Word: kostunica
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...moment along Kosovo's northern border. At the weekend, the new reformist government in Belgrade set Monday as a deadline for Albanian separatist guerrillas who infiltrated from Kosovo to withdraw from a string of villages inside Serbia, or face eviction by the Yugoslav army. And though new president Vojislav Kostunica later postponed the deadline indefinitely - saying he wanted to give diplomacy a chance - the situation poses a huge dilemma for NATO, since the villages in question are inside a three-mile buffer zone from which Belgrade is barred from sending troops, under the agreement that ended last year's Kosovo...
...extremely disappointed in the way the U.S. government views Serbian nationalism. Why is it different from American nationalism? U.S. officials are extremely hypocritical in celebrating Kostunica's victory. They simply want to wash their bloody hands of the war and of NATO bombings in Kosovo and Yugoslavia that caused human casualties and severe destruction of Serbian infrastructure. U.S. officials can claim they acted because of Milosevic's aggression. But deep down, all Serbs know the U.S. government could not care less about their well-being and struggle for democracy. ANA MIRKOVIC Vancouver...
...great that the days of Milosevic's rule are finally over [World, Oct. 16]. But what do we really know about Kostunica's political aims? And there are problems: the Socialist Party still has a voice in the Yugoslav Parliament, and many of the political and business elite still believe in Milosevic. We should wait and see before we start cheering. MICHAEL PFEIFFER Berlin...
...recap of the events in Belgrade earlier this fall: A former military ruler gets defeated in election, but wants to remain in office; a popular uprising forces him from power; the elected opposition leader is sworn in as new leader. This, however, is where the two stories diverge. Vojislav Kostunica won in Yugoslavias first free elections and rightfully claimed victory over Slobodan Milosevic. However, Laurent Gbagbo, who claimed victory in the Ivorty Coast election, did not win over former General Robert Gue in an entirely democratic election, since two other major opposition parties were excluded from the ballot...
Gbagbo has followed Kostunica as a beneficiary of democracy, but now he needs to acknowledge that the elections were seriously flawed. After winning the staged elections last Sunday, he has the unique chance to lead his country towards a full democracy. Ousting a corrupt dictator, however, is not enough. Gbagbo must promise fully democratic elections and the reinstitution of a multi-party democracy...