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Serbia Today, 97-03-19Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Serbia TodayCONTENTS
[01] WORK TO BEGIN ON CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRANS-YUGOSLAV MASTER HIGHWAYSEverything is ready for the road builders on Sunday, March 23, 1997, to put in operation their machines and start works on the stretch of master highway Horgos-Feketici. This was stated by the Minister for Transport and Communications of Serbia Prof.Dr. Svetolik Kostadinovic. It is planned for this stretch to be completed and put in operation until the end of this year. One week later, on March 30, 1997, works will commence on the circular route around Belgrade, i.e. on the stretch from Dobanovci to Ostruznica. Minister Kostadinovic said that the Government of the Republic of Serbia established a coordination team for monitoring of the realization of the program of construction of highways through the Republic, which will especially care for the inflow and designated expenditure of funds and the determined dynamics and completion of works in the prescribed time. The start and realization of this project, according to Kostadinovic, means also employment of the local civil engineering operative force, jobs for tens of thousands of workers, engagement of the appurtenant industrial capacities, scientific institutions and is an instigation to the process of recovery and a more dynamic development of the overall economy.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-19[02] SLOVENIAN - CROAT FRONTIER DISPUTE RENEWEDSuddenly and without any cause, Zagreb "Vjesnik" newspaper published information that Slovenian army will by the month of June this year at the latest, withdraw from the hills on the frontier with Croatia which Slovenians are calling Trdinov vrh, and Croats will withdraw from Saint Gero. On this hill top is located the communications system of the former Yugoslav People"s Army which the Slovenian soldiers have occupied immediately after the former Yugoslav army had abandoned this structure. Since then it has become one of the disputable frontier points in the relations between the two states, because the Croat side is of the view that Slovenian army had occupied a part of the sovereign Croat territory. Slovenian Defense Ministry denied this information published by "Vjesnik" about the withdrawal of the Slovenian army, and in the public reactions there are cynical comments on the Croat announcement that the disputable hill will be used for tourist purposes only. Trdinov vrh is an important strategic point and the media placed provocation from the Croat side took place because there are suspicions that the Slovenian army can use this structure on the disputable hill for eavesdropping on the Croat telephones. Actually this is the reason why Slovenian analysts are not treating lightly this "media rattling of arms from the Croat side of the frontier", especially since the source of the disputable information is the newspaper which is mostly conveying the stands of the Croat government.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Politika, 1997-03-19[03] CROATS ARE DESTROYING MOSQUESPresident of the municipality of Capljina announced yesterday that on March 10, 1997 in the village of Celjivi the last mosque which remained on the left bank of Neretva river was mined, from the total of eight that were in existance in this area before the war.In the village of Stipinic near Tomislavgrad (former Duvno) also a mosque was mined and its minaret destroyed, and the remaining part of the building heavily damaged. This was confirmed by Alun Roberts, spokesman for the sector "West" who added that incidents in this sector continue. Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Vecernje novosti, 1997-03-19[04] "THE STORM" - A HUMANITARIAN ACTION!Invasions of Croatia on Western Slavonia and then on Krajina, called "The Thunder" and "The Storm" were, in fact, humanitarian actions (!!!) - this was stated yesterday in Geneva at the session of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, by the chief of the Croat delegation and Deputy Prime Minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak.She explained that thanks to these military actions Croatia succeeded in returning "to its homes" 61,000 persons who were "for a long time and against their will in exile". Representative of Croatia also said that "The Storm" was based on "the agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina" on suspension of blockade of Bihac, the then-security zone. Although at the session of the Commission for Human Rights many and very strange information and claims can be heard, this what the high official of Croatia had stated will remain for a long time to come an example of a high degree of rudeness and brutal denial of truth. Croat stand yesterday at the Palace of Nations is not worth any special comment. The facts are sufficient, although a lot of time and space would be needed for their enumeration. According to the statement by one of the participants at the session, the essence of presentation of the Croat representative was actually in what she did not say. Ljerka Mintas-Hodak is mentioning Croat homes, but not the Serbian ones. Not with a single word has she mentioned that actually Croats with their "thunders and storms" have exiled some 300,000 Serbs from their centuries long homes in Krajina and Western Slavonia. Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Borba, 1997-03-19[05] LYNCHING AS "WELCOME"With the approach of the local elections for the county (zupanija) chamber of the Parliament (Sabor) of the Republic of Croatia, which according to the local media interpretations "are exclusively in the function of establishing Croat authority in the Danube river basin (Podunavlje)", the anti-Serbian campaign is also being intensified. Thus the city of Karlovac during the first days of March became the arena of the new offensive of violence and plunder against Serbian returnees in Kordun. In this violence the family house of Danica Macesic was mined, in which she was to return and then a bomb was thrown in the front yard of the house of Ranka Korac. The chief of Karlovac police Dubravko Derk complains that "there are not enough man power" to search for the midnight perpetrators of mining of the Serbian homes. Local political elite is gloating over Serbian ruins, and the president of the local Croat Democratic Community party Ivan Vukovic is even cynically claiming that "Serbs are themselves placing the bombs so that they would frighten Croats". In order to make life terrible for the Serbian returnees, the local bureaucracy in Kordun is using the following invention: when a Serbian refugee family obtains Croat documents and expresses the desire to return to the homeland, the municipal administration one or two days before their return issues a decree in which it is "allocating Serbian houses to Croats exiled from Bosnia-Herzegovina for their use". In their zest to prevent at any cost the return of Serbs, one municipal official gave a Serbian house for residence to a Croat "exiled from Australia"!Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Politika ekspres, 1997-03-19[06] FACTS ARE MISSINGThe main shortcomings of the Croat list with the names of 150 Serbs not covered by amnesty is that the list is not accompanied with any proof, stated magister Vojin Susa, Secretary for Justice and Administration of the Srem and Baranja Region, who was given by Jacques Klein the list of Serbs suspected of war crimes committed during the conflicts of the year 1991. "The real purpose of this list is not to determine crimes and their perpetrators but to make an additional pressure on the population. I claim that at least 90 percent of persons from this list is without any grounds placed on the list", says Susa and states that the list could become the subject of fierce manipulations in Croatia if The Hague Tribunal fails to take part in this problem. "We will do our utmost to bring representatives of The Hague Tribunal to the region so that their experts can assess the facts", says Susa.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Vecernje novosti, 1997-03-19[07] LIST OF INDICTED ON DUBIOUS GROUNDSWith an open anger several days ago Zagreb newspapers published the news that Serbs have compiled a list of 350 Croats mostly from Vukovar, indicted for war crimes, with the comments that criminals are not to be looked for among Croats. This is one part of the already existing thinking in Croatia that among Croats there are no criminals in this war, but that the culprits are exclusively to be found on the other side. In this spirit the question was asked of General Klein in his interview for "Vjesnik" Zagreb daily, about the list of 150 Serbs suspected by the Croat Government of crimes and who will not be covered by the Law on Amnesty. Initially this list consisted of 3000 names, then of 1500 to be followed by 700 and under the pressure by the UNTAES to be reduced to 150 names. Journalists asked Klein why is he returning this list and demanding evidence incriminating the suspected Serbs, when he is neither a judge nor a lawyer. Klein answered as follows: "It seems that neither were the persons who were making the list of suspected Serbs either lawyers or judges. On the list were placed even persons who are already dead, and also those who are living for a long time in Canada. This is placing in doubt the principles on the basis of which the list was made. In our opinion if truly there is proof and evidence of crimes, they are to be sent to The Hague". On this occasion, Klein also spoke of the possibility for this region to be de-militarized from heavy armament, but said that this is not possible to be done if the people themselves are not psychologically de-militarized. "Croat refugees are here refugees, while Serbs and immigrants who in some unexplainable way have found themselves here. This is your definition of immigrants, but according to the international standards no one is accepting it seriously", warned Klein.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Politika, 1997-03-19[08] 1000 TITLES IN LANGUAGES OF MINORITIESTreatment of text-books, literature and teaching aids which are printed in the languages of national minorities is on an absolutely equitable level with the text-books published in the Serbian language. This was concluded at the meeting of the republican Minister of Human Rights and National Minorities Ivan Sedlak and director of the Institute for Text-books and Teaching Aids publishing Prof.Dr. Dobrosav Bjeletic. In Serbia we have 1, 300 titles in the languages of minorities, and everything that is needed by schools in the languages of minorities is being published at the same time and of the same quality as the text-books in the Serbian language. Text- books are published in seven languages of the national minorities, and are sold at popular prices. For the small in size Bulgarian population even the Alphabet book was printed. For children of Albanian nationality all the text-books are published for primary school, and for secondary school in Albanian language 140 titles were published. What is new in the work of the Institute is the publishing for the first time of the capital works in the languages of minorities. There is also an excellent cooperation with the similar institutes in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, says director Bjeletic.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Borba, 1997-03-19[09] ANNUAL EXCHANGE IN THE VALUE OF HALF A BILLION US DOLLARSYugoslav and Czech businessmen, whose representative delegation is on a three-day visit to Yugoslavia, started yesterday in the Chamber of Economy of Yugoslavia business discussions, with a joint view that the traditionally good cooperation in many fields is making feasible the achievement of the target to have annual volume of mutual exchange, in a few years time, reach the level of half a billion US dollars. Czech delegation of some twenty businessmen from thirteen major and renown companies, headed by the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Belgrade Ivan Busniak, is the third delegation which in less than a year is visiting Yugoslavia. This is showing the high interest which the two economies have in promptly renewing the deals. There is special interest in machine building, electronics, chemical industry, heavy and light metallurgy, civil engineering and automobile industry. It was pointed out at the importance of the fact that the two governments in September last year have signed the Agreement on Trade Cooperation and that signing of the agreements on avoiding double taxation and mutual protection and promotion of investments are now being prepared.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Borba, 1997-03-19[10] MORINA: REPATRIATION PROGRAM UNACCEPTABLEIn Geneva on March 21, 1997 a regional meeting will be held of the ministers and commissioners for refugees of the countries created in former Yugoslavia, where a two-year program of repatriation of refugees should be adopted. The aid of the international humanitarian organizations to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is drastically decreasing, the return of refugees to Croatia is only a symbolic one, and there is a threat of a new wave of refugees from Eastern Slavonia. Bratislava Morina, Minister for Family Care and Republican Commissioner for Refugees, says that the reduction of the international aid is in fact "application of the double standards towards the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in respect to the neighboring countries, and unfortunately also interference of politics in the distribution of humanitarian aid". She also stated that humanitarian aid to Serbia is reducing so that social tensions and political unrests would be caused in it. About the program of repatriation which is to be adopted in Geneva, Morina says that it is unfavorable for Serbia and Yugoslavia. "In this program it is stated how many refugees are planned for return and where they are to return. In the draft proposal it is not written that half a million refugees will remain in Serbia, but this derives from the program. And not even one dinar of aid is foreseen for Serbia for the integration of refugees in the new environment". Morina recalls that the infrastructure and civilian buildings in the Republic of Srpska have been destroyed by the force of arms which some of the counties, which are calling themselves democratic ones, have given to Muslims and Croats, that NATO bombarded civilian targets in the Republic of Srpska, and that now Republic of Srpska is not having the same treatment as the Muslim- Croat Federation in the allocation of aid for reconstruction of the country and shelter of refugees.Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Politika, 1997-03-19[11] SPS SUPPORTS GOVERNMENT OF SERBIA IN THE COMMENCED REFORMSSocialist Party of Serbia (SPS) is supporting firm determination of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to offer decisive contribution to the implementation of the commenced reforms, for purpose of an accelerated economic recovery and economic development of the country, reported yesterday information service of the Main Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia.SPS is convinced that the Government will persist in consistent and successful implementation of reforms, the most important of them being ownership and structural transformation, which are to enable a better life and a higher standard of living for all citizens and prosperity for the country in general. Good basis for their achievement are the constant growth of production and of the social product and real financing of public expenditures which the Government has achieved over the past period. The three years of work of the Republican Government headed by the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic SPS is qualifying as very successful ones, because the Government which started its turn of office in one of the most difficult periods in the history of Serbia, successfully conducted political orientation of a government of national unity and achieved substantial results which had a decisive effect on the economic, social and political stability of the country. SPS is underlining that the past three-year period is the best confirmation of the validity of the idea of the government of national unity, i.e. of the policy of pooling together all the democratic and progressive forces which are willing to work together in the interest of all the citizens of this country. Serbia Today, 1997-03-19 ; Borba, 1997-03-19Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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