STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NATO, Yugoslavia patch up rift at Balkan talks By Shada Islam Budapest (dpa) - Yugoslavia and NATO formally patched up past quarrels on Wednesday as the 19-member Alliance talked peace and security with a vast network of former Soviet bloc nations. NATO ministers, joined by their European Union counterparts, also urged Macedonia's ruling coalition to speed up political reforms to meet ethnic Albanians' demands for more rights. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, attending a meeting of NATO's Euro-Atlantic partnership council - including 23 former Soviet bloc states - voiced "a desire to become a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace family", said a NATO official. Svilanovic also outlined Belgrade's agenda for joining the European Union and building strong links with other international players, the official said. NATO reacted with caution. The Euro-Atlantic council commended President Vojislav Kostunica on what diplomats underlined had been a "quite a good job in changing the atmospherics in Yugoslavia as regards democracy and the rule of law". President Kostunica's decision to "reject the policies of the past and instead to embrace democracy and partnership" was very welcome, added NATO Secretary General George Robertson. "It brings us significantly closer to our common goal of building long-term security and stability in south-east Europe," Robertson said. But diplomats said the Alliance was in no rush to build formal ties with Belgrade. Yugoslavia will first have to "demonstrate that it can indeed be a good participant in the (partnership for peace) process," stressed a NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "For the moment, we have simply taken note of Svilanovic's statement," he said. "We do not have a position. In time we will have to develop one." Still Belgrade appears to be moving in the right direction, the official conceded. The Alliance has taken heart at Svilanovic's statement that the Yugoslav parliament will soon pass new legislation stepping up cooperation with the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal, including on extradition issues. His promise that Yugoslavia would stay the course on democracy and become a "good neighbourly nation" also struck the right note. "Svilanovic's statement was constructive and creative," said a senior German official. NATO has signed partnership for peace pacts with 23 former Soviet bloc countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Macedonia. The deals are seen as vital for ensuring peace and stability in Europe. But a NATO-Yugoslavia peace pact will be especially important as a formal signal of a new era in relations between Belgrade and the Alliance. NATO led an eleven-week air campaign against Belgrade during the Kosovo crisis in spring 1999. Separately, NATO and European Union foreign ministers warned Macedonia's ruling coalition to give more rights to ethnic Albanians through rapid political reforms. Meeting for their first formal joint talks, E.U. and NATO foreign ministers welcomed the restart of inter-ethnic discussions in the coalition government brokered by E.U. security chief Javier Solana on Tuesday night. But they said Skopje must now work on structural political changes to ease chronic tensions with ethnic Albanians. These involve giving the Albanian minority more political, linguistic and constitutional rights. Both the E.U. and NATO underlined, however, that they would only work with "legitimate political representatives and not with armed extremists of their representatives". "At this moment what is important is that the coalition government continues to work in a rapid manner," Solana told reporters following a first formal meeting between the E.U. and NATO. The government must "give a report" on political reforms in time for an E.U. summit in Gotheburg in Sweden on June 15, he insisted. A joint NATO-E.U. communique expressed support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia and called for an immediate end to violence by armed extremists. But the government was instructed to ensure that its response to rebel attacks was "proportionate". Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
