YUGOSLAVIA: MILOSEVIC REBUILDING ANNOUNCEMENT

Описание: (14 Jun 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat

Slobodan Milosevic is ready to rebuild after NATO bombing.

In his first public appearance since he agreed to an international peace plan last week, the Yugoslav President told a crowd in northern Serbia that the most difficult weeks in their history were over.

Meanwhile, the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party quit the ruling coalition of Milosevic because of anger over the government's acceptance of a Kosovo peace plan.

In his first public appearance since he agreed to a peace plan last week, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, said that the worst was over for Yugoslavia and that it was time to start rebuilding.

At a ceremony on Monday, to launch the rebuilding of a Danube River bridge, destroyed by NATO missiles in the northern Serbian town of Beska, he vowed post-war reconstruction after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes.

The backdrop of his campaign-style address was an important one -- the Danube River is used to connect the main highway between Belgrade and Novi Sad.

Milosevic said that the route connecting Ygoslavia with the rest of Europe would soon be open once again.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"It is both logical and justified to start rebuilding our country from here (from the rebuilding of bridges). The significance of this action (the rebuilding) doesn't need to be repeatedly stressed. This is the European corridor number 10 (which links Yugoslavia with Hungary, Macedonia and Greece). This corridor will be open once more in 40 days time as those doing the reconstruction have promised. Therefore in 40 days time the route will be once again open."
SUPER CAPTION: Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslav President

He also again defended the peace agreement, saying Yugoslavia won U-N guarantees of its sovereignty.

That wasn't a view shared by the country's ultranationalists.

At a meeting in Belgrade, the Serbian Radical Party leader vented his fury at the government's acceptance of the Kosovo peace plan.

The Radicals, led by Vojislav Seselj, had threatened to quit the coalition if any NATO peacekeepers were allowed into the Serbian province of Kosovo.

He said the killing of Serbs by NATO forces had already begun.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"The occupiers came to Kosovo and are already killing Serbs. In Pristina English occupiers have killed a Serb policeman. In Prizren German occupiers have killed a Serbian soldier and left another badly wounded. In Vranjevac the Albain terrorists have kille two soldiers and one policeman. Long columns of Serb refugees are leaving Kosovo and Metohija."
SUPER CAPTION: Vojislav Seselj, Leader of the Serbian Radical Party

Seselj, who has close ties to paramilitary groups that operated in Kosovo, put forward a motion to have the party sever its ties with the government.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"Whoever favours the decision that the ministers of the Serbian Radical Party resign their membership of the Serbian Union and in that way discontinue the coalition of the Serbian Radical Party with the Socialist Party of Serbia/ The Yugoslav left-wing, should raise their hand."
SUPER CAPTION: Vojislav Seselj, Leader of the Serbian Radical Party

It was a vote that he won, adding that the only reason the party had joined the union in the first place was to 'defend Kosovo, a holy Serb land.'

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"We have come to an agreement that the ministers of the Serbian Radical Party resign their membership of the government of the Serbian Republic."
SUPER CAPTION: Vojislav Seselj, Leader of the Serbian Radical Party



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