JOHNSTON: YUGOSLAVIA MUST MEET MORE CONDITIONS FOR ACCESS TO COE

BELGRADE, Sept 18 (Hina) - The president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Lord Russell Johnston, has said Yugoslavia has to meet many conditions for admission to the Council but thinks things are moving in the right direction. Talking to reporters on Tuesday at the end of a two-day trip to Yugoslavia, Johnston declined to say when Yugoslavia might be admitted to the Council of Europe but said the country was showing good will to become part of the democratic world. He applauded a motion for the abolition of the death penalty. Today Johnston met with President Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic. Talks addressed reforms in the justice and information system, regulating the status of universities, the protection of human rights, and overall democratisation, Kostunica's Office said in a statement. Svilanovic and Johnston agreed that, despite inherited difficulties, Yugoslavia was intensively working on adjusting its political and legal system to European standards. Johnson told the press he could not say which conditions Yugoslavia had to meet as he was unfamiliar with a report a team of Council of Europe legal experts drew up after visiting the country. Johnston did stress, however, that cooperation with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague was one of the conditions. Commenting on a reporter's remark that Croatia was admitted to the Council without having met all conditions, Johnston said he did not recall that any one country had to meet all conditions but that each was supposed to point them out as a prerequisite they would comply with over a certain period of time. (hina) ha