West rejoices in Milosevic's fall

BERLIN - Western Governments are elated over the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in a people's uprising and Russia has cautiously joined them in welcoming the new leader in Belgrade.

The West has pledged aid and an end to sanctions and world leaders have stepped forward to welcome Opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica as one of their number.

French President Jacques Chirac, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said at the weekend that he had invited Kostunica to attend an informal EU summit in the southwestern French resort of Biarritz this weekend.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright described as "great news" and possibly decisive the fact that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov had offered Moscow's congratulations to Kostunica on his victory during talks in Belgrade.

"I cannot tell you how important it is and how important it is to the Yugoslav people," she said of Moscow's change in tack to accept Milosevic's defeat in the September 24 election.

The United States declared its opposition to any role in politics for Milosevic in Yugoslavia or to granting him asylum abroad. Seeking to hasten Milosevic's departure, the White House said it looked forward to working with Kostunica.

Chirac said Milosevic, accused by a UN tribunal of war crimes, had to account for a decade of crimes.

Ivanov, sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mediate the crisis, delivered a note of congratulation from him to Kostunica.

Putin's message, the text of which was released by the Kremlin, was deftly drafted to avoid the words "president" or "election."

But it left no doubt that he considered Kostunica, whose supporters control Belgrade, was now in charge.

"I hope that you, as the leader of the democratic forces in Yugoslavia, having assumed responsibility for the future of the fraternal Yugoslav people, will be able to do everything possible to overcome the internal political crisis," it said.

EU officials said a meeting of Foreign Ministers later today would likely lift an oil embargo and flight ban, while financial sanctions and a visa ban would probably not go until later. Germany said it would propose a package of immediate aid.

"We believe we have a duty to welcome a democratic Serbia with open arms," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in Berlin.

He called the storming of key Government buildings in Belgrade by over half a million people "the democratic self-liberation of the Serb people."

In Washington, White House spokesman Jake Siewert repeated the US promise to remove economic sanctions quickly once Kostunica formally takes power, but stressed that those directed at Milosevic and his cronies would stay.

Washington would also talk to its allies about allowing Yugoslavia to rejoin the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, offering hope for an economy in tatters after years of conflict, sanctions and Nato bombings.

In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, expressed delight at developments in Belgrade and said human rights violations should be punished.

Carl Bildt, special UN envoy to the Balkans and former Bosnian peace mediator, welcomed what he called "the collapse of the Milosevic regime" and said the UN stood ready to help the new Yugoslavia.

Bildt, a former Swedish Prime Minister, said he expected Kostunica to initiate talks with Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on a "new relationship" between the two states.

"This is key to the emergence of a truly democratic new Yugoslavia."

UN refugee boss Sadako Ogata said it was too soon to predict how the "positive, democratic turn" would affect 700,000 refugees and internally displaced persons living in Serbia, Europe's largest refugee population.

About 200,000 people who fled Kosovo remain in Serbia and Montenegro - the vast majority in Serbia - joining 500,000 refugees from Bosnia and Croatia's Krajina region, according to the UNHCR agency, which runs a major refugee programme in Serbia.

Romanian President Emil Constantinescu echoed relief around the Balkans as he hailed Milosevic's defeat and compared it to the 1989 fall of Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

"Just as the Ceausescu regime fell, any regime that defies its own people will also fall," said Constantinescu.

"The Milosevic regime is over."

Only China, one of Milosevic's staunchest supporters during his 13-year reign, expressed doubts.

"China is seriously concerned about the situation in Yugoslavia and appeals for restoration of stability in that country," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi as saying.

However, Sun also said Beijing "respected the choice of the Yugoslav people" and repeated Beijing policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries.

Ambivalence to Milosevic's overthrow was also evident in Moscow, where the State Duma lower House of Parliament refused to send Kostunica greetings.

Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said the revolt smelled of "marijuana, vodka and dollars."

Belarus, which has relatively good relations with Milosevic, said it would consider any asylum application.

- REUTERS

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