[ALBSA-Info] Kostunica Summons Milosevic Allies

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Kostunica Summons Milosevic Allies

By KATARINA KRATOVAC

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - President Vojislav Kostunica summoned allies of 
ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday, urging them to insure security 
at home. 

At the same time in a show of Western support for Kostunica, Yugoslavia was 
invited to rejoin the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe 
after an absence of eight years. 

Kostunica met Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, army chief Gen. Nebojsa 
Pavkovic and, for the first time, the chief of Milosevic's secret service, 
Rade Markovic. Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro make up the 
Yugoslav federation. 

``It was concluded that the army and police must fully meet all legal 
obligations,'' said a statement from Kostunica's office, without elaboration. 

There have been fears that some Milosevic allies in the security service 
remain loyal to him and that they may be planning a coup against the new 
pro-democracy leaders. 

With the situation in Yugoslavia precarious nearly two weeks after Kostunica 
took office, Western governments have rushed to promise aid and support to 
the new government. 

In the latest initiative, the 55-nation Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, announced it has invited Yugoslavia to join 
the group in time for its next ministerial meeting in Vienna, Austria, on 
Nov. 27. 

Yugoslavia's membership was suspended in 1992 because of its involvement in 
the ethnic war in Bosnia. Austria's Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, 
the current head of the OSCE, said Yugoslavia should submit a new application 
as a ``successor state'' to the former Yugoslav federation, which 
disintegrated in the 1990s. 

The Western overtures have angered Serbian radicals, who claim Kostunica is 
leading the country toward American domination. 

``We know who decides what is good and what is bad for the Belgrade 
revolutionaries,'' Vojislav Seselj of the Serbian Radical Party told 
reporters. He labeled Kostunica's group as ``coup leaders, now seeking to 
legalize their revolution.'' 

``The strings are being pulled by Americans,'' Seselj said. ``America has a 
clear-cut project to carve up our state into three republics: Serbia, 
Montenegro and Kosovo, by way of a loose confederation.'' 

Seselj said Yugoslavs who were ``tired of misery and poverty voted for those 
who promised milk and honey.'' 

``But nothing will come out of these promises,'' he said. ``Only drops of 
humanitarian aid.'' 

Kostunica claimed victory over Milosevic in the Sept. 24 election. When 
Milosevic said Kostunica failed to win enough votes to avoid a runoff, 
hundreds of thousands of people rioted, forcing the longtime leader to 
concede defeat.