29 May 2002 - Morning Edition

I - News wires/services /broadcast

AFP
· Montenegrin president asks resigning prime minister to head new government
· Dane to become commander of UN force in Bosnia, then head EU police mission
· Serbian police nab illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Tunisia
· Milosevic's supporters protest in Belgrade against his war crimes trial
· Second border crossing opens between Montenegro and Albania

AP
· Milosevic Allies Protest Near US, UK Embassies In Belgrade
· Report: Serbian police intercept two trucks with 43 illegal immigrants
· U.S. says Yugoslavia is cooperating with war-crimes tribunal, lifts freeze on aid
· Montenegro's president nominates former prime minister to form new government

Balkan Times
· Petritsch Reflects on Effects of his Work in BiH

B92
· Srebrenica suspect released on bail
· Social Democrats welcome return of Vujanovic
· Socialists indifferent to Vujanovic appointment
· One foot in the Council of Europe
· Kosovo PM pledges to integrate communities
· Liberals "unpleasantly surprised" by Vujanovic comeback
· Government wins early session of parliament
· Throwing out the rubbish
· Milosevic cross-examines Racak survivor
· Vujanovic handed second chance
· Embassies confronted by angry Milosevic supporters
· Vujanovic reappointed Montenegrin prime minister
· Kostunica party still pondering response
· Svilanovic discusses cooperation with Austria

dpa
· U.N. removes five Bosnian policemen due to wartime background

Reuters
· Milosevic Trial Told of Mass Graves Near Belgrade
· INTERVIEW-Serb PM says secret files open to U.N. Court
· Yugoslavia to cut rates with inflation at 5-yr low
· FEATURE-Tower bombed by NATO to symbolize new Serbia

Tanjug
· Yugoslavia economy: Serbian minister expects 4,000 bankruptcies

II - Newspapers/magazines

The Christian Science Monitor
· In Kosovo, former neighbors warily eye each other

The Washington Post
· U.N. Prosecutors Giving Terrorism Evidence to U.S.

Montenegrin president asks resigning prime minister to head new government

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, May 28 (AFP) - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on Tuesday asked Filip Vujanovic, who has resigned from the post of prime minister, to head a new government to run the tiny Yugoslav republic.
"Having in mind the results in implementing reforms in difficult conditions and overcoming economic and social problems... I decided to entrust a mandate again to Filip Vujanovic," Djukanovic said.
Vujanovic was to begin consultations with other political parties on forming a new administration, he added.
Last week the Montenegrin parliament ratified Vujanovic's resignation, which was triggered by pressure from separatist parties which want the republic to leave its partnership with Serbia in the Yugoslav federation and become a completely independent state.
The separatist parties withdrew their support for Vujanovic's government in protest against the adoption by Montenegro's parliament of an agreement to replace the federation by a loose union called Serbia-Montenegro.
Serbia, is more than 10 times bigger than Montenegro, whose population is about 650,000 inhabitants.
Djukanovic's Democratic Socialist Party, which lacks a working majority in the assembly, is attempting to forestall early elections in Montenegro and favours a new government coalition with the separatist parties.
The separatists -- the SDP and the LSCG - back Djukanovic but are firmly opposed to the agreement creating the new state of Serbia-Montenegro, which was signed in March in Belgrade and adopted last month by the parliaments of both republics.
Djukanovic also favours full independence for Montenegro but signed the accord in March under pressure from the European Union.
The accord foresees a loose union lasting a minimum duration of three years, at the end of which both Montenegro and Serbia will be free to opt for independence if they so choose.

Dane to become commander of UN force in Bosnia,then head EU police mission

SARAJEVO, May 28 (AFP) - Denmark's Sven Frederiksen is to take over on Friday as the last commissioner of the UN police force in Bosnia, which is to be replaced by the first-ever European Union police mission to the Balkan state on January 1 2003, UN officials in Belgrade said on Tuesday.
Frederiksen is to head the EU police mission and his appointment as UN commander is designed to smoothe the transition from the 1,600-strong UN Intenational Police Task Force (IPTF) to the EU force of less than 500 officers.
EU foreign ministers agreed in February to allow their 15-nation bloc to take over direct charge of the police mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The EU task force is to stick to the IPTF's core mission of monitoring and training local police in Bosnia's post-war political halves -- the Muslim-Croat Federation, which includes Sarajevo, and the Serb-run entity of Republika Srpska.
The IPTF was deployed in Bosnia under the Dayton peace accords that halted the country's 1992-95 war.
The 55-year-old Frederiksen, who led a similar police operation in UN-administered Kosovo, is to take over from Frenchman Vincent Coeurderoy.
The EU mission has a three-year mandate and is to cost 38 million euros (33.4 million dollars) a year.
Like the IPTF, the EU force is to work in parallel with the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR), which was deployed in December 1995, also under the Dayton accords, and maintains 18,000 soldiers in Bosnia.
The EU is already the biggest source of development aid to Bosnia and throughout the Balkans.
Since 1995, the IPTF has overseen a drawdown of local police officers in Bosnia by one half to 20,000, as it worked to professionalise law enforcement structures left over from the time when it belonged to the former Communist Yugoslavia.
At the same time, it has pushed for more female officers and more policemen to be hired from ethnic groups in areas where these groups are in a minority.
The IPTF has sacked 157 police officers for misconduct, including 37 found to be involved in war-time atrocities.

Serbian police nab illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Tunisia

BELGRADE, May 28 (AFP) - Serbian police detained 43 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Tunisia and Iran near the eastern town Pozarevac early Tuesday, the Beta news agency reported.
Police said the immigrants were found in two trucks carrying logs which were stopped for a regular traffic control near Pozarevac. The drivers were also detained.
The migrants -- 22 Afghans, 19 Tunisians and two Iranians -- were believed to have illegally entered Yugoslavia from Bulgaria, and were on their way to Western Europe, police said.
The migrants were to appear before an investigative judge later this week, the agency said.

Milosevic's supporters protest in Belgrade against his war crimes trial

BELGRADE, May 28 (AFP) - Several hundred die-hard supporters of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic protested in Belgrade on Tuesday against his trial before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and demanded his release.
The protestors, whose march was organised by the group "Sloboda" (Freedom), walked to the British and US embassy in central Belgrade and handed over written requests for Milosevic's release.
They also condemned Belgrade authorities for handing over Milosevic to the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) last June.
They said they were "supporting Slobodan Milosevic for his justified fight for the freedom of all people in the world against the monstrous and criminal court in The Hague".
"Serbia is in the darkness and the authorities can only be ashamed for their deeds after our slavery passes," one of the protestors said.
Some of the protestors carried photos of Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who are wanted by the ICTY for war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
No incidents were reported during the protest, which lasted more than an hour.
Milosevic faces more than 60 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.
His trial, which opened on February 12, is currently dealing with the Kosovo indictment but will later this year move on to charges for crimes he is accused of committing in Bosnia and Croatia.

Second border crossing opens between Montenegro and Albania

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, May 28 (AFP) - Montenegrin and Albanian officials on Tuesday opened a second border crossing between the tiny Yugoslav republic and neighbouring Albania.
Albanian Foreign Minister Arta Dade, present at the opening of the crossing at Sukobin, southwestern Montenegro, said the move was "a new opportunity for faster links between the two peoples".
The main border crossing between Montenegro and Albania is in Bozaj, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the capital Podgorica.
Sukobin is situated near the southwestern town of Ulcinj, which is populated mostly by ethnic Albanians and one of the most popular sites for tourists from neighbouring Albania.
Relations between Belgrade and Tirana improved after the fall of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, following years of tension over Kosovo.
The southern Serbian province is populated mostly by the ethnic Albanians and has been administrated by the United Nations since the end of the war there in 1999.

Milosevic Allies Protest Near US,UK Embassies In Belgrade

BELGRADE (AP)--Several hundred supporters of Slobodan Milosevic rallied Tuesday outside the U.S. and U.K. embassies in downtown Belgrade, demanding that the war crimes trial against the former president be halted and that he be set free.
The demonstrators handed letters to embassy staff asking that Western governments work to stop the trial, held at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
Rally participants also denounced as "treacherous and a disgrace" the country's new, democratic authorities that arrested Milosevic and extradited him to the tribunal in June 2001. Milosevic's backers and many others in Yugoslavia consider the tribunal prejudiced against Serbs.
Carrying Milosevic posters, the crowd chanted "Freedom for Slobodan" and waved flags of his Socialist Party and its allies, the communist Yugoslav Left and the Serbian Radical Party.
Milosevic faces charges of genocide and war crimes for atrocities committed by forces loyal to him in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the decade of Balkan wars sparked by the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Posters of two other top war crimes suspects, the fugitive former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, were also displayed by demonstrators.
The rally, microscopic in size compared to past pro-Milosevic protests - was largely ignored by passers-by in Belgrade. No incidents were reported.

Report: Serbian police intercept two trucks with 43 illegal immigrants

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Serbian police on Tuesday intercepted two trucks carrying 43 foreigners, including Afghans, Tunisians and Iranians, who were being smuggled across the country, a news agency reported.
Police stopped the trucks during a random traffic stop, the independent Beta news agency reported. The vehicles, with Serbian license plates, allegedly had traveled from neighboring Bulgaria, the report said.
Police sources told Beta the 43 had fled from a refugee camp in Bulgaria and were trying to get to Western Europe. That report could not be independently confirmed.
Under Yugoslav law, foreigners caught without visas are usually sentenced to 10 days in jail for illegally entering the country and then deported.
Yugoslavia and other Balkan countries have served as a transit route for many illegal migrants from the Middle East or Far East who are trying to reach Western Europe.

U.S. says Yugoslavia is cooperating with war-crimes tribunal, lifts freeze on aid

By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration certified Tuesday that Yugoslavia is cooperating with an international war-crimes tribunal, paving the way for the resumption of U.S. aid frozen by Congress.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who announced the change after meetings with Yugoslavia's foreign minister and Serbia's prime minister, praised what he called several recent steps, including the transfer of ethnic Albanian prisoners from Serbian custody to the United Nations.
Powell said the State Department also would begin the process of approaching Congress to consider normalizing trade relations with Yugoslavia.
The United States had required that Yugoslavia cooperate with the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, or risk losing $120 million in financial assistance.

Montenegro's president nominates former prime minister to form new government

By ALEN MLATISUMA, Associated Press Writer

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Montenegro's president on Tuesday named former Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic, who quit after his government lost support in parliament over the Yugoslav republic's decision to stay in a union with Serbia, as the new designate for the post.
President Milo Djukanovic said Vujanovic was the best man for the job because he had ``proved his dedication to democratic reforms and his capability in dealing with the most delicate political situations.''
Montenegro's acceptance earlier this year of a Western-brokered deal to keep Yugoslavia together for the next three years led to a deep crisis in the small republic of 600,000 people. The population is split on their republic's future _ some want complete independence, while others want to stay together with the much larger Serbia.
Vujanovic resigned in April after unsuccessful attempts to preserve a coalition government that was split on the independence issue. His government collapsed because lawmakers from the radically pro-independent Liberal Alliance, opposed to the planned new union with Serbia, withdrew their support in the assembly.
After he quit, Vujanovic _ like Djukanovic, an official in the Democratic Party of Socialists _ stayed on as caretaker prime minister, defending the agreement with Serbia.
Djukanovic said that the strong showing of the Democratic Party of Socialists in local elections earlier this month had convinced him to reappoint Vujanovic. The result was interpreted as an indirect endorsement of the deal on continued ties with Serbia.
``The elections showed that the majority of the people in Montenegro support our pro-European policies,'' Djukanovic said.
He added that Vujanovic had played a key role in achieving the deal with Serbia.
Fearing further attempts at secession in the Balkans, the European Union in February brokered a deal that keeps the two Yugoslav republics loosely together in a reformed union, to be named ``Serbia and Montenegro.''
Vujanovic now has 60 days to try to form a new Cabinet that would win backing in the 77-seat parliament. If he fails, the constitution gives Djukanovic 10 additional days to name a second candidate who also must win parliament backing. If that fails, the assembly would be dissolved and early parliamentary elections held in about three months.
Djukanovic said he was certain Vujanovic would get sufficient backing, a conclusion he said he reached after talking with leaders of the most significant parliamentary parties in recent days. He also urged for ``quick implementation'' of the deal with Serbia.
The EU deal envisages common defense and foreign policies but separate economies, currencies and customs services for Serbia and Montenegro. After three years, each republic could hold referendums on whether to secede.

Petritsch Reflects on Effects of his Work in BiH

By Beth Kampschror for Balkan Times in Sarajevo - 28/05/02

Seeing the way the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been affected by his decisions over the past three years has been the highlight of his term as the top international official in BiH, said former High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch at a final press conference in Sarajevo 24 May.
Petritsch told of meeting a woman who is back in her home in Dobrinja IV, a decision in which Petritsch appointed a foreign judge to decide which parts of the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja would go to the entities that make up post-war BiH. Seeing the fruits of his work in the faces of ordinary people, he said, were the most touching events of his tenure.
Petritsch, an Austrian diplomat who has been high representative since 1999, was replaced byformer British politician Paddy Ashdown Monday (27 May). In his last days, Petritsch prompted decisions to reform civil society, the judiciary and the police.
These decisions include establishing a civil service agency, imposing a conflict of interest law, establishing state- and entity-level judicial and prosecutorial councils and establishing entity training centres for judges and prosecutors.
"Because of these weak and outdated structures, you invite illegal activities and organised crime," he said. "I firmly believe that your institutions now have the necessary instruments in place to succeed."
Petritsch said the progress he has seen in BiH has changed his attitude. He cited the November 2000 elections in which a non-nationalist political coalition took the reins of the state-level government.
"(BiH) has become so much more of a state than I would have believed could happen three years ago when I arrived. I'm now thoroughly confident, not any longer optimistic, but concretely confident, based on concrete progress that you have achieved here in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
Petritsch said he has no regrets about any of the reforms he has imposed, but said that he does lament the slow process -- an economy in "dire straits" and local authorities that don't serve the public.
"I realise that this is a matter of time. Society changes are slow. We need to accept this, but only to the degree that things are changeable," he said. Petritsch compared BiH's small steps of progress to those of Austria following WWII.
"You have the goal in front of you, and that is Europe, and I know that you can do this," Petritsch told his audience. "This continued confidence and this continued 'can-do' attitude is what I consider so important. You must not lose the vision that a viable Bosnia and Herzegovina is indeed possible, and that it can become part of the EU eventually."

Srebrenica suspect released on bail

B92 - May 28, 2002

22:05 THE HAGUE, Tuesday - The UN war crimes tribunal today released on bail a Bosnian Serb army officer accused over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
"I am so happy to be back home," Dragan Jokic told reporters upon arriving at Banja Luka airport this afternoon. Jokic's lawyer said he would stay at his home in the Bosnian town of Zvornik until his trial begins in December.
Jokic pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity, having surrendered to the tribunal in the Hague last August.
Prosecutors say Jokic commanded the engineers of the 1st Zvornik Brigade near Srebrenica, the so-called UN safe-haven which fell to Serb forces in July 1995. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys are believed to have lost their lives in the days that followed. (Beta/Reuters)

Social Democrats welcome return of Vujanovic

B92 - May 28, 2002

21:47 PODGORICA, Tuesday - The Social Democratic Party has welcomed the return of Filip Vujanovic as Montenegrin prime minister and expressed a willingness to join his government.
Party leader Ranko Krivokapic said his party had had many "positive experiences" in the previous coalition with Vujanovic.
The Social Democrats quit the coalition after Vujanovic and Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic signed an agreement binding the tiny republic to a joint state with Serbia for the next three years.
The party has since said it's ready for a reconciliation. "Now we need jointly to implement the agreement on redefining Montenegrin-Serbian relations because it is the Montenegrin state's obligation," Krivokapic told state radio.
He said the party would wait for "Vujanovic's concept" before deciding whether to re-enter government. (Beta)

Socalists indifferent to Vujanovic appointment

B92 - May 28, 2002

21:39 PODGORICA, Tuesday - The reappointment of Filip Vujanovic as Montenegrin prime minister "leaves no major impression" on the Socialist People's Party, a spokesman for the opposition party said today.
Dragan Koprivica claimed in returning Vujanovic's mandate, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic is "teasing" the Liberal Alliance and "getting on their nerves."
It was the liberals who originally demanded Vujanovic resign, subsequently forcing a vote of no-confidence when he refused. But Djukanovic has made clear he wants the party on board Vujanovic's next coalition. (Beta)

One foot in the Council of Europe

B92 - May 28, 2002

21:26 STRASBOURG, Tuesday - Yugoslavia's parliament speaker claimed today the country's admission into the Council of Europe was "just a matter of time" after the political committee adopted a favourable report from envoy Claude Frey.
"This is of crucial importance, we can say that Yugoslavia has already put one foot into the Council of Europe, and its admission into this organization is just a matter of time," said chamber of citizens speaker Dragoljub Micunovic during a visit to Strasbourg.
Micunovic claimed the political committee of the Council of Europe, which adopted today's report, was the main test for Yugoslavia's membership bid.
It will now be decided whether to debate Yugoslavia's membership during the June session, or to wait until September, he added. (Beta)

Kosovo PM pledges to integrate communities

B92 - May 28, 2002

21:18 PEC, Tuesday - The prime minister of Kosovo has pledged his government's commitment to integrating the province's minority communities, during a roundtable today in Pec.
Bajram Rexhepi claimed the adoption of the government's three-year program was a concrete step in securing a better climate for all people in Kosovo.
"Together with the local governments, the Kosovo government has taken upon itself the obligation to secure the return of minorities," said Rexhepi. This included, he added, the return of Albanians to the northern half of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Rexhepi promised to be the prime minister to all people in Kosovo, regardless of ethnic background.
He was speaking at a discussion group in Pec attended by a number of Kosovo politicians and representatives of international missions, concerning inter-ethnic dialogue, trust and freedom of movement. (Beta)

Liberals "unpleasantly surprised" by Vujanovic comeback

B92 - May 28, 2002

19:56 PODGORICA, Tuesday - Montenegro's Liberal Alliance has said it is "very unpleasantly surprised" by the president's decision to reappoint Filip Vujanovic prime minister.
Alliance leader Miodrag Zivkovic said his party would announce its "final judgment" within days, but accused Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic of angling for elections in October.
"Djukanovic wants to create a situation in which in October or maybe earlier he can hold early parliamentary and presidential elections on the same day, securing a good position for himself - i.e. 18 years of rule over Montenegro," said Zivkovic.
Djukanovic's party, of which Vujanovic is deputy, has said it wants to form a coalition of the independence-minded parties - the Social Democrats and the Liberal Alliance. As parliament stands at the moment, the Liberals would be key to a majority. (Beta)

Government wins early session of parliament

B92 - May 28, 2002

19:33 BELGRADE, Tuesday - The speaker of the Serbian Parliament has scheduled an extraordinary session of the assembly for June 4, at the request of the government.
Deputies will debate changes to the parliamentary rules and personnel changes in the Serbian Election Commission, the parliament information office said in a statement this afternoon.
The Local Elections Bill will also be on the agenda. (Beta)

Throwing out the rubbish

B92 - May 28, 2002

20:00 BELGRADE, Tuesday - Democratic Party of Serbia deputy leader Dragan Marsicanin told B92 today he had tossed into the bin an invitation from DOS for him to explain his continued absence from the Serbian parliament, or face being dismissed altogether.
Cedomir Jovanovic, the DOS caucus chief and Zoran Djindjic protégé, has written to the fifty deputies DOS has threatened with the sack, asking them to explain why they have not been attending the parliament sittings.
An angry Marsicanin insisted Jovanovic has "no authority over the Democratic Party of Serbia caucus" and accused him of behaving like a "teacher" to the deputies of other parties.
"I got Jovanovic's letter and did with it exactly what it deserves - it ended up in the dustbin," he told B92.
Marsicanin said his party, which is led by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, would respond to the eventual confirmation of the DOS decision as it would respond to any other "illegal act."
Kostunica's party has said it will withdraw from the Serbian parliament altogether and form a shadow government. It has called a press conference for tomorrow to confirm its course of action. (B92)

Milosevic cross-examines Racak survivor

B92 - May 28, 2002

18:34 THE HAGUE, Tuesday - An ethnic Albanian woman at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic has testified to being in the village of Racak the day Serb troops are alleged to have massacred 45 civilians, triggering NATO air strikes just a month later.
Drita Emini is one of five people who have been called to testify specifically over the events of January 15, 1999 in the Kosovo village. Milosevic has claimed the massacre was in fact staged after a gunfight between Serb troops and members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.
Emini's testimony was taken into evidence without being presented in court. She was then cross-examined by the ousted Yugoslav president.
"January 15 is the day the Serb army and police committed the massacre," the 24-year-old told the court.
Emini said she had hid in the basement of her uncle's house when she heard shooting coming from the surrounding hills, some of which she said she could see through a hole in the basement wall.
Serb forces later came and ordered people out of the shelter and separated the men from the women and children, she said.
Emini testified that the following she saw a pile of bodies and identified 36 of them for investigators at the Hague tribunal. (AFP)

Vujanovic handed second chance

B92 - May 28, 2002

18:02 PODGORICA, Tuesday - Shying away from new elections, Montenegro's president has reappointed his party deputy Filip Vujanovic as prime minister, despite just days ago losing a confidence motion in parliament.
Justifying his decision, Milo Djukanovic hailed Vujanovic's achievements during his previous term and commended his role in the negotiations on a future state with Serbia.
The president claimed that reappointing Vujanovic was "the most appropriate" course since his party deputy brought a "personal touch" to realising Montenegro's state policy.
Vujanovic, he told a press conference, had carved for himself a "democratic profile" and possessed an "extraordinary ability" to take on board differing opinions in the most sensitive of political situations.
The Montenegrin parliament last week voted no-confidence in Vujanovic's government, after its two main allies revolted over the signing of the agreement on the future state of Serbia and Montenegro. They accused the president and prime minister of betraying their commitment to an independent Montenegro.
Grappling to hold onto power, the Democratic Party of Socialists, headed by Djukanovic and Vujanovic, has since pledged to lead Montenegro to independence once the deal's opt-out clause kicks in after three years.
Its former coalition ally, the Social Democratic party, has already said it is willing to return to government. A parliamentary majority, however, relies on getting the fiercely pro-independence Liberal Alliance on board. (Beta/B92)

Embassies confronted by angry Milosevic supporters

B92 - May 28, 2002

17:33 BELGRADE, Tuesday - Hundreds of Slobodan Milosevic supporters gathered outside the British and US embassies in Belgrade today, demanding their former president be released from the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The protestors, many of whom carried posters of Bosnian Serb genocide suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, claimed Milosevic was waging a "just fight for the freedom of all justice-loving people."
They branded the current authorities in Belgrade "traitorous and shameful," while one protestor warned that "darkness" now ruled Serbia.
The demonstrators, rounded up by the "Sloboda" (freedom) association, accused the West of committing crimes against Yugoslavia during the 1999 bombing campaign.
They carried the flags of Milosevic's Socialist People's Party, his wife's Yugoslav Left, and the ultra-nationalist Radical Party of former paramilitary leader Vojislav Seselj. (Beta)

Vujanovic reappointed Montenegrin prime minister

B92 - May 28, 2002

17:14 PODGORICA, Tuesday - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has given his party deputy, Filip Vujanovic, a new mandate as prime minister, despite losing a confidence motion last week.
Djukanovic announced the appointment at a press conference that began at 4.15pm.
Vujanovic's government lost a confidence vote last week in a storm over the signing of the Belgrade agreement, under which Montenegro will remain in a joint state with Serbia for the next three years. (Srna)

Kostunica party still pondering response

B92 - May 28, 2002

14:47 BELGRADE, Tuesday - The Democratic Party of Serbia, headed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, has called a press conference for tomorrow at which it will announce its final stance on the decision of its coalition partners to sack fifty deputies from the Serbian parliament.
The party had been expected to announce today the withdrawal of its representatives from the parliamentary management committees appointed by the Serbian government.
"Tomorrow we'll say everything concerning the withdrawal," party deputy leader Dejan Mihajlov told Srna news agency.
The renegade DOS party had threatened a complete withdrawal from parliament in the event the coalition went through with its threat to sack fifty deputes - 23 from the Democratic Party of Serbia - for long-term truancy. (Srna)

Svilanovic discusses cooperation with Austria

B92 - May 28, 2002

14:20 BELGRADE, Tuesday - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic received his Austrian counterpart in Belgrade today, to discuss cooperation between the two nations.
Svilanovic and Benita Ferrero-Waldner discussed the founding of a Danube cooperation process for political and economic cooperation between the region and the rest of Europe.
The foreign ministers said they had discussed Yugoslavia's integration into NATO's Partnership for Peace program and the possibility of Belgrade signing an Agreement on Stabilisation and Association with the EU. Both stressed the importance of implementing the deal reached between Serbia and Montenegro on their future state.
Svilanovic noted that Austria tops the list of foreign investors in Yugoslavia. (Beta)

U.N. removes five Bosnian policemen due to wartime background

Sarajevo (dpa) - The United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia, decided to de-authorize five Bosnian police officers due to their role during the country's 1992-1995 war, the U.N. said Tuesday in Sarajevo.
U.N. spokesman Stefo Lehmann told reporters in Sarajevo that one Bosnian Serb and four Moslem policemen were sacked.
``These officers committed, planned, instigated, ordered, or otherwise aided and abetted ... crimes targeting the civilian population,'' said Lehmann. They bore liability for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions.
The investigation against the five, according to Lehmann, was conducted with the assistance of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The Serb was named as Slobodan Nikic, a police officer with the Doboj Public Security Sector.
The four Moslem police officers were Naser Sejdic, chief of the Trnovo police station Enes Kazic, Mirsad Sabic and Salko Gosto.

Milosevic Trial Told of Mass Graves Near Belgrade

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Serb forces tried to hide the execution of hundreds of Albanians in disputed Kosovo by moving their corpses to mass graves near Belgrade, prosecutors told Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial Tuesday.
Witnesses have previously described finding mass graves in Kosovo, but this was the first time the trial has heard of Albanian corpses being unearthed hundreds of miles away from the scene of ethnic fighting in the disputed province.
Prosecutors say executions were part of a Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo of majority Albanians overseen by Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, who is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Milosevic is accused of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing against the majority Albanian population in Kosovo in early 1999.
During cross-examination, Milosevic questioned the witnesses on the corpses' identity, hinting that they might not have come from Kosovo.
A British police officer told the trial some of the bodies exhumed last year from mass graves at four sites near Belgrade carried identity documents linking them to Albanians killed by Serb forces in Suva Reka, a town in southwestern Kosovo.
``A number of items of identification were recovered that would tend to indicate (they) belonged to people from Kosovo, principally from Suva Reka,'' said Robert Fulton, who was working for tribunal prosecutors.
In 1999, Serb forces cracked down on Suva Reka, killing and assaulting local Albanian residents and setting fire to houses and shops, witnesses told the court earlier.
Prosecutors said there was a systematic cover-up of the slaughter of Kosovo citizens by Serb authorities. Bodies were removed from mass graves in Kosovo and transported to the sites near Belgrade.
REFRIGERATED TRUCK
A refrigerated truck believed to have transported some corpses was found sunk in the Danube river in Serbia in 1999 after an investigation by local police.
``The bodies were skeletal with some flesh. They were co-mingled with multiple fractures ... there was a lot of fractures and loose limbs,'' Fulton said, describing the remains found in the graves.
Railway sleepers had been laid on the floor of one pit, and there was evidence of an attempt to burn the bodies, he said.
Milosevic questioned Fulton in detail, asking at what depth the bodies were found and whether the digging was done mechanically or by hand. He also asked repeatedly whether the bodies were formally identified.
``There has been no formal identification that we made to date... I said identification documents had been recorded,'' Fulton replied.
At least 269 bodies were recovered from a mass grave in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica, and 27 adults, nine children and a fetus were found at a site nearby, he said.
One of the victims had a Suva Reka driver's license, while several other identity documents belonged to people registered as missing with the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said.
To convict Milosevic over Kosovo, prosecutors must prove not only that atrocities against ethnic Albanians took place, but also that he knew about them or should have known.
The 60-year-old former Communist apparatchik says he does not recognize the court and has refused to plead to the charges, prompting judges to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.
He has argued that it was not the Serbs but Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas and NATO who were the true aggressors in Kosovo.

INTERVIEW-Serb PM says secret files open to U.N. Court

By Julijana Mojsilovic

BELGRADE, May 28 (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said on Tuesday secret archives would be opened up for the U.N. war crimes court but warned prosecutors not to expect much evidence as NATO bombing in 1999 destroyed many files.
Djindjic also told Reuters in an interview he believed the majority of war crimes had been committed by individuals and members of paramilitary forces, and that no evidence of any state involvement would be found in the remaining documents.
NATO hit all main police and army headquarters in central Belgrade, causing damage beyond repair to most of them, in its 1999 campaign against Yugoslavia over the province of Kosovo.
``Whatever still exists will be provided. It is in our interest to personalise responsibility and to establish if any state institution took part in war crimes,'' he said.
``But they (the tribunal) now want things NATO deliberately destroyed to prevent police from using them.''
The war crimes tribunal in The Hague and human rights groups have been pushing hard in recent weeks for Belgrade to provide access to its archives in the hope they may yield evidence to help convict ex-president Slobodan Milosevic and others.
But Djindjic, a leader of the reformist alliance which ousted Milosevic, also cautioned that the remaining files would not be up to Western standards of archives and documents.
``We don't even have a proper property ownership register, never mind secret files or what's left of them.''
SERBIA WON'T SHELTER FUGITIVES
Belgrade is also under heavy Western pressure to arrest and hand over war crimes fugitives to The Hague -- a politically sensitive task as most Serbs believe the tribunal is biased against them.
But Djindjic, the man behind Milosevic's arrest and handover to The Hague, insisted his country would not be a safe haven for any fugitives.
The Yugoslav government last month published a list of 23 suspects who could be on its territory and urged them to surrender. Five suspects have so far heeded the call and Serbian police arrested another last week.
Djindjic said the search for others was under way.
``All those on the tribunal's list who are residing in Serbia or happen to be here will be arrested and transferred. Serbia won't become an oasis for wanted people no matter how underdeveloped our security system still is,'' he said.
But he added his government had not received any serious information from the tribunal on the whereabouts of the two most notorious fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief General Ratko Mladic.
The prosecutors have repeatedly said Mladic is hiding in Serbia and demanded Belgrade locate and arrest him. Mladic is also reported to have moved frequently in and out of Bosnia's Serb Republic, avoiding NATO peacekeepers based there.
``They (the tribunal) are just shifting responsibility. If all this Western intelligence has only got as far as generally suspecting Serbia of hiding fugitives, then their information is just poor,'' Djindjic said.

Yugoslavia to cut rates with inflation at 5-yr low

BELGRADE, May 28 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia's central bank said on Tuesday it would cut its key discount rate to 9.5 percent from 11.0 percent because monthly consumer price index (CPI) inflation in Serbia hit a five-year low of 0.4 percent in May.
That meant annual CPI inflation was running at 9.0 percent in May, the bank said in a statement, well below a 20 percent target agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The rate cut, effective on June 1, was designed to stimulate a moribund economy by steering commercial lending rates down from their current average of 3.2 percent per month -- a level many firms say prevents them borrowing to invest in growth.
The Balkan nation, which for much of the past decade faced bouts of hyper-inflation resulting from wars and sanctions, managed to curb price rises to 38.7 percent in 2001 from more than 100 percent in 2000.
Much of last year's inflation resulted from price hikes of electricity and telecommunications, which ousted President Slobodan Milosevic kept artificially low to keep social peace.
Belgrade has signalled it will try to end 2002 well below the 20 percent IMF inflation target, although it will have to hike electricity prices later this year as part of a new three-year loan agreement with the IMF.
The Yugoslav national bank is in practice responsible for monetary policy only in Serbia, the dominant partner in the federation with the estranged coastal republic of Montenegro.
Small coastal Montenegro has abandoned the Yugoslav dinar in favour of the euro and has its own central bank, a non-issuing authority in charge of supervising the banking sector.

FEATURE-Tower bombed by NATO to symbolise new Serbia

By Douglas Hamilton

BELGRADE, May 29 (Reuters) - Serbian property developer Miodrag Kostic would like to meet the NATO pilots who bombed a landmark Belgrade office tower three years ago.
``I'm serious. This is an invitation,'' he said, jerking a thumb at 23 storeys of fire-blackened, windowless concrete and twisted steel that inflames his business imagination.
``Whoever it was should come here and shake hands on opening day. Because that was history, but this is going to be a symbol of the new Serbia.''
This month, the ice around Yugoslavia started to break up. Top men of Slobodan Milosevic's regime went to The Hague to face war crimes charges, the International Monetary Fund granted a big loan, and Washington ended a freeze on financial assistance.
All of this made headlines here. But Kostic believes ``you have to show the people something concrete to convince them things really are going to get better.''
In downtown Belgrade, tottering piles of fenced-off rubble offer Serbs a depressing reminder of 78 days in 1999 when their country was under aerial attack by the United States and its European allies to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo.
Down on the banks of the Danube, by contrast, Kostic's vision of a 21st-century capital is taking shape, around the still solid core of one building that NATO failed to take down.
On a Wednesday night starting the fifth week of bombing -- a milestone the shocked alliance never dreamt it would see -- NATO struck at a slim, rectangular tower housing the headquarters of then president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party.
Going after political targets in Belgrade itself was a deliberate escalation meant to show defiant Serbian leaders that NATO would not back off. On the following night, Milosevic's villa was hit. On the Friday, state television was knocked out.
BLUEPRINTS SECRET
The tower was still on fire come daylight, badly mangled. But no one had been inside and no one was hurt.
``Formerly, this was the symbol of the communist regime,'' said Kostic, whose consortium won a tender last year to purchase the tower and turn it into a modern office complex at the centre of what is to be Belgrade's first large shopping mall.
Unlike Manhattan-style skyscrapers designed to collapse inwards when they're eventually demolished, the Belgrade tower was built in 1960 around a supporting core sprouting from foundations more than 100 feet (30 metres) deep in alluvial sand.
``The drawings of this building were top secret, because it was one of the most important buildings in the history of Yugoslavia, the headquarters of the communist party,'' said the 42-year-old economics graduate.
He believes NATO intended to topple the tower, which stands alone in several acres of undeveloped riverside land, but didn't know exactly where to aim its precision-guided munitions.
``They missed the central part of the building. They aimed for it but just missed the core.''
Dramatic Reuters Television pictures of the initial strike -- the tower was hit for a second time eight days later -- show two fiery explosions in the night at the base of the tower and, several seconds later, a mighty blast down through its roof.
But tests on the damaged structure, undertaken before renovation work started this spring and currently being vetted by independent Swiss experts, showed it still has 100 percent weight stability and 87 percent earthquake stability.
``It's a miracle,'' said Kostic.
Rapidly sketching an x-ray of the tower during an interview at his modern offices in the city of Novi Sad, Kostic explained its unique combination support structures.
``The hit at the top was successful. It destroyed three floors and this we'll have to clear out completely and build new,'' he said, displaying a plexiglass model of the futuristic edifice that is to grace the Belgrade skyline next year.
AN ADDRESS WITH A STORY
Each day, half Belgrade can see red-suited workers dangling on ropes to strip the bomb-blistered facade from the tower.
Prospective tenants of its offices ``will know the history of this building and they will ask'' about its state, Kostic said. ``Some of them have given us 50 pages of conditions.''
But the tower's scorched past may also give it some cachet with incoming foreign tenants.
``We're stripping it to the bones. It will have all new wiring, air-conditioning, and glass and very little walls. We're creating 900 square metres (9,688 square feet) of open-plan space on every floor.''
``This is only the first phase of the project. There's about 60,000 square metres (645,800 square feet) around the building. We are starting in January to build the first big shopping mall for Belgrade.''
Deploring a decade which Yugoslavia lost to ethnic war, Kostic points out that post-communist Budapest, capital of Serbia's neighbour Hungary, already has 10 Western-style shopping malls.
``The main problem for us here is financing,'' he said. ``We don't have 100 million dollars in the bank.''
While Austrian banks with long knowledge of the Balkans have been more understanding and adventurous, investors further afield still seem wary of political instability.
``I've spent time in Florida in the past 10 years and I know people in the United States either have no idea where Yugoslavia is or they have a very negative idea of us,'' said Kostic.
As that perception clears, he expects competition from foreign developers to sharpen. But he believes he already has cornered one of Belgrade's best sites and could cope with more, if only the official gears would turn faster.
``Government, especially the federal government, is slow and I don't see any reason why they don't open auctions for all these (bombsite) buildings,'' he said, noting that American and Israeli companies were bidders to develop the tower.
For now, Serbia is governed by a coalition of 18 parties, in addition to a costly Yugoslav federal level of government to take in restive junior partner Montenegro.
It is not a structure that radiates stability or clarity to outsiders and its many-layered, Kafkaesque bureaucracy can be even more daunting than NATO bombs.
``One of the main reasons we're glad we didn't have to take the building down is that here you would need six to 12 months just to get the official paperwork for that,'' said Kostic. ``Approval to repair it is much faster.''

Yugoslavia economy: Serbian minister expects 4,000 bankruptcies

FROM BBC MONITORING

Text of report in English by Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug

About 6,000 companies in Serbia are waiting to become privately-owned, but this process is expected to be successfully carried out only by 2,000, while the remaining 4,000 will declare bankruptcy, Serbian Economic and Privatization Minister Aleksandar Vlahovic said on Friday [24 May].
Speaking at a conference of the US-Yugoslav Business Council, Vlahovic underscored that Serbia was not yet ready to begin the privatization of state-owned firms via international tenders, because these companies should first be restructured.
Thus, the privatization of state-owned firms is expected to begin in 2003 in the sphere of the electronics industry, telecommunications and rail transport. The director of the World Bank's Europe Agency for Multilateral Investment Insurance, Christof Delinger, said that Yugoslavia became a member of this Agency a month ago. The Agency insures investments from political risk.
The insurance includes risks from war, terrorism and seizure of property. Delinger explained that this means that Yugoslavia is now entitled to take guarantees both for foreign investments in the country and for its operations abroad.
He noted that World Bank estimates are that between 180-300 million dollars from abroad will be invested in Yugoslavia by the end of the year and promised to help in the setting up of an agency for export loans.
Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1547 gmt 24 May 02

In Kosovo, former neighbors warily eye each other

Efforts to encourage Serbs to return to the majority-Albanian area prove difficult.

By Eleanor Beardsley

Special to The Christian Science Monitor - May 29, 2002

BRESTOVIK, KOSOVO - Dragoljub Pantic looks at the ruins of his house and wonders if he can come back home again.
Three years ago, Mr. Pantic was among the Serbs who fled this village in western Kosovo, fearing the vengeance of returning ethnic Albanian refugees. Across Kosovo, tens of thousands of Serbs left their homes.
Now, Pantic is among a hundred non-Albanians who have visited what's left of their former residences in the province to decide whether to return. The UN-sponsored visits are part of an effort to promote a peaceful, diverse society in Kosovo, which is still struggling to recover from the aftermath of ethnic violence.
The province has been run as a virtual protectorate since 1999, when Serb forces were forced out by a NATO bombing campaign and ground invasion to end persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, who is now on trial for alleged atrocities at a UN war-crimes tribunal at The Hague.
Serbs who do decide to return home will receive money and materials to help rebuild their houses, and KFOR, the NATO-led Kosovo protection forces, will help safeguard them.
With only the stone walls of its houses remaining, Pantic's mountainside village, which once had a population of 400, looks as if it was decapitated in one swoop by a passing giant - in this case the ethnic Albanian population returning from exile to find its own villages destroyed by Serbs.
Despite the destruction, Pantic says coming back to Kosovo would be better than living in a crowded refugee center in central Serbia.
"Of course I want to come back," he says. "Ninety percent of us want to come back to the village to rebuild our houses and start new lives. Especially if there is a chance to get help. We have no money."
Destroyed property is only one of many obstacles facing the refugees. The biggest barrier to the return of Serb and other minority communities, such as Roma, sometimes referred to as Gypsies, is mutual suspicion and fear.
Just down the road from Pantic's village lies the bustling ethnic Albanian town of Peje, where memories of devastation wreaked by Serb army and paramilitary troops remain fresh.
Now the UN must convince Kosovo's majority Albanian population that the return of their Serb neighbors does not mean the return of the Serb regime.
James Rodhaver, a human rights officer with the UN's Office of Returns and Communities (ORC), set up to to assist voluntary returns and raise assistance money from donors, says a sense of neighborliness between the two groups will be hard to restore.
"In the past, people placed a high value on neighbors and neighborhood life," he explains. "You looked after your neighbor no matter what ethnicity he was.
"Now, one of the biggest sore points on both sides is that neighbors refused to help each other when the Serb army and the [Albanian] Kosovo Liberation Army came through. We are trying to reestablish this neighbor connection."
Denny Lane, an American working closely with the returns process as a UN administrator in the town of Vushtri in central Kosovo, says that although rebuilding houses and evicting squatters from minority properties is key to encouraging returns, the more important task is to prepare communities to receive their former neighbors.
"What we've tried to do is involve those members of Albanian society who can impact the way other Albanians think," Lane says. "One of the problems of reintegration is peer pressure. If I'm an Albanian shop owner, and a Serb or Roma walks in, will I refuse to serve him for fear of what other Albanians will say?"
A year and a half ago, four men from the Albanian-speaking Ashkali minority (who along with the Roma were accused of collaborating with the Serbs) were murdered when they attempted to bring their families back home to Kosovo, dealing a blow to the returns process.
Today, aside from a couple of hundred Serbs who have rebuilt one isolated village in western Kosovo there has been no large-scale return of minorities to the province. Those who fled - most of them Serbs - are deeply skeptical, citing hostility, lack of security, and freedom of movement, and discrimination in housing and employment as barriers to returning.
Despite ORC efforts to increase returns in 2003 and 2004, Belgrade politicians are critical of the lack of progress so far. Serbia is crowded with refugees from a decade of Balkan wars.
In a bid to force Kosovo's newly elected, majority-Albanian government to engage the population in moving forward on the returns issue, Kosovo's top UN administrator has made the return and reintegration of refugees and their freedom of movement prerequisites to determination of Kosovo's final status.
Anxious to gain independence from Serbia, the majority-Albanian population will have to prove its willingness to rebuild a multiethnic society before Kosovo's final status can be decided.
For the Serbs in Kosovo and their 22 elected representatives in the new Kosovo government, returns are the key to their existence in Kosovo.
"We lived with our Albanian neighbors before the war, and we can do so again," Pantic recalls. But he says he is not sure how they feel about him.
Although the few Albanians who live in Pantic's village were told of the Serbs' visit and encouraged to greet them, none did.
Mihane Halitaj, who stayed in her back yard, says she was frightened when she saw the Serbs arrive. "I am scared because they caught me here in my house three years ago," says Halitaj. "They beat my husband and killed his brother." Though Mrs. Halitaj says she does not know if her tormentors were the Serb Army or her Serb neighbors, she makes no distinction between the two. "I can never live with them again," she says. "I am still so afraid."

U.N. Prosecutors Giving Terrorism Evidence to U.S.

By Colum Lynch

Special to The Washington Post - Wednesday, May 29, 2002

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 -- U.N. war crimes prosecutors have been providing the United States with evidence of international terrorist activities they come across during their investigations, according to senior U.S. and U.N. officials.
Officials declined to characterize the nature or quality of the evidence. But the assistance underscores the deepening cooperation between U.N. agencies and the United States on anti-terrorism matters since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The assistance has alarmed some U.N. officials, who fear it may feed a perception that the United Nations is an instrument of U.S. military and foreign policy. They voiced concern that the assistance may compromise the United Nations' efforts to establish democracy in such places as Bosnia and endanger the lives of U.N. employees, particularly in the Middle East, where they would make an easy target for Islamic militants.
Carla Del Ponte, the United Nations' chief war crimes prosecutor for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, presented Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, with a folder of confidential documents in October on Bosnia-based Islamic extremists with suspected links to international terrorists, the officials said.
"During our investigation, obviously, we collect . . . information that can be used in the fight against terrorism," Del Ponte said. "We transmit all the information we have to the United States."
The United Nations suffered a blow to its reputation for impartiality in 1999. The Clinton administration acknowledged that U.S. officials serving in the U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq had passed on intelligence on President Saddam Hussein's internal security arrangements to the U.S. government.
U.N. officials managing or serving in U.N. peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, Asia and the Balkans said they have struggled to strike a balance between passing on information that could be valuable in tracking down members of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups and avoiding the appearance of being tools of the United States.
U.N. human rights officials have charged that U.N. police monitors helped undermine the Bosnian judiciary in their pursuit of suspected terrorists. In a highly publicized case, U.N. police monitors participated in the transfer by Bosnian police of six Algerians to U.S. authorities in January.
Madeleine Rees, the Bosnia-based representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the U.N. police commissioner participated in the transfer of the Algerians despite a court order barring their removal from Bosnian soil because of a lack of evidence.
"The rule of law was clearly circumvented in this process," Rees said. "The need to combat terrorism in all its forms is necessary and legitimate. It must not, however, be done in such a manner that everything is held hostage to that necessity."
The U.N. police mission in Bosnia was established by the 1995 Dayton peace accord to help create a democratic, multiethnic national police force in Bosnia.
A U.N. spokesman in Bosnia, Stefo Lehmann, said the mission has no formal anti-terrorism role. But he said it has monitored Bosnian police counterterrorism efforts, including a March 19 raid on the offices and homes of members of the Benevolentia International Foundation, an Islamic charity.
Other U.N. sources suggest that the war on terrorism has diverted scarce resources from U.N. police operations in Bosnia, weakening their capacity to combat other criminal activities, including organized crime and the enslavement of women sold into prostitution.
"Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack, the [U.N.] mission was forced to give priority to activities, which are beyond its original mandate," said a confidential report by the United Nations' chief anti-corruption watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight. "The search for Muslim fundamentalist networks and alleged supporters of Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda has reduced the attention given to human trafficking."
The United States and Britain are examining other ways to enlist the United Nations' global network of peacekeepers, police and development workers in the anti-terrorism war, according to U.S. and British officials. Britain heads a U.N. committee that is organizing an international response to terrorism.
Some senior U.N. officials say it is impossible to sit on the sidelines in the war on terrorism. They note that the U.N. Security Council has passed two counterterrorism resolutions since Sept. 11 ordering member states to tighten their borders, share intelligence and rewrite their laws to demonstrate that they are making a serious effort to pursue terrorist groups and crack down on their financing.
U.N. personnel, the officials said, have an obligation to honor the spirit of those resolutions, particularly in countries in which U.N. organizations exert enormous influence.
"While one has to be careful that the United Nations is not seen as a tool of U.S. security policy, the U.N. gains legitimacy by associating itself with the war on terrorism," said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor who serves on a panel advising the United Nations on its role in the war on terrorism. "The goals of terrorists are so fundamentally in opposition to the basic principles of the U.N. charter and international law."
In Kosovo, where a U.N. bureaucrat rules the Yugoslav province and U.N. police enforce its laws, the organization has embraced its obligation to comply with the council's order. Michael Steiner, the U.N. administrator in Kosovo, said he has signed a new anti-terrorism law designed to strengthen the province's capacity to battle potential threats from international and domestic terrorists.
"The 11th of September has of course had very concrete repercussions in Kosovo," he said. "We don't have indications . . . that [international] terrorism has come to Kosovo, but it's not to be excluded that this might happen if we are not vigilant."