[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Yugoslavia Could Compromise on Kosovo, But No Independence

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Yugoslavia Could Compromise on Kosovo, But No Independence 

BELGRADE, Oct 13, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A former Yugoslav army commander backing the country's new president Vojislav Kostunica said Thursday the moderate nationalist leader could reach a compromise on the UN-run province of Kosovo.

General Momcilo Perisic however ruled out independence for the southern province, whose ethnic Albanian majority demand a complete break with Belgrade after a bloody civil which ended last year.

"The new power will find a way to reach a compromise with the ethnic Albanians and the international community on the status of Kosovo on behalf of Serbia and Yugoslavia," Perisic told AFP.

"There is no real and rational possibility for Kosovo to obtain its independence," said the general, who was sacked as army chief in 1998 by ousted president Slobodan Milosevic but has been tipped for a possible return under Kostunica.

Milosevic scrapped Kosovo's constitutional autonomy in 1989, provoking years of peaceful resistance which degenerated into violence in 1998.

Perisic also warned that secession by Montenegro, Serbia's independence-minded partner in federal Yugoslavia, would spark Kosovo's own break with what remains of Yugoslavia after a decade of war and disintegration.

"The Serbian and Montenegrin peoples are linked by history and there is no force than can separate them," Perisic said.

However, Kostunica said in an interview with Italy's RAI television earlier in the day that despite such strong ties, if Montenegrins "no longer want to be part of the federation, then this wish will be respected".

Kostunica had previously insisted his main priority as president was to keep the federation intact.

Like Kostunica, Perisic was dismissive of Western pressures to hand Milosevic over to a UN tribunal in The Hague, where he is indicted for war crimes in Kosovo.

"If Milosevic is guilty in the eyes of the UN tribunal, then so are Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac and others who bombed Yugoslavia," he said, referring to the three-month NATO air campaign led by the British, U.S. and French leaders.

After leaving the army, Perisic formed the Movement for Democratic Serbia (PDS), but has been tipped by the press here to replace current armed forces chief Nebojsa Pavkovic, a Milosevic loyalist.

"I would accept the post, but only for a short time, if it was necessary to get over the crisis" and bring certain Milosevic loyalists in the army into line with the constitution, he said.

Some press reports have said it was Perisic who told the army to disobey orders to intervene in last week's mass protests to force Milosevic to finally accept he had been defeated in September's federal polls. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse) 

-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed