Serbia Today, 97-05-16

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

Serbia Today

CONTENTS

[01] DACIC: ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD IN THE REGULAR TERM

[02] POSSIBILITIES FOR GREATER ECONOMIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN YUGOSLAVIA AND BRAZIL

[03] MUSLIMS ARE MINING SERBIAN HOUSES

[04] DATE OF THE GREAT TRAGEDY

[05] MEDALS AWARDED WITH A FASCIST SALUTE

[06] CROATS ARE 'QUIETLY' CONFISCATING PROPERTY OF EXILED SERBS

[07] DEPUTIES TO THE JOINT CHAMBER OF MUNICIPALITIES NOMINATED

[08] INTIMIDATION OF SERBS

[09] VOICE AGAINST CRIME

[10] OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREATER EXPORTS

[11] DELEGATION OF THE YUGOSLAV CHAMBER IN MARIBOR

[12] BULGARIAN MINORITY IN SERBIA HAS ALL THE RIGHTS IN PRESERVATION OF ITS IDENTITY

[01] DACIC: ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD IN THE REGULAR TERM

Politika, 1997-05-16

The spokesman of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Ivica Dacic, informed the press of the new staff assignments for certain members of the leadership of this political party, emphasizing that the basic topic of the recent session of the Main Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia was the staff and organizational strengthening in the year of comprehensive reforms, and not only economic ones but also reforms in the other fields, from the social policies, culture, science and education, up to the legal system. At the said session of the Main Committee, said Dacic, there was no discussion of the date of the elections and the possible presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of Serbia for this function. "Elections will be held when the time for them comes, until the end of this year, and I see no reason for any talk about the elections before that time", said Dacic and added that it is still too early to talk about the presidential candidates. "Many political parties and individuals have already submitted their candidature for the office of the president, which speaks of their fear from the elections. At the elections the victory is won with the votes of voters and not the speed with which the candidates are submitting their application for the elections", said Dacic.

[02] POSSIBILITIES FOR GREATER ECONOMIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN YUGOSLAVIA AND BRAZIL

Borba, 1997-05-16

The Ambassador of Brazil in Belgrade, H.E. Adolf Libert Ves Falem, visited yesterday the Chamber of Economy of Serbia and in the talks with the vice president of the Chamber Momir Pavlicevic, was informed of the actual situation of our economy, ownership transformation and the possibilities for further cooperation between the two countries. Chances for improvement of the exchange and of the overall economic relations between Yugoslavia and Brazil should be looked for in the traditional presence of our enterprises "Energoprojekt" and "Gosa" and in the strengthening of links in the field of finance. Brazilian ambassador pointed out at great electrification potentials of Brazil and the needs of the local power plants for an adequate equipment. He also announced that a group of Brazilian businessmen until the end of this year will visit Yugoslavia and that this visit will considerably contribute towards the promotion of cooperation between the two countries.

[03] MUSLIMS ARE MINING SERBIAN HOUSES

Vecernje novosti, 1997-05-16

Muslims have on Sunday mined two houses and on Monday one Serbian house in the Ozren Mount village of Krtova, which village, after the signing of the peace accords, in one part remained in the Muslim-Croat Federation. Village inhabitants are assuming that the Muslims are destroying Serbian houses because of the suggested changes in the inter-ethnic lines in this part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, since those houses should now find themselves located in the territory of the Republic of Srpska. After the signing of the Dayton peace accords, in the village of Krtovo, from which all the Ozren Mount Serbs have moved away, the Muslims from Srebrenica have settled in.

[04] DATE OF THE GREAT TRAGEDY

Politika ekspres, 1997-05-16

Yesterday it was five years since the tragedy in Tuzla, during the withdrawal of the convoy of the Yugoslav People's Army from this town. In a devious and perfidious way Tuzla extremists had opened fire from all the types of arms and armament on the convoy of military vehicles, although it was previously agreed that the army may calmly and safely leave the town. On that occasion over 200 soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army were killed in a cruel manner, 140 of them were captured, and the number of wounded has not been established even today. Serbs from Ozren and Majevica Mounts, which were the majority amongst the casualties, are marking this date as the day of a great tragedy. Against 59 instigators of and participants in the attacks on the Yugoslav people's Army in Tuzla, in May 1995 criminal charges were submitted to the Military Public Prosecution in Belgrade, for the crime of genocide together with the criminal offense of the war crime against wounded, sick, prisoners of war, civilian population and attacks on military persons during their exercise of official duty.

[05] MEDALS AWARDED WITH A FASCIST SALUTE

Politika, 1997-05-16

Western diplomates have expressed profound concern over the Fascist symbols which were used by the authorities of the Bosnian Croats during the ceremony of the recent award of medals to the members of the police force in Mostar, Reuters reports. At the medal award ceremony, when members of the special police forces were decorated by the President Franjo Tudjman, the police official in Mostar Zlatan Mijo Jelic used the same salute which was used by the members of the Croat pro-Nazi puppet regime during the Second World War, recalls the British news agency. Also during the other similar ceremonies Croats are using the same salutes. Western diplomatic representatives are of the view that such a behavior is the proof that the authorities of Croats in Bosnia are considering that they can carry out hard-core nationalistic policies without repercussions. "I think that the international community must be very careful in such cases" warns the high representative of the international community for Bosnia, Carl Bildt. According to him, great powers must not tolerate the attempts at glorifying Nazi Ustashi state in which the pogrom against Jews and Serbs was committed during the Second World War.

[06] CROATS ARE 'QUIETLY' CONFISCATING PROPERTY OF EXILED SERBS

Politika, 1997-05-16

International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe claim that the Croat authorities did not allow the exiled Serbs who have returned to Krajina, in over 90 percent of the cases, to enter their own homes. Such a behavior of Croatia is qualified in the diplomatic circles in Geneva as an already commenced process of "quiet confiscation" of Serbian property in Krajina. The same circles are claiming that the Croat government has made a plan for settling of Serbian houses in Krajina with Croats from Bosnia and Serbia, as well as with some one hundred thousand Croats who are now in Germany. In Geneva it is stated that such actions of the Croat authorities are having the aim not to allow the return of Serbian refugees to their homes. It is a question here of some 300,000 of Serbian refugees who are located today in the refugee centers in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in the Republic of Srpska. The most emphatic example of preventing Serbian refugees from returning to Krajina is the town of Kistanje in which before the war only nine Croats were living and 1,980 Serbs. Today, there are only a handful of old Serbian nationals living there, and a large number of Serbian houses was either burnt down or plundered to the ground. Kistanje has become today "an exhibition item" of the Croat government. Namely, by the end of last year Croat government started rehabilitation of some 200 Serbian houses into which it is now settling Croats from Kosovo and Metohija. Several Serbs who have returned from exile and entered their houses in Kistanje were evicted by the Croat authorities. It is certain that warnings have already reached Zagreb and even threats by the western countries, in which it is clearly stated that Croatia is getting to be more and more distant from the democratic Europe, but the Croat authorities are obviously insolently defying all these warnings.

[07] DEPUTIES TO THE JOINT CHAMBER OF MUNICIPALITIES NOMINATED

Politika, 1997-05-16

The Main Committee of the Independent Serbian Democratic Party (SDSS) at its yesterday's session held in Vukovar, nominated from amongst the elected city and municipal deputies, the future deputies to the Joint Chamber of Municipalities and candidates for its president, as well as candidates for the office of the deputy county chiefs (zupan) in the Vukovar and Srem County and the Osijek and Baranja county (zupanija). Also the 48 deputy seats were confirmed to the elected deputies who will represent the municipalities and cities in which the Serbs have won at the elections. While analyzing the nomination for the Chamber of Counties in the Sabor (Croat Parliament) of only one, and not two deputies from the region under the UNTAES administration, as decisively stipulated in the letter by the UN Secretary General, the Main Committee of the Independent Serbian Democratic Party (SDSS) qualified such a procedure as 'a dangerous precedent". If it is not rectified and the second deputy is nominated from the Region, the other obligations and provisions from the letter of the UN Secretary General will also be brought under a question mark, concluded the Main Committee.

[08] INTIMIDATION OF SERBS

Vecernje novosti, 1997-05-16

Croat weekly "Globus" published yesterday the scenario for the arrival of the Croat President Franjo Tudjman to Vukovar on June 9, 1997, although "in the game" is yet another date - June 15th, only one week before the elections. Tudjman will start for Vukovar by "the freedom train" and will be accompanied by some 10,000 passengers, dressed in white suits in order to show, it seems, in this way the wish for complete peace. This multitude of passengers although unarmed, should make a strong impression and be awe- inspiring for the most extreme Serbs, writes the weekly.

[09] VOICE AGAINST CRIME

Politika, 1997-05-16

At the press conference held yesterday at the Association of Writers in Belgrade, Declaration was presented against genocide against Serbian people which was signed by some sixty intellectuals, among them 22 academicians, members of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, four episcopes of the Serbian Orthodox Church and by Mr. Cadik Danon, the supreme rabbi of Yugoslavia. Declaration was translated into eight languages and was sent to over one hundred addresses throughout the world, including the United Nations, European Union, O.S.C.E., statesmen of the world powers and the world mass media. The document recalls all the genocides committed against the Serbian people, from the early middle ages until our present days. In the process of destruction of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbs suffered the greatest tortures and persecution and exile from their historical homes. The following was stated yesterday: "This Declaration is an appeal to the dormant conscience of humanity and wishes to set in motion all the people of good will, those who would accept this Declaration as a mobilizing force in the fight of the entire mankind against genocide and exodus of any people whatsoever in the world".

[10] OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREATER EXPORTS

Politika ekspres, 1997-05-16

European Union is the most important market for our country, and by the return of the trade preferential chances are being opened for even greater exports. Only during the first four months of this year, when we were exporting without preferential treatment, the export was worth 240 million US dollars and was increased for some 50 percent in comparison with the same period last year. Because of the changes in the cooperation between our country and the European Union, yesterday in the Chamber of Economy a seminar was held on the opportunities for better and more successful contacts with this economic area. The official document on the return of preferential treatment is making possible free trade without special customs duties, except for the products which are stated in the document. The facilities are certainly great, explained Prof.Dr. Oskar Kovac, and the fact that they are granted for only one year is not changing anything in their substance, because European Union is granting preferential for that period also to the other former Yugoslav republics, and the contracts are being renewed every year. What is especially important, said Kovac, is that in the document for the first time the full name of our country is written.

[11] DELEGATION OF THE YUGOSLAV CHAMBER IN MARIBOR

Borba, 1997-05-16

Delegation of the Chamber of Economy of Yugoslavia (PKJ) visited yesterday Maribor where it had the meeting with some 70 Slovenian businessmen whose enterprises are located in the north-eastern part of Slovenia. Slovenian media devoted great attention to this meeting, qualifying it as "the first of its kind in the Slovenian territory between the businessmen of the two states". While informing the hosts that the Chamber of Economy of Yugoslavia has established good relations with the similar organizations in Italy, Austria, in the Eastern European and the Asian regions and in some overseas countries, vice president of the Chamber, Milan Bojovic, said that the delegation came to Maribor with the information that many Yugoslav businessmen wish to cooperate with the Slovenian economy. Participants at the talks underlined that the greatest obstacle for an efficient goods exchange is the absences of the diplomatic relations and agreements, and so they supported the idea of establishment of the normal relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Slovenia.

[12] BULGARIAN MINORITY IN SERBIA HAS ALL THE RIGHTS IN PRESERVATION OF ITS IDENTITY

Politika, 1997-05-16

Minister of Information of Serbia Radmila Milentijevic and the republican minister without portfolio Ivan Sedlak, discussed yesterday in Bosilegrad with the leadership of this Dimitrovgrad county the exercise of rights of the Bulgarian minority in our country. "The use of mother tongue, nurturing of cultural traditions, a free information activity, which are mostly financed by the state, are the confirmation that the Bulgarian minority in Serbia is exercising all the rights in preservation of its identity", underlined president of the municipal assembly of Bosilegrad Sotir Sotirov. Bulgarian minority, with some 25,000 members, is achieving high results in information in their mother tongue. Newspaper house "Bratstvo" established and financed by the Assembly of Serbia, is publishing the newspaper, magazine for children and literature, and Radio Nis is having the program in Bulgarian language and the Radio Television Serbia its TV journal in Bulgarian language. "In the eyes of the world public we are proud of the multi-ethnic composition of Serbia and the manner in which the rights of national minorities are solved and protected, according to the highest standards", said Minister Sedlak. Radmila Milentijevic spoke in favor of further material strengthening, within realistic possibilities, of the institutions of national minorities and pointed out that "the Bulgarian minority is having a high degree of political maturity and the feeling of full belonging to Serbia and Yugoslavia".

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