10 November 2003 Afternoon Edition

Kosovo News

· "Revolt of the Sqiptars" (Der Spiegel)

Regional News

· Serbia seen heading for parliamentary polls soon (Reuters)
· Key presidential candidate urges opposition not to boycott Sunday elections (AP)
· New Renault? No thanks; I'd rather keep my AK-47 (Daily Telegraph)

· Belgrad - Pavkovic will sich nicht dem UNO-Tribunal stellen (APA)

Der Spiegel

Balkans: In northern Greece, militant Albanians are preparing for armed conflict. Their declared aim is to create a Greater Albania. It has long ceased to be a secret that the architects of Greater Albania are also training their sights on Hellas. Already, Greek media are warning of the danger of a rebellion. Macedonia's moderate former president Kiro Gligorov has predicted that if Kosovo should gain independence "a war in the region" would be very probable. The "Albanian National Army" (ANA) is the driving force behind the Greater Albanian project, which was declared a national goal back in 1995 at a secret meeting of the UCK.

Serbia seen heading for parliamentary polls soon

By Fredrik Dahl

BELGRADE, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Early parliamentary elections in Serbia looked likely on Monday after a party holding the balance of power in the ruling coalition said it would vote with the opposition in a no-confidence vote against the government.

``The End,'' a headline in the daily newspaper Blic said above a picture of pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic flanked by his ministers.

The government came to power after pro-democracy reformers ousted Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 after a decade of wars in the Balkans and Western sanctions. The reformers have since split in acrimony, trading accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing.

Their feuding and personal rivalries have slowed Western-style economic and political change in one of Europe's poorest countries.

The head of the Social Democratic Party at the weekend further weakened the ruling DOS bloc by saying the party's 10 deputies in the 250-seat assembly should support an opposition motion of no-confidence in the government.

Party leader Slobodan Orlic said elections were the only way to stop what he called the undignified agony in parliament.

``DOS no longer exists,'' daily Danas quoted him as saying. ``I propose that we withhold any further support to the Serbian government.''

The Serbian parliament is scheduled to resume debating a no-confidence vote next week. Both the opposition conservative Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the opposition Radical Party have submitted motions of no-confidence in the government.

Zivkovic, who replaced leading reformer and close ally Zoran Djindjic after he was assassinated in March, has come under increased pressure to agree to elections before they are due by the end of 2004.

The disparate DOS coalition, whose narrow parliamentary majority has gradually been eroded, is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss calling a ballot. Some media have speculated the polls could be held by the end of next month.

Opinion polls say Zivkovic's Democratic Party, the DSS led by ex-Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and the liberal G-17 Plus party would be the biggest parties after an election.

None of them is expected to secure a majority on its own, setting the scene for a coalition between at least two of them.

``We expect a decision about new elections,'' said a Western diplomat. The government was unable to implement key reforms. It is time to try and create a new parliament situation.''

``There is a risk we will have a three-party coalition which will be difficult to govern,'' the diplomat said.

Government officials initially dismissed demands for early elections but have recently said they did not fear the ballot box.

The Balkan republic holds a presidential election next Sunday but analysts say it may fail, as it did twice last year because voter turnout did not reach the required 50 percent.
The DSS and G-17 Plus are boycotting the vote, saying only a general election can end a deepening political crisis.

Key presidential candidate urges opposition not to boycott Sunday elections

By JOVANA GEC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ The front-runner in this week's presidential elections in Serbia on Monday urged two key opposition leaders to give up their planned boycott and instead help the elections succeed.

The ruling coalition's candidate, Dragoljub Micunovic, wrote letters to his two former allies-turned rivals, appealing that they drop their planned boycotts and instead ``encourage'' followers to vote Sunday. At least 50 percent of voters must cast ballots for the result to be valid.

Two presidential elections last fall were annulled because of too low turnouts. Observers fear that Sunday's vote also could fail because of the opposition boycott and widespread voters' apathy fueled by political instability, slow reforms and reports of corruption among top government officials.

``Serbia has been without the president for too long,'' Micunovic said in the letters to former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and Miroljub Labus, the leader of the G17 party. Both have declared boycotts of the Sunday ballot, insisting that general elections should be held instead. Kostunica won most votes in the two failed elections.

The presidential post has been vacant since Milan Milutinovic stepped down in January, but parliament speaker Natasa Micic has served as the acting president.

Also Monday, the opposition called on Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic to dismiss the parliament and schedule early general elections after his government lost support of a key ally and appeared to have lost its majority in the Serbian parliament.

Zivkovic's Cabinet _ which is Serbia's first democratic government since World War II _ faces a no-confidence motion in the assembly initiated by supporters of former President Slobodan Milosevic's party and other nationalist parties.

Zivkovic, who is in China, had no immediate comment to the Social Democrats' withdrawal from the government. The party has 10 deputies in the 250-seat parliament, and its support was crucial for the ruling coalition. It was unclear when any early elections would be held. The regular ones are due next fall.

Micunovic, a veteran politician who has often served as mediator between the feuding factions within Serbia's reformist bloc that ousted Milosevic in 2000, faces an ultra nationalist as the main opponent on Sunday. Candidates from three minor parties are also running.

New Renault? No thanks; I'd rather keep my AK-47

Daily Telegraph

The weapons amnesty in Macedonia is failing despite a handsome offer - the chance to win a new car. Neil Barnett reports from Skopje

The last time that the people of Macedonia were offered a weapons amnesty, one man turned up in an armoured personnel carrier that he had made off with during the 2001 conflict between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians.

This time around, the citizens have proved more reluctant to hand over their hardware. The authorities in this Balkan country are offering a handsome bribe: give us your illegal AK-47 and you will be entered in a lottery to win a new car or a computer. Yet it seems people would rather bristle with guns than drive away a mint Renault Clio.
In the town of Veles, 35 miles south of the capital Skopje, the mayor proudly displays 29 surrendered "sporting guns" which turn out to be rusting air rifles. In the first two days of the amnesty, only one other firearm - a pistol - had been turned in.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Skopje, at another of 123 collection points, a pristine Second World War-vintage Schmeisser sub-machinegun testified to the excellence of German engineering some 60 years after the Third Reich was defeated in Yugoslavia.

Johan Buwalda, of the UN development programme in Macedonia, defended the lottery scheme, launched last week. "For many people, a weapon is a major investment - perhaps they have sold a goat to buy it," he said. "We have to compensate them for that."

Although the former Yugoslav republic was spared the inter-ethnic violence that devastated the Balkans in the early 1990s, it came close to civil war a decade after independence.

After the violent 2001 uprising, ethnic Albanian rebels agreed to lay down their arms in return for greater rights. Many people fear that they will still need their weapons either if fighting resumes between the Albanian and Macedonian communities, or if violence flares up between Albanian nationalists and the police, as it did in September.

"I won't be handing in my guns. Why should I?" asked a shopkeeper in Skopje. "No one knows what will happen to Macedonia. The prizes are c**p too."

The interior minister Harri Kostov marked the start of the collection programme by handing in his own hunting rifle and pistol in front of television cameras. Others handing over illegal weapons were reluctant to speak to anyone, especially the press.

Paul Eavis, director of Saferworld, a foreign affairs think-tank, said that the collection programme was not without risk because of the recent violence, but believed that the lottery scheme would at least boost awareness of illegal weapons. "In countries like Bosnia, where collection has gone on for years, you get to a saturation point where most of those who are willing to surrender weapons have already done so," he said.

"The most important thing is to address underlying security concerns by promoting community-based policing, for example, so members of both ethnic communities feel sufficiently secure to give up their weapons." Weapons are an accepted part of Balkan life but the amnesty has been welcomed by the international community.

The US and Nato are keen to bring a sense of normality back to Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, where the 400-strong military monitoring mission will end next month.

Belgrad - Pavkovic will sich nicht dem UNO-Tribunal stellen

Der frühere jugoslawische Generalstabchef Nebojsa Pavkovic hat die Möglichkeit ausgeschlossen, sich dem UNO-Kriegsverbrechertribunal freiwillig zu stellen.

Belgrad (APA) - Gegenüber einem lokalen serbischen TV-Sender berief Pavkovic auf seine Militärausbildung berufen. In Militärschulen habe er gelernt, sich nicht zu ergeben, präzisierte Pavkovic.

Der frühere Generalstabchef war zusammen mit drei weiteren Generälen im Oktober der Kriegsverbrechen im Kosovo angeklagt worden. In der serbischen Regierungskoalition besteht angesichts der offenbar nahenden vorgezogenen Parlamentswahl zur Zeit keine Entschlossenheit, die Angeklagten an das UNO-Tribunal auszuliefern. Man befürchtet, dass sich dies auf die Wahlergebnisse negativ auswirken könnte.

Der serbisch-montenegrinische Rat für Zusammenarbeit mit dem Haager Tribunal, der unter Vorsitz von Außenminister Goran Svilanovic wirkt, hat am letzten Freitag keinen Standpunkt zur Tribunalsanklage gegen die vier Generale bezogen. Einer der Angeklagten, Polizeigeneral Sreten Lukic, bekleidet weiterhin das Amt des stellvertretenden serbischen Innenministers.

Ein weiterer Polizeigeneral - Vlastimir Djordjevic - ist seit fast zwei Jahren spurlos verschwunden und wird in Russland vermutet. Pavkovic befindet sich seit Juni des Vorjahres im Ruhestand, der frühere Kommandant des Pristina-Korps, Vladimir Lazarevic, ist ebenfalls nicht mehr im aktiven Militärdienst.