Posted on 03/19/2002 9:55:15 AM PST by Dragonfly
Wednesday March 20, 12:25 AM
Serbian Deputy PM resigns over US espionage affair
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Momcilo Perisic resigned following his arrest on suspicion of passing secret documents to a US diplomat, an incident that has strained relations with Washington.
"Momcilo Perisic delivered his resignation to Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic today," Perisic's spokesman Nebojsa Mandic told AFP.
Perisic was arrested last week together with US diplomat John David Neighbor on suspicion of spying and revealing military secrets, sparking an angry protest from the United States.
He was released on bail Saturday by a military court in Belgrade pending the outcome of an investigation into the allegations, which he has strongly denied.
The US State Department said Monday it had received a formal apology from Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic for the detention of the diplomat, who US officials allege was physically assaulted during 15 hours of detention.
In a letter to Djindjic, Perisic said he has always been "guided exclusively by the interests of the (Serbian) nation and state," and that he was resigning so that he could fight to clear his name.
"I fully support the Serbian government and regardless of whether I am resigning today from the post of deputy prime minister, my struggle for a better and happier Serbia will not be stopped in such a monstrous way," said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
"I will defend my innocence by my personality and my deeds and therefore neither have I claimed nor will I claim any immunity," Perisic added.
Perisic enjoyed immunity, both as deputy premier of Serbia and a deputy in the federal Yugoslav parliament.
However under constitutional rules the immunity does not apply if he is found guilty of a crime carrying a prison sentence of at least five years.
Perisic, a former Yugoslav army chief of staff, was one of the key figures negotiating with the Yugoslav army on behalf of reformists during the popular uprising in October 2000 which overthrew former president Slobodan Milosevic.
Both Djindjic and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica demanded Perisic's resignation on Monday.
The incident has erupted at a time when relations between the United States and the Yugoslav authorities are increasingly strained by Belgrade's lack of cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Since Milosevic was handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in June 2001, the court says cooperation has almost ground to a halt.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte on Monday, and demanded Belgrade make greater efforts to capture suspects from the Balkans conflicts of the 1990s.
No one ever questioned how the hell he could be Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and a federal MP at the same time. Could he effectively perform his duties as a deputy PM if he had to do his job as a federal (Yugoslav) Member of Parliament and vice versa?
Serbia is full of such political anomalies. You don't get a job via your Curriculum Vitae. You get it thanks to your party membership card. Nothing has changed.
That moment of Djindjich's honesty infuriated Mihailovich, which caused his resignation. Whether he actually resigned or not, I don't know. But he's been awfully quiet ever since. I hear he's vacationing near his hometown of Valyevo, central Serbia.
Mihailovich is a first-rate criminal, no doubt. He is a businessman and owns some 20 companies of various sizes. Only about two or three are registered in his name, though. How can such a person be the #1 cop in a country drowning in corruption? The corruption is so rampant, Miloshevich is a schoolboy compared to these people.
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