YUGOSLAVIA APPLAUDS MACEDONIAN PEACE AGREEMENT

BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Hina) - Yugoslavia has welcomed the signing of a framework peace agreement concluded by Macedonia's authorities and ethnic Albanian representatives. According to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Belgrade regards this peace accord as a starting point for the settlement of problems and crises in the region by political means. Belgrade also gives "firm support" to the incumbent Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and says that "crucial responsibility lies with the international community" in the coming period. This responsibility refers to a role of the international community in ensuring conditions for the implementation of the agreement and for the respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of border lines. FRY asks international factors to implement relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, prevent terrorism and violence and completely disarm all "terrorist and extremist groups of Albanian," the statement reads. Belgrade also insists on the correction of an omission made in Article 78 of Annex A to the Ohrid document entitled "Constitutional Amendments" as they fail to mention Serbs in Macedonia. The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry states that the omission of Serb or any other ethnic community (from those proposed amendments) serves the goals of those who would like to reduce the multiethnicity of some Balkan countries to bi-ethnicity. The ministry concludes that Serbs in Macedonia, who account for over two (2) percent of the population "are resolutely against any kind of Macedonia's division." (hina) ms