The international community has pledged $777 million in aid to Yugoslavia following the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. At a donors' conference in Brussels yesterday, the European Commission pledged $445 million, the World Bank $150 million, and the US $182 million.
The pledges amount to more than half of the $1.25 billion the Serbian authorities say they need this year to rebuild the country after 13 years under Milosevic. EU leaders suggested that more money will soon become available and the EU will ask the European Investment Bank to offer loan guarantees worth $350 million.
Mr Bodo Hommbach, the co-ordinator of the EU Stability Pact for the Balkans, said the extradition of Milosevic made it more likely Western countries would offer more financial assistance to Yugoslavia.
"Now things have to get better, in terms of democracy but also in social and economic development. Now there must be a reward for choosing the path of democracy, friendly, neighbourly relations and moving closer to the EU," he said.
The EU external affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, said the decision to extradite Milosevic marked a historic turning point for Yugoslavia.
"Today marks a clean break with the past for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Now we look to the future, a future in which the FRY returns to the European family of democracies, and its citizens have the opportunity once again to lead normal and steadily more prosperous lives. The European Union offers its staunch support in that reform process. The substantial financial pledge that the European Commission is putting on the table today underlines our determination to match our words with substantial funds, and to do all we can to support and alleviate the long and difficult reform process on which the FRY is now embarked," he said.
Yugoslavia's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Mirolijub Labus, told the conference 25 per cent of his country's workforce was unemployed, with 70 per cent living below the poverty line.
"This conference has a symbolic significance for us because it shows we are fully back in the international community, politically, financially, diplomatically. We have decided to take the fast track to Europe."
