Serbian Socialists agree alliance with Democrats to form pro-EU coalition

SERBIA:Serbia's Socialist Party has agreed to join an alliance headed by the Democratic Party to form a pro-European coalition government, its leader, Ivica Dacic, announced yesterday.

Although details on the coalition deal and final division of posts and functions in the cabinet have yet to be agreed, the move signals the formation of a government that will aim to speed up Serbia's European Union membership bid after years of halting progress.

The news will come as a relief to western government keen to see Serbia take its place firmly in the European mainstream after years of aggression, defiance and instability.

Meanwhile, the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday heard a defiant Stojan Zupljanin say he hoped fugitives Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic "remain at large forever", as the former Bosnian Serb police chief made his first appearance in court since being extradited by Belgrade.

After refusing to enter a plea against charges of torturing and killing Croat and Muslim civilians during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, Mr Zupljanin also claimed that he would welcome jail after the stress and danger of eight years on the run. He insisted that he had never received any help from the Serb government since Slobodan Milosevic was ousted in 2000.

Serb authorities arrested Mr Zupljanin near Belgrade last week and he was flown to The Hague on Saturday, just as the Socialist Party once led by Milosevic announced that it had scrapped coalition talks with nationalists and would try to forge a partnership with the liberal Democratic party, which led the drive to topple the former autocrat.

While the Socialists have refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN court, the Democrats have pledged to fulfil an EU demand to catch wartime Bosnian Serb leader Mr Karadzic, his military henchman Mr Mladic, and the former chief of a breakaway Croatian-Serb region, Goran Hadzic.

"I wish they will remain at large forever," Mr Zupljanin told the court, smiling and shaking his head as the judge read out the charges against him. "We have never had any support in Serbia from the democratic authorities."

He also accused Serb agents of trying to kill him and other war crimes suspects. "I am really afraid for them and . . . I am aware of all the suffering and difficulties they are going through and which I went through myself. I hope Lord God helps them and I wish them long life and freedom," he said.