BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-The Serbian parliament on Monday passed an amnesty law, pardoning those who evaded the army service over the past several years.

The legislation was approved with 108 votes in the 250-member assembly. Twenty-one deputies loyal to the late ex-President Slobodan Milosevic opposed it, and the others were absent.

The ruling coalition parties, which put forward the law, said it would pave the way for the dropping of charges against some 2,500 people, who had dodged the army service, deserted from it or refused to carry weapons.

The authorities in 2001 approved a separate law pardoning the draft dodgers from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, which were orchestrated by Milosevic. Amnesty laws became possible only after his 2000 ouster by a reformist coalition.