SERBIA-MONTENEGRO FUTURE CONSTITUTIONAL CHARTER ON OCT. 23

BELGRADE, Oct 8 (Hina) - The Constitutional Commission in charge of drawing up a constitutional charter for the new Serbia-Montenegro community will next convene on Oct. 23, following presidential elections in Serbia and extraordinary parliamentary ones in Montenegro, Commission co-chairman Bosko Ristic told Beta news agency on Tuesday. #L# The Constitutional Commission states the only contentious issue is the election, direct or indirect, of representatives to the future community's parliament. The media, however, on Tuesday also pointed to the issue of borders, namely if they will be guarded by the Yugoslav Army or the two republic's police forces, and the fact that the draft charter does not envisage the existence of the military judiciary. Supreme military prosecutor Nikola Petkovic slammed the latter point and the fact that experts were not consulted. He said that almost every country had the military judiciary, and that only this judiciary was active throughout Yugoslavia's territory. According to "Danas" daily, former Supreme Military Court judge Jovan Buturovic maintains the abolishment of the military judiciary is a "mistake". He claims the jurisdiction of military courts should be reduced, but only after "the state and the army, as well as the circumstances in the neighbourhood, have stabilised, as one never knows if some new military conflict might occur." There are three military courts of first instance in Yugoslavia, in Belgrade, Nis, and Podgorica, as well as the Supreme Military Court as an appellate institution. (hina) ha