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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cody andre who wrote (16637)	6/10/2000 4:05:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 17770

Yugoslav Army Will Prevent Civil War -Army Chief By Branimir Pipal ALEKSINAC, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - The Yugoslav army chief of staff said on Saturday the army would do everything to prevent civil war in the country where political tensions are rising a year after the end of NATO's air war on Yugoslavia. General Nebojsa Pavkovic was speaking at a ceremony organized in the small Serbian mining town of Aleksinac to mark the first anniversary of the end of the NATO campaign, conducted to end Belgrade's military crackdown on Albanians in Kosovo. About 150 people including senior government officials attended the ceremony, including Mira Markovic, wife of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and head of the neo-communist Yugoslav Left, and Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic. Pavkovic said that one year after the bombing Western aggression continued in various forms against the Yugoslav leadership, the army and the Balkan country as a whole. ``Destructive forces in our country assisted by the foreign factor are trying to break its unity. In doing this they are attacking the Yugoslav army as a factor of unity, stability and security of Yugoslavia,'' he said. Pavkovic said destructive efforts of ``separatist forces'' were meant to ``destabilize relations between our republics'' -- Serbia and its smaller partner in the federation, Montenegro. Government officials have accused Serbian opposition parties and Montenegro's reformist government of being ``lackeys'' of the West and trying to destabilize Yugoslavia on its behalf. No Repeat Of 1991-92 ``We are telling all of them and their masters that we, members of the Yugoslav army, are united, trained, experienced and with high morale and will not allow the scenario of the former republics of Yugoslavia to be repeated,'' Pavkovic said. He was referring to the bloody 1991-92 secession of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia from the Serbian-led federation. Macedonia also obtained independence, but peacefully. ``We will prevent civil war at any costs,'' Pavkovic said. Montenegro was to hold local elections on Sunday, testing popular support for its pro-Western leaders' break from the leftist nationalist system defined by Milosevic. In Serbia, Milosevic has dealt increasingly harshly with the opposition. Police have broken up street protests by force and shut down almost every important independent media outlet. Saturday's ceremony was held in front of a new apartment building that replaced a number of private houses destroyed in an April 1999 NATO air strike which missed its intended target. Belgrade said 24 civilians were killed in two separate NATO air strikes on Aleksinac last year. Only days after the end of the bombing, Milosevic laid a foundation stone in the town to mark the start of rebuilding the destroyed homes. A high-level police presence was visible in Aleksinac, whose 30,000 inhabitants seemed oblivious to the event and went about their business as usual. Outside the new block of flats, government and army officials laid wreaths for civilians killed in the strikes and Mira Markovic wept as an actress read a patriotic poem. Belgrade authorities organized simultaneous commemoration ceremonies to mark the anniversary across Serbia on Saturday. Pavkovic said another method used to jeopardise Yugoslav security was ``genocide'' against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo perpetrated by ethnic Albanian separatists. A NATO-led peacekeeping force and a United Nations civilian administration took control of Kosovo after the NATO air war and have been accused by Serbian authorities of failing in their mandate to safeguard non-Albanian minorities there.