30 October 2003 Afternoon Edition

Kosovo News

· Security Council to discuss Kosovo (B92)
· MPs back changes to Kosovo Constitutional Framework (Beta)
· Kosovo MPs look to increase powers (B92)
· Displaced from Kosovo-Metohija need help (Serbian Government)

Regional News

· Zivkovic, Schroeder at Serbian stand in Hanover next year (Tanjug)
· Germany prepared to back up European integration of SCG (Tanjug)
· Djindjic murder suspects said to be in contact (Vecernje Novosti)
· Milosevic's allies to raise funds for his defense at U.N. tribunal (AP)

NEW YORK -- Thursday – The United Nations Security Council in New York is to hold a debate today on the UN-governed province of Kosovo.

Belgrade has asked that Security Council members discuss the adopted policy of “standards before status”, whereby certain conditions must be in place in the province before any discussion of its final status. Nebojsa Covic, the head of Belgrade’s Coordination Centre for Kosovo, said members needed to agree on the criteria for assessing whether the standards of a democratic society have been met.

“Our key approach is to do with ‘standards before status’ and the implementation of these standards”, said Covic.

Kosovo’s prime minister has criticized the fact representatives of the interim institutions will not be attending the session. Nevertheless, Bajram Rexhepi said he expected the Security Council to adopt a strategy for implementing the eight standards, which will “speed up the resolution of Kosovo’s final status”.

MPs back changes to Kosovo Constitutional Framework (Beta)

PRISTINA -- Thursday – MPs in Kosovo have agreed to form a working group to draft amendments to the Constitutional Framework defining the distribution of powers in the UN-governed province.

Serb deputies voted against the proposal during today’s parliament sitting.

A statement said the working group would make “substantial changes to the Constitutional Framework in order to institutionalize the will of the people in Kosovo”.

Kosovo Albanian MPs say the changes are necessary for the transfer of powers from the United Nations mission to the local institutions to continue. More than four years since the arrival of the UN, they are frustrated at the slow transfer of authority. But for the changes to stand they must be rubber-stamped by the UN Security Council.

Kosovo MPs look to increase powers (B92)

PRISTINA -- Thursday – Parliament in Kosovo is to debate today a proposal to alter the Constitutional Framework setting out the distribution of power within the province.

The proposal was put forward by the parliament’s Legislative Committee and the Kosovo government, who say that the changes are necessary for the transfer of powers from the United Nations mission to the local institutions to continue.

Kosovo Albanian leaders have become frustrated with the slow transfer of authorities from the province’s UN mission, but for the changes to stand they must be rubber-stamped by the UN Security Council.

Oliver Ivanovic, the Serb member of the Kosovo parliament’s presidency, said the proposal was aimed at providing the province with elements of statehood.

“The Albanian majority has been insisting on this in parliament for some time now, intent on expanding the authorities to include a judiciary, police force, defence and foreign affairs”, he told B92. Ivanovic said that Serb members of parliament would vote against it.

Displaced from Kosovo-Metohija need help

Serbian Government

Belgrade, Oct 29, 2003 - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Nebojsa Covic said at a donor conference for the province held on Wednesday that there are more than 200,000 displaced persons from Kosovo-Metohija in central Serbia, and that Serbs and other non-Albanians continue to leave the province.

Opening the donors' conference for Kosovo-Metohija, which was attended by 30 ambassadors to Serbia-Montenegro, representatives of international organizations and businessmen from Serbia, Covic said that it is necessary that the displaced get their property back once they have returned to the province, as well as guarantees for safety of living and full integration into social life. Covic added that it is also necessary to define joint activities so as to ensure that a larger number of displaced person’s return to the province in 2004.

According to Covic, the displaced persons must have accommodation and be economically independent. The participants in the conference should set up a fund for encouraging employment in the small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as a fund for awarding scholarships to talented students from Kosovo-Metohija.

Covic urged members of the donors' conference to provide assistance in finding accommodation for 80 percent of the displaced persons in Serbia who are currently unprovided-for, and for health care of more than 23,000 people with serious health problems who are in need of permanent medical care.

Covic said that the Coordinating Centre requests assistance from the donors in line with the National strategy for resolving the issue of refugees and displaced persons, which was drawn up in cooperation with the international community.

Zivkovic, Schroeder at Serbian stand in Hanover next year

BELGRADE, Oct 30 (Tanjug) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said late on Wednesday, following his Belgrade talks with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic, that by way of state guarantees, Germany would ensure economic investments into Serbia and Montenegro (SCG), which, as he said, would certainly be realized.
Zivkovic qualified the German chancellor's visit as "the most important event in SCG this year," and pointed out that next year, Serbia would be a guest at the Hanover economic fair, at which both Schroeder and himself would be present at a Serbian stand.

Germany prepared to back up European integration of SCG

BELGRADE, Oct 30 (Tanjug) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in Belgrade late on Wednesday that Germany was prepared to back up the European integration of Serbia and Montenegro (SCG), since the state union's prospects were in its getting closer to the European Union, and pointed out that the next step to that effect would be a soon opening of Belgrade-Brussels talks on stabilization and association.
Following his meeting with SCG President Svetozar Marovic, Schroeder pointed out that, with a realized legal security of the investors, the official German agency for foreign investment insurance, Hermes, would guarantee German investments into Serbia and Montenegro.

Djindjic murder suspects said to be in contact (Vecernje Novosti)

BELGRADE -- Thursday – Two suspects in the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic have made contact with the authorities and are considering surrender, Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac has said in an interview published today.

“All I can say is that two people are trying to make contact, they have made some initial contact”, Korac, who led the government investigation into the murder, told Vecernje Novosti.

Zoran Djindjic was gunned down in Belgrade on March 12. More than 10,000 people were arrested in the police operation launched amid a state of emergency. 44 have since been charged with involvement in the killing, though 15 remain at large. They include Milorad “Legija” Lukovic, who the government says orchestrated the entire plot.

Korac claimed in the interview that there were indications Lukovic was still in the region, enjoying some form of “political protection”. By region, he said he meant from Athens to Budapest and from Bucharest to Ljubljana.

The deputy PM added that the man accused of pulling the trigger, Zvezdan Jovanovic, was the only sniper involved. He insisted that the findings of the Serbian and German experts were identical.

Djindjic’s bodyguard has cast doubt on the official version of events, saying he believes the shot that killed the premier did not come from the building where Jovanovic was positioned. Radio B92 reported last week that there were discrepancies between the report of the Serbian authorities and the findings of a German criminology institute brought in to help with the investigation.

Milosevic's allies to raise funds for his defense at U.N. tribunal

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Slobodan Milosevic's allies in Serbia have launched a fund-raising campaign for the former president's defense before the U.N. war crimes tribunal, a Milosevic party official said Thursday.

The announcement by Ivica Dacic, a deputy chairman of the Socialist Party, comes amid reports that Milosevic is running out of money to pay his legal advisers during the trial at the court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Milosevic, who is charged with genocide and other war crimes for his role in the Balkan wars in the 1990s, has rejected defense lawyers but hired three legal advisers to help him organize his own defense.

Daci said the funds collected from Milosevic's supporters at home will mostly be used to pay part of the expenses for the ``several hundred, maybe a thousand'' witnesses Milosevic plans to call up once his defense starts next year.

The U.N. judges at The Hague court have given Milosevic three months to prepare his defense once the prosecution wraps up its part of the trial by the end of this year.

Milosevic, who ruled Serbia for more then a decade before he was extradited to The Hague in 2001, is believed to have enriched himself during his rule. But Serbian media claim that his funds have been running low since he lost power in October 2000.