ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s staunchly secularist president yesterday rejected Washington’s promotion of his country as a model Muslim democracy serving as a bridge and example to the wider Islamic world. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who has a tough record on vetoing any legislation he believes runs against modern Turkey’s secular principles, said the label was wrong. “It is unacceptable to describe Turkey as an Islamic republic or to propose a meaningless model like ‘moderate Islam’ on Turkey,” Sezer said.

SARAJEVO (AP) - Bosnia’s Election Commission yesterday imposed a blackout on campaigning and political advertising on the eve of the country’s first locally organized municipal elections, officials said. A ban on political activities began at 7 a.m. local time and was to remain in place until 7 p.m. today, when polling stations for the balloting will close, Election Commission Chairman Vehid Sehic said. More than 2.3 million eligible voters will elect new municipal councils and mayors in 142 municipalities throughout the country. The elections are the first postwar vote to be fully funded and organized by Bosnian authorities, as well as the first in which mayors of Bosnian cities will be directly elected.

Serbia must face the horrors of its past if it is to overcome its divisions, Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said yesterday as experts in international law and human rights met to review Serbia’s shortcomings in dealing with the crimes of the 1990s Balkan conflicts. “The truth cures, even when it hurts... The dead don’t speak and the living are keeping silent,” Draskovic told UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and other international experts. “But reconciliation will not happen unless everyone speaks about their sins.” (AP)

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman said yesterday Washington would contribute $9.5 million toward the implementation of a controversial law on decentralization in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. “We believe that this task should be completed for Macedonia to follow its vision for a multiethnic society, democracy, the EU and NATO,” Grossman said after meeting with President Branko Crvenkovski and Prime Minister Hari Kostov. “We intend to continue to support the people of Macedonia as it moves toward European structures.” (AFP)

EU Commission President Romano Prodi formally opened accession talks with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia yesterday, saying the country was at a crossroads in its history. “This is really a new, important stage in the process of European integration. This is a real step, the first concrete step and this is why it is so important,” Prodi said. (AFP)