Global Policy Forum

A controversial bill on Yugoslavia's cooperation with a UN war crimes court could be presented to Serbia's parliament to avert its possible defeat at the federal level, a Yugoslav deputy prime minister said Tuesday.

"The worst result would be for the draft to be rejected by the Yugoslav parliament," Deputy Prime Minister Miroljbus Labus told B-92 radio. "Another solution would be to withdraw it from the federal parliament and present it to the Serbian parliament, which could then adopt it," he said.

Serbia is the dominant state in the Yugoslav federation, along with its partner state, Montenegro.

The draft, which could permit the extradition of Yugoslav nationals, including former leader Slobodan Milosevic, to the UN tribunal in The Hague, is due to be debated in the federal parliament on Thursday. But deputies of the Montenegrin Socialist People's Party (SNP), a one-time ally of Milosevic, confirmed Monday they would reject the proposal, leaving its passage in doubt.

Without SNP support, the reformist coalition headed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica does not have the votes to push the legislation through the federal parliament, but it has an absolute majority in the Serbian assembly.

Yugoslavia is under intense international pressure, particularly from the United States, to adopt the law before a donors' conference scheduled for June 29 which is to clear the way for much-needed financial aid. "A rejection of the draft in the federal parliament would signify that Yugoslavia is de facto refusing to fulfill its international obligations, which would lead to very severe consequences," Labus said.

Cedomir Jovanovic, head of the DOS group of deputies in the federal parliament, said the coalition was ready to pass the law, in either assembly. "If the SNP does not want this law to pass at the federal level, we will work on it at the Serbian level, because in any case, the consequences of a policy created at the federal level essentially affect Serbia," he said.