STRASBOURG (AFP) - The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey yesterday for dissolving a new political party in 1993 on the grounds that it was seeking to undermine the unity of the nation. Ankara disbanded the Turkish Socialist Party (STP) before the 1-year-old party had begun any political activity, arguing that the STP’s manifesto called for the right to self-determination for the country’s Kurdish community and supported the right to “wage a war of independence.” It said these views were akin to those of terrorist groups and in themselves constituted an unlawful incitement to violence that was liable to undermine the territorial integrity of the Turkish state and the unity of the nation. But the Strasbourg-based court said yesterday it had “found nothing in it (the STP’s program) that could be considered a call for the use of violence, an uprising or any other form of rejection of democratic principles.”

BELGRADE (AP) - The front runner in this week’s Serbian presidential elections pledged yesterday that his victory would result in a final break with the Slobodan Milosevic era. Serbia has been without a president since Milan Milutinovic, a Milosevic ally, stepped down in January and surrendered to the tribunal, in The Hague. “If I become the president, I would absolutely remove the remnants of Milosevic’s regime,” former dissident Dragoljub Micunovic told AP. Micunovic said he would urge cooperation with the Hague tribunal, which is seeking over two dozen Serb war crimes suspects still at large. “We have to cooperate with the Hague tribunal... every crime has to be punished, and that’s the only way to reconcile in these regions,” Micunovic said.

A Romanian soldier killed in southern Afghanistan was shot dead by a man in military uniform, a local Afghan commander said yesterday. Five Romanian armored cars were returning from Spin Boldak, on the Pakistan border, to their base at Kandahar airport Tuesday when they were stopped at a roadblock near Toor Kotal, 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of the airport, said General Said Mohammad, head of Afghan forces based at the airport. In Bucharest, Defense Ministry spokesman Gelaledin Nezir said Romania will continue its mission in Afghanistan despite this incident. (AFP)

Police in Istanbul yesterday fired shots in the air and used tear gas on some 400 Kurdish activists after barring them from attending a planned demonstration in support of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, the media said. Television footage showed protesters — some of whom had covered their faces with Palestinian-style checkered kaffiyehs — hurling sticks and chunks of paving stones at the police. (AFP)