Subject: [ML-YU] SRJ (translation)
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 18:11:39 +0100 (CET)
From: Nemanja
Reply-To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TRANSLATION:
Agreement about redefining relations between Serbia and
Montenegro, signed by Solana, Kostunica, Labus, Djindjic, Djukanovic and
Vujanovic, represents the end of FR Yugoslavia. It's very clear that
Yugoslav federation is being abolished by order of Western imperialists
due easier accomplishment of imperialist interests in this area.
The establishing of proimperialist puppet government with
Kostunica by counterrevolutionary coup d'etat on October 5th, was not
enough for Western bourgeoisie, but they also felt an urge to break FRY
as an core around which, the working class could reunite and create and
antiimperialist and antiglobalist country. Also, the signing of this
agreement exposed the true proimperialist nature of Kostunica's,
Djindjic's and Djukanovic's regime and their willingness to obey all
orders from western governments.
Marxists-leninists of Yugoslavia will never accept this shameful
decision of Western imperialists and domestic bourgeoisie, and will
continue it's struggle for yugoslav idea. First step in renewal of
socialist Yugoslavia should be struggle for overthrowing of
proimperialist regime of Kostunica, Djindjic and Djukanovic, as well as
the proimperialist bourgeois regimes of Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia.
An firm struggle is also needed for expelling the NATO from Bosnia and
Herzegovina and from Kosovo, and for removal of quisling regimes
established by orders and with help of the West.
Imperialism maybe won a battle, but it's the reunited working
class of Yugoslavia who will win the war along with all the opressed and
exploited in the world.
DOWN WITH THE IMPERIALISM!
DOWN WITH THE GLOBALISM!
DOWN WITH THE REGIME OF KOSTUNICA, DJINDJIC AND DJUKANOVIC!
LONG LIVE YUGOSLAVIA!
G.V.
------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
From: goran vlajkovic
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 06:00:45 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [ML-YU] SRJ
Sporazum o redefinisanju odnosa Srbije i Crne Gore
koji su potpisali
Solana,Kostunica,Labus,Djindjic,Djukanovic i
Vujanovic,predstavlja kraj SR Jugoslavije.Sasvim je
jasno da se jugoslovenska federacija ukida po nalogu
zapadnih imperijalista,radi laksih ostvarivanja
prljavih imperijalistickih interesa na ovim
prostorima.
Zapadnoj burzoaziji nije bilo dovoljno to sto je
kontrarevolucionarnim pucem na vlast u Beograd
5.oktobra,postavila marionetski proimperijalisticki
rezim na celu sa Kostunicom,vec je osetila potrebu da
razbije i SRJ,kao jezgro oko koga bi se u buducnosti
mogla okupiti jugoslovenska radnicka klasa,i stvoriti
drzava koja bi imala antiimperijalisticku i
antiglobalisticku vladu.Takodje potpisivanje ovog
sramnog sporazuma pokazuje i pravu proimperijalisticku
prirodu rezima Kostunice,Djindjica i Djukanovica,i
njihovu teznju da slusaju sve naloge imperijalistickih
zapadnih vlada.
Marksisti-lenjinisti Jugoslavije nece nikada
prihvatiti ovakvu sramnu odluku zapadnih imperijalista
i domace proimperijalisticke burzoazije,i nastavice
svoju borbu za jugoslovensku ideju.Prvi korak u obnovi
socijalisticke Jugoslavije treba da predstavlja bitka
za zbacivanje proimperijalistickih burzujskih rezima
Kostunice,Djindjica i Djukanovica,kao i
proimperijalistickih burzujskih rezima u
Sloveniji,Hrvatskoj i Makedoniji.Takodje je potrebno
povesti i odlucnu borbu za proterivanje NATO
okupatorskih trupa iz Bosne i Hercegovine i Kosova i
zbacivane sa vlasti kvislinskih rezima uspostavljenih
uz pomoc i po nalogu zapadnih imperijalista.
Imperijalizam je mozda dobio jednu bitku,ali ce rat
sigurno dobiti jugoslovenska radnicka klasa u
zajednickoj borbi sa svim potlacenim i eksploatisanim
u svetu.
DOLE IMPERIJALIZAM!
DOLE GLOBALIZAM!
DOLE REZIM KOSTUNICA,DJINDJIC,DJUKANOVIC!
ZIVELA JUGOSLAVIJA!
G.V.
===*===
------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
From: petokraka78@...
Subject: Solana Destroys Yugoslavia
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---------------------------
[Today is a really sad day. Under the leadership of Javier Solana, the
same man who as NATO Secretary General led the illegal aggression on
Yugoslavia in 1999, the European Union has just brokered a deal to wipe
Yugoslavia off the world map in a top down processes that most Yugoslavs
reject. The deal was brokered between Solana, Milo Djukanovic (the
President of Montenegro), Zoran Djindjic (the Prime Minister of Serbia),
and Vojislav Kostunica (the President of Yugoslavia). Djukanovic is the
leader of the Democratic Socialist Party (DPS) in Montenegro, a
far-right neoliberal creation that is a regional hub for mafia activity,
cigarette smuggling and money laundering.
Elections in Montenegro have been deeply flawed and the DPS as well as
its junior partner the Liberal Union have used voter intimidation,
particularly of state employees to stay in power. The majority of
Montenegrins oppose indipendence, yet through manipulation and Western
support the DPS has managed to maintain a narrow margin over its closest
rivals the Socialist Peoples Party (SNP) [although the SNPs party base
is still firmly pro-Yugoslav and opposed to NATO, the leadership has in
recent months moved away from its grass-roots constituency as it has
moved with pro-Western forces in Yugoslavia on several key legislative
items]. Djindjic on the other hand is the un-elected Prime Minister of
Serbia who was appointed by a DOS dominated Parliament as a key
condition of Western aid to FRY. He has never held more than 5% of
popular support in the country, and his neoliberal views and particular
brand of collaborationist Serbian nationalism is sharply at odds with
the majority of the Yugoslav population. Nonetheless he has
unconstitutionally arrogated to himself all the powers of the elected
position of the Serbian Presidency, which is still held by the still
popular Socialist Party of Serbia. In any case support for the
preservation of Yugoslavia is overwhelming, and the current process is
being imposed from above opening the way for the final destruction of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's territorial integrity, and thereby
completing the US and German goal of destroying Yugoslavia once and for
all through a maximalist anti-Yugoslav program that would serve to
sharpen divisions between all southern Slavs in order to weaken the most
likely focus of resistance to NATO occupation of this imensily strategic
region. This move was also given the green light by the Federal
President Kostunica, whose popularity is dropping daily in the polls as
a result of mismanagement and impotence in the face of
daily NATO pressures to alter the whole framework of Yugoslav society
and impose a narrow-ethnic chauvinist and archly-capitalist social
framework on the countries peoples. Most parties have been compromised
on the issue of coloboration with the occupying powers and Yugoslavs
will not be given a choice to choose in a referendum between this new
Western created arrangement and the indigenously created FRY in a
plebistice. A new "Union of Serbia and Montenegro" (USM) is to be
proclaimed in accordance with US policy towards the region, which was
the only country not to recognize FRY as a sovereign state since it was
reconstituted in 1992, refering to it instead as "Serbia and Montenegro"
(a formulation in which the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo
were considered as semi-independent states as well). The official
American narrative on Yugoslavia's dissolution, regarding seccession
issues, is now being imposed in order to further divide and weaken any
potential resistance to NATO and to destroy the ability of anyone state
or people in the region to effectively resist the new colonial regime.
Thankfully this is still not a fait-accompli, but the new Western funded
elites have proven adept at passing unpopular laws in the past, such as
the new labour law which recently dismantled the "social ownership"
which was the foundation of property relations in Yugoslavia in favor of
a completely privatized system and retrenched substantial labour rights
severely despite mass-protests throughout Yugoslavia (ignored in the
Western press, these demos attracted 50,000+ people in Belgrade at their
peak earlier this year). This process is occuring in the context of an
election campaign in NATO-member Hungary were the ruling neoliberal
Fidesz party is continuing with "Greater Hungarian"
policies that seek to legally integrate Hungarian minorities living in
neighboring countries into Hungary's governing structures, reverse the
Benes Decress, some portions of the post-WWI Versaille order and the use
the Hungarian state with the full-backing of the EU, the United States
and NATO to implement neoliberalism abroad. Furthermore, the popular
LDK in Kosovo, whose non-violent leader Ibrahim Rugova is the most
popular figure in Kosovo, has, despite wining recent elections, been
forced by the US to accept a "power-sharring" agreement with KLA
extremists, including the appointment of Bajram Rexhepi to the position
of Kosovo PM. Rexhepi represents the most extreme current of Albanian
nationalism and is completely at odds with the majority of the Albanian
population whose moderate views are in accord with Rugova's LDK (which,
again, received the most votes in the recent elections).
Thus the United States is backing all the forces throughout the still
existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that favor fractious, narrow
ethno-nationalist politics, coupled with a strong comitment to
neoliberal capitalist values. As these injustices mount real Balkan
patriots will have to see that their interests lie in unity with other
ethnic groups and not division. All groups in the region have a proud
history of anti-fascist and anti-imperialist resistence, let's do
everything in our efforts to ensure that these traditions gain new wind
in the coming years. The task will be difficult, but resistance to
"the internationals" is already rife throughout
the region. I am confident it will over time, of necessity, eventually
coalesce into a progressive force that will overcome current
limitations.
Let's hope this day comes sooner or later, not just for the Balkans, but
for the world. Remember the Balkans has been the graveyard of many
Empires, burrying one more wouldn't be too much to ask now would it?]
Serbia, Montenegro Sign Accord
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia and Montenegro signed a historic
accord Thursday to radically restructure their federation, dropping the
name Yugoslavia and granting greater autonomy to prevent the country's
final breakup.
The agreement, reached under mediation by the European Union, was signed
by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Montenegrin President Milo
Djukanovic, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other Serbian and
Montenegrin officials.
The new country, consisting of two semi-independent states, will be
renamed Serbia and Montenegro, Kostunica said after the signing
ceremony. Both republics will share a defense and foreign policy, but
will maintain separate economies, currencies and customs services for
the time being.
``This document sets the shape of completely new relations between the
states of Serbia and Montenegro,'' Kostunica said. ``This step means a
break with the previous regime'' of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
``Amid the threat of disintegration in the Balkans, we are moving toward
integration and peace and stability in the region,'' he said.
Yugoslavia first was formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes, and Montenegro gave up its statehood to join. The country was
occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, then tightly controlled
under the communist regime of Marshal Tito for four decades after the
war.
Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines during Milosevic's reign.
Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina all declared their
independence by 1992.
Serbia and Montenegro stayed together when the other republics started
leaving Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. But their alliance began to
crumble in 1997 when Djukanovic distanced himself from Milosevic and
began advocating independence for Montenegro.
Kostunica said the political accord calls for new federal elections in
the autumn, and that the parliaments of both republics as well as the
federal Yugoslav parliament would set to work on constitutional changes.
The country's new name will not take effect until lawmakers in all three
chambers ratify the accord.
Solana praised the agreement, saying Montenegro and Serbia ``should have
no doubt'' about the EU's support.
``This is an important day and a step toward the stability in the region
and in Europe,'' Solana said. ``This is not the end of anything, but a
beginning of a new chapter that will bring you closer to the European
Union.''
Djukanovic, who is likely to face an avalanche of criticism in
Montenegro for giving up a planned independence referendum for the small
republic this spring, said he expected Serbs and Montenegrins to ``have
a positive approach toward this agreement'' and predicted it would win
parliamentary approval.
The tiny Adriatic republic continued its independence drive even after
Milosevic's ouster in 2000. Milosevic is now on trial before the U.N.
war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for atrocities his forces
committed in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Branko Ruzic, the spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party, called the
event ``the most shameful date in the history of the Serbs.''
``We went to bed in one state, and we woke up in another,'' Ruzic said,
adding that the Socialists are for ``preserving the current
Yugoslavia.''
Montenegro's 650,000 people remain bitterly divided on whether to remain
in a federation with Serbia, whose approximately 10 million people
effectively determine Yugoslav affairs.
A draft of the agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, said that
after three years, ``the member states will be entitled to institute
proceedings for a change of the state status, that is, withdrawal from
the state union.''
The pro-Serbian faction in Montenegro praised the agreement.
``The dangerous divisions in Montenegro were averted. Djukanovic stopped
on the brink, and we approve of this,'' said Dragan Soc, the leader of
the Montenegrin Peoples' Party.
Kostunica said his office as federal president would remain and that the
new country would have one seat in the United Nations, just as
Yugoslavia does now, although Montenegrin and Serbian officials would
rotate as envoys to U.N. headquarters in New York.
The accord was a major policy victory for the West, which has opposed
Montenegrin secession, fearing the breakup could encourage other
independence-minded groups in the region - in particular, ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia.
Arguing that secession also would hurt Montenegro's economy and slow
down the process of integrating it into mainstream Europe, the EU has
been pushing for a new Yugoslav constitution that would preserve a joint
state while granting the two republics greater self-governance.
AP-NY-03-14-02 1011EST
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 18:11:39 +0100 (CET)
From: Nemanja
Reply-To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TRANSLATION:
Agreement about redefining relations between Serbia and
Montenegro, signed by Solana, Kostunica, Labus, Djindjic, Djukanovic and
Vujanovic, represents the end of FR Yugoslavia. It's very clear that
Yugoslav federation is being abolished by order of Western imperialists
due easier accomplishment of imperialist interests in this area.
The establishing of proimperialist puppet government with
Kostunica by counterrevolutionary coup d'etat on October 5th, was not
enough for Western bourgeoisie, but they also felt an urge to break FRY
as an core around which, the working class could reunite and create and
antiimperialist and antiglobalist country. Also, the signing of this
agreement exposed the true proimperialist nature of Kostunica's,
Djindjic's and Djukanovic's regime and their willingness to obey all
orders from western governments.
Marxists-leninists of Yugoslavia will never accept this shameful
decision of Western imperialists and domestic bourgeoisie, and will
continue it's struggle for yugoslav idea. First step in renewal of
socialist Yugoslavia should be struggle for overthrowing of
proimperialist regime of Kostunica, Djindjic and Djukanovic, as well as
the proimperialist bourgeois regimes of Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia.
An firm struggle is also needed for expelling the NATO from Bosnia and
Herzegovina and from Kosovo, and for removal of quisling regimes
established by orders and with help of the West.
Imperialism maybe won a battle, but it's the reunited working
class of Yugoslavia who will win the war along with all the opressed and
exploited in the world.
DOWN WITH THE IMPERIALISM!
DOWN WITH THE GLOBALISM!
DOWN WITH THE REGIME OF KOSTUNICA, DJINDJIC AND DJUKANOVIC!
LONG LIVE YUGOSLAVIA!
G.V.
------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
From: goran vlajkovic
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 06:00:45 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [ML-YU] SRJ
Sporazum o redefinisanju odnosa Srbije i Crne Gore
koji su potpisali
Solana,Kostunica,Labus,Djindjic,Djukanovic i
Vujanovic,predstavlja kraj SR Jugoslavije.Sasvim je
jasno da se jugoslovenska federacija ukida po nalogu
zapadnih imperijalista,radi laksih ostvarivanja
prljavih imperijalistickih interesa na ovim
prostorima.
Zapadnoj burzoaziji nije bilo dovoljno to sto je
kontrarevolucionarnim pucem na vlast u Beograd
5.oktobra,postavila marionetski proimperijalisticki
rezim na celu sa Kostunicom,vec je osetila potrebu da
razbije i SRJ,kao jezgro oko koga bi se u buducnosti
mogla okupiti jugoslovenska radnicka klasa,i stvoriti
drzava koja bi imala antiimperijalisticku i
antiglobalisticku vladu.Takodje potpisivanje ovog
sramnog sporazuma pokazuje i pravu proimperijalisticku
prirodu rezima Kostunice,Djindjica i Djukanovica,i
njihovu teznju da slusaju sve naloge imperijalistickih
zapadnih vlada.
Marksisti-lenjinisti Jugoslavije nece nikada
prihvatiti ovakvu sramnu odluku zapadnih imperijalista
i domace proimperijalisticke burzoazije,i nastavice
svoju borbu za jugoslovensku ideju.Prvi korak u obnovi
socijalisticke Jugoslavije treba da predstavlja bitka
za zbacivanje proimperijalistickih burzujskih rezima
Kostunice,Djindjica i Djukanovica,kao i
proimperijalistickih burzujskih rezima u
Sloveniji,Hrvatskoj i Makedoniji.Takodje je potrebno
povesti i odlucnu borbu za proterivanje NATO
okupatorskih trupa iz Bosne i Hercegovine i Kosova i
zbacivane sa vlasti kvislinskih rezima uspostavljenih
uz pomoc i po nalogu zapadnih imperijalista.
Imperijalizam je mozda dobio jednu bitku,ali ce rat
sigurno dobiti jugoslovenska radnicka klasa u
zajednickoj borbi sa svim potlacenim i eksploatisanim
u svetu.
DOLE IMPERIJALIZAM!
DOLE GLOBALIZAM!
DOLE REZIM KOSTUNICA,DJINDJIC,DJUKANOVIC!
ZIVELA JUGOSLAVIJA!
G.V.
===*===
------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
From: petokraka78@...
Subject: Solana Destroys Yugoslavia
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---------------------------
[Today is a really sad day. Under the leadership of Javier Solana, the
same man who as NATO Secretary General led the illegal aggression on
Yugoslavia in 1999, the European Union has just brokered a deal to wipe
Yugoslavia off the world map in a top down processes that most Yugoslavs
reject. The deal was brokered between Solana, Milo Djukanovic (the
President of Montenegro), Zoran Djindjic (the Prime Minister of Serbia),
and Vojislav Kostunica (the President of Yugoslavia). Djukanovic is the
leader of the Democratic Socialist Party (DPS) in Montenegro, a
far-right neoliberal creation that is a regional hub for mafia activity,
cigarette smuggling and money laundering.
Elections in Montenegro have been deeply flawed and the DPS as well as
its junior partner the Liberal Union have used voter intimidation,
particularly of state employees to stay in power. The majority of
Montenegrins oppose indipendence, yet through manipulation and Western
support the DPS has managed to maintain a narrow margin over its closest
rivals the Socialist Peoples Party (SNP) [although the SNPs party base
is still firmly pro-Yugoslav and opposed to NATO, the leadership has in
recent months moved away from its grass-roots constituency as it has
moved with pro-Western forces in Yugoslavia on several key legislative
items]. Djindjic on the other hand is the un-elected Prime Minister of
Serbia who was appointed by a DOS dominated Parliament as a key
condition of Western aid to FRY. He has never held more than 5% of
popular support in the country, and his neoliberal views and particular
brand of collaborationist Serbian nationalism is sharply at odds with
the majority of the Yugoslav population. Nonetheless he has
unconstitutionally arrogated to himself all the powers of the elected
position of the Serbian Presidency, which is still held by the still
popular Socialist Party of Serbia. In any case support for the
preservation of Yugoslavia is overwhelming, and the current process is
being imposed from above opening the way for the final destruction of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's territorial integrity, and thereby
completing the US and German goal of destroying Yugoslavia once and for
all through a maximalist anti-Yugoslav program that would serve to
sharpen divisions between all southern Slavs in order to weaken the most
likely focus of resistance to NATO occupation of this imensily strategic
region. This move was also given the green light by the Federal
President Kostunica, whose popularity is dropping daily in the polls as
a result of mismanagement and impotence in the face of
daily NATO pressures to alter the whole framework of Yugoslav society
and impose a narrow-ethnic chauvinist and archly-capitalist social
framework on the countries peoples. Most parties have been compromised
on the issue of coloboration with the occupying powers and Yugoslavs
will not be given a choice to choose in a referendum between this new
Western created arrangement and the indigenously created FRY in a
plebistice. A new "Union of Serbia and Montenegro" (USM) is to be
proclaimed in accordance with US policy towards the region, which was
the only country not to recognize FRY as a sovereign state since it was
reconstituted in 1992, refering to it instead as "Serbia and Montenegro"
(a formulation in which the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo
were considered as semi-independent states as well). The official
American narrative on Yugoslavia's dissolution, regarding seccession
issues, is now being imposed in order to further divide and weaken any
potential resistance to NATO and to destroy the ability of anyone state
or people in the region to effectively resist the new colonial regime.
Thankfully this is still not a fait-accompli, but the new Western funded
elites have proven adept at passing unpopular laws in the past, such as
the new labour law which recently dismantled the "social ownership"
which was the foundation of property relations in Yugoslavia in favor of
a completely privatized system and retrenched substantial labour rights
severely despite mass-protests throughout Yugoslavia (ignored in the
Western press, these demos attracted 50,000+ people in Belgrade at their
peak earlier this year). This process is occuring in the context of an
election campaign in NATO-member Hungary were the ruling neoliberal
Fidesz party is continuing with "Greater Hungarian"
policies that seek to legally integrate Hungarian minorities living in
neighboring countries into Hungary's governing structures, reverse the
Benes Decress, some portions of the post-WWI Versaille order and the use
the Hungarian state with the full-backing of the EU, the United States
and NATO to implement neoliberalism abroad. Furthermore, the popular
LDK in Kosovo, whose non-violent leader Ibrahim Rugova is the most
popular figure in Kosovo, has, despite wining recent elections, been
forced by the US to accept a "power-sharring" agreement with KLA
extremists, including the appointment of Bajram Rexhepi to the position
of Kosovo PM. Rexhepi represents the most extreme current of Albanian
nationalism and is completely at odds with the majority of the Albanian
population whose moderate views are in accord with Rugova's LDK (which,
again, received the most votes in the recent elections).
Thus the United States is backing all the forces throughout the still
existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that favor fractious, narrow
ethno-nationalist politics, coupled with a strong comitment to
neoliberal capitalist values. As these injustices mount real Balkan
patriots will have to see that their interests lie in unity with other
ethnic groups and not division. All groups in the region have a proud
history of anti-fascist and anti-imperialist resistence, let's do
everything in our efforts to ensure that these traditions gain new wind
in the coming years. The task will be difficult, but resistance to
"the internationals" is already rife throughout
the region. I am confident it will over time, of necessity, eventually
coalesce into a progressive force that will overcome current
limitations.
Let's hope this day comes sooner or later, not just for the Balkans, but
for the world. Remember the Balkans has been the graveyard of many
Empires, burrying one more wouldn't be too much to ask now would it?]
Serbia, Montenegro Sign Accord
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia and Montenegro signed a historic
accord Thursday to radically restructure their federation, dropping the
name Yugoslavia and granting greater autonomy to prevent the country's
final breakup.
The agreement, reached under mediation by the European Union, was signed
by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Montenegrin President Milo
Djukanovic, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other Serbian and
Montenegrin officials.
The new country, consisting of two semi-independent states, will be
renamed Serbia and Montenegro, Kostunica said after the signing
ceremony. Both republics will share a defense and foreign policy, but
will maintain separate economies, currencies and customs services for
the time being.
``This document sets the shape of completely new relations between the
states of Serbia and Montenegro,'' Kostunica said. ``This step means a
break with the previous regime'' of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
``Amid the threat of disintegration in the Balkans, we are moving toward
integration and peace and stability in the region,'' he said.
Yugoslavia first was formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes, and Montenegro gave up its statehood to join. The country was
occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, then tightly controlled
under the communist regime of Marshal Tito for four decades after the
war.
Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines during Milosevic's reign.
Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina all declared their
independence by 1992.
Serbia and Montenegro stayed together when the other republics started
leaving Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. But their alliance began to
crumble in 1997 when Djukanovic distanced himself from Milosevic and
began advocating independence for Montenegro.
Kostunica said the political accord calls for new federal elections in
the autumn, and that the parliaments of both republics as well as the
federal Yugoslav parliament would set to work on constitutional changes.
The country's new name will not take effect until lawmakers in all three
chambers ratify the accord.
Solana praised the agreement, saying Montenegro and Serbia ``should have
no doubt'' about the EU's support.
``This is an important day and a step toward the stability in the region
and in Europe,'' Solana said. ``This is not the end of anything, but a
beginning of a new chapter that will bring you closer to the European
Union.''
Djukanovic, who is likely to face an avalanche of criticism in
Montenegro for giving up a planned independence referendum for the small
republic this spring, said he expected Serbs and Montenegrins to ``have
a positive approach toward this agreement'' and predicted it would win
parliamentary approval.
The tiny Adriatic republic continued its independence drive even after
Milosevic's ouster in 2000. Milosevic is now on trial before the U.N.
war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for atrocities his forces
committed in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Branko Ruzic, the spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party, called the
event ``the most shameful date in the history of the Serbs.''
``We went to bed in one state, and we woke up in another,'' Ruzic said,
adding that the Socialists are for ``preserving the current
Yugoslavia.''
Montenegro's 650,000 people remain bitterly divided on whether to remain
in a federation with Serbia, whose approximately 10 million people
effectively determine Yugoslav affairs.
A draft of the agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, said that
after three years, ``the member states will be entitled to institute
proceedings for a change of the state status, that is, withdrawal from
the state union.''
The pro-Serbian faction in Montenegro praised the agreement.
``The dangerous divisions in Montenegro were averted. Djukanovic stopped
on the brink, and we approve of this,'' said Dragan Soc, the leader of
the Montenegrin Peoples' Party.
Kostunica said his office as federal president would remain and that the
new country would have one seat in the United Nations, just as
Yugoslavia does now, although Montenegrin and Serbian officials would
rotate as envoys to U.N. headquarters in New York.
The accord was a major policy victory for the West, which has opposed
Montenegrin secession, fearing the breakup could encourage other
independence-minded groups in the region - in particular, ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia.
Arguing that secession also would hurt Montenegro's economy and slow
down the process of integrating it into mainstream Europe, the EU has
been pushing for a new Yugoslav constitution that would preserve a joint
state while granting the two republics greater self-governance.
AP-NY-03-14-02 1011EST