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Serbia Today, 97-01-27Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Serbia TodayCONTENTS
[01] IN HONOR OF THE FIRST SERBIAN TEACHERSerbian Orthodox Church is celebrating today the holiday of Saint Sava, the first Serbian Archiepiscope (Archbishop) who with his brilliant mind and education had a crucial influence on the Serbian medieval state and church. In all the temples of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the country and in diaspora, the holy liturgy will be officiated today in the glory of the greatest Serbian saint and educator. His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle will officiate the holy archierarchal liturgy in the major temple of Saint Sava in Vracar, while in the evening in the Belgrade Sava Center a traditional Saint Sava academy celebration will be held. In Serbia today all the schools are celebrating their school saint protector's day (slava) Saint Sava Day. It is expected that in the honor of the saint protector of schools, the first Serbian teacher and educator, pupils and professors will organize celebrations, competitions and festivities.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Politika ekspres, 1997-01-27[02] SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS BRIEFS: "MEDIA FALSEHOODS ABOUT THE WAR IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA DISCOVERED"Several of the daily newspapers reported the news that the German journalist Thomas Deihmann, who was for four years reporting on the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, spoke out in the magazine "Novo" about many examples of his western colleagues whose reports were full of testimonies by false witnesses. For placing an anti-Serbian falsehood, the American Roy Gutmann was even awarded the Pulitzer Price for journalism. It is a question whether one belated confession can rectify the effects of the previous premeditated actions, reflected in the saying that a falsehood one hundred times repeated becomes the truth.At many gatherings where they were exchanging experiences, foreign journalists many times were pointing out that because of their strives to come up with a sensation and because of the complex approach to the complicated problem of the Yugoslav crisis, their conscience completely gave up. There were also admissions that they were often working at the orders of some other factors. Thus the winner of the Pulitzer Price launched the news about the prison camp in Omarska long before he visited it, and he supported the entire story with testimonies of a man who himself did not see the crimes about which he was bearing witness. Not one from the 350 reporters who have tried to check on the Gutmann's news could find any proof for the statements contained in his report, says Deihmann, qualifying such journalistic behavior as unacceptable and irresponsible. He explains: "Already in autumn of the year 1994 I could prove that Gutmann engaged the employee of the Croat Ministry of Information, Miss Jadranka Cigelj, who was giving false testimony to him and to the other reporters about the alleged raping of Muslim women in Omarska". Once so launched false information made their deep mark on the minds of people and caused a planned effect, while the real truth only at times and always too late would reach the mind. About how the American public relations agency Rudder and Finny created the propaganda activities in favor of Croatia and Muslims, its director James Harf says the following: "We were working eighteen months with some breaks, for Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the parliamentary opposition in Kosovo. We won because we were aiming at the Jewish public opinion. The press immediately changed its vocabulary and started using the terms with strong emotional impact, such as the ethnic cleansing and concentration camps which started to resemble the Nazi Germany and the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The emotional charge was so strong that no one could resist it. It is not our job to check the information, but to speed up the flow of those which are favorable for us and to direct them at carefully selected targets". Further to the individuals motivated by professional reasons, the war area attracted also those with different intentions. Those latter ones were more numerous and the media image of the local developments lost every connection with reality. Whose fault is this and are only the reporters the guilty ones? According to their own admission, all the blame can not be placed only on their shoulders because they are only one ring in the chain. The reports from the front lines, according to them, had to please both editors and consumers, and not at all the interests of the economic elite could be neglected and those of the international organizations, governmental structures and paid lobbyists. With all the reporters' troubles and aggressiveness of competitive firms, one had to respect also an in advance prescribed scenario, in which the roles of victims and aggressors were strictly divided: the former for the Croat and the Muslims side, and the latter for the Serbian one. Only an admission for many uttered falsehoods can be but a small consolation for those who thanks to the faults of others, found themselves on the pillar of shame. But the much more important question remains, however, whether those bestowing justice will take the truth as the guideline in determining the penalty for the real culprits for crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Borba, 1997-01-27[03] TRUE INTENTIONS OF GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITIONIn the Parliament (Sabor), Croat opposition parties have very sparingly "let pass" the Letter of Intent of the Croat Government about the completion of the peaceful re-integration of Baranja, Western Srem and Eastern Slavonia. While the supporters of the rightist Croat Party of Right were expressly against, hoping still for the Croat military intervention in this region, the majoritarian Croat Democratic Community was praising the Letter of Intent as the highest achievement of guarantees of minority rights. The other opposition supporters were most strongly criticizing the Government because it is insuring, as they claim, some specific rights to Serbs which the others in Croatia are not having. Thus, they interpreted the provision that Serbian refugees in the UNTAES region can chose whether to vote there from where they have escaped or in the places where they are now located, as a danger that Serbs "for the first time in history in the area of the Danube river basin may become a majority, which is leading to the Kosovisation of Croatia". Croat opposition supporters are not in the least anxious because of the obvious change of the ethnic structure, or more precisely speaking, the ethnic cleansing of Banija, Lika, Kordun, Knin Krajina, Western and central Slavonia, where Serbs for centuries where living as the majoritarian population. What they are only caring about is to do their utmost now for Serbs not to have in any place whatsoever the majority.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Politika, 1997-01-25[04] BUILDING UP OF THE FEDERATION IS ENTERING A CRITICAL PHASEPresident of the Muslim-Croat Federation Kresimir Zubak stated that the process of building up of the Federation is entering a critical phase and for this state of facts accused the Muslim side. He said that it was agreed with the American side that the president of the Federation will be a Croat, but that the federal partner is in no hurry to bring this into life, which was actually the reason why the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) is boycotting the work of parliament of the Federation. Zubak also announced the boycott of the Sarajevo media inclined towards the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), meaning the refusal to give these media interviews and statements because, as he said, they have dumped all the burden of responsibility for the conflict on the Croat side. Media in Sarajevo, however, are not giving up on the accusations of the Croat side, most of all because, as they claim, the Federation politics is being conducted in Zagreb. The opposition is warning that this is only the beginning of the political conflicts which will escalate with the mutual ambitions of the federal partners for Bosnia-Herzegovina to be either divided or de- stabilized.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Vecernje novosti, 1997-01-25[05] LEGAL ASPECTS OF ARBITRATIONWhile commenting on the legal aspects of arbitration in connection with Brcko, Dr. Zeljko Mirjanic, assistant professor at the Banja Luka Faculty of Law, underlined that the subject of dispute and arbitration, according to the Accords, is the inter-ethnic separation line near the city of Brcko, but not the city of Brcko itself. This is violating the peace accords because according to this document, Brcko is the city in the Republic of Srpska. The fact that now even the city itself is being questioned is in fact an attempt of the other side for the Republic of Srpska to be cut in half, and that the area of the Republic of Srpska to the west of Brcko be surrounded by the territory of the Muslim-Croat Federation. In the solution of the Dayton Accords, the Republic of Srpska is having its territorial entity and continuity and represents a single legal and political system. The target is cantonization of the Republic of Srpska and, probably, a replacement of the existing accords with some other ones. Regarding the ethnic composition of Brcko, Dr. Mirjanic is emphasizing that this is not the reason for the status of the city to be changed. A large part of the western Bosnian Krajina was for centuries Serbian, and almost entirely one hundred percent Serbs were living there, but now these cities belong to the Muslim-Croat Federation. Therefore, Brcko can not be regarded independently from the other cities, such as Drvar, Glamoc, Grahovo.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Politika, 1997-01-26[06] HIGH AWARDS TO OUR FILM MAKERSYugoslav film director Srdjan Dragojevic was awarded the Grand Prix for direction at the International Film Festival in Anjee for his film "Nice Villages Are Burning Nicely". Festival in Anjee is turned towards achievement in film directing and the Grand Prix for direction is the only award given at this festival. At the Film Festival Alps Adria in Trieste our feature film "Murder With Premeditation" directed by Gorcin Stojanovic won the Festival Grand Prix with the members of the festival jury consisting exclusively of the students of the Trieste Film School. In the competition were also films from Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Italy, etc.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Politika, 1997-01-27[07] REVIVAL OF LINKS OF SERBIAN HOME OFFICE WITH THE WORLDFederal Minister and Chairman of the Federal Commission for Educational and Cultural Foreign Cooperation Margit Savovic, had talks in Novi Sad with the President of the Serbian Home Office (Matica Srpska), academician Bosko Petrovic and his associates about the establishment of contacts of this scientific and cultural institution with the foreign institutions and links with our diaspora. Over the past decades, Home Office (Matica) established important international relations, among them to be especially mentioned are the cooperation of the Home Office (Matica) library with some 20 foreign libraries in the exchange of books and magazines. Minister Savovic said that already some bilateral agreements were drafted and that with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia signing of the contracts is forthcoming. Federal Commission promised its assistance also in the drafting of the joint programs for our diaspora in the field of language and culture.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Politika, 1997-01-25[08] CONSTRUCTION OF FLATS FOR REFUGEES IN KOSMETIn Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet) during this year all the refugees from the former Yugoslav republics and from Albania will obtain a decent lodging. The first to be constructed is the residential center with 72 nice and spacious houses in Velika Reka near Vucitrn, and the tenants will have at their disposal a certain part of arable land for farming. In the Municipality of Decani until now two residential areas were constructed and handed over for residence to the refugees of the Serbian-Montenegrin origin from Albania, and a construction is to start soon of yet another residential area with some one hundred houses. In the Municipality of Kosovo Polje for the exiled persons from Krajina already 10 houses were constructed and settled, and soon another twenty will be finished. Care is also devoted in other municipalities of Zvecan, Kacanik and others to the comfortable lodgings of the refugees. It is planned to have residential areas constructed in all the places where the refugees are now staying. Furthermore, all those who are interested in farming can obtain arable farming land plots.Serbia Today, 1997-01-27 ; Borba, 1997-01-27Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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