Reuters - September 30th, 2006

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia will hold an early election after a referendum in four weeks on a new constitution reasserting its sovereignty over Kosovo, the prime minister said on Saturday.

Setting his course for a tumultuous conclusion to a year that has not resolved Serbia's crunch problems, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the new constitution, approved unanimously by parliament, ensures that ``Serbia will defend Kosovo with all democratic and legal means.''

``Kosovo is ours,'' he told parliament.

Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority demands independence from Serbia, whose troops killed some 10,000 Albanians and embarked on a massive ethnic cleansing campaign during an Albanian guerrilla insurgency in 1998-99, until NATO bombed Serbia for nearly three months to compel its withdrawal.

On Friday, the European Union effectively told Belgrade it would not resume frozen talks on Serbia's EU membership aspirations because Serbia had not kept its promise to arrest Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Rako Mladic, indicted in 1995.

The West insists that it wants to see a democratic Serbia joining the EU, but is adamant that Serbs cannot escape justice for atrocities committed by their forces in the 1990s.

Serbia's new constitution will replace the old Socialist blueprint defunct since the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic was toppled in 2000. It treats Serbia as a single republic, following the last departure in the break-up of the Yugoslav federation when Montenegro declared independence in June.

SYMBOLISM IS ALL

The constitution's main symbolic point is to reaffirm that the heartland province of Kosovo is an inalienable part of Serbia, and that Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, has not given in to Western pressure to concede it.

Anti-government demonstrators chanted slogans against the constitution on Saturday, saying it was a rushed job pushed through for political reasons, not constitutional reasons.

No major political party in Serbia will publicly concede that Kosovo may be lost, despite polls indicating only 12 percent of Serbs think it may still be saved.

Pro-Western parties fear that to do so would cripple them in the coming election battle against the ultranationalist Radical party, Serbia's strongest.

Kostunica set no date for the snap election, but pundits say it will be in mid or late December. Parliament set an October 28-29 date for the referendum to ratify the constitution. If it passes, Serbia can call for new elections 45 days later.

Kostunica told a news conference earlier that he had asked the liberal G17 Plus party which supports his minority coalition not to carry out its threat to quit this weekend but to stay on until preparations for the elections were completed.

``I am sure that all this will go very fast. The government is bringing its mandate to a close,'' he said. ``We have a job to do. We have a referendum and after that elections and there is nothing more important for Serbia than that.''

``I am convinced the people will confirm at a referendum that Serbia needs a new democratic constitution and that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia,'' Kostunica said.

Belgrade has warned Western powers leaning toward granting Kosovo independence that it will set a dangerous precedent in the ethnically mixed Balkans, and could also boost the electoral strength of Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party, the main threat to the re-election of a pro-western government.

Editor's commentary: Following things are not told by this news brief:

1. Constitution can be approved only if two thirds of all registered voters vote YES. This is highly unlikely and some parties are organizing boycott like all Vojvodina political parties and LDP.

2. Believe it or not but there is no autonomy of any kind for Vojvodina in new Constitution which is paradoxal to previous status that Vojvodina and Kosovo had in former Yugoslavia. They were both autonomous provinces with their assemblies and legislature. In new Constitution there will be no legislature in Vojvodina, no laws can be enacted by their assembly.

3. G17 has already left ruling coalition thanks to the failure of government of Serbia to arrest Ratko Mladic. The reason why Serbian assembly voted on Saturday is because Saturday was the last day of G17 in coalition and they needed them to vote for Constitution.

4. Currently most popular political party in Serbia is Democratic Party with over 30% popular rating in latest polls and behind them is Radical Party with few points behind. Leader of Democratic Party is current Serb president Boris Tadic. This shows that threat of radicalization of Serbia is non-existent and it only based on Kostunica's lies in order to save him from losing the power. His rating and his party DSS is only 10% which clearly indicates that he is not going to be PM after new elections. Democratic parties in Serbia minus Milosevic's SPS and Radical Party clearly have well over 60% popular support. Milosevic's SPS actually can't even score over 5% which is minimum for presence in parliament.

5. Election date rumored for December is complete nonsense because thanks to mandatory support for referendum and G17 leave from ruling coalition it is most probable that elections will be set for the same day as referendum is. It is absolutely ridiculous expecting at least 67% of all registered voters voting YES for referendum which would then kill Constitution for good. Because ruling coalition has collapsed, assembly can't even ratify referendum so it is insane to postpone elections after October 29th. The only thing that would happen would be closed parliament from October 1st until well into 2007 which would be a suicidal act when we know that negotiations with EU are suspended permanently and status of Kosovo should be decided before the end of this year. Kostunica's obsession to hold power no matter what is the only reason for this lunacy that will ultimately bring even more disaster to Serbia. The only important thing right now is removal of Kostunica from power ASAP. Boycott referendum or just say NO and be ready for elections, the most important one for Serbia ever. This is the first time that people in Serbia will vote after Serbia became independent in June of this year.

Budapest has seen the biggest rally yet by Hungarians demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany for lying to the nation.

A crowd of between 20,000 and 50,000 people filled the square outside the Hungarian parliament building before the rally broke up around midnight.

Rally organisers appealed to participants to add a white ribbon or wear a white item of clothing to symbolise, in their words, the need for truth and non-violence in the face of the PM's lies.

"Our protest will not cease until the cabinet resigns," said Tamas Molnar, one of the rally organisers.

"We want to bring down the current post-communist government."

Many of the demonstrators carried the pre-1945 Hungarian flag, a strong nationalist symbol.

On the first day of the protests, demonstrators stormed the state television building, set alight cars and vandalised the city's main Soviet war monument.

Full story here.

Note: Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton consider visiting Hungary soon.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- First lady Laura Bush on Tuesday called for Myanmar's military rulers to release imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the U.N. Security Council to issue a swift resolution condemning the junta.

''The United States will work very hard with other members of the Security Council to get a good resolution about Burma,'' Mrs. Bush told a panel of diplomats and Myanmar experts on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. ''The sooner the better.''

The Security Council recently placed Myanmar, also known as Burma, on its agenda -- something the United States has been pushing for, despite opposition from some of Myanmar's neighbors.

''It's really important for Burma's neighbors to speak with one voice,'' the first lady said. While the United States believes strong sanctions are the best way to force change in the country, others favor discussions with the generals.

U.S. officials also want the United Nations to call on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for much of the last 17 years. She is among some 1,100 political prisoners.

''We want to see what we can do -- is there anything we can do to make sure she as well as all the other political prisoners are released,'' Bush said of Suu Kyi.

The U.N. Security Council held a rare briefing last year on political and social deterioration in Myanmar, but U.S. lawmakers want more done. They argue that isolating the junta should not be solely an American effort and have urged pressure be ramped up from China, Thailand and India, which they criticize for their economic ties with Myanmar's generals.

In August, President Bush approved a renewal of sanctions against Myanmar, extending for a year import restrictions.

Zaid Ibrahim, a member of Malaysia's parliament and the head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said governments in the region are fed up with junta.

''The only way we can hope for real change is when this regime cracks,'' Ibrahim said. ''Pressure works, although some people question that.''

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, who was allowed to visit Myanmar earlier this year and meet with Suu Kyi, said he hoped to return and see if any progress has been made since his last visit.

The judge in charge of Saddam Hussein's genocide trial has been replaced, the Iraqi prime minister's office said.

Earlier, the government said it had asked the court to sack Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri accusing him of losing his "neutrality".

Last Thursday, Mr Amiri sparked controversy by saying the ex-leader had not been a dictator.

Chief Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon called for the judge to stand down last Wednesday, saying he is biased towards the former Iraqi leader.

Mr Faroon said defendants had been given too much room to threaten witnesses and make political speeches.

Full story here.

Protesters have tried to storm Hungary's state TV station after Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitted that his party had lied to win an election.

Correspondents say protestors used stones to attack the TV HQ in the capital Budapest, demanding to be allowed to broadcast their grievances.

Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

During Monday night's demonstrations, at least one car was set on fire and demonstrators shouted "'56" in memory of Hungary's failed uprising against Soviet rule in October 1956.

The main opposition party, Fidesz, has said it will boycott parliament for a day on Tuesday to protest against the "lies" of the Socialist-led government.

These are the first clashes to take place between police and demonstrators in Hungary since the fall of communism and the establishment of democracy in the late 1980s.

Full story here.

Hungary's prime minister has admitted saying that his party lied to the public to win April's general election.

Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission came after Hungarian radio played a tape of a meeting he had with his Socialist MPs a few weeks after the election.

"There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have.

"Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true.

"You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?"

Mr Gyurcsany thanks "divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks" for keeping the economy above board.

In a speech sprinkled with obscenities, he says: "We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening."

About 3,000 people gathered outside parliament on Sunday calling for him to resign but Mr Gyurcsany has refused.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: This is similar to Clinton-Gore lies in 2000 showing economy charts going through the roof and later in 2001 admitting that those charts were fake. They did it to help Gore win with help of lies. Right now Democrats are doing another whitewash of their responsibility for September 9/11 attacks. New and more powerful lies are being prepared for November elections to help them win.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein thundered against ''agents of Iran and Zionism'' Tuesday as Kurdish witnesses described atrocities against them. In a moment of defiance, a witness snapped: ''Congratulations, Saddam. You are in a cage.''

Saddam and the six other defendants in the genocide trial sat silently as witnesses told of Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during which the prosecution says about 180,000 Kurds died.

But when Saddam heard a lawyer describe Kurdish guerrillas, known as peshmergas, as freedom fighters, the deposed president bellowed: ''You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads.''

Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam said the Kurdish guerrillas were rebels and ''in any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it.''

He demanded that the word peshmerga, Kurdish for ''those who face death,'' be stricken from the trial record and complained that the five-judge panel had tolerated ''lots of violations'' of judicial proceedings during Tuesday's session.

''But if we were to get angry, it would be something else,'' Saddam said, banging his fist against the podium.

He also insisted that ''neutral'' experts -- not Americans -- examine the identities of the witnesses and the bodies allegedly found in mass graves.

The prosecution demanded that Saddam's statement about the Kurdish rebellion be considered a confession. Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri rejected the motion, but took note of it when the prosecution threatened to walk out.

If convicted, Saddam and the other defendants could face death by hanging.

Saddam has maintained that the Anfal crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran in the 1980-88 war and that loyal Iraqi Kurds were treated fairly.

That claim was disputed by four Kurdish witnesses, who told of ferocious attacks by Iraqi forces against their villages as well as mass arrests and killings of civilians.

The most chilling account came from Ghafour Hassan Abdullah, who said Iraqi troops attacked his northern village with aircraft and artillery in February 1988.

''At night, I heard the screaming of women and children,'' said Ghafour Hassan Abdullah.

Abdullah said he fled to neighboring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters disappeared. Years later, their identity cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, about 120 miles from their home village, he said.

Abdullah, now 29, asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority comprising 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's population, had been so brutally suppressed under Saddam's regime.

''Why? Because we are Kurds,'' he said. ''Why did all disasters befall us? Because we are Kurds.''

Abdullah then turned to Saddam and said: ''Congratulations, Saddam. You are in a cage.'' He demanded compensation for the loss of his family.

Another witness, farmer Mahmoud Hama Aziz, said he lost a brother in fighting with Iraqi forces in 1987, months before their village was razed.

''They (Iraqi forces) stole everything in the village, then burned it down,'' he said.

Aziz said he and two friends sought refuge in Iran, leaving behind a sister-in-law and her five children who later dropped from sight. In 2004, he identified four of their bodies in a mass grave.

Omar Khudhir Mohammed Amin, 53, testified that he lost 19 relatives -- including his four brothers and sisters and their children -- in the offensive.

''The court in Sulaimaniyah asked for me. I went there and was shown their IDs. They showed me six IDs that belonged to my relatives. I told them I want to visit them, but court officials told me they are in a mass grave in Hatra,'' he said.

Akram Ali Hussein Mahmoud, 41, said he lost 70 relatives in Operation Anfal, including a 5-year-old boy who starved. Residents of his village fled into the mountains when Iraqi troops launched a chemical attack.

''We heard big bangs and later bad smells,'' he said. ''We ran to the mountains. ... We saw a white layer cover the ground. ... The trees turned gray and white, so we knew that a chemical material was used.''

Tuesday's session is the fifth since Saddam's trial on genocide charges against Kurds opened Aug. 21.

Saddam is awaiting a verdict Oct. 16 in his first trial, in which he was accused in the killings of 148 Shiites after a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail. If convicted, he also could face the death penalty in that case.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has claimed victory in the country's first general election since declaring independence.

Mr Djukanovic said his party had won an absolute majority in a "triumph of pro-European policy in Montenegro".

The official results have not been announced, but a leading monitoring body said it projects a Djukanovic win.

The Centre for Democratic Transition said the ruling coalition had won 41 seats of the 81-seat state assembly.

Full story here.

HANOI (Reuters) - Authorities have detained a Vietnamese-born U.S. citizen who has used the Internet to call for multi-party democracy in the one-party communist state, the man's daughter said on Monday.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi confirmed that the man, engineer Cong Thanh Do, 47, was in detention in Ho Chi Minh City and that he had been visited by consular officials.

A Vietnam government spokesman said he had no information on the case.

Word of the man's arrest came almost a week after Vietnam released cyber-dissident Pham Hong Son as part of a presidential amnesty after he had served more than four years in jail for posting essays and translations on democracy over the Internet.

The United States and European countries had campaigned for the release of Son and others considered rights activists. Hanoi has been under pressure to release activists as it prepares to join the World Trade Organization this year and host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in November.

Do's daughter, Bien DoBui, said by telephone from the family home in San Jose, California, that her father was arrested on August 14 in Phan Thiet in the southern province of Binh Thuan and then taken to Ho Chi Minh City.

``On Friday, he told a visiting American consular official that he was going on a hunger strike,'' DoBui, 21 said. ``We did not contact anyone until he came out with his role in a political group and the reason for his arrest became more clear.''

However, she said Do had not been formally charged.

She said Do told the consular official he was a member of the People's Democratic Party of Vietnam and that he was a peaceful supporter of multi-party democracy and freedom of speech.

The embassy spokeswoman said she did not have details. ``I can confirm the arrest and that we visited him as part of normal consular services.''

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hundreds of people looted shops and burned a restaurant belonging to Caucasus businessmen in an outbreak of racial violence in northwestern Russia triggered by the recent killing of two locals, Russian media said on Sunday.

Special police were sent into the town of Kondopoga in Karelia, to quell a riot sparked by a rally of up to 2,000 locals demanding the eviction of all Caucasus-born traders.

Hundreds of people -- many drunk -- marched through the town and looted shops held by Caucasus businessmen. They later stoned and burned down a restaurant were the two locals were killed in a brawl last week. The deaths are blamed on Caucasus natives.

Looters were on the rampage until early morning on Sunday in the town near the Finnish border, setting ablaze several more shops and cars before police finally regained control, said independent radio Ekho Moskvy.

Amateur video footage run on Russian television channels featured police in full riot gear flanked nearby but not interfering while the crowd was plundering the restaurant.

There were no reports on casualties after the riot.

Regional head Sergei Katanandov, speaking on Karelian television, appealed for restraint although he said he understood ``the justified anger and indignation of citizens.'' He said more than 100 looters had been detained.

``Inter-ethnic hatred surfaced in Kondopoga after the killing, and it was exploited by hooligans who provoked disturbances and set shops on fire,'' Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Ekho Moskvy said Kondopoga was still tense, while the local council was awaiting a response from Karelia's parliament to its demand to officially evict all Caucasus residents from the town.

``The authorities do not rule out new riots,'' the radio said.

Police were not immediately available for comment. Official Rossiya television said this was a ``commercial dispute.''

Outbursts of racial violence are not uncommon in Russia where xenophobia has flourished since the collapse of communism.

Last month a bomb at a Russian market selling Asian goods killed 11 people, mostly from ex-Soviet Central Asia. Three men have detained on suspicion of racially-inspired crime.