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AP. 18 March 2002. Kostunica Calls U.S. Spy Affair 'scandal' but Says It Won't Jeopardize Relations. BELGRADE -- Yugoslavia's president sided squarely with the military secret service Monday in what he called a "spy affair of huge proportions," saying the agency has firm evidence that a Serbian official passed secret documents to a U.S. diplomat before both were arrested. President Vojislav Kostunica said the scandal that erupted last week "shook the foundations of our country," and his party called on his longtime rival, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, to resign because his deputy stands accused of spying for the United States. But Kostunica said he was confident that the matter would not hurt his country's ties with the United States, which has complained about the U.S. diplomat's treatment and denied the claim that he received secret documents from Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Momcilo Perisic. "We will do everything that this case does not affect bilateral relations between the United States and Yugoslavia," Kostunica told reporters. "According to information received so far, it is going to be so." Yugoslav military officials arrested Perisic and the American diplomat, John David Neighbor, in a Belgrade restaurant Thursday. In a breach of international conventions, Neighbor was held incommunicado for 15 hours, at one point reportedly with a hood over his head. The military said Perisic was giving documents to Neighbor that were "relevant for the defense of the country." Other Yugoslav officials have said the documents could have been used against former President Slobodan Milosevic at his war crimes trial in the Netherlands. Both Perisic - a former top Yugoslav army commander who served under Milosevic until he was fired in 1998 for opposing a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo - and the U.S. Embassy have denied that any espionage took place. Kostunica said Monday that the military secret service has shown Yugoslav and Serbian leaders "concrete" evidence that Perisic passed the secrets to Neighbor. He refused to elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation. "What we have seen was only a tip of the iceberg," Kostunica said. "Security forces never launch an action unless they have firm proof." Kostunica said that the arrests of Perisic and Neighbor were "conducted generally correctly." But he denounced the military for releasing the name and the nationality of the U.S. diplomat and said, "I would have liked his detention to have been shorter." Earlier Monday, Kostunica's political party called on Djindjic to resign over the spy allegation against Perisic. The demand underscored the bitter rift between the pro-Western Serbian prime minister and Kostunica, a nationalist who has resisted cooperating with the U.N. tribunal. Kostunica refused to say whether he personally favored Djindjic's resignation, but he said, "The Serbian government has to take some consequence," and that Perisic must resign. Djindjic said later that he had asked Perisic to step down "to help the investigation." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
