Milosevic Due Seat in Serb Parliament

BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro —  Jailed former strongman Slobodan Milosevic and another U.N. war crimes suspect won seats in Serbia’s parliament as an extreme nationalist party swept weekend elections, according to results released Monday.

Vojislav Seselj’s Serbian Radical Party, which supported Milosevic’s Balkan war campaigns of the 1990s, won 81 seats in Sunday’s balloting for the 250-seat parliament -- far more than any of the pro-Western groups that toppled Milosevic three years ago, the state electoral commission said.

Milosevic, of the Serbian Socialist Party, and Seselj are jailed by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague on charges of being behind atrocities stemming from the wars in Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Kosovo.

They led their parties’ lists in a parliamentary vote considered crucial for the still-volatile Balkans, so each has the right to a seat. Milosevic’s Socialists won 22 seats.

Milosevic and Seselj can’t attend parliamentary sessions, but their parties can still decide to award them seats when the new parliament convenes in January.

“It would be symbolic for Milosevic to get a seat in the parliament,” said his party deputy, Ivica Dacic. “We’ll talk to Milosevic about it, and we’ll see if he wants it.”