BELGRADE, May 6, 2004

• DRASKOVIC: UNFAVORABLE CONSEQUENCES OF MERON'S REPORT SHOULD BE REMOVED QUICKLY
• LJAJIC: COOPERATION SHOULD BE INTENSIFIED WITH THE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

• MINISTER DRASKOVIC LEAVES FOR WASHINGTON
• DRASKOVIC SAYS CONFLICTS IN CROATIA WERE CIVIL WAR
• SCG WELCOMES NATIONAL MINORITY COUNCILS IN CROATIA
• RATIONALIZING NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES NEXT STEP IN SCG ARMY REFORM
• ALL, BUT ONE JUDGE OF SCG COURT ELECTED
• PERU APPOINTS AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AFTER 12 YEARS
• NEBOJSA KALUDJEROVIC IS SERBIA-MONTENEGRO'S AMBASSADOR TO U.N
• AMBASSADOR PANDUR: HUNGARY NOT TO CHANGE VISA REGIME FOR SERBIA-MONTENEGRO CITIZENS

• HOLKERI SAYS SERBIAN GOVERNMENT PLAN GOOD STARTING POINT FOR DIALOGUE
• ANNAN: MARCH VIOLENCE SETBACK FOR KOSOVO
• KFOR BLAMES POOR INTELLIGENCE FOR MARCH VIOLENCE

• EU AMBASSADORS VISIT PODGORICA
• STABILITY PACT'S ANTICORRUPTION INITIATIVE MEETING IN BUDVA

BELGRADE, May 5 (Tanjug) - The consequences of the letter sent to the UN Security Council by the president of the ICTY, Theodore Meron, in which he complained about the noncooperation of Belgrade with the Tribunal, will certainly have unfavorable consequences for the international position of Serbia and Montenegro, SCG Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic told Tanjug on Wednesday.

"We can remove those consequences only by swiftly fulfilling our obligations towards the Tribunal in The Hague. It is encouraging that this is the united position of the SCG Council of Ministers and of the Serbian government," Draskovic said, commenting on the complaint that Judge Meron lodged on Tuesday with the UN Security Council due to the noncooperation of Belgrade with the war crimes tribunal.

The SCG foreign minister said he expected, among other things, "the urgent forming of a new state Council for relations with the Tribunal, as the previous one is nonexistent for months now." "I will press for the president of the Council to be the Serbian justice minister, as under domestic law war are also obligated to carry out the orders of the Tribunal in The Hague." Draskovic said in conclusion. Heading the current Council for cooperation with the Tribunal in The Hague is Goran Svilanovic, former SCG foreign minister.

BELGRADE, May 5 (Tanjug) - SCG Minister for Human and Minority Rights Rasim Lajic assessed on Wednesday that the letter of the president of the Tribunal in The Hague, Theodore Meron, to the UN Security Council on the cooperation of SCG with the Tribunal would not bring new sanctions to the country. "We are not expecting any direct sanctions, but we have to take that statement very seriously, so as to intensify our cooperation with the war crimes tribunal," Lajic said in a break of the SCG Assembly session. He added that also included "our expectation that some cases would be transferred to domestic courts." "There should be no illusions that will happen before we make concrete moves that will lead to the renewal of cooperation with the Tribunal," Ljajic said.

Ljajic pointed out that there had been objective difficulties in the cooperation with the Tribunal in The Hague caused by the elections in Serbia and the fact that the government was formed only after two months. "We were in some kind of political and legal vacuum, given that we still do not have a new National Council for cooperation with the Tribunal in The Hague," Ljajic explained.

He cited as positive results of the cooperation so far with the Tribunal the decisions of the last session of the Council of Ministers, according to which several documents were declassified, and some documents were handed over to the Tribunal and to the lawyers of the defendants. "We will pursue, undoubtedly, cooperation with the war crimes tribunal, as it represents a condition for our entry into European and Euro Atlantic integrations and that is what all political factors in the state union are aware of," Ljajic noted. He said that at the same time he expected greater understanding of the Tribunal for objective internal political difficulties, as continued cooperation with the Tribunal must not be translated into increased radicalization in Serbia.

BELGRADE, May 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic left for Washington on Thursday at the invitation of United States (US) Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Powell-Draskovic talks are set for tomorrow, and Draskovic will also have a series of meetings with senior officials of the US administration, the Senate and Congress, the Foreign Ministry said. Minister Draskovic will also visit New York and speak at a United Nations (UN) Security Council session about the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and the Serbian government plan for decentralization of power and the self-governance of Serbs in that southern province, the statement said.

ZAGREB, May 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said in a an interview to the Zagreb weekly Globus ahead of his visit to Croatia, together with SCG President Svetozar Marovic, set for May 24 that he would tell everyone that the conflicts in Croatia were a civil war and that Croatia should therefore drop its lawsuit against Serbia.

Draskovic said the two countries couldn't declare before the European Union (EU) that they want reconciliation, and yet burden mutual relations with lawsuits. Every court should rule that the conflicts in Croatia were a civil war, in which people of the same ethnic origin and who speak the same language inflicted the greatest horrors on each other, he said.

Draskovic said he would bring to Zagreb the state union's message and wish that state borders were drawn in maps but not felt in the field. Walls should be torn down, so that borders are crossed as they were during the time of the former Yugoslavia, Draskovic said.

ZAGREB, May 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) welcomes the constituting of national minority councils in Croatia, which should have an important role in the realization of legally and constitutionally secured rights of national minorities, SCG Ambassador to Croatia Milan Simurdic said, following the constitutive session of the Serb National Minority Council for the County of Zagreb.

Simurdic said he expected that the Serb community in other areas of Croatia would also recognize the importance of a national community council as an organ of minority self-governance. The 25-member Zagreb County Council elected Ljuban Milicevic its president. According to the 2001 census, there are 2,720 ethnic Serbs in Zagreb County, which rallies municipalities and towns that gravitate toward the Croatian capital. Under the same census, over 18,000 ethnic Serbs live in Zagreb itself.

PODGORICA, May 5 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic and Premier Milo Djukanovic, Serbia-Montenegro (SCG) Army Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic and his deputy Vukasin Maras, and SCG Army Chief of Staff Branko Krga noted Wednesday in Podgorica that the next step in reforming the Army should be a rationalization of the number of employees in line with standards of the Partnership for Peace program, which SCG should join as soon as possible.

To that effect, it is necessary to adopt a defense strategy as soon as possible, they underlined, a statement issued by Vujanovic's office says. Reform in this field is running considerably late, creating serious problems in Army financing and jeopardizing the financial position of its employees, it was noted during the meeting. Vujanovic and Djukanovic expressed Montenegro's firm view that the unilateral halting of financing the salaries of Army employees and of payment of old-age pensions to Army pensioners from the contributions paid to the SCG State Union by the member-states, following a decision of the Serbian government that the Army should be financed according to the territorial principle, has changed the system of financing which was in force until the present, the statement says.

The Montenegrin government was not notified of this while this year's budget was being drafted, the statement says. Montenegro is ready to accept this model of financing too, but the management of Army assets which are not essential to its defense function and which are located in the territories of the member-states must then be defined in a fundamentally different way, the statement says. Full support was expressed at the meeting to cooperation of the SCG Army with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and a proposal was made to make this stance public clearly and convincingly through the Supreme Defense Council and the Ministry of Defense, the statement says. The Supreme Defense Council will immediately be briefed of these views in order that it may consider them and take appropriate decisions, the statement concludes.

BELGRAE, May 5 (Tanjug) - The Serbia-Montenegro (SCG) parliament elected on Wednesday seven judges of the SCG Court, while one candidate from Montenegro, Ratko Vukotic, did not get enough votes. Although not all judges were elected, the SCG was, however, set up, and thus the setting up of the SCG institutions has been concluded. State union Court judges from Serbia include Slobodan Perovic, Ljubomir Popovic, Katarina Manojlovic-Andric and Mihajlo Rulic, and from Montenegro Miodrag Latkovi, Emilija Durutovic and Blagota Mitric.

BELGRADE, May 5 (Beta) - On May 5, Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic received the credentials of the newly appointed ambassador of Peru, Walter Negreiros. Thus, the Republic of Peru once again has an ambassador in Belgrade, after 12 years.

Before this appointment, Julio Walter Negreiros was a member of the diplomatic corps in Austria and Portugal, represented his country in U.N. agencies and performed other high-ranking duties in the Foreign Ministry of Peru, it was said in the statement of the office of president Marovic.

NEW YORK, May 5 (Beta) - The newly appointed ambassador, Nebojsa Kaludjerovic, submitted his credentials to the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on May 3, and became Serbia Montenegro's permanent representative at the U.N.

From 2000 to 2001, Kaludjerovic was the assistant to the Montenegrin foreign minister. From 2002 to 2003, he was the head of the Montenegrin President's office, and the head of the prime minister's office from 2003 to 2004.

Kaludjerovic was born in Niksic, Montenegro, in 1955. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. He is married and has two children.

BELGRADE, May 5 (Beta) - The Hungarian ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, Joszef Pandur, stated on May 5 that visa regulations for the citizens of Serbia and Montenegro for travel to Hungary will not be changed until Budapest is part of the Schengen Visa Policy, in 2006 or 2007 at the latest.

Pandur made this statement at a news conference and at a cocktail party in the Hungarian Embassy in Belgrade, organized to mark the country's membership in the European Union on May 1.

He emphasized that Hungary's EU membership will make no difference to the visa regime for Serbia Montenegro citizens, stating that visas will still be issued free of charge according to a simple procedure.

The ambassador added that Hungary wished for the continued expansion of the EU and promised support to the neighboring countries on their way to join the EU, including Serbia and Montenegro.

BELGRADE, May 5 (Beta) - UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri met on May 5 with Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica, and said the Serbian government's plan for a political solution to the Kosovo crisis was a good starting point for the continuation of dialogue that would yield institutional guarantees for Kosovo Serbs.

A Serbian government statement released after the meeting said that Holkeri stressed that UNMIK was working to uncover the plotters and participants in the violence in March and underscored that a large number of persons had already been apprehended.

Kostunica told Holkeri that the resumption of dialogue between the two sides hinged on the beginning of decentralization, which would secure the basic guarantees for the survival and return of Serbs to the province.

BELGRADE, May 5 (Beta) - The ethnically motivated violence that broke out in Kosovo in March meant a serious blow to the efforts to build a democratic, multiethnic and stable Kosovo, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan declared in a new report on the work of U.N.'s Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

The report, published on the evening of May 4, in New York, states that the events in Kosovo represented a planned action to expel Kosovo Serbs, as well as members of the Roma and Ashkali communities, and to destroy the social structure of their existence in the province.

The comprehensive report, which will serve as the basis for a discussion in the Security Council, planned for May 11, analyzes certain areas in particular, concluding that the violence signifies a threat to the resumption of the BelgradePristina dialog, the return of displaced persons, the position of minorities and their security, but also to the economic conditions in the province.

In the part devoted to the return of displaced persons and the rights of Kosovo communities, it stated that before the March violence outburst, there were several signs of limited, yet encouraging prospects for return in the course of this year.

The March events, however, completely reversed the process, as minority populated areas were targeted for attacks. This sent the message that minorities and returnees are not welcome, it underlined in the report, along with the information that 4,100 people were driven out in less than 48 hours, which exceeds the number of people that have returned to Kosovo during the whole of last year (3,664).

The regular three monthly reports analyzes in detail the operation of democratic institutions, assessing that interim institutions dominated by Albanians still show no consistent support for the concept and practice of multiethnicity in Kosovo.

PRISTINA, May 5 (Beta) - KFOR spokesman Jim Moran said on May 5 that intelligence services in Kosovo had failed and that poor intelligence was the reason why the international authorities in Kosovo were caught off guard by the violence that erupted in the province in March.

A wave of violence swept Kosovo, resulting in the death of 19 people, the expulsion of over 4,000 Serbs from their homes. 700 homes and 36 monasteries and churches were burned down by Albanian extremists.

Moran told a news conference in Pristina that, after the March lesson, KFOR was now monitoring every event, protest rally and demonstration, to prevent any surprises. KFOR is arresting the individuals responsible for the violence in March and placing them in custody under Resolution 1244, and not under Kosovo's provisional law on criminal procedure, he said.

UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri has created a special committee to investigate UNMIK's behavior throughout the March events. UNMIK officials told BETA that the committee would include three international experts who would submit a report to Holkeri within 30 days on UNMIK's conduct during the rioting that took place from March 1718.

PODGORICA, May 5 (Beta) - The harmonization of Montenegro and Serbia's economies is still one of the key requisites for the country's EU membership, European Commission delegation representative Esmeralda Hernandez said in Podgorica, on May 5.

Asked at a news conference why Montenegro could not just adjust its market to match European markets on its own, Hernandez recalled that the Montenegrin and Serbian governments had pledged to harmonize their markets together, within the existing state union.

Podgorica Mayor Miomir Mugosa said that the EU delegation was visiting Podgorica for talks to citizens and the local administration about "Montenegro's roads to the EU."

The delegation consisted of the ambassadors of Denmark, Poland, France, and Germany, and Italy and Greece's consuls and Denmark's honorary consul.

PODGORICA, May 6 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic conferred with French Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) Hugues Pernet on Wednesday, and underscored that the lasting resolving of the Kosovo problem was of key importance not only for the region, but for security in Europe as well.

This makes it necessary to step up efforts by all democratic forces aimed at securing preconditions for the definite resolving of this problem, he said. Underscoring the importance of overcoming the current deadlock in the state union's accession toward European integrations, Djukanovic pointed out the importance of elections and support to frameworks and models which enable the unhindered progress of the process of integration into the European Union (EU), said a statement released by the office of the Montenegrin prime minister.

PODGORICA, May 6 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and British Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) David Gowan met in Podgorica on Wednesday and expressed expectations that the deadlock in the process of the state union's accession to the European Union (EU) would be broken soon, and the process stepped up.

The two sides also exchanged views and stands on the situation in the region, in particular in view of the need to resolve the Kosovo problem, and the upcoming presidential elections in Serbia, said a statement released by Djukanovic's office.

BUDVA, May 5 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin Deputy Premier Miroslav Ivanisevic said at a meeting of the Anticorruption Initiative working group of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, which opened on Wednesday on Sveti Stefan, that in Montenegro was being finalised a legal act based on international standards for combatting efficiently corruption.

Taking part in the meeting are representatives of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania, and as donor countries the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Slovenia, as well as a number of relevant international organizations and institutions. In Ivanisevic's words, it is absolutely necessary to start a phase of implementation of new legal solutions, so in that context, he said, Montenegro is need of substantial finanancial, technical and expert assistance, particularly for the development and implementation of specific anticorruption programmes.

On Sveti Stefan will be presented the results of the activities undertaken so far by countries of the region in combatting corruption and further priorities of the working group will be determined. Also to be analyzed is the UN convention on corruption, and a working plan will be determined of the newly formed Office of the Regional Secretariat in Sarajevo and programmes defined for combatting organized crime and corruption in the region. The international meeting on Sveti Stefan will conclude its work on Thursday.