SERBIA: Key party quits Serb government over Mladic

A key party in Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's minority coalition resigned its cabinet posts on Sunday (October 1) in a move intended to ensure the country holds an early national election, its leader said. The liberal G17 Plus party, which runs finance, health and agriculture and holds the post of deputy prime minister, had warned it would quit if war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic were not arrested by Oct. 1 so the European Union could unfreeze talks with Serbia on its bid to become a members. Talks were suspended in May. It carried out its threat despite an appeal from Kostunica to stay on "because we have work to do". But analysts said the gesture was unlikely to have any dramatic effect, since the government was on its way out in any case. "For G17 Plus it is a big disappointment that talks with the European Union have not resumed and that cooperation with the Hague tribunal has not been completed," Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic, the G17 leader, told reporters. He said all G17 ministers had quit and deputies would not longer attend parliamentary sessions. Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander wanted on genocide charges, remains at large. The EU said on Friday there had been no sign of progress despite Kostunica's pledge to track him down and send him to The Hague for trial. The implications of Dinkic's statement were not immediately clear. Asked if it meant the government had fallen, Dinkic said: "Ask legal experts ... Our resignations are a form of pressure to make sure that elections are held by Dec. 17." Capital Investments Minister Velimir Ilic said the move by G17 Plus "does not change anything, as the constitution was passed and elections are near anyway". The announcement countered media speculation that Dinkic was just bluffing and would back off at the last minute. It was not clear whether Kostunica would refuse the resignations of the four and ask them to stay on in a caretaker government until the fresh election, which is likely before the end of the year. Analysts said Dinkic and G17 Plus may have managed to save political face by carrying out their often-repeated threat by doing so at a time that did not leave Kostunica in the lurch. The prime minister on Saturday hailed parliament's approval of a new constitution for Serbia as one of his most important achievements, as parliament set an Oct. 28 date for a referendum to adopt it, after which an election will be held. Adoption of the bill virtually completed parliament's legislative agenda, clearing the decks for the ballot. The constitution's most talked-about provision, highlighted by government and in the media, is the reassertion of Serbian sovereignty over the U.N.-run province of Kosovo, which has been in the Serbian constitution since 1912. Western diplomats predict Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority will be granted conditional independence from Serbia by the U.N. Security Council in the coming months, with or without Serbia's consent. FILMED BY THEMISTOCLES HAKIZIMANA

ITN Source | October 2, 2006

Tags:. .refuse. .predict. .approval. .immediately. .decks