STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Federal reform needed to end Yugo crisis-Serb PM By Fredrik Dahl BELGRADE, July 1 (Reuters) - Serbia's [unelected] prime minister has called for reform of the Yugoslav constitution rather than fresh elections [which he would certainly loose] to ease a political crisis triggered by the handover of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague. Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, whose [illegitimate] government ordered the transfer of Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal on Thursday, spoke of the political turmoil the [illegal] move sparked in the Yugoslav Federation in two interviews over the weekend. "This is one of the rare situations in parliamentary history in which elections do not solve the crisis," he told the daily Vecernje Novosti in an interview published on Sunday. Reform of the federal constitution binding dominant Serbia to much smaller Montenegro was what was needed instead, he said. Djindjic played down the negative impact of the extradition, making clear he believed the benefits of shipping the former president to The Hague outweighed political costs at home. "The positive effects are great -- it is an end to an agony. The negative ones are really minor," Djindjic said. The handover helped persuade donors to grant [actually these are loans, NOT grants, which will have to be repayed far in excesses of 1.28 billion] Yugoslavia $1.28 billion in aid to rebuild an impoverished economy battered by a decade of warfare and international isolation under Milosevic's authoritarian rule. But it also angered Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and triggered the collapse of the Yugoslav government, with the junior coalition partner, Montenegro's Socialist People's Party (SNP), former allies of Milosevic, quitting in protest. Some of the Serbian reformers who ousted Milosevic last year have warned that the coalition's collapse may kill the Yugoslav federation, which beyond handling defence and some foreign affairs, plays a limited role in comparison to the republics. SERB PM SEEKS REFORMED YUGOSLAVIA In an interview with German television late on Saturday, Djindjic said the federal level of government needed reform. "The federation is in deep crisis. We need to come up with a concept for change in the constitution." If Montenegro rejected this then the two republics remaining in Yugoslavia after its violent break-up in the 1990s would have to find a way to bring about a "peaceful separation," he said. Relations between the two states came close to breaking point during the final years of Milosevic's turbulent rule, with the independence-minded leadership of Montenegro gradually taking over powers of self-government from Belgrade. The ruling party of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic boycotted last September's federal elections that led to Milosevic's downfall the following month, leaving the SNP in opposition in the republic but in power at the federal level. The SNP, which formed the Yugoslav government with Serbia's reformist DOS alliance which ousted Milosevic, had six ministers in the 16-member cabinet. Djindjic said the SNP, by opposing a law on cooperation with the tribunal which would have allowed Milosevic to be tried first at home, had actually hastened his departure. And he said new elections could only achieve something if Djukanovic's party dropped its opposition to taking part. In the lower house of the federal parliament, DOS has 58 out of 138 seats, which means they need the SNP's 28 for an absolute majority. In the Serbian parliament DOS has a huge majority. A Kostunica adviser told Belgrade's B92 radio that a new interim federal government would be appointed in 10 days, made up of the same parties as the previous one plus a smaller Montenegrin party. 09:09 07-01-01 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
