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Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-03-02Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Yugoslav Daily SurveyCONTENTS
[01] YUGOSLAVIA, SYRIA SIGN AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION IN EDUCATION, CULTURETanjug, 1998-02-28An Agreement on cooperation in education and culture by the year 2000 was signed between the Yugoslav and Syrian Governments at the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry on Saturday. The Agreement was signed by Head of the Ministry's Directorate for international cooperation in the areas of culture, education and sports Milenko Kasanin and Syrian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Ismail Al-Kadi. Syria is the first Arab country with which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia signed the Agreement on cooperation in the area of education and culture. [02] SRPSKA PREMIER SAYS YUGOSLAVIA SHOULD SHARE SRPSKA'S SUCCESSTanjug, 1998-02-28The Republika Srpska Government should define new political and economic relations with the international community and every success of the Bosnian Serb state should be the success of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, too, Republika Srpska Premier Milorad Dodik told reporters on Saturday. Speaking at the fourth meeting of the Bosnian Serb association in Serbia, Dodik said, "Our position in international relations is being improved daily and, at this moment, we are the favourite of the Dayton Peace Accords, which is reflected in a 30-million-German-mark assistance to the Republika Srpska secured so far." He said that the first 15 million D-marks, secured by the European Union, had been spent to pay wages to employees in health care and education, adding that all old age pensioners would receive their pay cheques by next Wednesday. Referring to a return of refugees to the Republika Srpska and international factors' attitude, Dodik said that his Government would exert every effort to resolve the matter. He stressed that the Republika Srpska, itself, had a lot of refugees who were in a very difficult position and, thus, were a priority. As for the status of Brcko, Dodik said that the town must be an integral part of the Republika Srpska. The problem is defining the balance of power in Brcko, rather than territorial expansion of the (Muslim-Croat) Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said Dodik and underscored that Brcko must remain in the Republika Srpska. Asked to comment on the agreement on dual citizenship between the Republika Srpska and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dodik said that no one objected it. He said that his country's possible unification with Serbia and Montenegro had been defined by the Dayton Accord. Referring to crime in the Republika Srpska, he said that the Government had already drawn a clear-cut plan to curb smuggling across the Drina River. [03] PLAVSIC REJECTS REPORTS ON DODIK'S GOVERNMENT BEING PUPPET GOVERNMENTTanjug, 1998-02-28President of the Republika Srpska Biljana Plavsic has rejected the allegation that Premier Milorad Dodik's Government is a puppet government. Speaking in an interview to the Novi Sad Dnevnik newaspaper, Plavsic said, "Dodik's Government has done more in a month in preserving and stabilising the Republika Srpska than the previous government has done in two years." Asked whether the international community has set conditions for its support to the new R.S. Cabinet, Plavsic said no conditions had been set either to herself or to Dodik. She said both the new Cabinet and herself pursued a realistic policy which took into account the situation and global relations in the world rather than a lenient policy. She said it was not for the small Republika Srpska to oppose the powerful United States, saying the R.S. interests must be brought into accord with the big powers' interests through a wise policy. She also said the isolation of the Republika Srpska had been the result of the obstruction by the Government and leaders in Pale of the Dayton Peace Accords. She said the international community had refused to tolerate that the result of which was that Bosnia's new flag, law on citizenship and single number plates had been forced upon the Republika Srpska. She described as successful Dodik's Cabinet's efforts to consolidate the R.S. Interior Ministry. She said this had been a sensitive issue, saying she had feared that the Ministry's two separate parts might openly clash. "Fortunately, this has not happened because wisdom has triumphed over certain persons' partisanship. Interior Minister Milovan Stankovic has made several major moves so that now we have a single Interior Ministry to the satisfaction of all upright citizens," she said. Referring to Brcko, Plavsic said this town had to remain in the Republika Srpska as called for by the Dayton Agreement. "The international community is familiar with our position and I expect the only possible decision to be taken at last - that Brcko remains where it is, in the Republika Srpska, because any other decision would mean a serious revision of the Dayton agreement, which the international community must never allow," she said. Commenting on relations between the Republika Srpska and Yugoslavia, Plavsic said they were improving. She said that readiness had been voiced during Dodik's visit to Belgrade and the Serbian and Montenegrin Government delegations' visits to Banja Luka to intensify cooperation on all levels and in all fields, as provided for by the agreement on special parallel ties reached between the Republika Srpska and Yugoslavia. [04] YUGOSLAV, FOREIGN REPORTERS VISIT SREMSKA MITROVICA PRISONTanjug, 1998-02-28Yugoslav and foreign reporters have visited a prison in the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica and talked to its inmates. The visit on Friday was organized by the Serbian Justice Ministry and the prison management in response to Bosnian Muslim U.N. Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey's allegation that among the prison inmates there are 50 people form the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The Sremska Mitrovica prison is one of Serbia's four correctional facilities. Among its inmates are 1,070 convicts, 68 persons under investigation and another 164 foreign nationals from 19 countries, who are serving sentences there for having committed a criminal offence in Yugoslavia. Foreign prisoners include 94 Romanians, 12 Italians, 5 Bulgarians, 4 Turks, 12 Macedonians and those from Egypt, Iraq, Sweden, Israel, Chile, Poland, Lithuania, Albania and other countries. Prison Warden Trivun Ivkovic told reporters that there were no Bosnian Muslims or Croats among the inmates. Prison conditions are in line with world standards, with inmates undergoing work therapy and getting paid for their work. [05] SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTRY: NO BOSNIAN PRISONERS IN SERBIATanjug, 1998-02-27The Serbian Justice Ministry on Friday organized a tour for Yugoslav and foreign reporters of a correctional facility in the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica. The tour of the prison was organized in response to a statement by Ambassador of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the United Nations Muhamed Sacirbey that about 50 persons from Srebrenica are allegedly imprisoned in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Serbian Information Ministry said in a statement that no person from the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina who had taken part in war operations had ever been detained in the Sremska Mitrovica prison or any other correctional facility in Serbia. The prison in Sremska Mitrovica is the only one in Serbia and Yugoslavia where foreign nationals convicted in this territory are serving their sentences. A total of 164 foreign nationals from 19 countries are currently serving their sentences in that prison and they are being treated in line with world standards, the statement said. It added that the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose officials are visiting the prison on regular basis, is also familiar with these facts. [06] MORINA, OGATA ON RESOLUTION OF REFUGEE PROBLEMSTanjug, 1998-02-27Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina met in Geneva on Friday with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and informed her about the humanitarian situation in Yugoslavia. Morina requested that the UNHCR funds for the financing of collection centres be used in the best interest of refugees. She appealed on Ogata to continue holding regional meetings and requested the opening of an office for the registration of Bosnian Serb property in Serbia in addition to the office which already operates in Montenegro. Morina spoke about the new exodus of about 50,000 Serbs from the Srem-Baranja region and asked for urgent UNHCR assistance. Thanking Ogata for her engagement at international meetings, Morina asked her to continue UNHCR's engagement in securing Yugoslavia's return in the international organisations, including financial institutions, in order to enable it to ensure adequate assistance to refugees and its citizens. Ogata spoke about the unsolved status of refugees in Yugoslavia, about which she had already spoken at the Peace Implementation Council in Bonn and the Council's working group in Geneva, when she requested an increased international engagement on their assistance and the finding of lasting solutions. She said that the solution of the refugee problem in Serbia and Yugoslavia was linked with the normalisation of relations between Croatia and Yugoslavia, return of Serbs to Krajina, situation in the Srem-Baranja region and the Bosnian-Yugoslav relations. Ogata reiterated her and UNHCR's readiness to actively participate in the implementation of an agreement on the normalisation of the Yugoslav-Croatian relations, especially in connection with Article 7, which envisages a safe and free return of all refugees. Ogata said she too was concerned about the latest developments in the Srem-Baranja region, where cases of harassment of Serbs after the end of the UNTAES mandate have grown frequent. Insecurity and the lack of protection have made a large number of people leave the region, which the UNHCR has also registered. The UNHCR will continue its activities at assisting refugees in Yugoslavia this year. Despite the fact that the stress is laid on programmes for lasting solutions, Ogata stressed the need to continue with and increase the assistance to collection centres. [07] GENERAL PAVKOVIC: THE ARMY AS A FACTOR OF STABILITY, PEACE IN KOSMETTanjug, 1998-02-27Apart from Yugoslav Army and Interior Ministry units in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija do not exist any other armed forces, Pristina corps commander General Nebojsa Pavkovic said in an interview to the Friday issue of the Pristina daily Jedinstvo. It is another matter that a part of the press, seeking sensationalism, tries to portray the so-called "Liberation Army of Kosovo" as an impressive force operating in Kosmet. The truth of the matter is that the allegedly mighty army is nothing but a group of terrorists harassing the people in the Drenice region, General Pavkovic said pointing out that the grouping will soon be brought to justice. At the end of last year the political-security situation in Kosmet, especially in the Drenice region, was aggravated by the activities of ethnic Albanian separatists which as highway robbers spread fear in the region, primarily among Serbs and Montenegrins, but also among ethnic Albanians who are loyal to the state they live in and which they consider their own, General Pavkovic said. "The Drenice region which includes the municipalities of Glogovac, Srbica and Klin, is almost ethnically clean. There are no garrisons or Yugoslav Army units there and it is practically left at the mercy of highway bandits and terrorist groups, which have declared it their "liberated territory". However, we in the army know what a military organization means and how it differs from other organizations. Because a military organization is considerd to be one of the most complex ones, we cannot speak about the existence of another army in Kosovo and Metohija apart from the Yugoslav Army," General Pavkovic said. If, he added, someone places banditry, assaults, robberies and ambush killings in the sphere of operation of an army, that is their affair. By insisting on the name Liberation Army of Kosovo, the separatist movement simply wishes to "mask" terrorist activities and terrorism, as they know very well the position of the international community on terror and terrorism. Whether the international community wants to accept that or not, we will see, but it is clear that even for terrorisim exist different standards, he said. Pristina corps units and facilities have not so far been targeted by extremist terrorists, which does not mean that we are not attaching due importance to the possibility and that we are not ready to respond decisively in such situations, Pavkovic said and added: "Their appraisal of our response is the reason why army corps facilities have not been targeted so far." With a high level of combat readiness, the Pristina Corps Command and units will not allow the endangering of their members, institutions and military facilities, contributing thus in the best possible way to peace and security in the territory of Kosmet, the Corps Commander said. We must not forget from where we come from, whose descendents we are, what is ours and what we should and must defend, General Pavkovic said, adding that when we speak about our people's past in these territories, we do not do so for its own sake, but not to forget what we ought to do. "The Yugoslav Army in these territories is not a threat to anyone, but a deterring and a defensive force from possible aggression, from whatever side it may come. Therefore, we are only defending our homes, our boundaries and the graves of our anscestors. We want to turn this region into an oasis of peace, and not into a battlefield. We are on our native soil," the Commander of the Pristina Corps said. [08] TERRORISTS ATTACK MONTENEGRIN FAMILY'S HOUSE, REFUGEE SETTLEMENTTanjug, 1998-03-01Ethnic Albanian terrorists late on Saturday attacked a Montenegrin family's house in the village of Donji Ratis and the Babaloc refugee settlement near Decani, populated by Serbs and Montenegrins who had fled Albania. The house of the elderly Malisa and Jela Culafic, the only Montenegrins in the village of Donji Ratis, was attacked from a hand grenade launcher and automatic weapons. The house was seriously damaged and the Culafics can no longer live in it. Malisa Culafic said that he and his wife had no enemies in the village and that the attack was aimed at forcing the family to leave Donji Ratis, where Montenegrins had been the majority population until 20 years ago. No one in the Babaloc refugee settlement was hurt in the attack, the second in the past three days and the fifth in the past year. [09] SERBIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF KILLED POLICEMENTanjug, 1998-03-01On the occasion of an ethnic Albanian terrorist attack at police patrols near the village on Likosane in which policemen Miroslav Vukovic, Goran Radojcic, Radojica Ivanovic and Milan Jovanovic were killed, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic offered his deepest condolences to the families of the killed policemen and the Serbian Interior Ministry. Milutinovic also wished the two injured policemen a speedy recovery. Milutinovic said that he and the Serbian citizens were embittered with the abominable attack of ethnic Albanian terrorists against police who were carrying out their regular duties and protecting the safety and peaceful life of all citizens of Kosovo and Metohija. Milutinovic also praised Serbian Interior Ministry officials's bravery, determination and patriotic conduct in defending the constitutional order, territorial integrity, peace and safety of all citizens of the Republic of Serbia and stressed that the Serbian citizens would always remember the policemen who gave their lives in order to protect everyone from the assault of terrorism and raging separatism. [10] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF KILLED POLICEMENTanjug, 1998-03-01Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has offered deepest condolences to the families of policemen Miroslav Vujkovic, Goran Radojcic, Radojica Ivanovic and Milan Jovanovic, who were killed in a terrorist attack on Saturday. Milosevic praised Interior Ministry organs for their courage, patriotism, dedication and success in protecting the people and the state and the fight against terrorism, which represents one of the biggest evils of the modern world. In a telegram of condolence to Serbian President Milan Milutinovic on this occasion, Milosevic expressed his categorical stand that the problems of Kosovo and Metohija could be successfully resolved only in Serbia and that terrorism aimed at their internationalisation would be most harmful to those who had resorted to these means. He invited ethnic Albanians to refrain from bloodshed in the interest of political profiteers and foreign sponsors, because future lies in life together, peace and equality. [11] YUGOSLAVIA WARNS UN OF SERB MIGRATIONS FROM EASTERN SLAVONIATanjug, 1998-02-27Yugoslav Ambassador in the United Nations Vladislav Jovanovic sent an aide memoire to the Security Council on Thursday calling for attention to the disturbing situation in Eastern Slavonia. The letter said the situation in Eastern Slavonia, Barania and West Srem had been deteriorating since the expiry of the UNTAES mission in Eastern Slavonia on Jan. 15, provoking a migratory wave of Serbs. This threatens to destroy the results of the UN mission, said the letter. The letter said the Croatian Government refused to comply with the basic agreement that guaranteed Serbs their rights. Serbs still bear with various forms of discrimination - pressures, intimidations, anti-Serb campaigns in media, and they are denied their rights to property, education, culture etc. This has created an unstable situation in the region. About 5,000 Serbs have moved to Yugoslavia, Republika Srpska, Norway, Britain and Canada in the last 40 days. The letter carries reports of threats, citing as many as 175 instances of death threats or harassments and information of Serb families ejected from their homes. Croatia does not enforce the amnesty law, and there is no progress in implementation of the accord on cultural and educational autonomy, the letter states. Many Serbs have been forced to resign from municipal posts and other state institutions. There are currently around 70,000 Serbs in the region, once populated by 128,000 Serbs. And the number is constantly diminishing, said the letter. Ambassador Jovanovic requested that the aide memoire be included as an official document of the Security Council. [12] YUGOSLAV-POLISH TRADE EXPECTED TO REACH U.S. DLRS 100 MILION INTanjug, 1998-03-01The value of trade between Yugoslav and Polish companies is expected to reach about 100 million U.S. dollars in 1998, which will be an about 20- percent increase as compared with 1997, Trade Advisor to the Polish Embassy in Belgrade Teresa Protas has told Tanjug. Protas said that the trade could increase slightly more because of continuing positive trends in the economic cooperation between Poland and Yugoslavia. She said that currently under consideration was a possibility of establishing new and restoring old business ties in the industrial sector. Protas said that Polish companies were mostly interested in the Yugoslav power industry, as well as in its food-processing, chemical and metal-processing industries. As for Yugoslav companies, most of them are interested in purchasing farm machinery, especially tractors manufactured by Poland's Ursus factory, said Protas. She added that possibilities of credit financing prospective Yugoslav buyers should be considered. Protas also said that there were no political obstacles to a further development of cooperation, adding that enhancing the existing forms of cooperation depended on the companies, alone. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce said that special effort should be exerted towards stepping up the economic cooperation with Poland in the car, cable, chemical and pharmaceutical industries and also in the machine- building, iron and steel and refractory material industries. [13] VLATKOVIC RECEIVES BELGIAN AMBASSADORTanjug, 1998-02-27Yugoslav National Bank Governor Dusan Vlatkovic and his associates on Friday received Belgian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Joris Couvreur. Vlatkovic informed the Ambassador about Yugoslavia's economic and financial activities and the importance of its inclusion in international financial institutions, the Governor's Office said. Ambassador Couvreur spoke very highly of the Governor's and the National Bank's successful management of the monetary policy under the very specific conditions of the Yugoslav economy and banking sector in general. The meeting passed in a very open and friendly exchange of views on all professional aspects of the work of the National Bank, the statement said. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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