YU VICE-PREMIER: BILL ON COOPERATION WITH ICTY MIGHT BE WITHDRAWN FROM PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

BELGRADE, June 19 (Hina) - Yugoslav Vice-Premier Miroljub Labus said on Tuesday there was a possibility that a bill on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia might be withdrawn from parliamentary procedure. "Withdrawing the bill would be a much better option than turning it down," Labus told Belgrade's radio B-92. According to Labus, the failure to adopt the law could have "serious consequences for Yugoslavia, because it would mean that the country is refusing to fulfil its international obligations." Labus therefore believes a "somewhat" better solution would be to withdraw the bill from parliamentary procedure after which the Serbian parliament would regulate cooperation with the ICTY with a law. Serbia will have to take over responsibility for cooperation with the ICTY should the law not be adopted on the federal level, Labus said. Serbia's ruling coalition (DOS) will try to find a model and take over responsibility for cooperation with the ICTY on its own, said Nada Kolundzija, spokeswoman for the Democratic Alternative (DA), one of the 15 coalition partners. Kolundzija said her party would share responsibility with other partners for cooperation with the Hague-based tribunal. She stressed that the issue of cooperation with the ICTY was a question of "the country's future." "However, should the law on cooperation with the ICTY not be adopted, there will be an objective possibility of an accelerated process of the country's disintegration," she added. (hina) rml