"...Haradinai said the Belgrade agreement
was a step toward the independence of
Kosovo and Metohija..."


YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

Belgrade, 15. 3. 2002. No. 3674

(...follows...)

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
- SERBIAN PREMIER RULES OUT EARLY ELECTIONS
- SERBIA'S DECISION ON COOPERATION WITH
ICTY TO BE APPLIED, SAYS BATIC
- US AMBASSADOR VISITS SOUTHERN SERBIA

KOSOVO METOHIJA
- KOSTUNICA-COALITION-RETURN:
CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK VIOLATED IN
SETTING UP OF KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
- FORMING OF MINISTRY FOR RETURN OF
DISPLACED - CONDITION FOR SERB
PARTICIPATION IN KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
- UNMIK CHIEF SAYS BORDER NOT UNDER
JURISDICTION OF KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
- SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AGREEMENT HAS NO
CONNECTION WITH KOSOVO STATUS, UNMIK
SPOKESWOMAN
- KOSOVO PREMIER WELCOMES
SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AGREEMENT, URGES
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE
- THACI-HARADINAI: SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
AGREEMENT WILL STEP UP RESOLVING OF
KOSOVO ISSUE



REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

SERBIAN PREMIER RULES OUT EARLY
ELECTIONS
SMEDEREVO, March 14 (Tanjug) - Serbian
Premier Zoran Djindjic said Thursday
evening in Smederevo, 100 km southeast
of Belgrade, that there would be no
early elections.
Elections are not the reason for this
meeting, and as far as the Serbian
government knows, there will be no
early elections, Djindjic said
addressing local officials.
Pointing to the results achieved by his
government over the past year in
changed political and economic
conditions, Djindjic said that channels
of international cooperation have been
reopened and that Serbia is regaining
its place in the world.
The Serbian government has given a
breath of fresh air to the country which
had been suffocating for a decade. No
country in the world can prosper in
isolation, Djindjic said.
Integration in Europe involves some
unpleasant aspects, such as cooperation
with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,
harmonization of economic and political
regulations with those in effect in
Europe, establishment of market
economy which must include
bankruptcies, fiscal discipline without
printing money, etc, Djindjic said.

SERBIA'S DECISION ON COOPERATION WITH
ICTY TO BE APPLIED, SAYS BATIC
BELGRADE, March 15 (Tanjug) - Serbian
Justice Minister Vladan Batic has
said that cooperation with the
International Criminal Tribunal for former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a must, but that,
since it is hardly likely a law on
cooperation with the ICTY will be
adopted at federal
level, the relevant decision of the
Serbian government will continue to be
applied.
Batic said there were no reports about
who was the next indicted person to
be sent to the ICTY, and that any
possible extraditions under the Serbian
government decision would be carried
out by the Interior Ministry. However,
it is known that the main indictees of
interest to the ICTY are "the
Vukovar troika and some of the closest
associates of (former Yugoslav
president) Slobodan Milosevic."
Appearing in a broadcast on
Belgrade-based BK TV late Thursday, Batic said
he did not believe a law on cooperation
with the ICTY would ever be
adopted, having in mind the ratio of
forces at the federal level and the
fact that the coalition partner of the
Democratic Opposition of Serbia
(DOS) - the Socialist People's Party
(SNP) "will not vote for a law which
would imply extraditions."

US AMBASSADOR VISITS SOUTHERN SERBIA
BUJANOVAC, March 14 (Beta) - U.S.
ambassador to Yugoslavia William
Montgomery and the coordinator for aid
to South-East Europe, William
Taylor, on March 14 visited southern
Serbia, where they held talks with
representatives of local authorities
and the state coordinating body for
southern Serbia.
At the Bujanovac municipal assembly,
Montgomery and Taylor spoke with
coordinating body representatives
Milisav Markovic, Milovan Coguric, and
Sima Gazikalovic.
After the meeting, Montgomery, his
associates and representatives of the
coordinating body visited the village
of Veliki Trnovac, and entirely
Albanian village of around 10,000
inhabitants.
"I have come to southern Serbia with
ambassador Taylor in order to see how
the situation is developing and what
more can be done. The whole time we
have been persistent in the
reconciliation process and we wish to
keep helping the process," Montgomery told
journalists in Veliki Trnovac.

KOSOVO METOHIJA

KOSTUNICA-COALITION-RETURN:
CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK VIOLATED IN
SETTING UP OF KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
BELGRADE, March 14 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav
President Vojislav Kostunica
conferred in Belgrade on Thursday with
head of the Kosovo-Metohija
coordination centre Nebojsa Covic and
Serb coalition Return MPs about the
current political situation in Serbia's
southern province.
A statement released by the Yugoslav
president's office said that ways had
been discussed for overcoming the
present situation in order to ensure a
consistent implementation of UN
Security Council Resolution 1244,
constitutional framework and joint
document signed
by Yugoslav and Serbian authorities and
UNMIK.
Stress was laid on the fact that the
offer for an inadequate representation
of the Serb community in the provincial
government had been another serious
violation of the constitutional
framework and reservations were voiced
regarding the election of Bajram
Rexhepi as Kosovo Premier.
Serbs have thus been prevented from
taking part in the work of the
government that was set up in this way,
it was said.
President Kostunica stressed the
necessity of full unity within the Return
coalition and promotion of cooperation
with federal and republican
authorities, especially the
Kosovo-Metohija coordination centre and
its head Covic.
This is the only way to normalize the
position of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija,
to speed up the return of IDPs and
create conditions for a consistent
implementation of documents signed with
the international community and
UNMIK, the statement said.

FORMING OF MINISTRY FOR RETURN OF
DISPLACED - CONDITION FOR SERB
PARTICIPATION IN KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
BELGRADE, March 14 (Beta) - The head of
the Coalition for Return caucus in
the Kosovo Assembly, Rada Trajkovic,
said that Serb representatives in the
Assembly and Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica on March 14 agreed that
the condition for Serb participation in
the Kosovo government should be the
forming of a special ministry for the
return of the exiled and displaced.
"Together we insist that the Serbs,
until they get the ministry, should not
be involved in the Kosovo government,"
Trajkovic told BETA, adding that
Coalition for Return representatives
will acquaint UNMIK chief Michael
Steiner with the condition at their
meeting in Pristina, on March 19.

UNMIK CHIEF SAYS BORDER NOT UNDER
JURISDICTION OF KOSOVO GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON, March 14 (Tanjug) - UNMIK
chief Michael Steiner said Thursday
in Washington that border issues are
not under the jurisdiction of the new
Kosovo government.
Steiner was addressing the press after
meeting US Secretary of State Colin
Powell Wednesday evening.
Referring to a recent statement by
Kosovo Premier Bairam Rexhepi that the
Yugoslav-Macedonian border agreement
should not be recognized, Steiner said
different views are one thing, and
reality is another, as the Security
Council has adopted a resolution
approved by the international community.
The UN Security Council endorsed the
Yugoslav-Macedonian border agreement
on February 25.
The UN SC Resolution 1244 clearly
states that the definite status of Kosovo
remains an open issue, but that Kosovo
is part of Yugoslavia, Steiner said
quoted by Radio Deutsche Welle.
Steiner noted that Powell had fully
approved the priorities he had
presented and that he has the full
support of the Bush administration
which is a great help.

SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AGREEMENT HAS NO
CONNECTION WITH KOSOVO STATUS,
UNMIK SPOKESWOMAN
PRISTINA, March 14 (Tanjug) - The
agreement on future relations between
Serbia and Montenegro has no connection
whatsoever with the future status
of Kosovo which will be decided by the
UN Security Council, UNMIK
spokeswoman Susan Manuel said in
Pristina on Thursday.
Speaking to the Albanian-language
electronic media, Manuel said that the
issue of Kosovo's independence will not
be discussed over the next three
years and that this is not linked to
whether Serbia and Montenegro will
remain within a single Yugoslavia or
will be two separate states.

KOSOVO PREMIER WELCOMES
SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AGREEMENT, URGES
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE
PRISTINA, March 14 (Tanjug) - The
recently elected first Kosovo Premier
Bairam Rexhepi welcomed Thursday the
agreement reached by Serbia and
Montenegro as it was realized by
peaceful means and dialogue, not by
force.
Rexhepi however underlined that the
people of Kosovo-Metohija do not want
their future linked with an agreement
signed outside Kosovo and want the
province to be independent.
Rexhepi told a press conference after
meeting UNMIK deputy chief that his
government gives priority to getting
democratic institutions and making
them work, after which a definite
status can be tackled.

THACI-HARADINAI: SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
AGREEMENT WILL STEP UP RESOLVING OF
KOSOVO ISSUE
PRISTINA, March 15 (Tanjug) - The
leaders of two Kosovo-Metohija
parliamentary parties stemming from the
former Kosovo Liberation Army,
Hashim Thaci of the Democratic Party of
Kosovo and Ramush Haradinai of the
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said
late Thursday the agreement signed in
Belgrade that day by representatives of
Serbia and Montenegro and the federal
state would contribute to the
creation of an independent Kosovo.
Thaci welcomed what he described as an
expression of the will of the
peoples of Serbia and Montenegro, and
the political representatives of the
two republics. He said the Belgrade
agreement on restructuring relations
between the two republics could
contribute to a speedier resolving of
the issue of Kosovo.
"We have our programs and all citizens
have opted for the independence of
Kosovo, and it is not important whether
their wish will be realized already
tomorrow or in two-three years' time,"
Thaci said.
Haradinai said the Belgrade agreement
was a step toward the independence of
Kosovo and Metohija.