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Kostunica steps down; parliament of Serbia and Montenegro holds inaugural session |
Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica stepped down Monday as lawmakers from Serbia and Montenegro inaugurated their new parliament, formally replacing Yugoslavia with the new state.
Kostunica, who was at the helm of an uprising that toppled former autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, will be replaced as the head of the new state by Svetozar Marovic, a Montenegrin, at a parliamentary session scheduled for later this week.
"We need a democratic transition of power. We must not allow the transition process to be undignified and ugly," Kostunica told the new parliament's inaugural session in his farewell speech.
"The challenge you face is enormous; it is a historic one. We must not mourn the name of Yugoslavia ... but concentrate on the democratic reforms of our society."
Kostunica's resignation as the Yugoslav president was planned as part of the creation of the new state, formed under the auspices of the European Union.
Top local officials and several foreign diplomats attended the inaugural parliament session, which elected a speaker -- Dragoljub Micunovic from Serbia -- and outlined the procedure for the formation of the country's new bodies.
But the session got off to a rocky start.
Shortly after the mandates of the new lawmakers were confirmed, the meeting was adjourned for more than one hour because opposition deputies, in a veiled attempt to undermine the session, protested assembly rules.
The demands included the Radical Party's insisting that all parliamentary sessions be broadcast live on national television.
The opposition parties -- backed by some parties of the former pro-Western coalition that ousted Milosevic -- also challenged the composition of the parliament, claiming appointment of its deputies had been illegal.
The parliament of Serbia and Montenegro is the new country's first institution to be formed after Yugoslavia was abolished a month ago and replaced by a looser union of its two member states.
The new country was renamed after its members, Serbia and Montenegro, which are now linked only by joint defense and foreign policies. According to a EU plan, both republics are allowed to hold independence referendums in three years.
All 126 deputies of the new parliament were elected by the respective assemblies of the two member states. Ninety-one came from Serbia, the larger of the two states, while Montenegro sent 35 representatives to the joint body.
The founding of Serbia and Montenegro was the result of months of negotiations under the auspices of the European Union. The new arrangement was designed to curb Montenegro's drive for independence as the EU feared that a further breakup of Yugoslavia could cause instability in the volatile Balkan region.
Yugoslavia, first formed in 1918, disintegrated in a series of bloody conflicts in the early 1990s. Serbia and Montenegro remained together while other republics gained independence, but relations had worsened over the past few years, raising fears of more conflicts.
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