Serbian PM says new constitution more important to him than winning election

Associated Press: Friday, October 13, 2006 6:34 AM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica urged his country Friday to overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that declares independence-seeking Kosovo an integral part of Serb territory.

Kostunica said in an interview published in the pro-government daily, Politika, that Serbian voters approving the charter in a nationwide referendum slated for Oct. 28-29, was more important to him than winning early parliamentary elections, expected in December.

Parliament approved the draft constitution this month.

Kostunica's comments reflect the government's intensified pro-referendum campaign in the face of criticism by several political figures here who have urged a boycott of the balloting.

The new constitution also defines the country as independent for the first time since the bloody breakup of the former, six-republic federation of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

"I am convinced this constitution will get sweeping approval by the citizens," Kostunica said in the interview, dismissing criticism that his Cabinet hastily drew up the draft and that there was no nationwide debate on the issue.

"I stand ready to lose (my post), as long as Serbia gets a new constitution," said Kostunica, who has seen waning support in Serbia.

More than half of Serbia's 6 million voters must approve the draft in the referendum before the new constitution can take effect.

The charter is likely to set Belgrade on another collision course with the West, for declaring the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia.

It comes at a sensitive time, as U.N.-led negotiations between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders on Kosovo's final status are entering a critical phase.

Earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey rejected the Serbian parliament's approval of the constitution, saying the future of the rebellious, U.N.-run province will not be "decided unilaterally" but through a "negotiated process."

Among the loudest criticism, parliament speaker Bojan Kostres in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province called this week for a referendum boycott, claiming the charter did not grant sufficient autonomy to Vojvodina, Serbia's breadbasket and richest region.

Some political parties from the Hungarian minority, which lives predominantly in Vojvodina, also back a boycott, as do several liberal groups.

Ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia close to Kosovo said they would stay away. Serbian officials have said Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians will not be invited to vote on the draft constitution.

Kostunica said it was important the constitution "clearly defines Kosovo ...

integral within Serbia" and that the Kosovo Albanians' demand for independence was an "unjustifiable wish."

Serbian president pleads for Kosovo delay

Friday October 13, 10:19 PM, REUTERS

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Serbian President Boris Tadic pleaded on Friday for a short postponement of a U.N. final status proposal for the breakaway province of Kosovo, likely to lead to its independence from Belgrade.

After talks with European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Tadic told reporters: "It is much better to have elections in Serbia before the agreement. I'm not asking to delay the process, I'm asking for rationality."

Serbia is widely expected to hold an early general election in December and U.N. peace envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, is due to present his plan for Kosovo's final status in early November with a view to completing a deal by the end of the year.

Rehn did not comment on the timing, but Ahtisaari told Reuters this week he still expected to submit his proposal by next month.

EU foreign ministers are due to support Ahtisaari when they meet on Monday and Tuesday in Luxembourg and are set to warn parties against any attempt to delay the process.

"Striving for a negotiated settlement should not obscure the fact that neither party can unilaterally delay or block the status process from advancing," EU foreign ministers are set to say, according to a draft statement agreed by EU ambassadors.

The major-power Contact Group overseeing Balkans diplomacy agreed in New York last month there should be no delay and asked Ahtisaari to put forward his own plan in the light of deadlock in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Some EU diplomats have said it would make sense to allow a few weeks'

slippage for the conclusion of the final status process, which will require a U.N. Security Council resolution, to accommodate the Serbian election.

But since all Serbian parties are equally opposed to relinquishing sovereignty over the province, British and U.S. officials argue there is no point in dragging out the process.

Rehn said he expected EU governments to agree in the next two weeks on a mandate for negotiations with Serbia on visa facilitation, to enable students and young people to visit the 25-nation bloc more easily.

However, he stressed that negotiations on closer ties between Belgrade and Brussels would remain frozen until the U.N. war crimes prosecutor certified that Serbia was cooperating fully with the Hague tribunal.

Talks were suspended in May after Belgrade failed to keep a promise to arrest and hand over former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic for trial on genocide charges.

EU foreign ministers are due to review Serbia's progress at a meeting with Belgrade's foreign minister on Monday in Luxembourg which chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte will attend.

EU officials said they had no indication that she would say she was satisfied with Serbian cooperation.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)