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Serbia Today 96-05-29
Serbia Today
29 May 1996
CONTENTS
[01] NEW MINISTERS ELECTED
[02] DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS OF SERBIAtS INDUSTRIES - 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS
[03] CELEBRATION OF NIKOLA TESLA'S 140th BIRTHDAY
[04] CZECH FIRMS READY FOR DOING BUSINESS
[05] AN UNCLEAR AMNESTY FOR EXILED SERBS
[06] PARIS BRIDLING ZAGREB
[07] MOLESTATION OF SERBS AT NIGHT
[08] MIHAIL NIKOLOV: I WANT TO GO TO THE HAGUE
[01] NEW MINISTERS ELECTED
At the recommendation of the Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, the National Assembly
of Serbia elected eight ministers yesterday, having relieved seven ministers of duty, again at the Prime
Ministerts recommendation (because of transfer to other duties or for reasons of health). Nedeljko Sipovac
was elected for Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Milivoje
Stamatovic for Minister of Labour and Veteran and Welfare Issues, Academician Dusan Kanazir for
Minister of Science and Technology and Svetolik Kostadinovic for Minister of Transport and
Communications. Ratomir Vico was transferred to the post of minister without portfolio to deal with
matters relating to social sciences and systemic issues within the Governmentts competencies. He was
replaced as Minister of Information by Aleksandar Tijanic. Mirjana Stankovic has become the Minister of
Tourism and Srdjan Nikolic, the Minister of Trade. At the first session of the reshuffled Cabinet, it was
found that stabilization trends and economic growth are progressing as planned. Prime Minister Marjanovic
said that the ongoing task of the Government relates to the implementation of the National Economic
Recovery Programme, maintenance of the national currencyts exchange rate and prices, output growth and
firm budgetary discipline, with a view to raising the living standards of the population. (Politika, 29.5)
[02] DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS OF SERBIAtS INDUSTRIES - 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS
In a talk with foreign journalists attending the 34th International Convention of Journalists, Vlajko
Stojiljkovic, President of the Serbian Chamber of Economy, said that the disintegration of the former
Yugoslav market and the economic blockade have contributed to a general impoverishment of the country.
Once the blockade is lifted, one of the priorities will be the normalization of relations with world trade
organizations and international financial institutions, which is why Yugoslavia will be pursuing a
stabilizing economic policy. Stojiljkovic acquainted the journalists with the foreign trade deregulation
process and stressed: tThe re-establishment of economic relations implies also the regulation of our
countryts external debt. We recognize our undisputed foreign debts and we shall pay them, which is really
subject to national economic recoveryt. As seen at present, the developmental needs of Serbiats industries
are investments to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars a year. Therefore, Serbian industries are interested in all
kinds of modern linkages with industries of other countriest. (Borba, 29.5)
[03] CELEBRATION OF NIKOLA TESLA'S 140th BIRTHDAY
The 140th birthday of Nikola Tesla, a genius of our descent and of great international importance,
will be celebrated formally in the USA. The secretary-general of the Nikola Tesla Memorial Society of New
York, Dr Ljubo Vujovic, said that it has been proposed for that occasion to institute in Serbia a Nikola
Tesla international prize, which should be awarded this year to the American writer Margaret Cheeney. She
is the author of the book tTesla, a Man Outside Timet, which was inspired by the celebration of the 400th
anniversary of the discovery of America, which was magnificently marked at the 1893 World Exhibition in
Chicago, thanks to Teslats currents precisely. Margaret Cheeneyts book can now be found in almost every
American library, and it has been translated into several major languages. American Nikola Tesla societies
from New York and New Jersey have nominated for this yearts prize also the eminent Professor Aleksandar
Marincic of Belgrade, who is the director of the Tesla Museum in Belgrade and an expert on Teslats work.
(Politika, 29.5)
[04] CZECH FIRMS READY FOR DOING BUSINESS
Czech firms are prepared for taking part in the restoration of Yugoslaviats economy which has
been affected by the sanctions badly and for establishing cooperation with Yugoslav businesses in all areas,
said the Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus in an interview given to EEO, a periodical published in
Belgrade. He said that the Czech Republic supports and welcomes the suspension of sanctions from the FR
of Yugoslavia, since that is a contribution to the settlement of the internal crisis and it is also making the
normal development of relations between the two countries possible. In answering a question about the
branches of the economy in which cooperation is most likely, Mr.Klaus referred to power sources,
transport and raw materials production and added that negotiations in these areas have already yielded
concrete results. (Borba, 29.5)
[05] AN UNCLEAR AMNESTY FOR EXILED SERBS
The ambassadors of the Contact Group members and Italy to Zagreb officially expressed to the
Zagreb authorities their concern over the incompleteness and vagueness of the law amnestying the Serbs,
which was recently adopted by the Croatian Parliament. They told President Tudjman that their objections
are in keeping with the recent UN Security Council presidential statement calling on Zagreb to declare a
general amnesty for the Serbs who had been members of military units in any of the zones formerly under
the UN control. In the procedure for the adoption of this law at the Sabor (parliament), the representatives
of the Serbs requested that this law be made applicable to all regions from which the Serbs have fled, not
only to Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem. It would be only with such a law which would apply
to all Serbs other than those found to have committed war crimes, that the Croatian authorities would show
that they really intend to allow the Serbs to return to their homes. (Politika, 29.5).
[06] PARIS BRIDLING ZAGREB
Tudjmants tstrange democracyt, as it is ironically referred to in Zagreb, is being met with growing
dissatisfaction of the French authorities. There are two reasons for that: the imposition of an absolutist
government in Croatia, which is referred to by Le Monde of Paris as a dictatorship, and the threat posed to
the Dayton Agreement because of the encouragement given to the Bosnian Croatst tsecessionist ambitionst.
In an earlier statement of its Foreign Ministry, France condemned Tudjmants policy because it is stirring up
the crisis of the Muslim-Croat Federation. Le Monde is persistently writing about the Bosnian Croatst
ambition to split up Bosnia & Herzegovina, that the two-member federation is a tstillbornt child and that
Herbage-Bosnia practically means the tcreation of the Greater Croatiat. France has called on the
international community to get the Croatian establishment to stop acting contrary to the letter and spirit of
the agreement on peace in Bosnia & Herzegovina. French foreign minister was the chief advocate of the
decision of the European Unionts Council of Ministers to defer the admission of Croatia to the Council of
Europe. It is very clear nowadays that things are not going too well in the relations between the European
Union and Croatia. That is why Tudjmants claim that West Europe wants to impose thumiliating
conditionst onto Croatia was received more badly in the West than it would have been received otherwise.
(Politika, 29.5)
[07] MOLESTATION OF SERBS AT NIGHT
The Croatian Branch of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights drew attention yesterday to the
fact that Croatian authorities are continuing to molest the Serbs living in Krajina. Dragutin Hlad, a member
of the Croatian Branch Committee said at a press conference in Zagreb that horrible things are still
happening to the Serbs in Croatia. In some villages in the Knin district, groups of men are still coming at
night to beat up the Serbs and take their food, said Hlad and added that some Serbs have died in
consequence of such brutality. According to the information available to the International Red Cross
Committee, following the aggression against Krajina and Western Slavonia, of the about 700,000 Serbs
living in Croatia before the war, only about 9,000 thousand of them live there now. Zvonimir Cicak, the
chairman of the Croatian Branch Committee said that a report on the status of the Serbs remaining in
Croatia will be published shortly. tThat report is going to be a terrible one, since the number of people
killed after the military operations were ended, has increased very mucht, said Cicak. (Vecernje novosti,
29.5)
[08] MIHAIL NIKOLOV: I WANT TO GO TO THE HAGUE
Doctor Mihail Nikolov from Bulgaria, who had spent the whole war as a volunteer in a Serbian
hospital at Borci near Konjic and who now lives in Visegrad, addressed a letter to Richard Goldston, the
Hague Tribunal Prosecutor, expressing his wish to place himself at the latterts disposal voluntarily. tFrom
the whole activity of your Tribunal, which is turning into a farce increasingly, it is more than clear that you
have been seriously instructed and that you intend to put, for the first time in history, a whole nation in the
dockt, wrote Nikolov. He then told Goldston that he had been fighting on the Serbian side for four years
and that he has continued to help them in time of peace. tI saved the lives of hundreds of Serbian fighters,
old men, women and children. In your view, I was saving vandals and criminals, for which I could be given
some big punishment under your absurd legal system. At this point in history, I want to share the fate of the
Serbian people to the very end, so that I am at your disposalt, wrote Nikolov and concluded the letter with
the following sentence: tLet me assure you that I can refute all of your absurd indictments.t (Vecernje
novosti, 29.5)
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