The Foreign Ministers of Romania and rump Yugoslavia, Teodor Melescanu and Milan Milutinovic, on 22 April initialed in Bucharest a 20-year friendship treaty, Romanian and international media reported. The treaty will be officially signed by the two countries' presidents later this year. Milutinovic was also received by President Ion Iliescu and by the chairmen of the bicameral parliament, Adrian Nastase and Oliviu Gherman. The Romanian Senate on 22 April voted to strip Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the leader of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party, of his parliamentary immunity. There are also 16 other pending cases against Tudor brought on by private plaintiffs.
Romanian law forbids persons with a criminal record from running for the presidential office.
Even if the sentence were not passed till then, Tudor's candidacy could be contested in court by private persons, Evenimentul zilei wrote on 23 April citing Senate Judicial Commission chairman Ion Predescu. Stationing of foreign troops in Banja Luka will be detrimental to this city, which is the most important cultural, university, and business center in the Republika Srpska. At issue is a test of wills not only between Karadzic and the British, but also between the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale and the one in Banja Luka, which wants its city to become the capital. Meanwhile in Stockholm, the Chief Justice of the international war- crimes tribunal, Richard Goldstone, said that Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, also an indicted war criminal, are becoming increasingly marginalized and that the chances of arresting them are improving. Election supervisor Robert Frowick said that the vote will require freedom of association, expression, and movement, as well as a politically neutral atmosphere.