunica to Moscow for talks on resolving their electoral dispute, but implicitly seemed to recognize the validity of the Oct. 8 runoff. It was a clear rejection of a statement by the German government on Sunday claiming that Mr. Putin recognized Mr. Kostunica as the outright winner of the election. <br><br>"As president of Russia, I am prepared to receive in the next few days in Moscow both candidates who have gone through to the second round, Yugoslav President S. Milosevic and the leader of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia V. Kostunica, to discuss means of finding a way out of the current situation," Mr. Putin's statement said. Undermining his offer, he then left on a four-day visit to India.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica attacked Russia today "for defending the indefensible" and carrying out "an indecisive policy — one step forward and then one step back."<br><br>The United States, he said, by its constant harping on the handover of Mr. Milosevic to face war-crimes charges in The Hague, was turning the election into a matter of life-and- death for Mr. Milosevic. "The Hague has no connection with the results of this election," Mr. Kostunica said. <br><br>"America, in each and every State Department statement, misses no chance to remind everyone of Slobodan Milosevic's Hague indictment, as if that indictment is more important at this moment than the future of the whole country, its people and stability in the region," Mr. Kostunica said. "It's as if, with such statements, America wants to strengthen Milosevic in his belief that these elections are a question of life and death for him."<br><br>The Milosevic government has urged miners at Kolubara and at Kostolac, in eastern Serbia, to return to work, saying that power outages would result from their actions. As many as 10,000 coal miners are on strike, saying that they will remain idle until Mr. Milosevic recognizes Mr. Kostunica's victory.<br><br>The state electric company warned that the strikes jeopardize "big infrastructure systems, such as the water-supply system, sewage system, city transport, bakeries, health and other institutions."<br><br>State news media also showed serious signs of unrest. Journalists at the daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti threatened to strike unless the editorial policy became balanced, and its computer technicians have already struck. Journalists at the Belgrade television station Studio B, taken over by the Serbian government in May, also threatened to strike for balanced coverage.<br><br>While it is unlikely to bring down the government, the Serbian Society of Composers and the Alliance of Composers' Organizations of Yugoslavia also called on their members to put down their pens.<br><br>In his news conference, Mr. Kostunica rejected a suggestion floated by the ruling coalition and even Mr. Milosevic's brother, the Yugoslav ambassador in Moscow, that Mr. Milosevic could leave office and appoint himself federal prime minister. But Mr. Kostunica said the post belonged constitutionally to a Montenegrin from the largest party in Parliament, and he suggested that he would nominate Predrag Bulatovic, deputy leader of the pro-Belgrade Socialist People's Party. Mr. Bulatovic, unlike the leader, Momir Bulatovic, has distanced himself from Mr. Milosevic. <br><br>Mr. Kostunica, a careful constitutional lawyer, seems to be taking his new responsibilities with seriousness and some sense of mission.<br><br>"I don't like the word revolution," Mr. Kostunica said today. "But what is happening in Serbia today is a revolution — a peaceful, nonviolent, clever, civilized, democratic revolution. People are ready to start building a new country."<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: In Slobodan Milosevic's hometown, you can smell the </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">fear now gripping his brutal regime <br><br>By Steve Crawshaw in Pozarevac <br><br><br>3 October 2000 <br><br>Radojko Lukovic, a bearded, out-of-work PE instructor in the central Serbian town of Pozarevac, talks in a mumble. And yet, what he says is dynamite. <br><br>"Marko came into the opposition offices, and asked to see me," said the broken-nosed Mr Lukovic with a gap-toothed grin, as he sipped his Turkish coffee in a Pozarevac cafe. "He told me: 'I'm sorry about what happened.' He wanted me to tell the opposition not to be rude to his family." <br><br>Marko Milosevic – the loathed son of the President and uncrowned king of Pozarevac – was upset in May when Mr Lukovic stepped in to defend a student who had been beaten up by Marko's thugs. Those same thugs broke Mr Lukovic's nose, kicked his teeth out, and left him unconscious. <br><br>The police reaction was to charge Mr Lukovic with involvement in attempted murder. So far, so normal in Mr Milosevic's Serbia. But an apology from Marko is quite unheard-of; it seems that even the inner clan is now positioning itself for a defeat to come. <br><br>In that respect, Mr Lukovic's encounter can be seen as history in the making. As I listened to him describing his visit from Marko, I finally became convinced of something which until now I had not quite dared to believe. This is, indeed, a revolution. It may yet fail and the chances of bloodshed remain high. But the chances of victory – perhaps even a peaceful victory – are greater than ever before. <br><br>In Pozarevac, Mr Milosevic's hometown and one of his strongholds, you can smell the fear that has begun to grip the regime. As in dozens of towns and cities across Serbia, thousands gathered in Pozarevac's city centre yesterday, demanding an end to Mr Milosevic's rule and chanting "Gotov je! He's finished!" Factories and schools were closed; the main roads out of the town and on to the nearby motorway were blocked by tractors and cars. <br><br>The blockades bringing the country to a standstill covered more than just the main roads. When a blockader accompanied The Independent along muddy farm tracks to help us return from Pozarevac to Belgrade, we found ourselves stuck in yet another blockade in the middle of nowhere. <br><br>These protests and strikes– which Serbia has, after all, seen before – are important as a reflection of the restlessness that has gripped the country. But the multiplying signs that the regime itself has begun to fissure are even more significant. <br><br>The local television station in Pozarevac, traditionally slavishly pro-regime, startled viewers when it displayed a message along the bottom of the screen on Sunday night informing viewers of plans for this week's general strike. After an hour, three policemen entered the television studio and ordered that the message should be removed. But the embarrassment remains. <br><br>In Pozarevac, even the pessimists seem to be optimists these days. Dragana Dejavic works for the local paper which, like the television station, has always been pro-Milosevic. Her first reaction to a question about Mr Milosevic sounds cautious. "It's not the end. It's only the beginning." So how long does she think it will be before the end? Weeks, months, a year? "Oh, no. Maybe two or three days. Up to a week." <br><br>Dragan Milinovic, the student victim rescued by Mr Lukovic in May, started the Pozarevac branch of Otpor (Resistance), a student opposition movement. He, too, believes that the end is near. "It's not a question of how long I give him. It's a question of how long The Hague [war crimes tribunal] will give him." <br><br>More cautious observers are still worried that everything can fall apart, as it has done so often before. One Belgrader said: "It has to be within a week. If it doesn't happen within a week, I'm afraid it won't happen at all." The opposition still has the chance to shoot itself in the foot again. If it falls apart amid arguments about tactics, Mr Milosevic could yet hang on for dear life. <br><br>But it is remarkable to see a once resentful and apathetic town like Pozarevac so alive with the possibilities of change. The rally yesterday was full of laughter as speakers mocked Mr Milosevic; confidence in Pozarevac, and all across Serbia, is now stronger than fear. The provinces will almost certainly play a more important part than the capital, Belgrade, in forcing change. <br><br>The confidence is infectious. Djordje Rankovic, a judge for 22 years, was sacked earlier this year after police video cameras caught him at an opposition rally. The only colleague who dared to stand up for him publicly was also removed from her post. <br><br>Not everything has changed, even now. You can still meet those who glance around nervously before telling you: "All we want is a better life. We hope for change. But who knows?" But Serbia is much closer to change than at any time in the past decade. <br><br>Mr Rankovic insists that change can no longer be reversed. "It's just a matter of days. In a few days, we'll have the new Serbia. But already it's not the old Serbia." <br><br>To a much greater extent than ever before, the opposition has succeeded in communicating with the police at local level. Police cars were present for the blockades around Pozarevac and at many of the hundreds of blockades across the country; at Pozarevac, a single busload of policemen in full riot gear appeared on the scene. But they eventually drove off without getting off the bus. <br><br>The face-to-face meetings in Pozarevac have sometimes been almost friendly. It seems that neither side is eager to become involved in the bloodshed that Mr Milosevic may yet seek to unleash. Srbislav Stojanovic, a lawyer active in the Pozarevac opposition, described a recent encounter, which revealed that tensions are running high on both sides. "Our representative went to the police and said: 'Let's do this peacefully. My pocket is full of tranquilliser pills.' And the policeman patted his pocket and answered: 'My pocket is full of tranquillisers, too.' <br><br>"The authorities are completely lost," Mr Stojanovic said. "They didn't expect any of this. Frankly, we didn't expect it either." Like so many others in Pozarevac, he believes that the clock is now ticking fast. "Soon, everything will be resolved. We could see the headline 'Milosevic is gone' within a week." <br><br>But Mr Milosevic came out fighting yesterday, insisting in his televised speech – live on half a dozen television channels in Belgrade – that anybody who supported the opposition was against Serbia. The voting figures in Pozarevac give a sense of how beleaguered he now is, however. In past years, up to 80 per cent voted for Mr Milosevic. In last month's elections, two thirds voted for Vojislav Kostunica, the candidate of the opposition. <br><br>Already, Mr Milosevic's hold on Pozarevac – and all Serbia – is weakening. Marko's Madonna discotheque on the edge of Pozarevac – a huge and astonishingly ugly place which bizarrely carries the slogan "Stop the Violence" on its outside wall – is now closed, not least because of a boycott that following the attack on Mr Lukovic. His little Pasaz Cafe, where his thugs beat Mr Lukovic and Mr Milinovic up, is closed, too. <br><br>The closed-circuit cameras are still in operation outside the Milosevic estate on the edge of Pozarevac. But it seems unlikely that this will ever be a retirement villa for a former President. A typical response about where he might spend his retirement came from one resident of Pozarevac, who argued: "Either a jail here in Yugoslavia, or a jail in The Hague." </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: Opposition protests bring Yugoslavia to a halt </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Steve Crawshaw and Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade and Patrick Cockburn in Moscow <br><br><br>3 October 2000 <br><br>The Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, lashed out at his opponents yesterday as the first day of a campaign of civil disobedience, aimed at forcing him to relinquish power, brought Serbia to astandstill. <br><br>In a rare televised address the embattled President vehemently ruled out conceding defeat, vowing to fight a second-round election run-off on 8 October and fulminating that the West would use an opposition victory to engineer an "occupation" of Serbia. <br><br>Mr Milosevic may have been emboldened by an earlier statement from the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who offered to host talks between Mr Milosevic and his challenger for the Yugoslav presidency, Vojislav Kostunica. Mr Putin stopped well short of bowing to Western pressure to back Mr Kostunica, and appeared careful not to distance himself from Mr Milosevic. <br><br>Referring to both men as candidates in the second round – implicit recognition of the official first round results – Mr Putin said: "As President of Russia, I am prepared to receive in the next few days in Moscow both candidates who have gone through to the second round... to discuss means of finding a way out of the current situation." <br><br>In a vintage performance, broadcast simultaneously on six television channels in Belgrade, Mr Milosevic sought to present himself as the great defender of Serbia's interests, selfless in his attempt to keep the ship of state sailing while the opposition did its best to destroy the country. <br><br>"I believe I have a duty to caution the citizens of our country to the consequences of activities financed and supported by the governments of the Nato countries," he said before accusing his election challengers of blackmail, intimidation and violence. <br><br>But even as he spoke, an unprecedented wave of protests presented the President with the most serious challenge yet to his 13-year reign. Blockades, rallies, boycotts, school and university closures and strikes were reported across the country as the opposition stepped up its demands that the government should recognise the defeat of Mr Milosevic at the polls. <br><br>All over the country, parents kept their children from school and thousands of students took to the streets of Belgrade chanting "Save Serbia and kill yourself, Slobodan". Meanwhile rubbish containers blocked key boulevards from the early morning. Private cars jammed the streets, allowing only supply vehicles or ambulances to pass. Many people stayed at home from work as the public transport system ground to a halt. Hospitals were dealing only with emergency cases. <br><br>Many journalists at the formerly independent and now pro-government Studio B Television went on strike in protest at the station's editorial policy. The independent Beta news agency reported that thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Novi Sad studios of Serbian state television, including journalists from the studio itself. <br><br>Meanwhile, Switzerland said yesterday it had frozen about 100 bank accounts belonging to allies of Slobodan Milosevic, although none were in the name of the Yugoslav President himself. The Swiss Finance Minister, Kaspar Villiger, told parliament that foreign heads of state frequently used fake names for stashing money away in accounts in the country.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The FT: Milosevic breaks silence with defiant message</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade, Andrew Jack in Moscow and Stefan Wagstyl in London<br> <br><br> <br>Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Monday night broke his post-electoral silence with a rare televised address to the nation, attacking his opponents and making clear he had no intention of handing over power. <br><br>Mr Milosevic accused the West of trying to take over the Balkans by establishing 'puppet governments' and of planning to destroy Serbia. "We have been exposed to all pressures to which people can be exposed in the modern world," a tired-looking president said on the main TV news. <br><br>Mr Milosevic spoke as western leaders maintained the pressure on him to admit defeat and as Russia offered to host talks in Moscow between him and Vojislav Kostunica, the victor in last week's presidential polls. <br><br>The president was also responding to strikes and rallies called by the opposition in an effort to drive him from power and abandon plans for a run-off in the presidential polls. <br><br>On Monday the Serbian opposition staged a country-wide campaign of strikes, road blockages and rallies. Protests brought a string of towns to a halt, but failed to make much impact in Belgrade, where sporadic road blockades lasted just a few hours. <br><br>The most serious protests were at two coal mines serving Serbia's largest power plants. About 4,500 miners put down their tools at the Kostolac mine in eastern Serbia on Sunday and around 4,000 miners began a strike at Serbia's largest coal mine, Kolubara, south of Belgrade, on Friday, threatening to plunge parts of the country into darkness. The state power company said power cuts would begin soon. <br><br>Western officials meeting in Paris, including US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, again demanded Mr Milosevic resign. French president Jacques Chirac said: "In its vote . . . the Serbian people clearly rejected Slobodan Milosevic with courage and determination." <br><br>A similar message came from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has a special role in election monitoring. Greece offered to help organise an internationally supervised election recount, a move designed to help Mr Milosevic accept defeat. <br><br>In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin, who has refused to bow to western pressure to recognise Mr Kostunica's victory, offered to host talks for "both candidates who have gone through to the second round" of voting. This wording suggested Russia accepts Mr Milosevic's argument that a second round is required. <br><br>The Serb opposition claims Mr Kostunica won an outright victory but the government's electoral commission said he scored less than the necessary minimum of 50 per cent. The opposition has said it would boycott a second round but would accept a recount of the first round votes. <br><br>Earlier Mr Kostunica strongly criticised both the US and Russia. He accused Washington of indirectly bolstering Mr Milosevic by insisting that he remained an indicted war criminal, thereby increasing nationalist support for the president. Mr Kostunica described Russian policy as "indecisive and reluctant". He said: "It could be described as taking one step forward and one step back." <br><br>If Mr Milosevic continues to refuse demands to recount the votes the opposition threatens to call a round-the-clock strike from Wednesday.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>ABC News: People vs. Power</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">General Strike Cripples Yugoslavia; Milosevic Goes on Offensive <br><br> <br>A priest blesses the anti-government protest in Cacak, Yugoslavia, 90 miles southwest of Belgrade. Citizens of Cacak blocked roads in the area in a protest over alleged fraud in federal elections. (Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo)<br> <br> <br><br>Oct. 2 — As thousands of people walked out of factories, mines and schools to demand Slobodan Milosevic leave office, the Yugoslav president today claimed the country would fall under foreign occupation if the opposition took power.<br> Milosevic spoke after the opposition launched what it hoped would be a nationwide campaign to force the president to accept electoral defeat by Vojislav Kostunica. <br> In a rare address to the nation, his first since the Sept. 24 election, Milosevic accused his opponents of using bribery and blackmail to organize the strikes, adding that if his rivals succeeded, “Yugoslavia would inevitably break up.” <br>Nation Grinds to a Halt <br>Milosevic’s address came as the Democratic Opposition of Serbia expressed satisfaction with today’s demonstrations, saying the responses in the provinces had been even better than it had expected. The opposition has vowed to keep up the general strike until Milosevic accepts what it called a crushing defeat at the polls. <br> “If the commission fails to present the real results today, the blockade will continue on Tuesday for five hours and from Wednesday, it will be round the clock if the electoral will of the people is not recognized,” said Cedimir Jovankovic, a DOS spokesman.<br> The protests represented the most extensive strikes ever waged against Milosevic, with no corner of the country left untouched. Participation appeared strongest in the industrial heartland south of Belgrade, where the government’s failure to extinguish independent media enabled the opposition to coordinate actions.<br> Protests were less effective in Belgrade, where steady rain and lack of an independent media may have discouraged people from taking to the streets.<br> “I don’t like to use the word revolution, but what is happening now is a revolution — a peaceful, nonviolent, wise, civilized, quiet and smart democratic revolution,” said opposition leader Kostunica. “People are ready to start building a new country.” <br><br>Still Clinging to Power<br>The opposition believes Kostunica received more than 50 percent of the vote. The government does not — and has scheduled an Oct. 8 runoff election. <br> Most Western powers appear to accept the opposition claim. But Russia, a traditional Serb ally, has said a second round of elections was legitimate.<br> Several reports from Belgrade said close Milosevic allies — including his chief of police — had either resigned or been replaced.<br> Diplomatic sources in Belgrade estimate only 10 percent of the armed forces — mainly high-ranking officers — and less than 30 percent of the police are loyal to Milosevic. <br><br>Miners Strike<br>Over the weekend, workers in vital coal and copper mines locked themselves in to prevent the police from taking over the facilities, both essential to the economy.<br> Stoppages at coal mines serving Serbia’s two biggest thermal power plants have struck at the heart of Yugoslavia’s struggling economy.<br> Around 4,000 miners have been on strike at Kolubara, the country’s largest coal mine, since Friday, a protest action which threatens to plunge large parts of the country into darkness.<br> Kolubara, with a daily output of 70,000 tons, is the only supplier to the thermal power station in nearby Obrenovac, which produces half of Serbia’s power needs. Three of its six generators have already been shut down due to a lack of coal.<br> In Kostolac, the second biggest thermal plant in Serbia, the management spent most of Sunday night discussing when to completely close down the plant.<br> “A meeting in the Kostolac thermoelectric power plant ended during the night and it has been decided that production should be kept at a required minimum of 20 percent,” said Dusan Jovanovic, a member of the opposition Democratic Party.<br> Leaving no doubt over whom they supported in the country’s fierce political battle, workers at Kolubara greeted Kostunica with shouts of “Long live the president!” after Kostunica addressed workers at the mine today.<br> “Thank you for what you initiated and for what we will finish off together,” Kostunica told the crowd of some 1,000 people. <br><br>Cracks in the Machine<br>Milosevic’s once-extensive propaganda machine appears to be showing more signs of cracking, despite the fact that the strongman has in recent months shut down almost all the TV and radio stations he does not own or control. <br> Eight local radio stations around the country said they had stopped broadcasting official programming. The editorial staffs of several major television stations are demanding the right to broadcast news of the protest — so far banned from the nation’s televisions. <br> The major state-run provincial TV station at Novi Sad is balking against the broadcast of more Milosevic propaganda. <br> The pro-Milosevic daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti’s 50 editorial staffers reportedly have issued an ultimatum to management, demanding the right to “publish the truth about what is going on in our country.”<br> Milosevic has turned down an offer of mediation from his most powerful ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two high-ranking Russian envoys are already in the country and are expected to have talks in Belgrade today.<br> Despite today’s statement from Moscow, both German government and U.S. State Department sources have said Putin has acknowledged the opposition victory and is interested in getting Milosevic to step down peacefully. This could include negotiations for an exile deal. But it will likely not include an amnesty deal for Milosevic, who has been indicted for war crimes, including genocide, by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent:Truck blockade opens Yugoslav showdown </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Jovana Gec <br><br><br>2 October 2000 <br><br>When they did it in Britain, it was to demand cheap petrol: in Belgrade this morning when the truck drivers blocked the roads it was to fight for the future of their country. <br><br>The showdown for power in Yugoslavia has reached a pivotal moment – the opening of a protest blitz by opposition forces that could test their resolve to drive President Slobodan Milosevic from office. <br><br>Milosevic's foes have vowed to bring the country to a standstill with general strikes and road blockades. But the buildup to the campaign has been slow and cautious, raising questions about whether they possess the momentum and stamina to carry out their threats. <br><br>Less than a week remains before Sunday's scheduled run–off elections. Milosevic says challenger Vojislav Kostunica failed to achieve an outright victory in Sept. 24 elections and a second round is needed. The opposition, backed by the West, insist Milosevic rigged the voting. <br><br>"It's up to the people ... whether they are going to stand for this or not," said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who led NATO's 78–day air war against Yugoslavia last year. <br><br>Road blockades snarled traffic outside the capital, Belgrade, just after dawn, independent radio station B2–92 reported. The protests clogged roads near the suburbs of Zemun and Sremcica. <br><br>Another road blockade effectively sealed off the opposition–run town of Cacak in central Yugoslavia early Monday. By 5 a.m.. (0300 GMT), some 70 truck drivers completely jammed the road outside the industrial town of 80,000 people. <br><br>Milosevic has so far held the military and police in check. There were fears, however, he could be running out of options as some vital industries, such as coal mines, join the opposition ranks. <br><br>The independent Beta news agency reported that 500 Interior Ministry policemen entered the Kolubara mine, the nation's largest, late Sunday. The action could be at attempt to thwart sabotage at the mine, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Belgrade, where thousands of workers have walked out. <br><br>A close Milosevic supporter, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, accused opposition groups of seeking "chaos, clashes and unrest." The republics of Serbia and Western–oriented Montenegro comprise what remains of Yugoslavia. <br><br>Opposition leader Milan Protic urged people to abandon their jobs and schools and take to the streets, building toward a "total blockade" of roads by Wednesday. <br><br>"(This) will last until Milosevic realizes that he is no longer president," said Protic, the opposition's candidate for mayor of Belgrade. <br><br>Already, thousands of workers have left key industries in a nation battered by international sanctions. Two important coal mines, an oil refinery and railway lines were idled, opening the possibility of power and fuel shortages. <br><br>A letter from Serbia's electric company urged coal miners to return to work immediately or power restrictions would be imposed that could "endanger people's health and lives (and) cause an ecological catastrophe." <br><br>Authorities also have warned students against joining Monday's strike. <br><br>Sunday offered a taste of the disturbances that may spread across the country. A convoy of 60 trucks blocked a key highway in central Yugoslavia and smaller, traffic–snarling demonstrations were held at main intersections in the capital Belgrade. <br><br>"Our victory is a pure as a diamond," said Velimir Ilic, the mayor of Cacak. About 10,000 opposition supporters gathered at the main town square for a seventh consecutive night. <br><br>A local police patrol briefly attempted to take the license plate of one of the truckers in Cacak around dawn Monday. They found themselves outnumbered and surrounded, however, and quickly handed it back. <br><br>The truckers were soon joined by about 100 taxi drivers. Protest leaders pledged their numbers would grow as the day went on. <br><br>"We are here to defend our votes and we won't go away until Kostunica is installed as president," said the group's leader Milun Kuzmanovic. <br><br>Only essential public services were operating in the city, and a rally was planned at noon. <br><br>"They are sending a strong message to Milosevic: 'Your time in office is over,"' said U.S. National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley in Washington. <br><br>The president of neighboring Romania, Emil Constantinescu, urged Milosevic to concede defeat and congratulated Kostunica for his "historic victory." <br><br>Even Russian President Vladimir Putin – one of Milosevic's last major allies – appeared to move toward the Western view that the Yugoslav leader was finished. <br><br>In Berlin, the German government said Putin and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke by telephone and agreed that "Kostunica's election victory emphatically expresses the will of the Serbian people for a democratic change in Yugoslavia." <br><br>Milosevic turned down an offer by Putin to send his foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, to Belgrade to meet with both sides. But two senior Russian diplomats – Vladimir Chizhov and Alexander Tolkach – arrived in Serbia late Saturday. State Tanjug news agency reported Chizhov visited Kosovo on Sunday and planned official meetings in Belgrade the following day. <br><br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times: Nato guards escape routes as Milosevic makes plans to flee </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>Tom Walker, Podgorica <br><br>Serbia Scenting power: jubilant opposition supporters light victory torches in Belgrade <br>NATO and western intelligence networks are closely monitoring all flights out of Belgrade in the belief that President Slobodan Milosevic may flee to China, where he is thought to have up to $200m (£140m) in secret bank accounts. <br><br>The surveillance operation began even before Milosevic lost last week's presidential election. Diplomats watching the decline of the Serbian regime said that in the past six weeks Borka Vucic, Milosevic's personal banker, had made at least two trips to Beijing. Their sources said her business was connected with the president's family and not the Yugoslav state. <br><br>American officials say Nato will thwart any attempt by Milosevic to escape from Serbia in a private jet. His likely flight path would take him over Hungary or Romania to Russia, which would probably turn a blind eye if he moved on to Beijing. <br><br>However, Hungary is a Nato member and Romania hopes to join the alliance. Both countries have interceptor aircraft on standby, ready to force down any private flights from Serbia. <br><br>Military sources in Bosnia said Nato surveillance had been briefed to look out for a private Falcon jet or the Yugoslav government's official DC10. <br><br>The whereabouts of Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, who was reported to have suffered a nervous breakdown, and children, Marko and Maria, were unknown yesterday. Intelligence officials said they were more concerned with the movements of the president himself, who has been indicted by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. <br><br>The officials said Madeleine Albright, the American secretary of state, was determined to bring Milosevic to justice before the end of the Clinton administration in January. <br><br>The Milosevic regime is believed to have robbed the state of up to $5 billion, most of it leached out of the country in the early 1990s after all personal bank accounts were frozen in Serbia, ostensibly to help fund the war effort and to counter hyper-inflation. <br><br>Much of the money was taken to Cyprus, Lebanon and China, and classic money-laundering techniques have made it almost untraceable. Although Milosevic has never indulged himself on the scale of the former Ceausescu dynasty in neighbouring Romania, his security bills are huge and his Chinese savings are believed to be substantial. <br><br>"We believe he could have anything up to $200m there," said one intelligence source. "It will help him to hide away." <br><br>Vucic has helped Milosevic with his finances since they worked together at Beogradska Bank 20 years ago. She is now the minister in charge of co- operation with international financial institutions. <br><br>Intelligence sources say western capitals are watching the movements of members of the Yugoslav regime who may be thought by Milosevic to know too much. They include military figures such as General Dragoljub Ojdanic, the army chief of staff during the Kosovo campaign, and Frenki Simatovic, the head of anti-terrorist forces. <br><br>Milosevic is also wary of fellow politicians such as Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president, and Vlajko Stojilkovic, the interior minister. <br><br>"The future is very difficult for all of them," said one western source. "They'd love to get out, but Slobo has to have them somewhere where he can control them." <br><br>The source said some members of the regime had already made secret trips to Budapest, the Hungarian capital, offering information on the intricacies of the Belgrade machine in exchange for visas to safe havens. <br><br>Stojilkovic is said to have been harshly treated last week. Police sources say that he was told by Markovic to bring his most ruthless units onto the streets of Belgrade, but that many had refused. <br><br>As the extent of police and army sympathy for the opposition became known, Milosevic was said to have hurled an ashtray at Gorica Gajevic, his party secretary. <br><br>In Milosevic's home town of Pozarevac, local people said they had heard the family was selling property. A cafe owned by Marko Milosevic has closed down and his Bambiland theme park has shut early for the winter. <br><br>For his part, however, the president has looked confident on state television. Yesterday afternoon he attended a military academy's passing out parade and declared that he would not bow to pressure. <br><br>"We will counter pressures and threats with the truth, unity, knowledge, work and creativity, just as we did successfully under the Nato aggression and in the subsequent reconstruction of our country," Milosevic said. "We are sure that our country, which managed to defend itself in a war, can also successfully resist these other psychological, media and political pressures." <br><br>Milosevic also claimed Yugoslavia was now pursuing a policy of peace. Its period of wars "is now behind us", he said. <br><br>A source close to Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader, said concern was growing that Milosevic's tactic of divide-and-rule may work. Opposition groups behind Kostunica have discussed the feasibility of forcing the president from power through a general strike. Last night, they called for a "total blockade of all state institutions and general civil disobedience" to start from Monday. <br><br>If Kostunica seeks help from outside Serbia to speed Milosevic's demise, he could hand the president a propaganda coup. Unconfirmed reports over the weekend claimed foreign diplomats had met Kostunica to discuss the possibility of bringing mediators into Serbia to negotiate Milosevic's departure. <br><br>Last night, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said he was willing to send Igor Ivanov, his foreign minister, to Belgrade "to be more active in the process". <br><br>However, Putin insisted: "The position of Russia is clear - the Yugoslav people must decide their ultimate fate and future without the interference of outside elements." <br><br>Greece also offered mediation and said it was willing to send observers to monitor a new count of election votes. Milosevic's federal election commission claimed Kostunica had beaten him by 49% to 39%, falling short of the 50% required for a first-round victory. Kostunica has refused to fight a second round next Sunday, insisting he secured well over 50%. <br><br>However, the election commission rejected complaints of voting irregularities, insisting yesterday that no recount was needed. <br><br>As the standoff intensified, the Yugoslav army seemed to be shifting its allegiance away from Milosevic. According to a high-ranking officer, at least one member of the army general staff has resigned. <br><br>In a further blow, the commanding officers turned down Milosevic's request for a meeting to discuss the outcome of the election, saying in a fax from headquarters that the army "has no functional link with the parties taking part". <br><br>A western diplomat in Podgorica, capital of Serbia's sister state of Montenegro, described Milosevic as "like a wounded buffalo who has taken a couple of rounds - he can still stagger around and cause a lot of damage"<br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent: The second ballot could leave the opposition more divided than ever </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By Steve Crawshaw in Belgrade <br><br>2 October 2000 <br><br>"He's finished – absolutely finished." "I'm afraid – somehow, he always survives." These contradictory statements from one Serb student yesterday are echoed again and again in the revolutionary city of Belgrade. <br><br>Slobodan Milosevic is under greater pressure than ever before – of that, there can be no doubt. All the evidence points to the fact that we are seeing Milosevic's Last Days. And yet, he has survived too many times before. Many are still wary of what trick the old fox might yet pull, in order to maintain his grip on power. <br><br>On the face of it, it seems clear that President Milosevic has suffered a crushing electoral defeat at the hands of the opposition party led by Vojislav Kostunica. The whole world, including his traditional ally, Russia, is pressing him to go. And, on the streets throughout the capital city Belgrade and all over Serbia, millions look set to demonstrate against him and go on strike in the days to come. <br><br>And still, some cannot believe that it is really all over. What happens if he simply sits it all out, as he has done before? For the Serb opposition, which has traditionally shown an uncanny ability to start squabbling just at the moment when victory seems to be within reach, the question now is whether it will successfully keep up the pressure to make the once all-powerful regime crumble. <br><br>The most encouraging signs for the opposition are that President Milosevic's own people seem to be deserting him on a daily basis. Even so, many assume that victory can still only come with bloodshed. In a sense, that bloodshed might be expected merely to accelerate the fall of the House of Milosevic: dead demonstrators would probably soon mean a dead Milosevic. <br><br>The true nightmare scenario, from the opposition's point of view, might be that President Milosevic holds firm until the end of the week with his insistence that the opposition has failed to gain a first-round victory. <br><br>If the run-off election scheduled by the government for this coming Sunday goes ahead, some in the opposition might lose their nerve at the last moment and decide to vote in the run-off, while others stick with a boycott. In those circumstances, President Milosevic could gain a quasi-democratic victory – in other words, where no theft of votes would be needed – which would leave the opposition more divided than ever before. <br><br>The mood changes in Belgrade from day to day, and from hour to hour. Yesterday's optimist is today's pessimist, and vice versa. For the moment, the scenario of Milosevic's stubborn survival still seems less likely than the put-him-on-a-plane version which everybody in the opposition is hoping for. <br><br>Serbia has learnt not to expect any happy endings. In the past few days, however, even dyed-in-the-wool pessimists have learned what it means to hope. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Guardian: Putin tries to ease Milosevic out </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>Russia leads international efforts to broker a peaceful handover of power in Yugoslavia<br><br><br>Ian Traynor in Moscow, Maggie O'Kane in Belgrade and Jonathan Steele <br>Monday October 2, 2000 <br><br>The Kremlin has launched a high-risk - but potentially rewarding - diplomatic initiative to broker a peaceful handover of power from President Slobodan Milosevic to the opposition in Belgrade. <br>In a weekend of intensive diplomacy following last week's disputed Yugoslav elections, President Vladimir Putin spoke to President Clinton, the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and the Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, about the increasingly isolated Milosevic regime. <br><br>For the first time Russia has conceded that the opposition leader, Vojislav Kostunica, won the poll in the first round. Two senior Russian diplomats arrived in Belgrade yesterday for talks. <br><br>Earlier Mr Putin offered to send the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, to Belgrade to defuse the standoff. An influential Russian foreign policy official said that Moscow should mediate in Belgrade, checking all versions of election returns to assess whether a second round runoff scheduled for next Sunday was warranted. <br><br>"If it [a runoff] is not needed, it would make sense to discuss the conditions that would ensure the transfer of power," said Vladimir Lukin, a deputy parliament speaker and a former Russian ambassador in Washington. "Russia has a chance to play a very big role in this process." <br><br>That seemed to reflect the views of Mr Putin, who appears to be relishing the opportunities afforded to enhance Russian prestige by succeeding in some crisis management which would leave the west in its debt. <br><br>The Russian foreign ministry confirmed that Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian envoy to the Balkans, and Alexander Tolkach, a foreign ministry official, were in Belgrade for talks with the Milosevic and Kostunica camps. <br><br>Russian media reports suggest that the Kremlin is engaged in a high-risk strategy to edge Mr Milosevic out peacefully, but it appears that Moscow is advising Mr Kostunica not to boycott any runoff. <br><br>Rumours have been rife for days that Mr Milosevic could flee to Russia, and that Mr Kostunica may go to Moscow for talks on the crisis with Mr Putin, who is due to leave for a four-day visit to India today. <br><br>The key issue would be to organise when Mr Milosevic leaves power. The Yugoslav prime minister, Momir Bulatovic, has said the constitution allows the president to stay until next summer. <br><br>This is unacceptable to the opposition, but there may be room for compromise on finding a date which allows Mr Milosevic to stay on for a shorter period or by guaranteeing his security if he resigns immediately. <br><br>In Belgrade, Mr Milosevic, continues to ignore internal and international pressures to step down. According to one inside source he expects next Sunday's runoff to go ahead. <br><br>Mr Kostunica, a law professor, insists he has already won and such a runoff would be an insult to the voters. <br><br>He is trying to unseat Mr Milosevic by legal challenges, international pressure and by persuading Mr Milosevic's allies to desert him. His aim is to corrode Mr Milosevic's powerbase without violence. <br><br>"There must be no blood because Serbia is already bleeding," an opposition speaker told a rally in Belgrade on Saturday. "We know you are tired. We know you are fed up and tired of speeches but please tell everyone the general strike begins on Monday at 5am" <br><br>Essential services such as hospitals are not expected to be affected by the strike but most of the country is expected to come to a standstill. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The FT: Yugoslav opposition steps up protests</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br>By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade, Andrew Jack in Moscow and Agencies<br> <br>The Yugoslav opposition on Monday launched what it hopes will be a nationwide campaign of strikes, road blockages and rallies aimed at forcing President Slobodan Milosevic to step down in favour of Vojislav Kostunica. <br><br>Lorry and taxi drivers blocked roads in Belgrade and other towns on Monday, and workers were reported to have walked out of coal mines, an oil refinery and railway stations. <br><br>Western governments meanwhile stepped up diplomatic pressure at the weekend to persuade Russia to bring its influence to bear on Mr Milosevic to stand down after last month's disputed general election. <br><br>US President Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schöder, the German chancellor, and Giuliano Amato, Italy's prime minister, all had telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. <br><br>German officials said Mr Putin had agreed during a telephone conversation with Mr Schöder that the opposition candidate's victory over Mr Milosevic in the presidential election on Sunday reflected the will of the Serbian people for democratic change. <br><br>The German statement said Mr Schröder and Mr Putin had discussed how the international community could help ensure that a change of government could be "realised in a peaceful way". <br><br>Russia has so far stood back from support by western nations for the claim by the Yugoslav opposition that it won an outright majority in the first round of voting and did not need to take part in a run-off on October 8, as the government-controlled election commission has claimed. <br><br>Two senior Russian diplomats arrived in Belgrade on Saturday night, while the Kremlin confirmed that Mr Putin had offered to send Igor Ivanov, his foreign minister, to Yugoslavia to act as an intermediary. German and US officials said the offer had been rejected. <br><br>In other developments, Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, arrived in Paris on Sunday where she was due to hold talks with senior British, European Union and French officials. <br><br>The opposition's protest campaign will seek to blockade main roads outside every large town. The opposition has called on workers in government offices and factories to join the strikes and also hopes that schools, universities, cinemas and theatres will be shut down. <br><br>Cinemas in Belgrade were closed on Sunday and workers on the capital's city transport system said they would join the strike. <br><br>Around 4,000 miners at Serbia's biggest coal mine, Kolubara near Belgrade, halted production on Friday night. Kolubara is the only supplier to the Nikola Tesla thermal power plant in nearby Obrenovac, producer of half of Serbia's electricity requirements. Coal supplies at Obrenovac are known to be low. <br><br>At a military ceremony on Saturday, Mr Milosevic showed no sign of compromise and warned his audience that "domestic enemies" were preparing to invite foreign armies into the country. <br><br>Mr Milosevic's son, Marko, visited government opponents at the weekend warning them that his father was still in power and had no intention of leaving, an opposition activist said. <br><br>Serbia's pro-government media were also defiant. The Politika daily carried a commentary from Serbian state television accusing opposition leaders of trying to provoke chaos. It went on to accuse the opposition of feeding the public with false election results. <br><br>It is not clear how widely the opposition's call for civil disobedience will be heeded. Employees at Belgrade's large state institutions are less likely to take part. <br><br>The weekend passed peacefully and only a few thousand protesters turned up at an opposition rally in Belgrade on Saturday night, far fewer than the 200,000 or so who came out on Wednesday. <br><br>The economic damage of a strike would be limited as years of sanctions and disastrous economic polices mean industry is running at only a fraction of its capacity. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Sunday Times: SAS trains Montenegrin police</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br> <br>A HIGHLY secretive SAS mission in Montenegro has spent the past six months training the Yugoslav republic's elite special police against terrorist threats from Serbia, writes Tom Walker. <br>The 1,500-strong commando units of the new Montenegrin force, who wear distinctive black uniforms, are now a common sight near government buildings and on Montenegro's borders. The commandos are backed up by another 5,000 special police. <br><br>Neither the Montenegrins nor the British government have admitted the presence of SAS trainers on Yugslav territory, for fear of provoking a confrontation with the Yugoslav army of President Slobodan Milosevic. Diplomats say they believe the trainers, said to have been a squad of be-tween four and eight, have now left after concern for their safety. <br><br>The SAS trainers were experienced Balkan hands. Several had assisted Nato's operation in Kosovo last year. "I saw some familiar faces while I was wandering across a park here. They saw me and dived behind a tree," said one diplomat. <br><br>The British involvement with the Montenegrin police is plain to see. More than 150 Land Rovers have been im-ported in the past year. The Foreign Office said two ex-port licences had been granted permitting civilian use. <br><br>Intelligence sources familiar with the police programme run by the SAS said the trainers were based near Bar, Yugoslavia's main port. The police have been given new mountaineering, diving and parachuting skills, and some officers are also be-lieved to have been given training in Britain. <br><br>"They've turned the police into a sort of light infantry militia-type outfit that can tackle any hijack or hostage crisis, the sort of thing that Serbia might provoke here," said one diplomat. He said most of the police armaments and uniforms came from America. The special police have sub-machineguns, mortars and bazookas, but cannot counter the heavy armoury of the Yugoslav army. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The CS Monitor: Serb opposition's risky gambit </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>The opposition called a general strike, starting today, to pressure Milosevic to step down. <br><br>By Alex Todorovic <br>Special to The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>BELGRADE <br><br>Residents in small towns across Serbia are eagerly preparing for a general strike due to begin today, ready to disrupt everyday life to convince Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that his tenure has come to an end. But it's unclear whether Belgrade's Freedom Square will ring with the same revolutionary zeal. <br><br>By calling for a blockade of major roadways as part of a campaign of civil disobedience to protest next weekend's presidential runoff vote, Serbia's opposition has chosen a go-for-broke strategy that, if successful, has the potential of unseating President Milosevic in a matter of days. But a low turnout would enable Milosevic to stabilize his shaky government and remain in power, though with little democratic legitimacy. <br><br>"This is high stakes for the opposition. It's come down to the moment of truth. The protests have to be big enough to show that the Serbian people understand the stakes and are supporting their democratically elected leaders," says James Hooper, directory of Balkan policy at the Washington-based International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that works in crisis prevention. "It has to be big enough so that Milosevic understands his only option is to negotiate his way out of power." <br><br>"The government is lost and in a great panic. The idea is not to give it a breath of fresh air," adds Dusan Batakovic, a history professor in Belgrade. "The opposition must not let Milosevic prepare a counterattack." <br><br>The opposition insists that its candidate, constitutional law professor Vojislav Kostunica, won a majority in the first round of voting Sept. 24, and a runoff is therefore unnecessary. The federal election commission, dismissing complaints of widespread fraud, found that Mr. Kostunica won more votes, but said no candidate passed the crucial 50-percent mark. <br> <br><br>"The truth is that we won. If we were to negotiate, we would admit that the will of one man is stronger than the people," Kostunica said last week. His refusal to compromise on a matter of principle, in addition to his staunch nationalist views, have impressed many Serb voters. <br><br>Over the weekend, Milosevic delivered his own message to the Yugoslav public. In a televised speech to a graduating class of military officers he declared, "We are sure that our country, which managed to defend itself in a war, can successfully resist psychological, media, and political pressures." <br><br>The Army rank and file are said to have supported Kostunica in large numbers in last month's vote, while many police officers are thought to be loyal to Milosevic. The security services have been key to his 13-year grip on power. <br><br>Moscow, a traditional ally of fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian Serbia, warned Milosevic not to use violence against strikers this week. A pair of Russian envoys arrived in Belgrade Sunday, but Milosevic reportedly rejected Russia's offer to send its foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, to mediate the crisis. <br><br>The opposition's wisdom in jumping into a general strike and rejecting a runoff is being called into question by some analysts, and there are unconfirmed reports that Western diplomats have tried to pressure Serbia's opposition into rethinking its position. <br><br>"The opposition went straight to a strike, which holds a great risk," says Slobodan Antonic, a Belgrade professor of political science. "We don't have strong unions or syndicates, like in Western Europe, and will have to rely on a spontaneous eruption, which is always a rare event. Frankly, I'm a pessimist." <br><br>The call for a general strike is being spearheaded by Kostunica ally Zoran Djindjic. Kostunica, who is not known for his power as an orator, has never been comfortable with large street demonstrations, and the general strike is being billed as the mother of all protests. <br><br>If the strike and civil-disobedience campaign are not successful by Wednesday, at the latest, the Milosevic government will get a boost of confidence and try to ride out the storm, according to Mr. Antonic. "He will then win the runoff because the opposition didn't participate, and remain in power indefinitely as an authoritarian leader with no pretense of democratic support." <br><br>But that opinion is, for the moment at least, in the minority. Most local observers and some foreign analysts think the Kostunica camp was right to keep up the pressure against Milosevic. <br><br>"There are plenty of risks in going to the streets, but a greater risk in going to a runoff because Milosevic would use the time against his opponents and prepare something," says Mr. Hooper. <br><br>Though recent protests have wavered in size, opposition leaders are optimistic based on Friday's opening act. Following a pattern seen all year, Belgrade was fairly quiet, but protests and civil disobedience showed much more energy elsewhere in Serbia. <br><br>Citizens blocked bridges and roads, high school students walked out of class in many towns, and 7,500 miners announced they are joining the strike, as did a large textile factory. Two hundred employees at a large television station in Novi Sad vowed to strike unless the state-controlled television station broadcasts coverage of the democratic opposition. <br><br>But citizens are also tired of a decade of protests, especially in cities. "Most people I talk to say they don't have the energy to protest for three months as they did in 1996," says Antonic. Those demonstrations forced the government to concede opposition wins in several municipal elections, including the capital's. Since then, bitter rivalries had kept opposition leaders divided until last month's vote. <br><br>The opposition concedes that, whatever happens, it must be quick. "The battle will be short and nonviolent," says opposition spokesman Ceda Jovanovic. <br><br>The Milosevic camp, meanwhile, appears to be holding together under pressure. Only Milosevic's allies in Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in what remains of Yugoslavia, have distanced themselves in recent days. <br><br>The opposition believes that a Kostunica victory would be even more decisive in a runoff, but opposition leaders suspect it may be part of a new Milosevic plan to remain in power, and would at the very least legitimize vote fraud in the first round. The opposition says the election commission's final results are full of impossible scenarios, such as polling stations located in burned-out houses, and thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo casting ballots for Milosevic. The Yugoslav leader was indicted by the war crimes tribunal at The Hague for his mistreatment of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, and most boycotted the vote. <br></font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The NY Times: Serb Police Move Into Key Mine as General Strike Looms</center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><br><br>By STEVEN ERLANGER<br> <br> <br>BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 1 — As Serbia's opposition vowed to shut the country down on Monday, several hundred policemen, apparently sent to try to keep electricity production going, tonight surrounded and entered an important coal mine that went on strike on Friday.<br><br>The strike is part of the opposition's campaign to force President Slobodan Milosevic to concede defeat in the Sept. 24 elections to the challenger, Vojislav Kostunica. The coal mine supplies an electrical power station at Obrenovac, which produces up to half of Serbia's electricity in a system patched together after NATO bombing campaign last year. At least 4,500 coal workers are on strike, and the general manager of part of the mine, Slobodan Jankovic, resigned earlier today, throwing his support to the workers.<br><br>Citizens of Lazarevac, about 40 miles southwest of Belgrade, and relatives of the workers began to march toward the nearby mine, but the police did not let them through. An opposition politician, Nebojsa Covic, was negotiating with the police, who also blocked the road from Belgrade, checking identities of those traveling toward the mine.<br><br>On state television news, the country's electricity company also appealed to the workers not to deprive hospitals and schools of electricity and said it would restrict supplies.<br><br>The opposition is trying to organize what would be the first general strike in Yugoslavia since World War II.<br><br>Opposition leaders said they hoped that their strategy of legal challenges mixed with popular pressure would be enough to persuade Mr. Milosevic and his allies to concede his loss of the presidency.<br><br>"Monday is a crucial day, when schools won't work, students and teachers come onto the streets, the shops and cafes won't work and a great majority of Belgrade will block traffic," vowed Zoran Djindjic, a leader of the democratic opposition coalition. "Tomorrow will be a day when Belgrade comes to a halt."<br><br>The opposition hopes to block major roads all over Serbia, to cut off refineries and electrical stations, to shut down schools and especially public offices and ministries, all to try to show to Mr. Milosevic that he can no longer command the country.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica says that he won the presidential elections outright with more than 50 percent of the vote, and that Mr. Milosevic and his Federal Election Commission organized electoral fraud to justify a second-round runoff next Sunday.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica has vowed to boycott the second round as unnecessary. He has challenged the election commission's results in the Constitutional Court after a lower appeal was rejected and has urged Greece and Russia to mediate the electoral dispute and recount the votes.<br><br>President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, after talks with French, German and American officials, offered to send Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov to Belgrade, but Mr. Milosevic rejected the offer, according to American officials briefed on a conversation between Mr. Putin and President Clinton. Russia has been an important Milosevic ally, helpful with energy, credits and other support.<br><br>But today German officials said Mr. Putin had agreed with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany in a telephone call on Saturday that Mr. Kostunica had won the election. There was no confirmation from Moscow of this view, which would mark a major defeat for Mr. Milosevic in his effort to persuade his own people that he was not defeated outright by Mr. Kostunica. Two senior Russian diplomats arrived in Belgrade late Saturday for talks with government and opposition leaders.<br><br>Some opposition leaders believe that the pressure beginning on Monday must work quickly on the government, forcing a confrontation between the people and the police and fracturing the ruling circle before a second round next Sunday. If the strategy fails, however, there is the possibility of asking voters to come out again on Sunday to prevent a Milosevic victory by default.<br><br>Mr. Kostunica cannot easily reverse himself, but his name will appear on the ballot in any case. It is possible, the opposition leaders say, that the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has already recognized Mr. Kostunica as the first-round victor, could ask people to vote. <br><br>A Serbian expert, Aleksa Djilas, says he believes that Mr. Kostunica's rejection of a second round is a mistake. "If people vote again, Milosevic would surely lose, and such a huge fraud to win would be obvious and unlikely, and if it were that big, the wrath of the people would be enormous," Mr. Djilas said. "A boycott induces passivity. Why not say, `Let's drive it home — we are not afraid.' "<br><br>Mr. Milosevic tends to give in to the inevitable to save himself when other options are foreclosed, as he did to end the war in Kosovo, said Mr. Djilas, who is now at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.<br><br>While there is enormous anxiety in the governing coalition, with officials coming to their offices only to talk or calling in sick, there have been few signs of an open break with Mr. Milosevic. On Friday, he responded harshly at a Socialist Party meeting to suggestions that he concede to Mr. Kostunica, officials say, and his sudden visit on Saturday to a graduation ceremony at a military academy, with his two top generals, was perceived as a warning that he would not go without a fight.<br><br>At the same time, even official figures show Mr. Milosevic trailing Mr. Kostunica by more than 10 percentage points, and his aura as an elected president has been badly tainted. Even officials who are careful now say it is unlikely that he can remain president long.<br><br>They speak of a scenario where Mr. Milosevic concedes to Mr. Kostunica but remains in office until January or even June, then appoints himself federal prime minister, since his coalition controls the federal Parliament. Others believe that once Mr. Milosevic concedes, it is winner take all, and that even his allies will move to Mr. Kostunica.<br><br>State media are beginning to crack. More than 60 reporters at Vecernje Novosti, a popular tabloid the state took over in March, have signed a petition demanding a return to balanced news coverage within 24 hours. In an open letter, they demanded that the paper "stop linking itself to the interests of a narrow political party or person, but only to the truth and the will of the people as expressed in the elections."<br><br>There is a similar petition at the Belgrade radio, part of the state system. Eight local radio stations said they would also stop broadcasting state news.<br><br>There have been abundant rumors that Mr. Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic; their son, Marko; and daughter, Marija, left the country to go to Russia. But they are here, officials said. Ms. Markovic appeared on state television news tonight to denounce the West for trying "to produce hatred that will push people into civil war."<br><br></font><br></p>
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