|
|
|
Serbia Today 96-09-03
Serbia Today
3 September 1996
CONTENTS
[01] ALBANIAN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ARE RETURNING
<B> TO STATE SCHOOLS
</B>
[02] END OF TWIN EDUCATION
[03] SUPPORT FOR THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC AND DR. RUGOVA
[04] THE AGREEMENT - A RELIEF FOR ALL
[05] NEGOTIATIONS ON ECONOMIC SUCCESSION CONTINUE
[06] PRIME MINISTER KONTIC VISITING MACEDONIA TODAY
[07] FRY OPEN TO FOREIGN PUBLIC
[08] TOO EARLY FOR ELECTIONS
[01] ALBANIAN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ARE RETURNING
<B> TO STATE SCHOOLS
</B>
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic reached an agreement with
Dr. Ibrahim Rugova to bring back into the schools the Albanian
students and teachers - revealed Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic
at the press conference held yesterday. The document indicates that
for several years now the education in the Province of Kosovo and
Metohija - from elementary schools to universities - is not
functioning normally. In view of the social and humanitarian
importance of this problem, the agreement is above any political
debate. The concern of the signatories for the future of the
Albanian children and youth, prompted them to stipulate the
agreement - states the text and concludes: "Once the young people
take seriously their education and cultural upbringing, so to
become responsible citizens, we will witness the triumph of
civilization, and not the triumph of ones over the others." This
agreement strongly affirms the principle of ethnic equality
contained in the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, and the
policy conducted accordingly by our government - said Prime
Minister Marjanovic and stressed that the document has a
civilizational importance since it ensures that the ethnic Albanian
children will no longer suffer the negative consequences of
political divides.
(Politika, September 3, 1996)
[02] END OF TWIN EDUCATION
The agreement on the normalization of the education system for
ethnic Albanian children in Kosovo and Metohija, signed by
President Milosevic and Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, attracted yesterday
major attention of the foreign news agencies that stress the social
and humanitarian importance and remark that this could help reduce
the tensions in the Serbian southern province. Ample reports quote
parts of the document, and Reuters and AP stress Prime Minister
Marjanovic's remark that the ethnic Albanian children should not
suffer because of political differences. The Agreement should end
the "twin education system" in the province, remarks the UPI
correspondent. Albania hailed the agreement ending the six-year-long
boycott of the school system staged by the ethnic Albanians
in Yugoslavia in spite of the fact that the state authorities
invited on several occasions the young Albanians to return to
school. The Reuters corespondent in Tirana reports that Salli
Berisha congratulated the signatories and remarked that this is an
important step and a display of good will to solve problems through
dialogue.
(Politika, September 3, 1996)
[03] SUPPORT FOR THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC AND DR. RUGOVA
The agreement signed by Serbian President Milosevic and ethnic
Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova - concerning the normalization of
the schooling system for Albanian children - has been welcomed by
most of the political parties in Serbia. The Socialist Party of
Serbia remarks that the agreement constitutes another confirmation
of the coherent SPS policy based on the respect of the principles
of ethnic equality. The Serbian Socialists believe that the
document has a social and humanitarian importance, and creates good
grounds to provide young people with an education affirming a set
of civilizational values based on inter-ethnic tolerance and
coexistence of all citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia. "This
agreement has shown that the Albanian extremists were wrong in
promoting the ghettoization of their children in Kosovo and
Metohija". New Democracy spokesperson indicated that this is an
important step in solving the piled-up problems in the Serbian-Albanian
relations and expressed hope that the talks will continue
to reduce the tensions in the southern province. The Democratic
Party indicates that there was no actual reason for the boycott of
state schools and colleges in Kos-Met in the first place. The
Democratic Center Party believes the agreement constitutes the
first step towards the normalization of the situation in Kosovo and
Metohija and an encouragement for all democratic-minded people that
believe that problems should be negotiated in a civilized manner
and in the interest of the people. The Serbian Renewal Movement
endorsed the agreement, "just as it will endorse any move helping
relieve the dramatically tense relations between the Serbs and the
Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija."
(Politika, September 3, 1996)
[04] THE AGREEMENT - A RELIEF FOR ALL
The news about the normalization of the educational system for
young Albanians, has been received with relief in the province
capital - Pristina, because this was one of the major local
problems. The schooling system in Albanian has not been functioning
legally ever since 1991, because the ethnic Albanian political
groups and teachers refused to hold classes using the official
Serbian public schools curriculum. Instead, they insisted on
establishing their own - parallel - "Albanian school system". The
agreement signed yesterday means that they accept the school
curriculum and the laws on public education in the Republic of
Serbia.
There are no precise data on the total number of Albanian
students, but "Bujku" daily indicates that a realistic estimate is
some 280,000 children in primary schools. Along with the gradual
return of the Albanian pupils to the school buildings (which were
already in semi-official use by the elementary schools for
Albanians), the public in the province is particularly interested
in the possibility to legalize the education acquired in the
"parallel" Albanian schools. The Serbian public education
authorities have shown good will even three years ago -
anticipating that the diplomas and the various school-years might
be recognized, pending additional exams from the foreign (Serbian)
language, history and art classes - envisaged by the official
schooling program in Serbia. As far as the college education is
concerned, no indications have yet been given concerning this
problem. Officials of the Pristina University stressed that the
Albanians had the possibility to attend the university classes in
Serbian, that university courses concerning the Albanian language
and culture existed, and that special groups had also been formed
but never attended by ethnic Albanians.
The Albanian side insisted on having established its own
"university", where classes were held in private houses - the same
way it was done for "ethnic" high schools. Still it was all very
much improvised as the representatives of numerous international
organizations warned. But similar warnings also came from realistic
Albanian circles in Kos-Met stressing that eventually compromises
would have to be made and this form of unrealistic political
"blackmail" abandoned. Giving in to the demands of the
international factors and to the coherent Yugoslav policy, the
Albanian leaders were compelled to acknowledge the fact that ethnic
Albanian citizens living in Kosovo and Metohija - once they accept
Serbia and Yugoslavia as their country - can enjoy all the civil
and human rights which were never obstructed by the Yugoslav side.
(TANJUG, September 3, 1996)
[05] NEGOTIATIONS ON ECONOMIC SUCCESSION CONTINUE
The negotiations on the economic aspects of the succession of
former Yugoslavia are to continue on September 5-6 in Brussels.
This is a new round of the talks that took place in this spring and
summer, involving the delegations of five countries that presented
their views and expectations to Sir Arthur Watts regarding the
problem of dividing the property of the former Yugoslav federation.
In principle FR Yugoslavia agreed that accounts needed to be
settled after the secession of the individual republics and the
disintegration of the former common state, but insisted that the
entire property be divided and not only - as the other parties
demanded - the property presently held by FR Yugoslavia. Slovenia,
Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia insisted that the assets should
include foreign currency reserves held by the Yugoslav National
Bank, as well as gold, federation real estate and the archives.
Belgrade's stand was that the division should also include all the
property in the other republics, as well as facilities built with
federal budget financing to which all the republics contributed -
especially Serbia. Furthermore, FRY insists that the property
brought into the federation when it was founded be taken into
consideration, because before the common Yugoslav state was
created, only Serbia and Montenegro had a statehood status that
they merged into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenians
which later became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and subsequently
Socialist Yugoslavia - the state that was dissolved with the
secession of the various constituent republics.
(Borba, September 3, 1996)
[06] PRIME MINISTER KONTIC VISITING MACEDONIA TODAY
Yugoslav Prime Minister Dr. Radoje Kontic, accompanied by a
group of federal ministers and a number of Yugoslav businessmen,
left today for Skopje for a two day visit to the republic of
Macedonia. The visit - prompted by Macedonian Premier Branko
Crvenkovski - will be used to discuss the evolution and improvement
of bilateral relations, and sign a number of agreements - mostly
concerning finances and transports. Responding to the questions of
the Macedonian reporters concerning the definition of the border
between the two countries, Mr. Ognjen Maleski - Under Secretary of
the Macedonian Foreign Ministry, said that this is "merely a
technical issue" and that "no major controversies exist in this
regard."
(Borba, September 3, 1996)
[07] FRY OPEN TO FOREIGN PUBLIC
"298 foreign reporters from 35 countries from all continents
except Africa (for financial reasons), are accredited in
Yugoslavia. This is a clear indication of the openness of our
country towards the foreign public." said Deputy Federal Secretary
of Information - Mr. Vladimir Ilic. "Our cooperation with foreign
correspondents is in essence extremely courteous, and these
journalists filed no official complaints about it." Commenting the
presence of such a large number of journalists, Mr. Ilic remarked
that in the heat of political isolation of FRY the media were one
of the rare "bridges and keepers of cooperation" with numerous
countries. "The other side of the medal refers to certain media -
especially the conservative ones from the West and several extreme
leftist newspapers - that provided intense media support for
specific moves made by their government and thus represented
specific supporting battalions", Mr. Ilic added. Still all this
involved a reduced number of journalists that were partisans of the
media war against FRY. "Most of the correspondents in our country,
especially since 1994, did not contribute to the media war, at
least not intentionally, and the professional cooperation we have
had with them was very good", said the Federal Information
Secretariat official.
(Vecernje Novosti, September 3, 1996)
[08] TOO EARLY FOR ELECTIONS
Mr. Derrick Boodby - Deputy UN Administrator for Eastern
Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem - stated yesterday in Vukovar
that the elections in this area can not be organized during the
first UNTAES one-year mandate, expiring on January 15, 1997.
According to the same official, the preparations for elections can
not be carried out adequately, because it is still unclear who will
have the right to vote, what would they vote for, and which
authority will be given to the Serbian Municipalities Council, to
be founded according tot he Erdut Agreement. "We estimate that the
preparations for the elections would not be completed until late
in the spring next year, and we see the need to extend the mandate
deep into 1997", the UN official said. In accordance with the Erdut
Agreement, the Serbian side filed an official request that the
UNTAES mandate be extended for another year, while Croatia insists
that the prolongation should not be more than three months.
(Politika, September 3, 1996)
|
