[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Milosevic Supporter Nominated As Yugoslav Prime Minister

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Milosevic Supporter Nominated As Yugoslav Prime Minister 

BELGRADE, Oct 11, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Yugoslavia's democratic reformers have agreed to nominate a supporter of former president Slobodan Milosevic as the Yugoslav prime minister, the press said here Tuesday.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's victorious coalition had agreed to put Milosevic ally Pedrag Bulatovic into the post as it seeks to secure a legitimate rule, said the daily Glas.

The reported agreement between the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) comes amid vital negotiations to reform the federal assembly as well as the all-powerful Serbian parliament.

While the DOS scored a major victory when its candidate Kostunica ended Milosevic's 13-year iron rule last week, the country's real power lies in the parliaments of the federation's republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

The decision to appoint a Milosevic ally to head the federal government followed the resignation of another Milosevic loyalist from the post on Monday and was seen as a bid by Kostunica, a Serbian lawyer, to respect the Yugoslav constitution.

It stipulates that the federal Prime Minister should come from the opposition and not be from the same republic as the president.

Bulatovic, from Montengro, said the new federal government being formed by Kostunica "should be made up in a way that is acceptable to the international community".

The DOS drove home its victory Monday when it announced a deal with Serbia's ruling coalition partners to hold early elections in December for the Serbian parliament, still stacked with Milosevic supporters.

Various officials gave possible dates for the Serb elections as December 17, December 19 and December 24.

The opposition has been demanding the reform of the Serbian parliament -- due to stand for election in 2001 -- to reflect the new political landscape in the country after Kostunica's election on September 24.

It is also one of the conditions set by the independence-minded government in Montenegro for its full return to the federal fold.

The democratic reformists also chalked up a blow against Milosevic when three top pro-Milosevic ministers resigned Monday, including the notorious Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, like Milosevic indicted for war crimes by a UN court.

Bulatovic said his party, the pro-Milosevic Socialist People's Party (SNP), wanted to form a government with the DOS which "balances political forces in the federal parliament".

He stressed that Milosevic's SPS and the Montenegrin SNP held a majority in the federal parliament but that "the majority in Serbia had pronounced themselves in favor of the DOS."

However he ruled out any cooperation with the SPS allies in the Serbian ruling coalition, the Yugoslav Left (JUL), led by Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic.

His comments came as a founder member of the SPS also called for the party to distance itself from JUL, marginalizing the neo-communist party that has been close to the SPS.

Zoran Lilic, himself a former Yugoslav president who quit his SPS functions ahead of the federal elections, told the daily Vecernje Novosti such a move was necessary to avoid the "political suicide" of the Socialists. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse) 

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