[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} NEWS: Yugoslavia Could Compromise on Kosovo, But No Independence (AFP, Oct 13, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=209114&section=Kosovo

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)


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
Get free updates on your stocks from any phone with Tellme!
Call 1-800-555-TELL.
http://click.egroups.com/1/9535/8/_/920292/_/971466897/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

Nëse don të çregjistrohesh nga ALBEUROPA, dërgo një Email në:

albeuropa-unsubscribe at egroups.com