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By James Hider BELGRADE (AFP) - The leader of the Islamic community in Serbia congratulated Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on his election, the Tanjug news agency reported on Sunday.
In a letter to Kostunica, Mufti Hadzi Hamdija Efendija Jusufaspahic wrote: "The Islamic community of Serbia will do every thing in its power to ensure that we live better, all together, in a more moral way with a richer and happier life in our country, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." "We will continue to act with patriotism and will contribute to the good relations between religions," he added. Basking in support from abroad, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica spent his first day in office Sunday struggling to prevent the country's further disintegration, tackling the economic crisis inherited from his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic. Kostunica, sworn in late Saturday after a popular uprising ended Milosevic's 13-year grip on power, said he was keen to reintegrate his country into the international community but said safeguarding the fragile Yugoslav federation was his main priority. "In reality, reconciliation between Serbia and Montenegro is the task of tasks," he told the state news agency Tanjug in his first interview since taking office. His comments came amid signs that Serbia's junior federal partner Montenegro, and ethnic Albanians in the breakaway province of Kosova, welcomed the change of presidents, but did not see it as a solution to the issue of their national status. Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said Milosevic's departure removed the immediate threat of armed intervention by Belgrade in his tiny republic, but he stressed the need to reassess Podgorica's federal status, downgraded by Belgrade in July. "Montenegro faces two possibilities nowadays: to reach an accord on relations with Serbia within the Yugoslav federation or to form an independent state," he said Saturday. Djukanovic, who boycotted the September 24th federal polls and skipped Kostunica's swearing in ceremony in Belgrade, said he was ready to negotiate with the self-proclaimed moderate nationalist "not as president of Yugoslavia, but as the representative of the democratic majority in Serbia." "If a reply along these lines does not arrive in time, it is clear that Montenegro will take the road to independence," he warned. But Kostunica warned against "new temptations after this historic moment," a clear reference to Montenegro's separatist ambitions. "We will make the joint community between Serbia and Montenegro stronger than ever," the president vowed late Saturday in his inauguration speech. In Kosova, leaders of the southern Yugoslav province's ethnic Albanian majority stressed the new presidency would not end their calls for independence. "The arrival of Mr. Kostunica in power is certainly a step towards democracy and the beginning of a new era in the Balkans, but that doesn't change things much for Kosova ... we want to be independent," said Hashim Thaci, former political leader of the KLA struggle for independence movement and now head of the Democratic Party of Kosova. "If Kostunica wants to show he is different to Milosevic he will have to show he recognizes our independence," added Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosova Liberation Army commander who now leads the Alliance for the Future of Kosova (AAK). All of Kosova's ethnic Albanian leaders openly advocate the need for secession from Yugoslavia following Milosevic's massive crackdown in the province in the 1998-99 civil war. While struggling to keep a lid on the separatist tensions that led to the break-up of post-World War II Yugoslavia in the past decade, Kostunica and his Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) also began tackling the country's grave economic situation. Mladjan Dinkic of the DOS-sponsored transitional crisis committee said Yugoslavia would need $500 million in international aid in the first year of its recovery from Milosevic-era sanctions and international isolation. "If the sanctions are not lifted and urgent aid not forthcoming, the new Yugoslav government will be stymied," said Dinkic. But the committee chalked up an early success when it said it had taken control of the central banks financial reserves and were stemming the flood of currency on to the market, which had undermined the dinar and caused prices to rise. He said after the first day of the committee's operations it had brought the value of the German mark - the currency used on the flourishing Yugoslav black market - down from 40 to 22 dinars. Meanwhile, the international community pledged reconstruction aid as it welcomed Kostunica's victory with open arms, sweeping away what visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland described as Europe's "last pocket of authoritarian and nationalistic rule." The European Union has also vowed to end on Monday sanctions imposed for Belgrade's role in the wars in Bosnia and Kosova, putting an end to almost a decade of international isolation. |
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