The election of a one-time royalist has Yugoslavia's would-be king preparing to set up shop in Belgrade

Alexander Karadjordjevic is hoping for a mid-life career change. At 55, he has served in the British army and worked in advertising, insurance brokering, banking and consulting. He seems to have done well for himself — his office suite in London's exclusive Mayfair district is discreetly elegant, his gray suit impeccably tailored. But despite his experience and qualifications, the position Karadjordjevic wants most has thus far eluded him.

Karadjordjevic, or HRH Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, as his business card identifies him, was born to be king. Problem is, by the time he was born, in a Claridge's hotel suite that Britain's wartime government declared Yugoslav territory for the occasion, his country had dispensed with its monarchy. Alexander has lived his entire life in peripatetic exile. He attended schools in Switzerland, the U.S. and Britain, and, forced to earn his living rather than reign for it, has worked in cities as far-flung as Rio de Janeiro and Chicago. He speaks English with an accent that is more American than British, and his fluency in Serbian is limited. "I could speak it better," he concedes. "You've got to perfect it by going home."

With the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic and the election of Vojislav Kostunica, who in the past has expressed support for the restoration of the monarchy, Alexander's chance for some long-term language immersion is not the wild dream it might once have seemed. He looks for inspiration to King Juan Carlos, who served as a unifying figure in Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy. "The King really contributed, being a neutral person," says Alexander. "I think you need someone who will defend and make sure that the constitution is being followed, and gently nurse things along."

As Alexander tells it, he has already demonstrated his credentials for the role of benevolent constitutional monarch by helping to lay the foundation for Yugoslavia's transformation to democracy. "I've been deeply involved with the democratic opposition," he explains. "I contributed to their coming together in three conferences which I convened." According to Alexander, he succeeded where international mediators had failed. "I convened the whole lot, the entire cross-section of the opposition." Now that democracy has taken root in Yugoslavia, Alexander is confident that "the monarchy can contribute to stability, unity and continuity." Will it have the chance?

Having waited so long for this propitious moment, Alexander knows it would be pointless to try to rush things. "This is a process you cannot throw at people," he cautions. He is noncommittal when pressed on the timetable for a restoration, insisting that for the moment the focus must remain on more urgent matters. "The main issue, now that democracy has arrived, is aid," he says.

On a visit last month to Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the election, the most recent of a number of trips since he was first allowed to set foot on Yugoslav soil in 1991, Alexander pointedly avoided the former royal palaces and estates he hopes eventually to recover. "I never went to see them. The issue now is people." Foreign journalists especially, Alexander says, tend to fixate on the material accoutrements of kingship, asking "'What about the crown, the jewels, the gold?' Well there's no gold, there are no jewels, there's no money. There are feelings and there's symbolism and there's history and there's hope. The monarchy is close to the people."

In cities like the monarchist bastion of Cacak, thousands of people did turn out to greet Alexander during his latest trip to Serbia, as they have in the past, but the royalist bandwagon is far from full. Many Serbs still see him as a curiosity, and the results of a recent opinion poll sponsored by Belgrade's Institute for Social Studies indicate that fewer than 8% would welcome the restoration of the monarchy. "I'm sure he is a nice person, but he doesn't even speak the language properly," says Belgrade housewife Jelena Milosavljevic. "Anyway, Serbia needs to move forward, not backward in history."

President Kostunica, who in 1992 joined an opposition coalition with a platform that included the return of the monarchy, greeted Alexander warmly but said nothing about restoration. "The return of the monarchy is simply not on the agenda," says Milan Milosevic, political analyst for the weekly newsmagazine Vreme. The best Alexander can hope for, Milosevic believes, is restoration of his Yugoslav citizenship and the return of some royal properties. "He would always be welcome in Serbia, and there will always be some people who will treat him like a real king, although they don't take his title very seriously."

Naturally, Alexander sees things differently. "My roots are very deep in the country. The name Karadjordjevic, if you remove the title, is deeply rooted in the country's history of nation building. I decided to use the name for the good of the country, the respect of all religions, all ethnic groups, human rights, democracy."

In the democratic euphoria that followed Milosevic's defeat, such noble sentiments are on many lips but will prove difficult to translate into policies. Alexander agrees that Milosevic must face justice for his alleged crimes but, like Kostunica, thinks this should be meted out by national courts, not the war-crimes tribunal in the Hague. As for the secessionist push in Montenegro, Serbia's sole remaining partner in the Yugoslav federation, "if you put it to the people there today they may not want to secede. They would like to be Montenegrins, but they don't want to be their own state." Besides, he adds, his family may have ascended Yugoslavia's throne via Serbia, but "you're looking at Montenegrin blood. I'm also a descendant of King Nikola of Montenegro." Similarly, in the semi-autonomous province of Kosovo, Alexander glosses over ethnic divisions: "Kosovo is close to the hearts of the Serbs, and that must be taken into account. And the residents who live there have every right to live there."

Fellow aspiring monarch Leka Zog of Albania, who fled his country with his family in 1939 when he was three days old, views Alexander's restoration to the Yugoslav throne as "a better choice than that of Mr. Kostunica. Alexander would be more amenable to negotiations and discussions on Kosovo." But despite their shared royal heritage, Leka Zog, who lists his occupation as "king" on his passport, sees Kosovo as "a wall to come between us. Should the Albanians in Kosovo decide to unite with Albania, then I shall fully support them." His pledge is not just talk. In 1997 he attended a rally wearing military fatigues and brandishing an Uzi, and last year he was arrested on arms-related charges in South Africa. His chances of recovering his family's throne seem even more remote than Alexander's. In a 1997 referendum on the restoration of the monarchy, 35% of the population voted in favor. But in recent municipal polls the monarchist party mustered only 2.5% of the vote.

Another man in Alexander's position may have put it best. "An exiled king is a rather pathetic figure, often the butt of injustice and easy jokes," Simeon of Bulgaria mused in a Time interview some years back. "I have tried to live a normal life and with dignity." While they wait for the ultimate job offer to come through, the monarchs-in-waiting of the Balkans could do worse than follow that advice.

— With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic / Belgrade and Anthee Carassava / Athens

Kosovo Elections a Walk in the Park Compared to U.S. Saga

P R I S T I N A, Yugoslavia, Nov. 20 — In the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, people are implying, if not outright claiming, they have a better electoral system than the one at the center of the U.S. presidential saga.

On Oct. 28, Kosovo held its first free democratic election in more than a decade. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe organized and ran the election, which was widely acclaimed.

Now, Kosovars and foreigners in the province are saying maybe the OSCE could have played a role in the U.S. vote.

Kosovars, and non-U.S. foreign nationals in the province, question how it is possible for a leader to be elected without winning a majority of the popular vote. Many people were asking for an explanation of the Electoral College system of voting.

I was embarrassed to find that as a U.S. citizen living and working in Kosovo, I could not explain the Electoral College or its history without doing some research.

Once explained, Kosovars and others responded that the Electoral College appeared to be undemocratic and should be abolished.

The Kosovo election was not a presidential or parliamentary election. It was a municipal election — a vote to choose local leaders to oversee and implement measures to deal with key local issues such as garbage removal, road reconstruction, electricity and water.

The elections for municipal councils was also widely seen as barometer of the popularity of leaders intent on bringing independence to the province.

More than 75 percent of all Kosovars who were registered to vote, voted.

Some waited in line for more than four hours just to exercise their right to vote. And now, Kosovars are perplexed by the recent U.S. presidential election.

Baffling Variety of Ballots

In Kosovo there was one ballot and every Kosovar who voted used a pen to mark his vote, folded it up and put it in a box. How is it, many asked, that people all over the United States voted on different ballots and some electronically, some by punching a hole in a paper ballot and some by pen and paper ballot?

There was only one set of rules about what constituted a valid or invalid ballot and those rules were applied uniformly. Kosovars cannot understand why the United States permitted such disparity in ballots and voting procedures.

The Kosovo votes were counted by hand and national and international observers watched. Having observed the hand counting of ballots that lasted until 2 a.m., I admit it was probably not the most reliable process to be developed, but it had significant merit.

The polling supervisor (after consulting with international observers) had the final word as to which ballots were invalid and not to be counted. In addition to the international observers, observers from the political parties were present for the count and would have objected to and reported any irregularities.

Political and international observers were present for the entire election process and would have objected to and reported any irregularities. How is it possible that no one in the United States objected to the vote during the polling process but now there are all these after-the-fact legal challenges is another question being asked?

And even more compelling is the question: How can one of the newest and least sophisticated democracies hold a free, fair election with no substantial disputes over the process and outcome when the United States — the role model of democracy — cannot get it right?

As an American citizen, I find it all a bit embarrassing. The United States is supposed to be the ideal of democracy. When I think about my experience as an international observer of the Kosovo elections and what the United States can learn from it, I do not dwell on the process.

The process in Kosovo was unsophisticated, time consuming and primitive — but it worked.

When I think about why it worked, I can’t help but think it was because Kosovars valued their right to vote. They wanted the process to work and were willing to do whatever it took to participate in a free and fair election.

I saw people walk miles to the closest polling station, stand in line for hours outside the polling station, including an old woman who brought her 12-year-old grandson with her to read her the ballot because she could not.

And I can’t help but wonder if all the U.S. citizens now so concerned with the outcome of the presidential election actually voted — there would be such a crisis and so many questions about the democratic process surrounding the presidential election

Nov. 20 — The offices of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron lie behind heavily fortified steel doors. Inside, posters show cheerful tourist-board scenes of Scandinavia. But the pictures do little to boost morale among the small collection of "peace observers" from eight European countries who watch fighting intensify daily in the nearby streets of this West Bank city.

THEY FIRST TOOK UP their "temporary" residence in 1994, after Brooklyn-reared Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians praying at a mosque in a shrine shared with a Jewish holy site. At the time, that incident seemed a dangerous obstacle to the Oslo Process that had just begun. It was hoped that after a few years, peace would make the observers unnecessary. Instead, war is making them irrelevant.

Or is it? The TIPH, as the observers are called, represent an important precedent in a conflict where both sides justify their actions on the basis of history. Since the beginning of the current violence, one of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat’s main goals has been to bring in more international observers, even international forces. He wants them to stand between his people, some of whom are lightly armed, and Israel’s heavy guns.

When the 56-member Islamic Conference met in Qatar early last week, Arafat got symbolic support for such United Nations protection. The Palestinian leader spent much of his recent meeting with Bill Clinton lobbying for the United States to back, or at least not to block, an international force. Arafat made the rounds of the U.N. Security Council to sing the same tune. And last week, according to The Washington Post, Israeli and Palestinian representatives began secret meetings in New York to discuss the question.

As the Palestinian death toll rises well above 200, Arafat’s aides repeat the need for international involvement like a mantra. "We insist on sending international forces to the Palestinian territories and Israel’s approval is not a precondition for the Security Council to take such a decision," proclaims Nasser Kidwa, the Palestinians’ representative at the United Nations. "Our proposal is fixed and the aim is the protection of Palestinian civilians."

Publicly at least, the Israelis, backed by Washington, have refused to budge on the issue. They think Arafat has in mind what one U.S. diplomat calls "The Kosovo Model." As more and more Palestinians die in the lopsided battle with Israeli troops, pressure builds in the international community to force Israel to accept an international presence in the West Bank and Gaza. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismisses the Kosovo analogy as "ridiculous," but stays on message. "We tell the Israelis ‘Why don’t you bring in an international force, a mobile force that can move around and monitor?’" he says. "They don’t want this because they want to continue their 33-year policy of laying siege to Palestinians, of intimidating Palestinians and occupying Palestinian land."

The new observers might behave much as those from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) did in Kosovo during the late ’90s. Although militarily impotent, they could document rights abuses, call massacres massacres, perhaps downplay the role of lightly armed guerrillas, and eventually, by a very long and improbable stretch of the imagination, they might pave the way for a more "robust" international force. Then, behind the cover of U.N. troops, Arafat would do what he regularly threatens to do: make a unilateral declaration of statehood. Last week, for want of such protection, he let another of those self-imposed deadlines pass.

The Israelis are not the Serbs. Barak is not Milosevic. The whole scenario is far-fetched at best, brutally cynical at worst. And that fact is not lost on Arab observers, although few are inclined to question it publicly. "All this to get—where?" asked one Jordanian political scientist. "Where Arafat would have been at Camp David." But the crucial difference, said the same academic, is that this time "he won’t be giving it away."

Americans and Israelis may think Camp David was a great chance for Arafat. But from the broad Islamic, Arab and Palestinian perspectives, it was never a sweetheart deal: a patchwork Palestine criss-crossed by Israeli roads and Israeli checkpoints, with Israeli fortified enclaves scattered throughout, not only as hilltop settlements, but around religious shrines and schools in the middle of major Palestinian cities. Yes, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was willing to talk about concessions on Jerusalem, but they fell far short of what the Islamic world believed was its due. And to gain what was discussed (not promised) on Jerusalem, Arafat would have had to surrender all further claims on the city, along with the hope of the Palestinian diaspora to return some day to what is now considered Israel proper.

When Arafat rejected Camp David, other Arab and Islamic leaders counseled patience and the path of peace. But he had every reason to believe, based on past experience, that they would denounce him, undermine him and quite literally stab him in the back if he accepted the Camp David terms.

Now the situation is clearly evolving. Arab and European leaders have found it impossible to sit on the barbed-wire fence. They may not give Arafat much more than lip-service and a little cash, as happened at the recent Arab and Islamic summits, but his back is no longer so vulnerable. If he cuts a deal written in blood, Islamic leaders are in no position to second-guess it. As a Lebanese pollster said privately, "He gets to compromise, but he doesn’t legitimize the deal. He leaves open for future generations the possibility to claim their rights."

Meanwhile, Palestinian violence is growing more disciplined and more concentrated, focusing on settlements and settlers. Gilo may be a suburb of Jerusalem, and its residents may or may not be ideologues, but under international law it is still seen as a settlement. Snipers and drive-by shooters hitting settler cars on the highways of the West Bank and Gaza will make those roads—and the strategy of building and defending them—increasingly tenuous. Politically, the Israeli public has never been sympathetic to the ideological settlers, and may well decide that it’s time cut them loose. Militarily, some Israeli commanders see a parallel with the Israeli Defense Force’s unhappy experience in south Lebanon.

"What we’re seeing here is the ‘Lebanonization’ of the territories, in which the IDF travels only in convoys, only uses armored vehicles, checks for roadside bombs and is constantly on alert," one senior Israeli military source told Newsweek. "The territories have become a new Lebanon. The Tanzim [Arafat’s militias] speak like Hizbullah: ‘We’ll plague you until you leave.’"

Arafat’s announcement last week that he had ordered a ceasefire in Area A—the 60 per cent of Gaza and 20 per cent of the West Bank he fully controls—was greeted without enthusiasm by the Israelis. They know his militias have been armed, trained and organized precisely to operate outside that zone. Their actions may or may not be modeled on the Kosovo Liberation Army, but their needs are similar: to shield civilians if they can, but also to maintain a certain level of violent provocation. By suffering repeated retaliations from a much stronger force, they open the way for international intervention.

So the TIPH observers in Hebron could be the shape of things to come. They are unarmed. They write detailed reports, which pile up on the desks of Palestinian and Israeli military commanders. They "provide a platform of discussion" between the warring parties, says a spokesman. They provide...a precedent.

Last Friday, three Palestinians in Hebron were shot to death by Israeli soldiers. A spokesman for the Jewish settlers in the heart of the city described "shooting as usual" by Arab snipers and demanded that the Israeli army "recapture the hills surrounding the Jewish neighborhoods and clean out the terrorist nests." The Italian and Norwegian observers, meanwhile, have been putting on puppet shows to promote reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. It would be enough to make you laugh, if there weren’t already so many reasons for tears.

ABROAD AT HOME: The State Department

For an isolated Balkan state roughly the size of Connecticut, the republic of Montenegro has commanded more than its share of attention from policymakers in Washington.

In the waning years of Slobodan Milosevic's rule, U.S. officials feared Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation might become the next victim of Milosevic-style Serbian nationalism. To prevent that, they bucked up Montenegro's independent-minded president, Milo Djukanovic, with aid and moral support--and warned Milosevic of dire consequences if he threatened Djukanovic's government.

But Serbia's democratic revolution, which drove Milosevic from power in early October, has changed that calculation. And now the Clinton administration has explicitly warned Djukanovic to ease up on his quest for Montenegrin independence or face a cutoff of American aid--angering a key Republican lawmaker who says the threat is tantamount to betrayal.

During a visit last month to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, top Balkan envoy James C. O'Brien made clear to Djukanovic that continued delivery of U.S. aid--slated to reach $89 million this year--depends on his willingness to avoid "unilateral" steps to break away from Serbia, according to a senior administration official. U.S. officials fear that such steps could undermine Milosevic's successor, Vojislav Kostunica, whom they regard as the best hope yet for restoring stability in the Balkans and promoting its integration with Europe.

Djukanovic, though eager to stay on good terms with his American patrons, has also given them cause for alarm by proposing that Montenegro and Serbia occupy separate seats in the United Nations, according to an Oct. 27 letter he wrote to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Montenegrin sovereignty, Djukanovic wrote, "is . . . the foundation . . . of our initial proposal to President Vojislav Kostunica, namely the proposal that acclaims the relationship of Montenegro and Serbia as an alliance of two internationally recognized states." A copy of the letter was obtained by The Washington Post.

The administration's efforts to rein in Djukanovic have angered Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, who underlined his opinion by delaying $10 million in U.S. aid to Serbia.

A McConnell aide says the senator also is resisting efforts by administration officials to block money for customs training and central bank reform in Montenegro, which the administration fears could be construed as supporting independence.

"McConnell supports whatever the Montenegrins want to do and doesn't believe that the United States should blackmail them into a course of action inconsistent with their aspirations," the senator's aide said.

Administration officials reject that characterization. They note that even during the Milosevic era, the administration repeatedly warned Djukanovic against pursuing independence on the grounds that Milosevic would use it as an excuse to intervene in Montenegro. To pursue that goal now that Kostunica is in power, a senior official said, runs the risk of putting the Yugoslav president "in the position of the guy who lost Montenegro."

In any event, the official added, Djukanovic and Kostunica already seem well on their way to a mutually acceptable solution: They have agreed to begin discussions in January about the nature of future relations between the two republics, including the possibility of a national referendum on Montenegrin independence.

"What we'd like to see is a democratic, transparent process, and the process seems to be underway between the two," the official said.

Montenegro wants independence, but still open to Serbs: Djukanovic

BERLIN, Nov 21 (AFP) - Montenegro President Milo Djukanovic told a NATO parliamentary assembly Tuesday that his country insisted on independence but would have open borders, free of passports or visas, with Serbia.

"There will be no visas, no passports ... all of the potential of Montenegro will be available to the people of Serbia," Djukanovic, his neck still in a brace from a car accident, told members of parliament from NATO's 19 states meeting at the parliament building, the Reichstag, in Berlin

The meeting was also attended by deputies from other countries including Russia.

Djukanovic said the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo and the peaceful change in power from Slobodan Milosevic last month had been positive developments in Yugoslavia but unfortunately "the problem of Serbia and Montenegro has been sidelined."

Serbia and Montenegro are the two remaining states in rump Yugoslavia but, said Djukanovic, Montenegro runs itself and is de facto independent and wants full and legal separation from Serbia.

NATO and Western countries back new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and have said they will not now support Montengro's claims.

"The criticism is that there has been enough new border drawing in the Balkans," Djukanovic said, but he said no new borders would have to be drawn.

He said Montenegro has sent three proposals to Belgrade on getting together to discuss "how we view this relationship but so far we have not received a single reply from Serbia."

He said Montengro was ready to "wait for the institutionalization of democratic change in Serbia," an apparent reference to legislative elections in Serbia in December.

"After that we will try to find an agreement," Djukanovic said. "We will not rush into this," he said in answer to a question from a NATO parliamentarian from the Netherlands about whether Montenegro would push ahead quickly on its own on a referendum on independence.

Djukanovic said he did not think the new "political elite" in Serbia would misuse power as Milosevic did, such as in corrupting the army.

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called Tuesday for the setting up of the European Union's new rapid reaction force to be "transparent and clear," after holding talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"What is important however is to ensure that everything that is done is transparent and clear. It is not our intention either to block or interfere with it, or to encourage it," Putin told reporters at a press conference.

The European Union announced Monday that it was pledging a total of 100,000 troops, some 400 warplanes and 100 warships to an EU rapid reaction force.

The force was mandated by the 15 EU member states at their Helsinki summit last December, and is expected by early 2003 to be ready to jump into Kosovo-like trouble spots within 60 days and remain there at least one year.

Putin said the two leaders had discussed the EU defence force during their talks at the Kremlin on Tuesday.

"The prime minister has in a detailed way outlined his philosphy. Everything that is done is done with a purpose of maintaining stability in Europe and the world. We can completely go along with this approach to very sensitive issues," Putin said.

Montenegro will not "sit behind Kostunica" at EU-Balkans summit: aide

ZAGREB, Nov 21 (AFP) - Montenegro will participate at the forthcoming EU-Balkans summit only on an equal basis to Yugoslavia since it does not consider itself as a part of the Yugoslav federation, an aide to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic told a Croatian daily Tuesday.

"It is out of the question to sit behind (Yugoslav leader) Vojislav Kostunica," Miodrag Vukovic, Djukanovic's aide for internal politics, said in an interview with Vjesnik daily.

Podgorica recognizes Kostunica "as a political figure of the new Serbia, but we can not legitimate him as the president of the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) since we do not consider ourselves as a part of that state," Vukovic said.

"We will not sit in the delegation and applaud that president," he stressed.

Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation, refuses to recognize the new federal government and has asked for separate representation at the Zagreb summit.

Both Montenegro's leadership and almost two-thirds of the population boycotted the September presidential elections that brought Kostunica to office.

Zagreb said last week that an invitation for the summit was sent to Djukanovic via Kostunica's office.

Djukanovic also warned last week he would agree to attend the summit only on condition Podgorica take part as an equal participant.

Yugoslavia has not yet officially confirmed its participation at the Friday's summit in Zagreb, Miona Sevcik, Croatia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, told AFP Tuesday.

The summit is to gather the EU member states, the countries established after the break up of the former Yugoslavia -- Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and present-day Yugoslavia -- and Albania.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) _ Outgoing U.N. refugee chief Sadako Ogata on Tuesday urged countries that accepted Kosovo refugees to avoid rushing them home, saying the situation in the separatist province remains unstable.

``Kosovo is still recovering,'' Ogata said. ``It's probably not in an emergency situation but it's recovering from an emergency situation that requires step-by-step reconstruction.''

Ogata, making one of her last stops as the head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the ethnically divided province still posed logistical problems for ethnic Albanians and safety problems for Serbs.

``We would like to see the absorptive capacity not pushed to the brink. ... Send them back gradually,'' she said during a joint news conference with Sweden's Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Maj-Inger Klingvall.

Ogata said the U.N. agency was still hoping to achieve a multiethnic Kosovo but recognized that would take time and said the security of Serb, Roma and other minorities could not be guaranteed.

``Right now for the Serb population of Kosovo to return I would say is very dangerous,'' she said. ''``We think Serb people of Kosovo should return in principle ... At the same time the security situation in Kosovo is one in which we should exercise enormous caution.''

Ogata retires at the end of this year after 10 years in the post. She will be replaced by Former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers.

She pointed to many successes of the agency, including the return of refugees in Mozambique and Central America, but she regretted the lack of progress in Africa and Afghanistan.

``These are very painful experiences that I will hope and trust that my successors will continue,'' she said.

Ogata also was meeting with King Carl XVI Gustaf and other Swedish officials during her two-day visit ending Wednesday.

After ouster, Milosevic plots political comeback

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Six weeks after handing over power, Slobodan Milosevic is still living comfortably in his posh villa, recuperating from the shock of his ouster from the presidency and plotting a political comeback.

Socialist Party officials say Milosevic has been encouraged by the new government's inability to curb Yugoslavia's economic slide as well as simmering public discontent with the new pro-democratic leadership and bickering among the forces that ousted him.

``Milosevic is not giving up politics,'' said Zoran Lilic, who resigned last month from the Socialist Party. ``Milosevic is considering his best possible survival options, and counting on things going downhill'' for the democratic movement that ousted him.

Milosevic's allies say the former president is devoting much of his time to planning for Saturday's congress of his Socialist Party. Moderates plan to use the session to try to unseat Milosevic as party leader.

However, Milosevic hopes to retain control. ``Milosevic is seeing many people,'' said the party's general-secretary, Zoran Andjelkovic. ``Many people communicate with Milosevic personally or over the phone. Milosevic is communicating with the outside world directly. I can assure you that.'' He would not elaborate.

On Monday night, a confident-looking Milosevic made his first TV appearance since conceding electoral defeat on Oct. 6, urging his party comrades to stay united because they are the only ones who can save Yugoslavia from breaking up.

Several other Socialist Party officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Milosevic has recovered from the shock suffered when crowds rioted in Belgrade after the disputed September election, forcing him to concede defeat to Vojislav Kostunica.

With Kostunica refusing to extradite Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the former first couple has shelved plans to flee the country. Instead, Milosevic and his wife, Mirjana Markovic, have been seen strolling hand-in-hand in the garden of the white brick house on Uzicka Street in the capital's Dedinje district, where they moved weeks before he was ousted.

In some ways, their life is not so different from the final months of his rule, when the president rarely ventured out in public. He and his wife are guarded by a paramilitary force of some 100 loyal, well-armed troops, commanded by his longtime personal bodyguard, police Gen. Senta Milenkovic.

Their daughter Marija is staying with them, while son Marko, who has been linked to several murky business deals, is believed laying low in Russia after he was turned back from entering China shortly after his father's downfall.

The Milosevic home is in a complex of renovated villas near what had been his official residence until it was destroyed by NATO bombs last year. The villa has a spacious living room with white sofas, green marble walls, small bedrooms upstairs and a large grassy garden planted with roses and pine trees.

When the former first couple do venture out, it is in secret, using small cars with tinted windows, officials say.

Those who claim to have seen Milosevic recently say the former strongman insists he never lost to Kostunica at the polls, but was forced out in an ``illegal and violent street coup.'' He has convinced himself that he stepped aside to spare the nation from bloodshed.

His wife, a member of an elite communist political clan, curses army and police generals who refused to use force against demonstrators.

According to party insiders, the Milosevics are pinning their hopes on the country's deteriorating economy _ which critics blame on his disastrous economic policies and nearly a decade of international sanctions.

He hopes that as Yugoslavs struggle through a winter of power outages, no heat and soaring prices, they will again take to the streets _ this time against the new leadership. In the meantime, Milosevic expects the 18 parties that form Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia will break apart because of internal bickering.

That may not be so far-fetched. There are signs that the Kostunica coalition may unravel after the Dec. 23 elections in Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia, because of increasingly public infighting between its leaders over numerous economic, political and other issues.

Among those issues is Kostunica's refusal to arrest Milosevic or to replace secret police chief Rade Markovic and army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic. Kostunica said he considers U.N. tribunal anti-Serb. He insists firing Markovic and Pavkovic would threaten internal security.

Markovic, who is no relation to Milosevic's wife, commands the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, Milosevic's crack troops in the Balkan wars. Pavkovic, despite his declaration of loyalty to Kostunica, is considered by some opposition leaders as unreliable since he had been among Milosevic's strongest supporters.

``Without Milosevic's arrest and the removal of Markovic and Pavkovic, we are faced with an unfinished revolution and a real danger of the former dictator's comeback,'' said Velja Ilic, a Kostunica ally.

Zagreb summit will spotlight Balkans' ``road to Europe''

Brussels (dpa) - European Union leaders will map out a ``road to Europe'' for western Balkan nations at a first-ever summit between the two regions in Zagreb this week, E.U. officials said Tuesday.

Leaders from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia attending the November 23-24 Zagreb meeting will be offered a 4.6-billion-euro (3.9-billion-dollar) E.U. aid package and a ``vision for closer integration into mainstream Europe,'' they said.

``In return for a closer commitment to sustained reform, regional cooperation and respect for democratic standards and international obligations, the E.U. is offering these countries a road to Europe as potential candidates for membership,'' one official said.

The E.U. denied suggestions that its focus on stepped-up cooperation in the region was aimed at ``recreating the old Yugoslavia''.

But the 15 nation bloc could not promote its own trade with the Balkans if nations in the region did not trade freely with each other, the officials stressed.

E.U. leaders will use the Zagreb gathering to highlight their commitment to spend up to 4.6 billion euros in reconstruction and development efforts in the region over the period 2000-2006.

An aid package of 200 million euros, taken out of the total, has been earmarked for newly-democratic Serbia. Total E.U. aid to the Balkans since 1991 is estimated at 5 billion euros.

In another move to speed up the region's development, E.U. foreign ministers agreed on November 20 that the European agency set up last year to fund reconstruction in Kosovo would now extend its operations to Serbia and Montenegro.

The E.U. is expected to conclude negotiations on a so-called ``stabilisation agreement'' with Macedonia on November 22, just ahead of the Zagreb summit.

The deal will be initialled in Zagreb while negotiations on a similar agreement will open with Croatia.

E.U. leaders in Zagreb will also highlight the Union's recent decision to eliminate quotas and tariffs on 95 per cent of farm and industrial goods exported by the Balkan states.

Berlin (dpa) - Europe's military capability is falling behind the United States, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said on Tuesday.

While both the U.S. and the European Union (EU) were the key pillars of the alliance, Robertson told the annual meeting of NATO parliamentarians in Berlin that Europe spent only 60 per cent of what the U.S. spends on defence and about one quarter of what the U.S. spends on defence research.

But Roberton said Europe has ``no where near 60 per cent of what the U.S. capacity is.''

``We all have to do better,'' Roberston told the NATO Parliament assembly. ``All allies must have the same capacity,'' he said.

``A two-class NATO will not work,'' Robertson said, adding that there had been signs of progress in Europe with EU defence budgets having stopped falling.

He said that it was ``scandal'' that Europe ``could only scrape together'' a force of about 40,000 people to help out in Kosovo, which has been the scene of NATO military action last year to end the aggression launched by the ousted Milosevic regime in Belgrade.

``Kosovo shone a harsh light on how much work remains to be done'', said Robertson.

``The E.U. has finally heard that wake-up call,'' he said. The NATO chief said everyone agrees that the transatlantic relationship will remain healthy in the future ``only if Europe takes on a fairer share of the burden for maintaining that security''.

Earlier German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the parliamentarians that an independent European defence policy would not weaken the NATO alliance.

Schroeder said that ``a close and continuance agreement between NATO and the European Union in all security questions was undeniable.''

Robertson said a stronger European capability was also a logical evolution in Europe's development.

``It simply makes sense for a Europe that is as rich as the United States, and that has common goals in peace and security, to be able to back up its words more effectively with deeds.

``For all of these reasons, the development of European capabilities makes sense.

``It will make Europe a better partner for North America in preserving Euro-Atlantic security - and ensure that no resentments about burden-sharing distract us from working together towards our common goals,'' he said.

By the year 2003, Europe wants to have the capability to deploy about 60,000 troops, within 60 days of the order being given, and that that force should be able to remain in the field for at least one year.

Europe, Robertson said, had set itself an ambitious military target and had reinforced the point that in building a European security and defence policy ``it must also deliver the means''.

Robertson said NATO supported the development of Europe's capacities because the EU's efforts at improving its capability would enhance NATO's overall effectiveness.

This also means that if the EU is capable of acting, it means NATO won't be the only option available to the Euro-Atlantic community in times of crisis. It won't be ``NATO or nothing,'' he said.

UNHCR urges caution in resettling Kosovo refugees

STOCKHOLM, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo seeking asylum in Europe should be returned slowly so as not to strain the country's capacity to absorb them, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

For ethnic Serbs who had fled the province, however, the situation was still too dangerous, visiting High Commissioner Sadako Ogata told a news conference, adding that Kosovo had the least stable refugee situation in the Balkans.

``The protection needs of the Albanians are minimal, and for those who came to European countries we will not oppose their return on protection grounds,'' Ogata said.

``However, Kosovo is recovering from an emergency situation and the absorptive capacity is still very limited. We would like to see it not pushed to the brink, so they should be returned step by step and gradually,'' she said.

Ogata, who is retiring at the end of the year after 10 years as refugee high commissioner, referred to an estimated 200,000 Serbs and other minorities who fled Kosovo after Yugoslav forces withdrew in June last year.

United Nations authorities took over in Kosovo in mid-1999 after NATO bombing forced Yugoslav security forces to halt a purge of separatist majority ethnic Albanians, and withdraw.

``There followed an outflow of Serbs and Roma minorities, and we didn't want one group of persecuted people to be replaced by another,'' Ogata said.

``In principle we want the minorities to return, but we should exercise enormous caution,'' said Ogata, who will be succeeded as UNHCR by Dutch former prime minister Ruud Lubbers.

Sweden is one of several European Union (EU) countries where Kosovo Albanians were granted temporary asylum from the purges, but many refugees are now reluctant to go back.

Only 30 people recently turned up for a flight which Sweden had arranged to take 140 of the several thousand Albanians back to Kosovo.

Ogata paid tribute to Sweden's commitment to the funding and political support of the U.N. refugee agency ahead of the six-month Swedish presidency of the EU council of ministers.

``We have a lot of expectations with Sweden taking over at this juncture. Europe is where the tradition of humanitarian protection and support started,'' Ogata said.

Maj-Inger Klingvall, Swedish minister for Migration Affairs, said the government was prepared to raise its present annual contribution to the UNHCR of 370 million Swedish crowns ($36 million), and hoped that other countries would follow suit.

ZAGREB, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Beyond the smiles and handshakes, this week's European Union summit in the Balkans will highlight how difficult it is to reconcile a region where claims and counter-claims have a habit of long outliving wars.

While the public comments will probably focus on the opportunities for cooperation brought by the retreat of the nationalism that tore old Yugoslavia apart, there could be some tough exchanges behind the scenes.

Unresolved issues that could come up in conversation include compensation claims by Croatia and Bosnia against Yugoslavia for the conflicts of the 1990s, demands for apologies for the same, and the disputed status of Kosovo and Montenegro.

Finally, there is the issue of war crimes and demands by all Yugoslavia's neighbours that suspects, notably its former leader Slobodan Milosevic, be handed over as a condition for receiving the aid the EU is expected to pledge.

The meeting will be the first time the reformist successors of Milosevic and the region's second most notorious leader, Croatia's Franjo Tudjman, get a chance to size one another up. What they make of each other may be key to the region's future.

The fact that Pavle Jevremovic, foreign policy adviser to new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica served Croatian leader Stipe Mesic in Socialist Yugoslavia should help. But relations between the two titans of Tito's federation are far from easy.

ZAGREB SEEKS APOLOGY

In the run-up to the summit, Zagreb has made clear it expects Belgrade to apologise for the onslaught by Yugoslav troops and Serb paramilitaries loyal to Milosevic after Croatia declared independence in 1991.

``This act would have a political and psychological value and would help our future communication,'' Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told Reuters last week.

But Kostunica has ruled out what he calls ``unilateral statements and imposed apologies,'' recalling World War Two when Croatia was ruled by a pro-fascist Ustasha regime that flung Serbs, Jews and Gypsies into deadly concentration camps.

``The things that have happened in the past 10 years cannot be explained only with these 10 years, there is a prior history, there is 1941,'' he told Serbian State television.

A landmark visit by Croatian businessmen to Serbia last week showed that despite such history, trade along the almost deserted former ``Brotherhood and Unity'' highway between the two former Yugoslav republics can be revived.

But the lack of signs on the Croatian side pointing to Belgrade and the strict visa regimes each side imposes on the other also show their governments too, must learn to cooperate.

The start has been inauspicious. Earlier this month, Zagreb accused Belgrade of not respecting its sovereignity when Serbia's minister for Serbs outside Serbia made an unannounced visit to Serbs in Croatia and complained about their treatment.

Kostunica encountered a similar response in Bosnia when he announced plans to visit a Serb-controlled area without first going to Sarajevo.

The international officials trying to reconcile Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and Croats after the 1992-5 war eventually persuaded him to make a stopover in the Bosnian capital.

But the fact that the Croat and Muslim members of Bosnia's tripartite presidency had not congratulated Kostunica on his election victory made the task that much harder and may have left some bad blood.

DIPLOMATIC TIES

Bosnia had hoped to establish diplomatic relations with Belgrade before the summit and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic will go to Sarajevo on Wednesday to discuss ties. But Bosnia has played down the prospect of an early move.

``According to some indications from Belgrade, the new government is still not ready for that and we are not satisfied with such a development,'' Bosnian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hajrudin Somun told Reuters in Sarajevo on Monday.

Western officials hope any remaining problems can be overcome by the summit and are also looking for a resumption of ties between Yugoslavia and another summit participant, Slovenia, to give the region a positive boost.

The future of Kosovo is also an issue which could reopen the Pandora's Box that unleashed the recent bloody conflicts.

Bernard Kouchner, who heads the United Nations mission in Kosovo, has said the summit would be a good opportunity to start talks with Kostunica on the province, whose overwhelmingly Albanian population has long insisted on independence.

Kostunica is likely to insist on a greater role for Belgrade in the province, pointing to the Serb part of Bosnia, where international officials condemn separatist tendencies and insist on central rule from Sarajevo.

Macedonia and Albania, the other two countries at the summit, will also be watching any Kosovo talks closely.

Macedonia is worried about stability among its own restive Albanian minority while Albania will be looking for signs that Kostunica is prepared to free Kosovo Albanian prisoners.

At a previous Balkans summit in October most of the regional tensions were kept under the carpet. But Albanian President Rexhep Meidani broke the mould, urging Kostunica to condemn Milosevic's ``anti-democratic and chauvinistic regime.''

ATHENS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia's new foreign minister Goran Svilanovic said on Tuesday he wanted to open diplomatic relations with Bosnia and work with Albania to ease the situation in Kosovo.

Speaking after a meeting in Athens with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, Svilanovic said Yugoslavia, which was at the centre of ethnic Balkan wars throughout the 1990s, would now respect the region's boundaries.

``We want the new government of Yugoslavia to be a guarantor of the territorial integrity of our neighbours,'' he said.

Svilanovic was to go to Bosnia on Wednesday where opening diplomatic relations was to be on the agenda along with the Dayton peace agreement that established a Moslem-Croat federation and Serb republic in the former Yugoslav republic.

``I'll go to Sarajevo tomorrow to discuss Dayton and to extend full diplomatic relations with Bosnia Herzegovina,'' Svilanovic said.

It was not clear whether diplomatic relations would be restored during Wednesday's meetings in Sarajevo or whether the process towards them would begin.

A Bosnian foreign ministry spokesman indicated earlier this week that Sarajevo wanted to open relations but that Belgrade might delay.

``According to some indications from Belgrade, the new government is still not ready for that (diplomatic relations) and we are not satisfied with such a development,'' the spokesman said.

Svilanovic said that establishing ties with Bosnia would be done while ensuring that Belgrade's close links with Bosnia's Serb republic remained.

Since Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica took office last month, Belgrade has sought to improve relations both with Western governments that allied againt it in last year's Kosovo war and with former breakaway republics.

The Tanjug state news agency quoted the government's information division on Monday as saying Yugoslavia would establish ties with Slovenia.

On Friday, it restored diplomatic relations with the United States, Britain, France and Germany that had been broken off in March 1999 at the start of a 78-day NATO air war against Yugoslavia over its repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Slivanovic said he also wanted to improve relations with Albania in part to ease tension in Kosovo, a Serb province now administered by the international community.

Belgrade wants Serbs from Kosovo to return.

``Albania has a particular influence on the Kosovo Albanians,'' he said. ``We want to create conditions in Kosovo for those who left to come back.''

Opponents scorn Milosevic's re-emergence

BELGRADE, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic's political opponents on Tuesday heaped scorn on his defiant first television appearance since he was forced to quit as Yugoslav president.

After more than a month without any public or television appearances following the mass uprising which ousted him, Milosevic was shown on state television on Monday night galvanising party colleagues for a congress this weekend.

In excerpts of an apparently feisty speech to members of his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Milosevic denounced his political enemies and appealed for unity at the congress set for Saturday.

The speech, and its airing on television, appeared to be a clear signal Milosevic intends to continue as leader of the party and has no intention of leaving politics, as Western governments who blame him for four Balkan wars have demanded.

The reformist Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) alliance, whose candidate Vojislav Kostunica won September's presidential election, attacked Milosevic for claiming it had hatched a plot to reduce the Yugoslav economy to ruins.

OPPONENTS COUNTER-ATTACK

``We are convinced that Serbia's citizens will confirm their determination at the forthcoming elections to have a modern, open and prosperous state,'' the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS), one of the parties in the DOS, said in a statement.

Parliamentary elections have been called in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, for December 23.

``The GSS maintains that the scenario of destroying the economy mentioned by Milosevic was thwarted the moment he and his Socialist Party were ousted from power,'' said the party, which is led by new foreign minister Goran Svilanovic.

Milosevic insisted that if his party, the successor to the League of Communists which ruled Yugoslavia for more than four decades, was unified it would perform well in the elections.

Opinion polls give the Socialists little chance, with some putting their percentage support barely in double figures.

Milosevic's rivals said Monday night's appearance looked like a power play by Milosevic to keep hold of the party and use the office of its leader as a shield to protect him from investigations and possible prosecutions.

``My feeling is that he wants not only political survival through staying in charge of the SPS, but also to avoid being held accountable for all the things that, in my belief, he is responsible for,'' said Nada Kolundzija, vice president of the Democratic Alternative party.

STILL PULLING STRINGS

Milosevic has been indicted by a U.N. court on Kosovo war crimes charges but Serbian politicians have suggested putting him on trial at home for corruption and electoral fraud during more than a decade in power.

Although Milosevic has not been seen by the general public since conceding defeat to Kostunica on October 6, he is reported to have been attending party meetings and taking an active role in preparations for the congress.

One newspaper, Vecernje Novosti, reported on Tuesday that Milosevic had completely rewritten a 31-page draft declaration for the congress after it was submitted to him.

Several prominent Socialists have quit the party in the last few weeks to form new parties. They have accused Milosevic of trying to crush internal dissent at the congress.

``Milosevic can't reconcile himself to the fact that there are people whose time, however powerful they were at one moment, passes forever,'' said Borisav Jovic, a former close ally who split with his patron years ago and has co-founded a new socialist party.

TIRANA, Albania, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Albania's government will represent the interests of ethnic Albanians from Macedonia and Kosovo in a Balkan summit next Friday, the Albanian foreign minister said Monday.

"We will express the interest of all Albanians in the Balkans," said Foreign Minister Paskal Milo after a meeting with Imer Imeraj, leader of Macedonia's Prosperity Democratic Party.

Friday's meeting will gather regional leaders in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

"We agreed that Albania has to represent the Albanian interest in the Balkans," Imeraj told reporters.

Albania's voice would "represent and protect the interest of all Albanians, whether or not they are in our borders," he added.

He said this was not a move toward a so-called Greater Albania, but a push toward peace and stability in Macedonia and Kosovo.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

KOSOVAR LEADER CALLS ON WEST TO STAY IN BALKANS...

Ibrahim Rugova told a meeting of Balkan leaders and U.S. diplomats in Dayton to mark the fifth anniversary of the Bosnian peace accords that NATO and the UN should remain in Kosova in order to guarantee regional stability. Rugova said on 18 November: "We urge for those forces to stay there maybe forever. In the future [they] may have a different role, [such as serving as] a presence in the region with bases in Kosova [rather than as peacekeepers]. I consider the presence of NATO there as [a precondition for] our independence," AP reported. He added that "it will take quite some time" before Kosova and the Balkans can ensure their stability without outside help, according to Reuters. PM

...PLANS NEW ELECTIONS

Referring to the 28 October local elections, in which his Democratic League of Kosova won control of 21 out of 30 municipalities, Rugova said in Dayton on 18 November that the vote "proved that the people of Kosova are capable of governing [themselves] successfully, in cooperation with the international community." He added that Kosovar leaders "are [soon] going to organize national elections, presidential and parliamentary elections that will make it possible for the institutional [political] framework to be complete," Reuters reported. PM

KOSOVARS FIRM ON INDEPENDENCE

Speaking at the Dayton conference on 18 November, Rugova and former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci called on Belgrade to free the at least 700 Kosovars held in Serbian jails. The two men stressed that the new Belgrade leadership's policy on Kosova is no different from that of Milosevic, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 November 2000). Rugova and Thaci added that Kosovars are determined to win independence. PM

HOLBROOKE, PETRITSCH CITE BOSNIAN PROBLEMS. U.S.

Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke said in Dayton on 17 November that "as long as Bosnia has three armies, as long as refugees can't return home, as long as corruption remains rampant and unchecked, as long as press freedom is threatened, and as long as dangerous and divisive war criminals are allowed to run free, then the potential of [the] Dayton [accords] will remain unfulfilled," AP reported. Wolfgang Petritsch, who is the international community's high representative in Bosnia, argued that "five years after Dayton, taxpayers in our countries are running out of patience. We need to tell the Bosnian politicians they need to do the job [of implementing the accords]... That is the reason why I am pushing, cajoling, threatening, [and] dismissing public officials. We need to get the Bosnians to take on ownership of their problems and resolve them in a spirit of compromise in a true democratic way. That is what is still lacking." PM

DAYTON CONFERENCE CALLS ON SERBIA TO SEND MILOSEVIC TO HAGUE

Organizers of the Dayton conference issued a declaration on 18 November in which they called on the international community to make future support for Serbian and Yugoslav membership in international institutions contingent upon Belgrade's extraditing former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague. The participants also urged the strengthening of central political and economic institutions in Bosnia and the extradition of indicted Bosnian Serb war criminals Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic to the Hague-based tribunal. An additional recommendation from the conference included allowing the citizens of Montenegro to determine their own political future. Participants also urged the international community to set a deadline for resolving the political status of Kosova, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

CROATIAN PRESIDENT WANTS FORMER YUGOSLAV GENERALS IN THE HAGUE

Speaking at the Dayton conference on 19 November, Stipe Mesic called on the Hague-based tribunal to launch war crimes proceedings against former Yugoslav generals Veljko Kadijevic and Blagoje Adzic for their involvement in Milosevic's war in Croatia in 1991, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He made his remarks after a discussion with Carla Del Ponte, who is the tribunal's chief prosecutor. The previous day, Mesic called on Belgrade to distance itself from Bosnian Serb nationalists. He noted that Zagreb has told the Herzegovinian Croats that they are part of a Bosnian "entity and not a [sovereign] state." PM

DJUKANOVIC OPTIMISTIC ON INTERNATIONAL BACKING FOR MONTENEGRO

After returning from the Dayton conference, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said in Podgorica on 19 November that his proposal for the future of Serbian-Montenegrin relations received "great understanding" in Dayton, Montena-fax reported. Djukanovic called for the international community to simultaneously recognize both Serbia and Montenegro as sovereign states, which will then consider setting up federal relations between themselves in a limited, unspecified number of areas. Djukanovic said that his discussions with unnamed U.S. and other foreign leaders led him to conclude that his country continues to enjoy the backing of Washington and the international community. PM

KOSTUNICA SETS CONDITIONS FOR SERBIAN VOTE

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica told a meeting of his Democratic Party of Serbia in Belgrade that the Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition has his permission to use his name on its lists in the 23 December Serbian elections provided that it meets two conditions. The first is that all coalition members support the continuation of the federation between Serbia and Montenegro and agree that the future of that federation cannot be decided by the leaders in Belgrade and Podgorica alone. The second condition is coalition members agree that political changes in Serbia must come about only by legal means, "Vesti" reported on 20 November. PM

ALLIES DESERT FORMER SERBIAN LEADER

Zoran Lilic, who was formerly a close associate of Milosevic, said in Belgrade that the former leader should leave politics and retire, AP reported on 19 November. Lilic recently quit Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) to form his own Serbian Social Democratic Party. On 18 November, four prominent Socialists resigned from the party to protest its failure to transform itself into a democratic organization. Three other party leaders resigned from the committee that is preparing for the SPS's upcoming congress, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Nationalist political philosopher Mihajlo Markovic, who is one of the three, said that the party's top leadership lacks any basic understanding of democratic practice and is "divorced from reality" in its thinking, "Vesti" reported. PM