Balkan Leaders Discuss Stability

By Jovana Gec
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2000; 8:31 a.m. EDT

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Yugoslavia's president promised a new era in
relations with its Balkan neighbors as leaders of the turbulent region met
Wednesday to explore ways of improving cooperation now that Slobodan
Milosevic is gone.

Arriving for the one-day summit, President Vojislav Kostunica said his rise
to power this month "opened a new page" in his country's history after a
decade of ethnic conflict under Milosevic.

"Yugoslavia has turned to its future and to improving relations, both
bilateral and multilateral relations," Kostunica said. "That is very important
for us."

Later, Kostunica told summit participants "the Balkans needs peace and
stability" and "Europe needs a peaceful and stable Balkans."

Kostunica said Yugoslavia was willing to join in dialogue with its neighbors
to rebuild after a decade of ethnic conflict. But he hinted that dialogue was
a mutual process and Yugoslavia expected others to face up to their own
role in the chaos.

"With a sensible and good-willed dialogue, without accusations and
self-accusations in advance, patiently freeing ourselves of pent-up
prejudice, we will be able to solve the problems that burden our relations,"
Kostunica said. "We must live in peace one next to another and cooperate
as much as it would best suit us all. I am convinced it will be so."

That is a welcome message for leaders of Balkan countries, which hope
that peace in the region will improve their chances for economic aid and
integration into Western institutions such as NATO and the European
Union.

Kostunica's victory in the Sept. 24 election and the subsequent uprising
that forced Milosevic to concede defeat have removed the immediate
threat of more war. It also raised hopes that the remaining Balkan
problems - simmering ethnic tensions or regional disputes - could be
resolved.

"We are living in truly historic times," Macedonia's President Boris
Trajkovski said as he convened the summit. "We are giving a positive sign
and strong commitment that we are ready to take a step forward in our
cooperation."

The gathering also offers the opportunity for Balkan leaders to meet their
counterparts outside the formal summit session. Kostunica plans to meet
the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, on
Wednesday evening.

Security was extraordinary. Police swarmed around Skopje for the
summit, the biggest international event ever organized in this low-key
Balkan backwater since the country gained independence from
Yugoslavia in 1991.

The Balkan countries - Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania,
Macedonia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and Croatia - have held several similar
gatherings since their first summit in Bulgaria in 1996. Milosevic, who is
widely blamed for the Balkan bloodshed in the past decade, joined only
one, on the Greek island of Crete in 1997.

The United States and European nations have long tried to promote closer
ties in an effort to boost cooperation and promote democratic reforms in a
region without a long history of either.

German official Bodo Hombach, who heads the international Balkan
Stability Pact, hailed Kostunica's participation in the summit. The Stability
Pact is an internationally funded project to promote democracy and
foreign investment in Southeast Europe.

"President Kostunica, your presence here today is a signal to your
neighbors that you are trying to overcome the legacy of the last years
which have brought bloodshed war and ethnic cleansing to the Balkans,"
Hombach said.

Past summits have been burdened either by wars raging somewhere in the
region, including Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, or the threat of conflict,
most recently in Yugoslavia's republic of Montenegro.

Macedonian officials had stressed that the gathering will be "different from
any other" because it is being held after the crisis in Kosovo, in the wake
of democratic changes in Yugoslavia, and with all wartime leaders of
former Yugoslavia ousted.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said that the
Balkan leaders will demand a concrete "perspective" from the European
Union - meaning some idea whether EU membership is a realistic goal -
and call for a more active role for Russia in the region in addition to U.S.
and European diplomatic initiatives.

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press