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Morning News

British Ambassador to the U.N.: Eventually Milosevic Will Have to Step Down

Aired September 26, 2000 - 11:17 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And we're talking about international politics too. Opponents of President Slobodan Milosevic have given Yugoslavia's election commission until tomorrow to release the results of Sunday's voting. Otherwise, they say, they'll proclaim their candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, the winner. One Yugoslav election official says he has no idea where or how the ballots are being counted.

And some comments now on the Yugoslav election and its immediate aftermath from Sir Jeremy Greenstock. He is Britain's ambassador to the United Nations and he joins us from New York.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK, BRITISH AMB. TO U.N.: Hello.

PHILLIPS: So far, what's your reaction to the election?

GREENSTOCK: That Mr. Milosevic has been stunned by size of his defeat. I think he thought he could cheat in two ways: one, by stuffing ballot boxes, and the other by fixing the software in the computers that do the counting.

But the size of the vote against him has been so great that neither of those methods are going to work. So, he's in a bit of a quandary now, as to exactly how to cheat.

PHILLIPS: When do you think we will see an outcome?

GREENSTOCK: By law, the commission has to declare a result by Thursday the 28th. I think that the opposition are now pressing for earlier announcement than that. But I think that's the deadline, Thursday.

PHILLIPS: Interesting, Mr. Milosevic if you -- if the -- excuse me, Mr. Ambassador, if Milosevic does lose, do you really think he will give up power?

GREENSTOCK: I think, eventually, he will have to. You can't go on suppressing all of the people all of the time. And he's on his way out now. This is a huge mistake, a huge shock for him, but he's not one to give up power likely. He's been indicted by an international court. He doesn't want to be subject to arrest, you can see all sorts of motivations in his mind. But this is the beginning of the end for Mr. Milosevic, and we have to see which route he chooses.

PHILLIPS: Will the British take military action if he doesn't step down?

GREENSTOCK: I think our red lines are some way away. We do have 15 ships in the gulf. We are part of a strong force in Kosovo. But, nobody's thinking of invading Serbia to remove Mr. Milosevic. But there are things that we don't want to see done. We don't want to see violence spreading in the Balkans. So, we are taking a careful and quite powerful approach to this question.

PHILLIPS: Do you think violence could flare up?

GREENSTOCK: It's not impossible. We've known it in the Balkans before. And, in the Balkans, you must be prepared for the unexpected. So, we are in a very wary state of mind at the moment.

PHILLIPS: Mr. Jeremy Greenstock. thank you for your insights to the election process.

GREENSTOCK: Thank you very much.

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