Belgrade presses on towards new links

STRASBOURG, France -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has continued his drive to end Belgrade's international isolation by applying to join the 41-nation Council of Europe.

Yugoslavia officially handed in its application to the human rights watchdog on Thursday at a meeting between Kostunica and the council's Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer.

Kostunica told journalists that he wanted to end the isolation of the past decade, when most international bodies shunned former President Slobodan Milosevic, but avoid recreating the role Yugoslavia played in the era of Marshall Josip Tito.

There were differences within his government about re-establishing diplomatic ties with states that led the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, he added, but he felt this was the right step to take.

"We are slowly becoming members of different international organisations whose members we once were," Kostunica said during a visit to the Council.

Yugoslavia, a founder member of the United Nations in 1945, won back its United Nations seat last week after an eight-year hiatus.

The General Assembly ruled in 1992 that the rump state could not retain the seat after the member republics Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had declared their independence from Belgrade.

Belgrade applied on Monday to resume its membership in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe which was suspended in 1992 because of what the organisation branded as Belgrade's continued aggression in the Bosnian conflict.

"We all look forward to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia becoming a member of the Council of Europe," said Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, whose country is the current Council president.

He said no date had been set but negotiations for membership would take some time.

The old communist Yugoslavia was never a member of the Council of Europe, which was founded in 1949 as a club of western European democracies and expanded rapidly in the 1990s after the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

Kostunica said membership, which will require Belgrade to ensure full respect for human rights, "means making this country and its people feel as they should feel -- as part of a democratic Europe."

"Without Yugoslavia being a member of different Balkan and European organisations, there would be no peace and stability in the Balkans," he said.

Kostunica said Belgrade had what he called political and psychological problems with resuming diplomatic ties to the main NATO states.

"We are aware of world realities. We are planning to have diplomatic relations renewed, even with some of those countries with which relations were broken during the NATO bombing," he said.

He did not specify with which countries Belgrade would resume ties, mentioning European states but not the U.S..

Reuters contributed to this report.

Yugoslavia asks to rejoin OSCE
November 6, 2000
Yugoslavia poised to resume diplomatic relations with U.S.
November 2, 2000
Yugoslavia returns to U.N.
November 1, 2000
Yugoslavia welcomed back into Balkan fold
October 30, 2000

Council of Europe
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbian Ministry of Information

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