BELGRADE, June 28 (Hina) - The ruling coalition - DOS - in Serbia and at the federal level (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) has split over a decree on the cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal and over the issue whether
early elections should be called at all levels. During a news conference on Thursday, a senior official of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), at the helm of which is the incumbent Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, asked for early elections and asserted that it was one pledges the DOS had given before the last elections. Three opposition parties - Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj and the Party of Serb Unity (SSJ) of the late Zeljko Raznatovic alias Arkan - on Wednesday asked for early elections and signed their joint statement about their request. In addition to its insistence on the early ballot, during this cri
BELGRADE, June 28 (Hina) - The ruling coalition - DOS - in Serbia and
at the federal level (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) has split
over a decree on the cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal and
over the issue whether early elections should be called at all
levels.
During a news conference on Thursday, a senior official of the
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), at the helm of which is the
incumbent Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, asked for early
elections and asserted that it was one pledges the DOS had given
before the last elections.
Three opposition parties - Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia
(SPS), the Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj and the Party of Serb
Unity (SSJ) of the late Zeljko Raznatovic alias Arkan - on Wednesday
asked for early elections and signed their joint statement about
their request.
In addition to its insistence on the early ballot, during this
critical moment for the ruling coalition, DSS of Kostunica said it
would run for the election on its own or in coalition with the
Movement for Democratic Serbia, led by a former chief-of-staff of
the Yugoslav army, General Momcilo Perisic,
Perisic was in absentia tried in Croatia for his involvement in the
shelling of the coastal town of Zadar and sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
Adding fuel to the flames, DSS senior official Miroljub Ljesnik, on
Thursday also refuted a possibility that a former Yugoslav
president, Slobodan Milosevic, would be extradited to the ICTY,
explaining that the cooperation with this tribunal was not
something of which Belgrade should be proud.
"A campaign about the cooperation between Yugoslavia and ICTY is
disgusting, while the unearthing of refrigerator trucks (with
victims' corpses) is not morally justified, as at the same time such
things are not done by the other side," Ljesnik said.
In this context, he tried to draw parallels with other war events,
claiming that nobody should forget "500 Serb corpses in Banija
(Croatia), or Serb corpses in Suva Reka (Kosovo), or crimes
committed against Serbs in the war harbour of Lora in Split."
(hina) sb ms