Yugoslav Army Reshuffle Likely
The United States Tuesday called Serbian parliamentary elections an "important milestone" in the democratic transition of Serbia and congratulated the Democratic Opposition on its electoral victory.
Also Tuesday, reformers took new and bold steps to assert their control over the country, with Yugoslavia's top defense body replacing the chief of the Yugoslav army in Montenegro, the first removal of a senior military figure in the post-Milosevic era, according to a source.
The source confirmed a report in a Montenegrin daily which said the council, chaired by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, decided at a session in Belgrade Monday to replace three senior military officials.
Daily Pobjeda said they were Second Army commander General Milorad Obradovic, navy chief Admiral Milan Zec and military airport commander Colonel Luka Kastratovic.
Kostunica's office had no immediate comment on the story or a similar report in another Montenegrin daily.
In polls hailed by international observers as free and fair, in contrast to manipulated elections under former President Slobodan Milosevic, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia alliance, which backs Kostunica, won around 65 percent of the vote.
"The United States congratulates the Democratic Opposition of Serbia on their victory in Saturday's election for the Serbia parliament," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in a statement released on Monday.
The election result fits well with the U.S. Balkan policy of reducing the influence of Milosevic and integrating Serbia into the rest of southeastern Europe.
Milosevic's Socialists came a distant second in the elections, with about 14 percent of the vote.
However, ultra-nationalists who won seats in the poll demanded Tuesday that the organization's first session be held in Kosovo to reassert the country's rights over its lost province.
"We expect other parties' support as well as permission from the international community to hold the first session of Serbia's new parliament in Pristina," said Borislav Pelevic, head of a small party founded by slain warlord Arkan.
The Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) leader said the second session should then be held in a part of southern Serbia bordering Kosovo where tensions rose after ethnic Albanian guerrillas killed four Serb policemen last month.
Zoran Djindjic, Serbian prime minister-designate, suggested tensions in the troubled parts of southern Serbia bordering Kosovo had boosted the vote for Arkan's successors.
He said Sunday support for the SSJ was proof of how carefully society must be healed to avoid radical demagogy.
A day earlier, Djindjic announced plans to begin an investigation that could force Milosevic to stand trial for ruining the country.
However, the new reformist leadership gave no indication they will move quickly to extradite Milosevic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which indicted him last year for atrocties committed by his forces in Kosovo.
Djindjic said Milosevic must answer to his own people "for all the terrible things he has done — starting from corruption, crime, election fraud and ordering murders" during his 13 years in power.
The former strongman could be arrested if the investigation finds evidence to support criminal charges, Djindjic said.
Pro-democracy leaders have made similar statements since October, when a popular uprising forced Milosevic to concede defeat to Kostunica in the controversial federal presidential election Sept. 24.
Kostunica has refused to send Milosevic and others to The Hague because many Serbs consider the tribunal a political institution biased against them. Asked about extraditing Milosevic to the tribunal, Djindjic said the former president "shouldn't be made a victim because he is not a victim. He is a criminal."
Many Serbs blame Milosevic for transforming Yugoslavia into an economically impoverished pariah state. At the same time, his family and the elite around him got rich through corruption and embezzlement, many Yugoslavs believe.
Yugoslavia's worst-ever energy crisis forced rolling power cuts across Serbia Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people shivering in their homes and technicians scrambling to maintain electricity to hospitals and other essential facilities.
"We are facing a catastrophe caused by nature after nine months of drought and the lowest water level in the Danube river, this is the result," said Srboljub Antic, Serbia's energy minister.
A drought beginning in the summer and continuing into December has lowered hydroelectric output here and in neighboring Albania. No investments have been made in the power system in either country in decades, forcing the infrastructure into crippling disarray.
The state power company in Serbia — home to more than 90 percent of the country's 10 million people — announced eight to 10 hour blackouts throughout the country.
Belgrade, the capital of 2 million, was divided into four sections, with electricity turned off in each sector for nine hours, twice a day.