From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Kostunica and Blair disagree on The Hague HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Kostunica and Blair disagree on The Hague Friday, 30 November 2001 12:21 (ET) Kostunica and Blair disagree on The Hague BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- President Vojislav Kostunica, returning from a two-day visit to London, said he could not reach agreement with Tony Blair on Yugoslavia's cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, adding that pressure on Belgrade over investigations of senior Yugoslav army and police officers has caused regional instability. Summing up his talks with Blair and other British officials, Kostunica, at the Yugoslavia Embassy in London on Thursday night, said, "I did not reach full agreement with them on cooperation with the Hague tribunal. Yugoslavia is endeavoring to bring a law on cooperation with that court and demands patience on the part of the international community." He said he told British officials an additional problem was the pressure placed on Belgrade by the tribunal launching investigations against top Yugoslav army and Serbian police officers. Kostunica said this affected Yugoslav and regional stability and the Yugoslavs' confidence in the international community. A prosecutor at the tribunal on Wednesday said that Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, the Serbian police chief, Gen. Sreten Lukic, and several other officers were under investigation for possible involvement in serious crimes committed by Yugoslav security forces against Albanians in Kosovo in 1998-1999. "These are people who defended their country during NATO's bombing raids in 1999 and investigations against them will not contribute to Yugoslavia's stability and to the re-establishment of its confidence in the international community," Kostunica said. He also said the British had insisted on all indicted people being extradited to the tribunal, but also appreciated what Belgrade had done in this regard so far. He said he had told them he favored cooperation with the tribunal within a legal framework but that it must be a two-way affair, and that the issue of the damage inflicted on Yugoslavia by the NATO bombing must also be raised. He said a number of British parliamentarians he had talked to had supported this position. "Be it as it may, we will test a new bill on cooperation with the tribunal in the Serbian and federal parliaments by the end of the year," he said. However, there were issues on which the two sides were in full agreement, Kostunica said. "Our British partners take the view that Yugoslavia should survive as the common state of Serbia and Montenegro under some new constitution," he said. "One of the conclusions was that further fragmentation of the Balkans would only bring instability and the rampant growth of organized crime, which is a menace to Europe and the rest of the world." He said there was also agreement that Belgrade and the U.N. administrative mission in Kosovo should cooperate for the sake of a better future for all citizens in the province. -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved. -- _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
