Clearing Danube of Bridge Debris A Priority

Clearing the Danube of bombed bridges and helping Serbia get through the winter are priorities for a Balkan stability pact, Bodo Hombach, the head of the European Union's reconstruction plan said, but insisted that Europe would not help Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "The stability pact is not against the Yugoslav people," Hombach said. "On the contrary, the stability pact is trying to help the Yugoslav people and to help them have a democratic Yugoslavia." The EU and the United States agreed in July to create a multi-national reconstruction program to stabilize the Balkans and encourage democratic change in Yugoslavia by denying all but humanitarian aid to Serbia. The Yugoslav republic of Montenegro was granted exceptions because of its western-leaning government and stance during NATO's air campaign against Milosevic. Hombach said the pact will try urgently to clear the Danube River, whose blockage is costing millions of dollars in lost revenues to countries along its banks. The clearance will be discussed shortly at an economic roundtable meeting, he said. "We will have quite a number of participants, and one of the key issues will be how we can clear away the ruins so that the Danube could be navigable again," he said. He did not say how much money would be available for the project, which experts have said would cost tens of millions of dollars.