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Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-06-04Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Yugoslav Daily SurveyCONTENTS
[01] YUGOSLAV ARMY COMES UNDER ATTACK IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA PROVINCETanjug, 1998-06-03Yugoslav Army troops on regular duty in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia' s Province of Kosovo-Metohija came under fire on Wednesday morning. The t roops, bivouacking in the area of the village of Dulje, on the Pristina-P rizren road, were fired at from the village of Luznica at 9 a.m., the Med ia Centre in the Province's chief city of Pristina reported. The army had no casualities. [02] CROATIA MIGHT APPOINT ADMINISTRATOR FOR VUKOVARTanjug, 1998-06-03Croatia could appoint a Government Administrator for Vukovar, Eastern Sl avonia, if the city administration fails to function, it was indicated at a meeting on Wednesday in Zagreb beween representatives of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ, 1998) and of the Serb Independent Democratic Party (SDSS, 1998). SDSS President Vojislav Stanimirovic told Tanjug that the Serb side attr ibuted the inactivity of the Vukovar City Council to the non abidance by Croatian authorities by the agreements regarding election results. The Se rb side has abided by the agreements as regards the town of Beli Manastir , he said. The meeting focused on the percentage of representation of Serbs in the Vukovar city administration that the Serb side finds unsatisfactory, Stan imirovic said and added it was agreed with the HDZ representatives to rea ch a compromise and appoint several more Serbs to the city administration in line with election results and with the 1991 census. It has been agreed that at future official meetings, especially with int ernational community representatives, the mayor and City Council presiden t and their assistants should take joint stands, in order to prevent them from giving different statements subsequenlty, Stanimirovic said. The SDSS will not back any side that would obstruct City Council activit ies, he said. The SDSS advocates personnel changes in the city administration instead of the appointment of a government administrator as proposed by the Presi dent of the Committee for inter-ethnic confidence-building Vesna Skare-Oz bolt, Stanimirovic said. [03] U.N. DOES NOT TAKE STAND ON USE OF RADIOACTIVE AMMUNITION IN BOSNIA 1995.Tanjug, 1998-06-03U.N. Liaison Office Spokesman Jay Carter said here Belgrade on Wednesday that the United Nations had not taken a stand on whether the Hague-based Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia should launch an investigati on into NATO's use of radioactive ammunition in the Republika Srpska in Speaking at a news conference, he said that such a request should be off icially submitted to the United Nations. Spokesman for the Belgrade Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refu gees Mons Nyberg spoke about the organisation's activities aimed at helpi ng the jeopardised in Kosovo and Metohija. Carter said that the U.N. Secretary-General had decided to send a team o f experts to Albania in early June to work with Albanian authorities on c ollecting civilians' weapons and controlling the taking of arms from the country. Speaking about the return of refugees to Croatia, Nyberg and Carter quot ed Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic as saying that about 30,000 requ ests for the individual return had been submitted in keeping with the exi sting procedure and that Croatia would present a comprehensive plan for t he return of Serb refugees by June 20. Nyberg said that neither the UNHCR nor the international community were satisfied with the Croatian Government's document referring only to indiv idual return and that they would insist on making possibilities for the r eturn of Serb refugees and expelled persons in groups. [04] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA, MUSLIM-CROAT FEDERATION SIGN COOPERATION PROTOCOLTanjug, 1998-06-03The Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina Interior Minis tries signed in Banja Luka on Wednesday a Protocol on Cooperation between the two ministries. The Protocol was signed by Republika Srpska Interior Minister Milovan Stankovic and Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina Interior Minister Mehmed Zilic and his deputy Jozo Leutar. The signing was preceded by a working meeting on the mode of cooperation between the Ministries aimed at ensuring the freedom of movement, securi ng the citizens' property and preventing crime. Under the Protocol, the Ministries will cooperate in securing legal safe ty of all citizens in keeping with their jurisdictions and find ways and solutions enabling them to function better while observing the constituti onal human rights and freedoms. In order to fight terrorism, bootleg production, drug trafficking and or ganised crime, the two Ministries will exchange information and agree on concrete measures. Stankovic, Zilic and Leotar described the Protocol as the first step for ward in raising the professional level of the Republika Srpska and Federa tion of Bosnia-Herzegovina police forces. It was announced that the next meeting would be dedicated to cooperation that would be established between the public security centres of the Rep ublika Srpska and cantons and districs in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzeg ovina. [05] YUGOSLAV GUARDS THWART ARMED ALBANIANS' ILLEGAL ATTEMPTS ACROSS BORDERTanjug, 1998-06-03Yugoslav border guards ON Tuesday thwarted several attempts by armed Alb anian groups to illegally cross into Yugoslavia from Albania, the Press O ffice of the Yugoslav Army Pristina Corps told Tanjug on Wednesday. An armed Albanian group that crossed into Yugoslavia in the village of B rod on the Yugoslav-Macedonian border fled to Macedonia after the Yugosla v border guards' warning. The Yugoslav Army Pristina Corps Command confirmed that the border guard s had uncovered six automatic rifles and a large quantity of ammunition a t Brod. Another armed Albanian group illegally crossed from Albania into Yugosla via in the area of the Dejan Radanovic border post at around 7 p.m. on Tu esday, opening fire at a Yugoslav border patrol. The patrol returned fire , forcing the attackers back to Albania. At the site of the incident, the guards found an unidentified man's body , as well as four automatic rifles, six semi-automatic rifles and ammunit ion, the Pristina-based Media Centre reported. Yugoslav border guards arrested two Albanian boys aged 13 and 17, who il legally crossed into Yugoslavia from Albania. The boys did not have any i dentification papers and the guards turned them over to the police. Yugos lav Army officials estimate that this was another attempt to check the pr esence of Yugoslav border guards, the Yugoslav Army Pristina Corps Press Office said. [06] RUSSIAN DUMA SPEAKER: KOSOVO-METOHIJA MUST REMAIN WITHIN SERBIATanjug, 1998-06-03Russia can imagine Kosovo-Metohija only within Serbia and considers it t o be an issue of utter importance, a Russian Parliament official said in an interview broadcast in a Serbian Radio Television (RTS, 1998) program on Wednesday evening. Russian Parliament Lower House (State Duma, 1998) S peaker Gennady Seleznyov said that, to this effect, the Duma had adopted a special statement voicing support for the Yugoslav Government. He adde d that the Duma position on the matter would not change. "We must help stop the crisis in any possible way, for resolving the iss ue of Kosovo-Metohija in a normal way, the way the Yugoslavs see it," sai d Seleznyov. He said that Russia must have special relations with Yugoslavia, as a br otherly Slav country, adding that, in this respect, the Duma was promptin g all state institutions to an active cooperation. In the interview, Seleznyov agreed with forecasts made at the time of th e breaking up of the former Yugoslavia, according to which this was only a rehearsal for a major show that was yet to take place in the former Sov iet Union. This was exactly the way things happened. The Soviet Union had disintegrated and now there are problems within Russia, itself, concerni ng its federal system, Seleznyov said. Seleznyov said he was hopeful that Russia would again be a great country with which everyone would want to cooperate well. [07] OSCE SAYS SETTLEMENT FOR KOSOVO-METOHIJA WITHIN SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIATanjug, 1998-06-03A delegation of the OSCE visited on Wednesday the Kosovo district in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija Province. The delegation, headed by President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Javier Ruperez, me t with District Administrator Veljko Odalovic and Administrators of the P rovince's other districts. A Provincial Government statement quotes Ruperez as communicating the in ternational community's unequivocal position that it would not accept sec ession in the region in any shape or form. It quotes him as underlining t he OSCE's condemnation of all forms of terrorism and, by the same token, its support for combatting all actions that disrupt the peace and stabili ty in the area. Ruperez agreed that a settlement for the Kosovo-Metohija problem can onl y be found inside Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the stat ement said. Kosovo District Administrator Odalovic stressed the importance of making ethnic Albanian political leaders in the Province condemn terrorism whic h had lately attained disturbing proportions. He stressed in this context the importance of continuing dialogue without new preconditions from the ethnic Albanian side, according to the statement. Both sides noted the need for Yugoslavia to take its rightful place in t he OSCE as soon as possible, which would be the best way for Yugoslavia's full integration into the international community, the statement said. [08] VUCIC: INFORMATION MINISTRY PLANS TO SPEED UP NEWS FLOWTanjug, 1998-06-03The Serbian Information Ministry is preparing draft projects to speed up the flow of news reports about the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, Inf ormation Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said. Most of the foreign media reporting from the Province use the same vocab ulary they had used for the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, putting th e blame on Serbia, Vucic said in a local television program Tuesday night 2E They use the same phrases that their governments had told them to, an d give no arguments for their accusations. One of the facts they keep repeating is that Serbs are a minority in the Province, and the truth is that Albanians are a national minority in Ser bia and Yugoslavia, said Vucic. "You could never hear that Serbs in Kraji na were the majority population," Vucic added. Fortunately, the campaign is not orchestrated, he said, adding that the Ministry aimed to tell the truth about Serbia, Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Met ohija. [09] YUGOSLAV MINISTER ZELENOVIC RECEIVES GREECE'S FRAGOULISTanjug, 1998-06-03Yugoslavia's Minister of Development, Science and the Environment Jagos Zelenovic received on Wednesday Greek Development Ministry official Emanu el Fragoulis. Fragoulis, Secretary-General for Research and Technology at the Greek Mi nistry, is heading a delegation to a session of the two countries' Joint Commission for scientific and technical cooperation. According to a Yugoslav Government statement, the two sides exchanged vi ews about priorities of scientific and technological development and stre ssed the importance of cooperation in this field for the traditionally go od bilateral relations. Zelenovic stated pleasure at the success of cooperation and of Greece's activity for the promotion of programmes in science and technology. He sp oke of the two countries' scientific and technical potentials which, with the existing institutional frameworks and good political relations, prov ided a good basis for intensifying the implementation of projects of comm on interest. Fragoulis, for his part, said that scientific and technical cooperation with all Balkan states, and especially with Yugoslavia, was the backbone of Greece's policy in this field. He pledged support for programmes and p rojects for Balkan and Mediterranean cooperation, stressing that Greece would invest efforts also for Yugoslav institutions' indirect involvement in the European Union's programmes and projects. The Joint Commission, which opens session later on Wednesday in Belgrade, will review also the realisation of current projects and coordinate new ones for a programme of cooperation for the 1998-2000 period, it was heard during the talks. Views will also be exchanged on future initiatives and priorities, the s tatement said. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |