29 July 2002 Morning Edition

I - News wires/services /broadcast

AFP
· Croatia demands apology after Yugoslav troops open fire at Croat
· Volatile southern Serbia, holds first post-conflict polls
· Crazed husband kills seven in Serbia
· Yugoslav troops open fire at Croat officials
· Voters turn out for first post-conflict polls southern Serbia
· Balkans elections to test fumbling democracy

AP
· Yugoslav police briefly arrest local Croatian official in showdown near disputed island
· Man kills wife, six others in shooting spree in southern Serbia
· Serbian kills, wife Six others
· Yugoslavia holds local elections

Reuters
· Yugoslav army fires on Croat boat, holds officials
· Serb police hunt Kosovo veteran after deadly spree

Dpa
· NEWS FEATURE: Southern Serbia conflict ``is over'' as poll goes ahead

BBC
· River spat opens old Balkans wounds

B92
· Djindjic denies ordering wire-tapping
· Kostunica party to lose seats tomorrow
· Milosevic to run for president?
· Extraordinary local elections in South Serbia

Croatia demands apology after Yugoslav troops open fire at Croat

ZAGREB, July 28 (AFP) - Croatia demanded a public apology from Yugoslavia Sunday after a group of its officials returning from a meeting over a disputed border island on the river Danube were fired on. Croatian and Serbian sources confirmed that the boat had come under fire from Yugoslav soldiers on Sarengradska Ada island, claimed by both Yugoslavia and Croatia. There had been no casualties. Croatian frontier police who came to the rescue had also come under fire in the area, where the Danube forms the frontier between Croatia and Yugoslavia. In a terse statement, Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan demanded a public apology from Yugoslavia over what Croatian television described as the most serious incident since war between the two neighbours ended in 1995. The Croats aboard the boat including the regional government officer of Vukovar district, Nikola Sefer, had also been held and questioned for several hours then released, sources said. Racan said that after the incident he had gone at once to Ilok in eastern Croatia, accompagnied by Parliamentary Speaker Zlatko Tomcic, for a meeting with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic.
Svilanovic told Serbian state TV that he hoped the incident would have "no big consequences on our relations with Croatia." The encounter is understood to have occurred on a bridge across the Danube near the town of Backa Palanka, close to where the shooting occurred. Svilanovic said the incident had occurred when "a group of people in boats crossed from the Croatian onto our (Yugoslav) side."
"Obviously, the army was not informed on all details and opened fire," he said, adding that about twenty people, among them several women and children, as well as a mayor of Yugoslav border town Backa Palanka, had been in the boats. In Zagreb, Racan said he had also spoken by telephone with Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and that both Djindjic and Svilanovic had offered apologies. "This was not enough," Racan said: "I want to hear a public apology." He said he also wanted to hear an exact explanation of what had happened.
The Croatian group had been returning from a meeting in Backa Palanka with local officials from the neighbouring Serbian province of Vojvodina to discuss the island dispute.
Croatian television said this was the most serious incident between the two former members of the Yugoslav Federaton since the end of their war in 1995 after the breakup of former Yugoslavia. The Croatian foreign minister had presented Yugoslavia's envoy to Croatia with a "stiff diplomatic protest note", the report said, while Croatian President Stipe Mesic spoke by phone to his Yugoslav counterpart Vojislav Kostunica about the incident.
The Hina news agency quoted a Croatian presidential spokesman as saying that Kostunica had reacted by asserting the matter was an isolated incident that should not impact on overall bilateral relations.
In Belgrade, Kostunica's office said both presidents "were firmly convinced that the incident will not influence bilateral relations in any way," Tanjug news agency reporeted.
The two presidents "agreed to demand from Yugoslav and Croatian authorities to take all the measures to prevent such incidents in future," it added.
Sarengradska Ada island was under Croatian control until the old Yugoslav federation fell apart in 1991. It is now under the control of the army of the present-day Yugoslav state, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.
Citizens dwelling in the town Sarengrad on the Croatian side of the Danube have title to property on the island.

Volatile southern Serbia holds first post-conflict polls

By Belgzim Kamberi

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, July 28 (AFP) - Voters turned out in large numbers Sunday for local elections in southern Serbia seen as the first test of a peace accord last year that ended a conflict between Belgrade and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
More than 70,000 voters were eligible to choose their representatives on the local councils in the three communities of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac where ethnic Albanians are in the majority.
Voters in the region bordering the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo had boycotted local elections during the rule of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s.Polls, which opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT), closed on schedule at 8:00 pm in Presevo and Medvedja. But some polling stations remained open until 11:00 pm in Bujanovac due to technical problems, local election officials said. Earlier, officials said that more than 50 percent of voters had cast their ballots by 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) in Bujanovac, but turnout was slightly lower in the two smaller communities. No serious incidents or irregularities were reported. The first unofficial results are expected late Monday.
Roberto Montella, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in southern Serbia, told reporters that Sunday's vote "is important for the stabilisation of the region after the armed conflict." The polls are among the main concessions offered to the Albanians by Belgrade reformers who ousted Milosevic in October 2000. They follow a May 2001 peace accord that called for full integration of the Albanian community -- which in 1992 voted on a never-recognized referendum to attach the region to Kosovo -- into Serbian institutions.
The peace settlement ended more than 15 months of conflict between Serbian forces and the ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB).
The rebels were trying to create an enclave with a view to eventually uniting with Kosovo, administered by the United Nations since the end of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign which halted Milosevic's persecution of the Albanian population there.
Local Albanians have since managed to marginalize radicals who are hostile to dialogue with Belgrade and support a merger with an independent Kosovo.
Although the accord created a fragile peace, Serbian police last week discovered a huge cache of weapons near a former LAPMB headquarters in the area. And while Sunday's polls were generally peaceful, a group of young Albanians and Serbs came to blows briefly in the center of Bujanovac overnight Saturday. Both Serb and Albanian voters said they hoped the polls would bring more stability to the region. "These elections are a big step towards normalisation of the situation," said Afrim Ahmeti, an ethnic Albanian from Bujanovac.
A Serb voter, Ivan Zafirovic, urged people to put the past behind them.
"The war is over and people are aware that they should forget it and think of a joint life," Zafirovic said.
But another Serb voter, who refused to give his name, voiced fear that "there will be no place for us" if Albanians took control of Bujanovac. Albanians have never before controlled the Bujanovac council, but the Albanian candidate for mayor, Nagip Arifi, promised equal treatment for all communities.
"I promise that all the citizens will be equal if I will be elected Bujanovac mayor," Arifi said after casting his ballot in the formerly rebel-held village of Veliki Trnovac.
Former rebel leader Sefqet Musliu said the vote was a "historic moment".
"For 50 years, the Albanians had no possibility to vote and, thanks to our struggle, we have the elections," he said.

The vote is being monitored by 80 observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and dozens of local officials.

Crazed husband kills seven in Serbia

BELGRADE, July 28 (AFP) - A Serb veteran of the Kosovo war shot and killed his wife and six other people in a 30-minute rampage in the southern Serbian town Leskovac, Beta news agency reported Sunday. Dragan Cedic, 32, killed his wife, five of her relatives and another man shortly after midnight (2200 GMT Saturday), according to police quoted by the agency. Four other people were injured in the shooting. Special police units backed by helicopters launched a manhunt, focusing on a mountainous area around Leskovac where Cedic was believed to have fled after the killing spree. Police said marital problems appeared to have been the motive.
Investigative judge Nebojsa Stojicic said Cedic first killed one man and injured another at a bar near his house. Then he went home and killed his wife and four of her relatives, he added.
Ten minutes later, he killed his wife's aunt and injured her husband and son in another house. Neighbours told Beta that Cedic had often threatened to murder his wife since they separated more than a year ago. They also said Cedic had mental problems after returning from military service during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Yugoslav troops open fire at Croat officials

NOVI SAD, Yugoslavia, (AFP) - Yugolsav troops opened fire Sunday on a boat carrying Croatian officials to a meeting with local Serbian leaders on a disputed border island in the Danube river, Serbian police sources said. They said no one was injured in the incident at Sarengradska Ada island near the village of Backa Palanka, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of the Yugolsav capital Belgrade. The Croatian officials, among them Vukovar regional leader Nikola Sefer were detained for several hours before being released.
They were on their way to a scheduled meeting with officials from the neighbouring Serbian province of Vojvodina to discuss the border dispute. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic confirmed the incident, adding that he was on the way to the area to meet with Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan, radio B92 reported. Belgrade and Zagreb both claim possession of the island, sitting in the middle of the Danube which forms the natural border between the two countries.

Voters turn out for first post-conflict polls in southern Serbia

By Belgzim Kamberi

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, July 28 (AFP) - Voters turned out in large numbers Sunday for local Serbian elections seen as the first test of last year's peace accord ending conflict between Belgrade and ethnic Albanian guerrillas. In the strategic town of Bujanovac, more than 50 percent of voters had cast their ballots by 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), while the turnout was slightly lower in the two smaller communities of Presevo and Medvedja, officials said.
More than 70,000 voters were eligible to choose their representatives on the local councils in the three communities where ethnic Albanians are in the majority. Voters in the region bordering the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo had boycotted local elections during the rule of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. Roberto Montella, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in southern Serbia, told reporters that Sunday's vote "is important for the stabilisation of the region after the armed conflict." No serious incidents or irregularities had been reported since the start of the vote at 7:00 am (0500 GMT). The polling stations will close at 8:00 pm, and the first unofficial results are expected late Monday. The polls are among the main concessions offered to the Albanians by Belgrade reformers who ousted Milosevic in October 2000. They follow a May 2001 peace accord that called for full integration of the Albanian community -- which in 1992 voted on a never-recognized referendum to attach the region to Kosovo -- into Serbian institutions. The peace settlement ended more than 15 months of conflict between Serbian forces and the ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB). The rebels were trying to create an enclave with a view to eventually uniting with Kosovo, administered by the United Nations since the end of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign which halted Milosevic's persecution of the Albanian population there. Local Albanians have since managed to marginalize radicals who are hostile to dialogue with Belgrade and support a merger with an independent Kosovo.
Although the accord created a fragile peace, Serbian police last week discovered a huge cache of weapons near a former LAPMB headquarters in the area. And while Sunday's polls were generally peaceful, a group of young Albanians and Serbs came to blows briefly in the center of Bujanovac. Both Serbs and Albanian voters said they hoped the polls would bring more stability to the region. "These elections are a big step towards normalisation of the situation," said Afrim Ahmeti, an ethnic Albanian from Bujanovac. A Serb voter, Ivan Zafirovic, urged people to put the past behind them. "The war is over and people are aware that they should forget it and think of a joint life," Zafirovic said. But another Serb voter, who refused to give his name, voiced fear that "there will be no place for us" if Albanians took control of Bujanovac. Albanians have never before controlled the Bujanovac council, but the Albanian candidate for mayor, Nagip Arifi, promised equal treatment for all communities.
"I promise that all the citizens will be equal if I will be elected Bujanovac mayor," Arifi said after casting his ballot in the formerly rebel-held village of Veliki Trnovac.
Former rebel leader Sefqet Musliu said the vote was a "historic moment".
"For 50 years, the Albanians had no possibility to vote and, thanks to our struggle, we have the elections," he said. The vote is being monitored by 80 observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and dozens of local officials.

Balkans elections to test fumbling democracy

By Stephen Coates

BELGRADE, July 28 (AFP) - Voters across the Balkans will go to the polls in the coming months for elections seen as important signposts on the road to democracy after the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. But analysts in the region said the elections in Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia will do little to end the ethnic and political turmoil which has gripped this corner of Europe since the end of communist rule. Instead, many observers see potential for greater instability if nationalist parties remain in power and relations with Europe, which hinge on cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, do not improve. The fortunes of nationalist and separatist parties -- particularly in the Serb-run entity of Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia -- are barometers of the region's progress towards integration with Europe and the international economy. But there are still hardliners in the region who are determined to pursue what they see as the unfinished business of the Balkan conflicts -- the dreams of Bosnian Serbs to join a Greater Serbia, the separatist ambitions of Macedonian Albanians, and Montenegro's potentially destabilising drift out of the Yugoslav federation. Even in Bosnia, the territory which suffered most during the independence wars of the 1990s, analysts said there was a broad reluctance to make a break with the past. A former Bosnian Muslim rebel leader who is on trial in Croatia for war crimes has been given the green light to run for a seat on the three-member presidency in October. On the Serb side of the divided country, staunch nationalists still hold top posts in Republika Srpska, and could strengthen their hand in concurrent parliamentary elections. Analysts said the question of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is absent from the political debate, despite the incentive of badly needed foreign aid and eventual European Union membership.
"This is a huge issue and it's hardly being discussed in Bosnia, Croatia or even in Serbia," said Jelena Milic, a Belgrade-based analyst for the International Crisis Group.
The two-round polls for the president of Serbia, the dominant republic in what remains of the Yugoslav federation, will begin on September 29. General elections are scheduled in the other Yugoslav republic, Montenegro, on October 6. Srbobran Brankovic, research fellow of the Institute of Political Studies in Belgrade, said a back-room power struggle between Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica was pushing key issues off the agenda in Serbia. "It's a very dirty game on both sides. A dirty campaign cannot help to improve democracy and democratic institutions. In fact, it has the opposite effect," he told AFP.
The word on everyone's lips in Belgrade is "cohabitation" -- the possibility of Kostunica, a moderate nationalist who has hinted he may run for the presidency of Serbia, will have to share power with the more pro-West Djindjic.
"This would permanently create crisis," Brankovic said. "Serbia is already very unstable and I'm afraid that this situation will continue ... and then in terms of foreign investment we are lost."
The elections in the two Yugoslav republics are likely to complicate the already difficult negotiations over the EU-sponsored accord to replace the rump Yugoslavia with a new union called "Serbia and Montenegro".
The EU has pushed hard to stave off Montenegro's separatist drive, fearing it could inspire fresh unrest in Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo and ignite new wars in the Balkans.
"The situation in Montenegro now is very fluid and no one knows who is really in power," said political analyst Vladimir Goati, of Belgrade's Institute of Social Sciences.
Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic favours immediate independence but bowed to international pressure when he signed the EU-backed accord with Serbia in March, knowing his tiny country of some 650,000 people needed the goodwill of the European powers.
In Macedonia, where a peace deal which ended the ethnic Albanian uprising is only a year old, former rebel leader Ali Ahmeti has recently launched a party to contest the parliamentary elections on September 15.
But Ljubomir Frckovski, professor of international law at Skopje University, said Ahmeti's entry into mainstream politics would be "positive and stabilizing".
"It is correct to assume that these elections in some way are crucial, because they are coming after the war and they will be some kind of conclusion if the situation calms down," he said.

Yugoslav police briefly arrest local Croatian official in showdown near disputed island

By SNJEZANA VUKIC

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) _ Yugoslav soldiers briefly arrested a local Croatian official Sunday after Yugoslav border guards fired on his boat to stop him from sailing near a disputed island on the Danube River separating the two countries, Croatian media reported. Nikola Safer, a prefect of Croatia's easternmost county on the border with Yugoslavia, later told Croatian radio that he was released from the Yugoslav police station and is ``coming home.''
Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan ``energetically protested'' to his Serbian counterpart, Zoran Djindjic, and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic.
Racan told reporters he got an apology from both officials, but ``we demand to get a precise explanation for this incident.''
Racan immediately flew to Ilok, Croatia's easternmost city, where he was to meet with Svilanovic. Svilanovic told The Associated Press that ``obviously, not all were informed'' about the planned meeting between Croatian and Serbian local officials.
The incident occurred early Sunday afternoon, when Safer and a group of people, including children, were touring Sarengradska Ada, a small and uninhabited island on the Danube, which divides Croatia and Yugoslavia. They were on their way to meet local officials in Backa Palanka, in Serbia. Sarengradska Ada has been controlled by Yugoslavia since war erupted in 1991, but people from Sarengrad, in eastern Croatia, claim it belongs to Croatia.
The war began when Croatian Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav army, rebelled against Croatia's secession from the former Yugoslav federation. The fighting definitely ended in 1995, when Croatia recaptured areas seized by the Serbs in 1991. Some of the border points between Croatia and Yugoslavia _ like the one on the Danube _ is still disputed and are to be solved in future negotiations. Safer, the prefect of the Vukovar area, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) east of Zagreb, said his boat and three others, all carrying civilians, were en route to Backa Palanka. As they sailed around the island of Sarengradska Ada, a Yugoslav army boat ``firing in our direction forced us to stop,'' he told Croatian radio by telephone.
Marijan Tomurad, the local police chief, said a Croatian police patrol boat was also fired on as it attempted to approach the scene.
Safer said his and the accompanying boats were then forced to go to the Yugoslav side of the Danube, and Safer was taken to a police station in Backa Palanka. He was released several hours later. He said the Yugoslav side ``should have known'' that his group had a meeting scheduled with local officials in Serbia. Safer said the atmosphere was ``horrible. We had to stand with our arms up in the air for 15 minutes before we were taken for questioning, and a child in our group fainted during the incident.'' The entire group was back in Sarengrad later in the evening.

Man kills wife, six others in shooting spree in southern Serbia

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ A man killed seven people, including his estranged wife, and seriously wounded four others in a shooting spree early Sunday in southern Serbia, the Beta news agency reported. The suspect, identified by police sources as a 32-year-old veteran of the 1998-99 Kosovo war, allegedly began his rampage in a bar in the city of Leskovac, 140 miles southeast of Belgrade. Beta said the gunman argued with two other visitors, then pulled out an automatic rifle, killing one man and injuring another. It said he then went to the home of his 28-year-old estranged wife, killing her and her two sisters, ages 25 and 30, before fatally shooting two other people present there and seriously wounding another.
Within minutes, he allegedly burst into the nearby home of his wife's aunt, killing her and seriously wounding her husband and son. A police search for the suspect was under way, and authorities deployed helicopter units. Police sources were quoted as saying that the gunman was known to have suffered from a psychological disorder aggravated by a battle for custody of his son. Before the killing, the suspect reportedly had threatened to kill his wife and her relatives, Beta said. Several police officers were deployed to guard her home but had left before the shooting spree began, it said.

Serbian Kills Wife, Six Others

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) A man killed seven people, including his estranged wife, and seriously wounded four others in a shooting spree early Sunday in southern Serbia, the Beta news agency reported. The suspect, identified by police sources as a 32-year-old veteran of the 1998-99 Kosovo war, allegedly began his rampage in a bar in the city of Leskovac, 140 miles southeast of Belgrade. Beta said the gunman argued with two other visitors, then pulled out an automatic rifle, killing one man and injuring another. It said he then went to the home of his 28-year-old estranged wife, killing her and her two sisters, ages 25 and 30, before fatally shooting two other people present there and seriously wounding another.
Within minutes, he allegedly burst into the nearby home of his wife's aunt, killing her and seriously wounding her husband and son. A police search for the suspect was under way, and authorities deployed helicopter units. Police sources were quoted as saying that the gunman was known to have suffered from a psychological disorder aggravated by a battle for custody of his son. Before the killing, the suspect reportedly had threatened to kill his wife and her relatives, Beta said. Several police officers were deployed to guard her home but had left before the shooting spree began, it said.

Yugoslavia Holds Local Elections

By DRAGAN ILIC

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia (AP) Under the watchful eyes of international monitors and security forces, ethnic Albanians and Serbs cast ballots Sunday to elect new local governments in Serbia's tense south. The elections were intended to establish new, multiethnic local authorities and help end ethnic violence in the region bordering Kosovo province. Like Kosovo, the area was the scene of an ethnic Albanian insurgency against Serbia until NATO brokered a peace deal last year. A total of 74,700 voters were electing 114 deputies as well as mayors for local authorities in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja.
Some voters lined up at polling stations even before they opened at 7 a.m., indicating a strong initial turnout. The region a hilly terrain of 480 square miles became prominent when it was declared a buffer zone after NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia. The buffer, 175 miles southeast from Belgrade, was set up to put space between NATO troops in Kosovo and the army of then-president Slobodan Milosevic. NATO allowed Belgrade to regain control of the buffer after a democratic government replaced Milosevic in 2000, but the area's ethnic Albanian militants had already started fighting to join the region with Kosovo. NATO then brokered a settlement under which the militants stopped fighting in exchange for power-sharing with Serbs. The main challenge, however, has been to persuade ethnic Albanians to end their yearslong boycott of any vote organized by the government. U.S. Ambassador William Montgomery visited the region recently, appealing for participation and peaceful voting. But tensions and belligerent rhetoric persisted.
``The elections offer an opportunity for the freedom of Albanian people. I know we will win we fought for this with our guns,'' said Shefket Musliu, a former rebel fighter, as he and his bodyguards voted in the village of Konculj. Musliu was a commander of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, disbanded under the peace deal. Earlier this year, he was briefly detained in Kosovo by NATO peacekeepers because he was considered a security threat. He was among 23 ethnic Albanians included last year in President Bush's executive order identifying supporters of extremist violence in the Balkans and banning any financial transactions with them. Over the past week, ethnic Albanian hard-liners drove through the area sounding car sirens and waving Albanian flags. Rounds of machine-gun fire echoed from the mountains. In a statement, police pledged zero tolerance for ``provocations'' and said they would ``increase alertness'' during the vote. On Tuesday, two ethnic Albanians were arrested after four truckloads of ammunition were found in their homes. About 80 foreign observers, mostly from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, monitored the Sunday vote. Serbs and ethnic Albanians were expected to vote almost exclusively for candidates from their own communities. Ethnic Albanians make up a vast majority in Presevo and a slight majority in Bujanovac, where the race was likely to be tightest. Serbs dominate Medvedja.

Yugoslav army fires on Croat boat, holds officials

BELGRADE, July 28 (Reuters) - Yugoslav soldiers fired on and seized a boatload of Croatian dignitaries on Sunday near a disputed island in the river Danube, officials said.
Nobody was hurt and the Croats were released after being interrogated for several hours in a barracks. But the incident showed how tense relations remain between the wartime foes, and Yugoslav officials moved fast to head off a major scandal. Four boats carrying several Croatian mayors, a district governor and civilians including children tried to reach Sarengradska island in the Danube river which separates Yugoslavia and Croatia.
An official said at least one of the boats came under fire as they approached the island which Croatia claims but is held by the Yugoslav army. He said it was a prearranged visit which the army ``should have known'' about.
``Twice we came under a barrage of fire, and we were forced to dock,'' local county prefect Nikola Safer told Croatian radio, monitored by the BBC. ``We only planned to tour Sarengradska island and visit places our people used to use as pastures.''
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said the soldiers only fired warning shots. He said he hoped the incident would not affect relations between Belgrade and Zagreb, which had been slowly thawing in recent years.
``I still don't know details of the incident that happened today, but luckily there were no significant consequences regarding people or material damage, as well as, I hope, our relations with Croatia,'' he told state RTS television. He then headed to the border for a meeting Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan, who expressed outrage despite a personal apology over the telephone from Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic.
``That's not enough. We demand a public apology and detailed explanation,'' Racan said on Croatian television, which branded it the most serious incident since the end of the war.
Croatian forces fought a bloody war between 1991 and 1995 against local Serbs who opposed Croatian independence from Yugoslavia, backed by Belgrade and the Yugoslav army. Relations have improved since reformers came to power in both capitals following the ouster of Yugoslav autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, but trust is returning only slowly and the border area remains potentially tense.

Serb police hunt Kosovo veteran after deadly spree

BELGRADE, July 28 (Reuters) - Serbian police launched a manhunt on Sunday for a Kosovo war veteran suspected of shooting dead his wife and six others in a machinegun rampage, media reported. Beta news agency quoted police sources saying they believed Dragan Cedic, 32, killed his wife, her two sisters, an aunt and three others in a half-hour shooting spree on Saturday night. Four more were injured, the reports said. Special forces units were trying to track him down and helicopters were preparing to provide support, Beta said. Cedic's wife had recently filed for divorce, it added. The killings took place in southern Serbia, which is rife with weapons and borders the U.N.-run province of Kosovo.

NEWS FEATURE: Southern Serbia conflict ``is over'' as poll goes ahead

By Rade Maroevic

Presevo, Yugoslavia (dpa) - The armed struggle between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia seemed to be history as 75,000 registered voters for the first time got the chance on Sunday to elect representatives in local institutions. No serious incidents were reported after almost eight hours of voting in three Albanian-dominated municipalities in still fragile southern Serbia, which was shaken by fierce fighting between Belgrade security forces and Albanian rebels last year. No tensions were visible on the streets of Presevo, home town of Riza Halimi, who headed the Albanian negotiating team through months of internationally mediated talks with the government in Belgrade. ``The conflict in the Presevo Valley has ended. Elections are the chance to start serious reforms and the integration of Albanians into institutions,'' Halimi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
As president of the influential Party for Democratic Action (PPD), Halimi was reserved about the outcome of the elections, saying the candidates and their programmes were ``pretty much in line with the peace process''. The streets of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, previously packed with Serbian special police and their armoured vehicles, were guarded only by the rare members of the newly-formed and internationally-sponsored multi-ethnic police. One fistfight broke out between Serbs and Albanians in Bujanovac early on Sunday, but no serious injuries were reported in the flare-up that ended as soon as Serbian gendarmerie showed up. The confidence-building measures defined in last year's peace agreement resulted in a relaxation of the previously tense relations between the Albanian majority and the police. Some complaints still remain, but both sides have kept the fragile peace alive. ``We feel more comfortable now that we have multi-ethnic police, but the imbalance is still visible,'' one voter in Presevo said.
``We can't wave Albanian flags,'' he said, referring to one of compromises that local politicians had to make recently. In return, most Serbian police left the region.
``Everybody should be aware of the fact that the armed conflict is over. Political struggle is what's ahead of us,'' said Jonuz Musliu, former rebel leader and president of the Party for Democratic Prosperity, Halimi's biggest political rival. Musliu complained that the peace process is moving slowly compared to the expectations of ethnic Albanians. Local Serbian politicians, however, refrained from making any political comments during the elections, hoping that the most of their compatriots would show up at the polls.
``I expect more than 90 per cent of Serbs will vote'', said Novica Manojlovic, the Serbian mayoral candidate for the town of Bujanovac. Whatever the outcome of elections, poverty and the lack of a serious plan aimed towards improving of overall living conditions remain an obstacle to reconciliation between two ethnic communities.

River spat opens old Balkans wounds

Croats and Serbs fought a bitter war
Croatia has demanded a public apology from Yugoslavia after its soldiers fired on a group of Croat officials on a boat on the River Danube.
The group was visiting an island in the river - which divides the two former enemies - when it came under fire.
"Twice we came under a barrage of fire, and we were forced to dock on the Yugoslav side," said Nikola Safer, regional leader of Vukovar.
No-one was hurt and the Croats were released after being interrogated.
Croatian officials said they had been on their way to Sarengradska Ada island, which belongs to Yugoslavia but is claimed by Croatia, on a trip prearranged with Serbian officials.
Army 'unaware'
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic phoned his Croatian counterpart, Ivica Racan, to make a personal apology for the incident.
"This was not enough," said Mr Racan. "I want to hear a public apology".
Mr Racan held an emergency meeting with the Yugoslav foreign minister, who said that the army had not been informed of the Croats' visit to the island.
"Luckily there were no significant consequences regarding people or material damage, as well as, I hope, our relations with Croatia," the minister, Goran Svilanovic, said.
Correspondents say the incident is an indication of how tense relations between the two countries remain, despite a recent diplomatic thaw.
Croatia declared independence from the rest of Yugoslavia in 1991, leading to a bitter conflict with Serbs within Croatia who were opposed to the secession.
Croatia also backed forces opposed to Serbia in the Bosnian war.
Yugoslavia has controlled Sarengradska Ada since war broke out, but people from Sarengrad, in eastern Croatia, say that it belongs to Croatia.

Djindjic denies ordering wire-tapping

BELGRADE, (B92) The Serbian Government has never issued orders for the wire-tapping of politicians within the country, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic told the Parliament's commission of enquiry into allegations by sacked army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic yesterday. "This is a perennial topic in literature and film, from James Bond and so on, in science fiction, here and in other countries," said the prime minister, adding that anyone who claimed to be being tapped did not deserve any attention from serious people. Any leaks from government meetings were much more easily explained, said Djindjic, because such meetings were not secret and any participant in them could talk to the media. Before giving evidence to the commission, Djindjic told media that it now appeared certain that an unusual and extraordinary meeting had taken place in the Federal Government building, which even those present were no longer denying. The prime minister was apparently referring to a meeting between Federal President Vojislav Kostunica, Pavkovic, then chief of staff of the army and Aca Tomic, the head of military security. Pavkovic alleged just hours after being sacked by Kostunica, that the meeting had discussed an army invasion of the Serbian Government's Communications Centre on the grounds that the Djindjic government was conducting electronic surveillance of Kostunica's office.

Kostunica party to lose seats tomorrow

BELGRADE, (B92) - The Serbian Parliament Administrative Committee will sit tomorrow to formally strip MPs from the Democratic Party of Serbia of their seats, Radio B92 learnt today from unofficial sources. The same sources say that the DOS leaders will ignore Thursday's ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court returning those seats already taken from the party. The move follows a decision by the presidency of the DOS coalition to formally expel the party, which is headed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.

Milosevic to run for president?

BELGRADE, (B92) - Slobodan Milosevic heads the Socialist Party of Serbia's shortlist of possible nominations for the Serbian presidential elections, party spokesman Branko Ruzic said yesterday. Ruzic conceded that Milosevic's candidature was perhaps not possible from a legal point of view but remarked that it was more important that he had the support of the people. Most important of all was Milosevic himself, said Ruzic, adding that he was sure the former Yugoslav president, now on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity, could be trusted to make the right decision. That decision is expected by August 7, according to Ruzic. The other two shortlisted candidates are the former director of the Agency for Reconstruction, Milutin Mrkonjic, and Velimir "Bata" Zivojinovic, an actor whose films have earned him cult status in the People's Republic of China.

Extraordinary local elections in South Serbia

BUJANOVAC, (B92) - Voting began half an hour late this morning in local government elections in the southern Serbian municipality of Bujanovac. The delay occurred to allow the checking of ballot boxes to be completed. About 37,000 Serb, Albanian and Roma voters in Bujanovac are eligible to vote in the extraordinary elections. There were huge crowds in polling stations in the predominantly Albanian village of Veliki Trnovac as hundreds of local residents lined up to cast their vote.