Defence Minister of Serbia and Montenegro in Prague

The Defence Minister of Serbia and Montenegro, Zoran Stankovic, said on Monday that the Army would not intervene in efforts to gain Montenegrin or Kosovo independence. Speaking to his Czech counterpart Karel Kuhnl during a visit to Prague, Mr Stankovic said there will be no repetition of the 1990s, when the Yugoslav Army tried to hinder the Slovenes and Croats from gaining independence. A vote on Montenegrin independence is scheduled to take place on May 21 and there is ongoing discussion on autonomy for the south Serbian province of Kosovo.

The two defence ministers also spoke about a possible EU military engagement in Kosovo and Serbia's efforts to help bring Ratko Mladic before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague by the end of this month. Mr Mladic is the alleged architect of the murder of around 7,500 Muslims in the Bosnian silver-mining town Srebrenica in 1995.