Kostunica's Party Quits Serbian Government

The party of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Friday decided to pull out of the government of Serbia to protest its failure to fight corruption.

Kostunica's party, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), said its two cabinet ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Plavdich and Health Minister Obren Joksimovich, as well as its assistant and deputy ministers withdrew from the Serbian government.

In a statement read on the state television, the DSS said it was pulling its ministers from the cabinet of Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic, because the Serbian government led by Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic of the Democratic Party (DS) has done little to fight embezzlement, bribe-taking and organized crime which has flourished in Serbia in the past decade.

The DSS stressed that organized crime, embezzlement and bribe- taking are the first enemies of Yugoslavia's democratic reform and the biggest blocks to its entry into the international community made of states of law.

The DSS and the DS are two of the 18 parties that comprise the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) alliance, which formed the coalition government of Serbia

It is widely seen that the assassination of a former Serbian Interior Ministry official, Monir Gavrilovic, in early August touched off the split between Kostunica and Djindjic.

Local media disclosed that Gavrilovic was in the presidential office on the morning of August 3, the day he was shot dead by unknown gunmen in a Belgrade suburb.

According to media reports, Gavrilovic met with members of Kostunica's cabinet, offering sensitive information on links between Belgrade authorities and the mafia in Serbia, hours before his assassination.

Responding to the reports, Kostunica, in a televised address on August 9, confirmed that Gavrilovic was in his office on the morning of August 3.

The president said the assassination was intended to intimidate "insiders" who have knowledge about corruption and other economic crimes to stay away from collaborating with the government in the anti-corruption drive.

He called on the Democratic Opposition of Serbia alliance to live up to its promises made in the election campaign and continue to fight corruption and other crimes in the country.

Yugoslavia is made up of Serbia and Montenegro.






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/