Yugoslav Daily Survey, 97-04-09

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] MONTENEGRIN PREMIER LEAVES FOR BRATISLAVA

[02] ROUND TABLE ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

[03] SERBIAN BILL PROVIDES FOR ALL ROUND PUBLIC INFORMATION

[04] U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY CRITICISES CROATIA FOR TRAMPLING SERBS' RIGHTS

[01] MONTENEGRIN PREMIER LEAVES FOR BRATISLAVA

During Djukanovic's visit, the state-owned firm 'Crnogorsko Primorje' and the Kosice-based 'Iron and Steel Works' will sign a contract for establishing a joint venture for the construction and exploitation of waterworks on the coastal part of Montenegro.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-04-09 ; Tanjug, 1997-04-08

[02] ROUND TABLE ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

This conclusion stems from a statement by one of ethnic Albanian leaders Mahmut Bakalli, who said before the second round started on Tuesday behind tightly closed doors that it was necessary to undertake a reorganization of states within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Albanian representatives attending the New York meeting all advocate the single idea of Kosovo's independence, said Bakalli, who had been in the Yugoslav Government 15 years ago but had to leave due to his open support to and cooperation with advocates of Kosovo's independence from Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Referring to the ethnic Albanian stance at the meeting, Bakalli pointed to a division between those demanding full secession and others, including himself, who believe that Kosovo must become an independent state but that it is not necessary to draw an international border between such a new state and Serbia.

Bakalli, who describes himself as an independent participant of the meeting, said this could be done by creating some kind of a union instead of the present Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In such a new creation, all states would be independent - Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina (Serbia's northern Province) if it so desires - Bakalli said. As for Serbs in Kosovo, they would not be considered a minority but a people, like Albanians, Turks and Montenegrins, he said and added that his proposal to this effect had been well received by some of the participants.

Among the Serbian opposition there are those who are flexible and others who are not, but the opinion prevails that the Kosovo issue must be resolved peacefully in order to prevent an outbreak of conflict, Bakalli said.

Once ethnic Albanians in Kosovo realize their goal, they would guarantee rights of Serbs in Kosovo which would also mean safety and protection of rights of Serbs in Serbia, Bakalli said. Along with this protective offer to the Serbian people, Bakalli reiterated that radical changes were necessary as Yugoslavia's present Constitution is illegal.

Asked why the New York meeting is being held under such security and secrecy as if though it were a summit conference, Bakalli said the organizers had insisted on this.

The US non-governmental organization Project for National Relations and its President do not participate much in the debates but give guidelines from time to time, Bakalli said.

The Americans are very pragmatic and focus only on concrete issues, and have therefore insisted several times that a decision be taken in New York that the Kosovo Albanians should take part in the forthcoming elections in Serbia, Bakalli said.

Obviously, the Round Table is not only an opportunity for consultations and exchange of views as opposition Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) leader Vuk Draskovic had claimed when he said on Monday that ordinary talks, not negotiations, were being held in New York.

Leader of the Serbian Civil Alliance (GSS - SPO's partner in the coalition 'Zajedno') Vesna Pesic had also said that no outstanding results could be expected from the talks.

However, whether 'Zajedno' admits it or not, all available information on the talks and the statements issued demonstrate that the New York talks are in reality focused on redrawing the map of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-04-09 ; Tanjug, 1997-04-08

[03] SERBIAN BILL PROVIDES FOR ALL ROUND PUBLIC INFORMATION

Speaking in a Panel Debate on information that is under way in the Serbian Parliament, Minister Radmila Milentijevic said that this had been a predominant demand that had emerged from the public debate on the first working draft of the bill.

Milentijevic said that the new text incorporated all points that had not been in dispute in the first draft, and strove to define them more fully. Public debate on the first draft had involved practically all of Serbia and had shown that 'we care to have a law that should be in line with the highest European standards, as well as that it should take into consideration the demands of our lives,' she said.

She said that the debate had affirmed the fact that almost all European countries' legislations provided for safeguards against monopoly in public information, and that the second working draft, too, incorporated a provision for safeguarding against monopoly.

The new draft envisaged for this problem to be regulated in keeping with the Constitution, probably by a Special Law, she said.

The new draft had dropped the original version's provision that an individual or an organisation could not own more than 20 or 15 percent, respectively, of all daily newspapers appearing in the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia, she explained.

Also, it had dropped the first draft's provision that an individual or an organisation could not own a radio or a television station broadcasting to more than 25 percent of Serbia's total population, she added.

She said that safeguards against monopoly in public information were a key issue in the European Union, too. In substantiation, she quoted a document by the E.U. Media Agency to the effect that the problem of monopoly 'is objectively a difficult one, having as it does to reconcile two legitimate but partially contradictory requirements.'

'On the one hand, the creation of large companies should be encouraged, in order that they should compete, primarily, with U.S. firms,' she explained.

'On the other hand, however, pluralism in the media must be protected in order that the freedom of thought and an unimpeded functioning of democracy should be guaranteed,' she quoted the document as saying.

Milentijevic said that the second draft had dropped also the provision, included in the first draft, that 'a public mass medium must state foreign subsidies received on every copy of print or at the beginning and end of every broadcast.' Instead, the second draft offered a solution that should secure the availability of information about the sources of financing of the mass media, to be published by the Ministry of Information at least once a year, she added.

Milentijevic said that the second draft took into account the criticism and proposals made in the public debate on the first draft.

The new draft incorporated provisions obligating State bodies to make available information in their jurisdiction and preventing the registration of two media of the same name, and more clearly defined accountability in public information, she explained.

The second working draft fully regulated the publication of statements, polemics and retractions and cases of obstruction of the distribution of the press and of the dissemination of information in the media, she said. The two new provisions were 'necessary in order to secure that information legislation should be complete in a way envisaged under the Serbian Constitution,' she added.

Milentijevic announced that the debate on the second working draft would continue until mid-next week, when the Ministry would begin work on drafting a bill that should be submitted to the Serbian Parliament in May.

The Tuesday evening Panel session was attended by representatives of the Parliamentary Clubs of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the New Democracy (ND) party, the Democratic Association of Vojvodina's Hungarians (DZVM) and the December 1 group.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-04-09 ; Tanjug, 1997-04-08

[04] U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY CRITICISES CROATIA FOR TRAMPLING SERBS' RIGHTS

In a letter to Croatian Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Mate Granic, Rapporteur Elisabeth Rehn pointed out numerous instances of gross violations of human rights of the Serbs in Croatia.

Rehn again expressed concern that organised pressure was being brought to bear on Serbs in Croatia and that displaced Serbs were being systematically prevented from returning to the West Slavonia and Serb Krajina regions.

She said that in March and April, U.N. representatives had recorded a number of instances of physical violence against Serbs and torching of their homes.

She cautioned that Croatian media were continuing their anti-Serb campaign with unabated vigour, deliberately painting a negative picture of the Serbs in Croatia and in this way inciting distrust and division between Serbs and Croats.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-04-09 ; Tanjug, 1997-04-08

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