Yugoslav parliament amnesties draft-dodgers

The Yugoslav parliament has passed a law granting amnesty to thousands of young Serbs and Montenegrins who evaded military service under President Slobodan Milosevic.

The debate was marked by strong words and was temporarily suspended when the defence minister Slobodan Krapovic and the leader of the far-right Radical party Vojislav Seselj came to blows.

The wife of former President Milosevic, Mirjana Markovic, denounced the amnesty as unpatriotic and an abandonment of the country's right to defend itself.

But the justice minister Momcilo Grubac said it was past state policies which had undermined the country's defence and it was unacceptable to persecute more than thirty-thousand young people over the issue.

The amnesty also covers those sought or convicted for anti-state activities, including about one-hundred jailed Kosovan Albanians.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service