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Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-03-06Antenna News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.grLast Updated: Friday, 06-Mar-98 16:49:19CONTENTS
[01] Kosovo-AlbaniansThe Yugoslav province of Kosovo, with its large Albanian majority, looks like a powderkeg ready to explode.Serb police armed with cannons and helicopters attacked five villages in the Albanian region of Drenica, between the capital Pristina and the Albanian border Wednesday night. The Serbs say their aim is to protect the inhabitants of the largely ethnic Albanian region. But the Albanian majority says their intent is to terrorise. Antenna's Antonis Fourlis reports that the Serbs have managed to impose calm on the capital, but that many people say that the violence is being carried out in the nearby villages, away from the cameras. A spokesman of ethnic Albanian leader Ibraim Rukova, says three villages were attacked in Drenica Wednesday. Antenna sources believe the aim of the Serb security forces is to blockade western Pristina, with its majority ethnic Albanian population. The police are in full control of the eastern part of the city, where most of the Serbs live. As the Balkan nations worry that unrest in Kosovo may become the spark that ignites another war in the region, Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Fyrom, are showing renewed determination to improve their relations. Deputy Greek foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou said Thursday that close cooperation between the two countries will act as a stabilising force in the region. Though the thorny issue of Fyrom's permanent name remains lodged in the side of Greek-Fyrom relations, the two nations have drawn considerably closer together in recent years. Now, as events in Kosovo reawaken memories and fears of war in the Balkans, the two neighbours are even more eager to cement relations. Greek deputy foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou said after meeting with Fyrom counterpart Ognen Maleski, that closer relations between their two countries will be a factor for stability in the region. Papandreou is concerned that war in Kosovo could lead to a wave of refugees descending on Greece. And Fyrom, with its restive Albanian minority, is looking to Greece to take a lead in promoting a peaceful settlement to the Kosovo issue. Said Maleski in Athens: "I have encouraged Greece as an important member of the European Union and Nato to coninue in assisting to find a peaceful solution and an early start to dialogue in Kosovo that will create a much more positive climate in the region". Maleski believes the Kosovo situation makes it more urgent than ever that the name difference between his country and Greece be worked out. Greece objects to Fyrom trying to adopt "Macedonia" as its permanent name, because the name is an important part of Greek heritage. Athens also worries that the use of the name Macedonia by Fyrom could be used to justify future expansionist claims on the northern Greek province of the same name. Fyrom president Kiro Gligorov said Thrusday that the unrest could place his country in danger of being carved up by neighboring countries, like Bulgaria, in which some voices make territorial claims to Fyrom. Any attempt to change the borders int he region would lead to a conflagration, he warns. Greece's efforts to find a way of securing the peace in Kosovo do not end with its contacts with Fyrom. Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos goes to Belgrade Friday for talks with Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevich. Greece would like to see Serbia give the ethnic Albanian majority of Kosovo greater human rights to defuse the tensions, but retain its rule over the province. Over two dozen ethnic Albanians have been killed by Serb security forces during clashes in recent days. Many of the ethnic Albanians want to secede from Serbia. But Milosevich has shown no inclination to give in to that demand. Pangalos's trip to Belgrade will come on the heels of European Union chairman and British foreign secretary Robin Cook's visit there Thursday. He was disappointed after HIS meeting with Milosevich, who refuses to give Kosovo any measure of the autonomy he took from it in 1989. Even as Cook told Milosevich better relations between Yugoslavia and the EU are pre-conditioned on an end to the crackdown in Kosovo, Serb police were continuing their crackdown in Kosovo, saying they were trying to ferret out members of the separatist Kosovov Liberation Army. [02] Burns-InternetThe American ambassador to Greece reiterated that the US has the Cyprus problem at the top of its agenda.Ambassador Nicholas Burns responded to a question from Antenna on his Internet web site. Antenna notes that Greece has been hearing ever since the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey 23 years ago, that resolving the issue is a priority for the US. Current US secretary of state Madeleine Albright has repeated that view on a number of occasions. Antenna goes on to ask: What specific steps will the US propose to solve the problem, and when can we expect to see the first steps? Responding, ambassador Burns says the US wants to see Cyprus reunited. "One of our most experienced negotiators, Dick Holbrooke", he continues, "is leading our effort". Burns adds that the US intends to work with the Cypriot government, the UK, the UN, Greece, Turkey, and others to help find a solution. [03] Iraqi ambassador-conferenceThe Iraqi ambassador to Athens maintains, like the government in Bagdad, that UN weapons investigators have not found a single weapon of mass destruction since they began their work.The Iraqi ambassador held a press conference in Athens Thursday. Esab Saoud Kalil said that, and the fact that UNSCOM hasn't found a shred of unshakable evidence to support the contention that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, means the UN embargo on his country should be lifte. 220 UNSCOM teams have visited 2,309 sites one or more times since April, 1991. A further 27,766 sites have been visited by 42 other special UN teams between 1994 and November 1997. Says Esab Saoud Kalil, nothing that would indicate the existence of chemical or biological weapons has been turned up. But the embargo has cost the lives of a million Iraqi children. [04] New DemocracyConstantinos Mitsotakis, once prime minister and today honorary leader of New Democracy, has taken what some say is a shot at the current party leader, Kostas Karamanlis.In a newspaper interview Thursday, Mitsotakis appears to suggest that people shouldn't vote for the party under its current leadership. A week after Kostas Karamanlis effectively removed Constantinos Mitsotakis from all of New Democracy's committees, and suggested he get ready to run for the nation's presidency with the party's backing, Mitsotakis has lashed out at the current party leadership. In a thinly-veiled attack on Karamanlis, who also expelled or suspended six MPs in recent weeks for breach of party discipline, Mitsotakis blames him for not running the party democratically. And the punishment for those who operate with totalitarian methods, he adds, should be people NOT voting for them in elections. "Disapproval of those those who try to turn political parties from hives of political activity into concentration camps and vehicles to carry them to power, should be expressed in practice", says Mitsotakis. Asked to comment on the interview, New Democracy MP Iannis Varvitsiotis said only, "New Democracy is free, democratic party". An incredulous Panagiotis Daskalakis, MP, added, "I don't think Mr Mitsotakis was referring to New Democracy. Maybe he was taling about the socialist and communist parties". MP Vassilis Michaloliakos defended the party as it is, underscoring Karamanlis's recent statement that it is a party of the middle ground. "All Greeks respect democracy", inferring that the party leader is democratic. [05] Simitis-PantiosThe prime minister was honoured with a medal by Padio university in Athens, where he is a professor, and to which he has donated thousands of books from his family library.Since 1961, Kostas Simitis has also been giving his professor's salary to the university's Social and Political science department. Speaking at the official opening of the Padio's new library, Simitis said "universities shouldn't be turned into places where people are trained only in professional skills so they can get a job in the public sector after they graduate". The prime miniser added that there are some public sector unions have too much control over the activities of state agencies, and that universities shouldn't be breeding grounds for new members of those unions. [06] Archbishop-HealthArchbishop of Greece Serafeim is doing better. He entered an Athens hospital a week ago with a viral infection. The archbishop, who needs regular kidney dialysis treatments, continues to respond to a regimen of antibiotics, say his doctors.On Thursday, the hospital released a statement saying that the archbishop's health has improved notably. "Slowly but steadily, Serafeim is recovering from the infection", the doctors add. The archbishop's condition started to improve markedly on Saturday. [07] SportsPanionios and Irakles have one foot in the semi- finals of the Greek soccer cupship. They battled Paok and Panathinaikos respectively, in the first of their home-and-away quarterfinal series.Panionios is into the 93rd minute of its match against Paok when Leonidas Vokolos sends the ball into the visitors' net, giving Panionios the one- nil victory. Irakles also gets past its guest Pao. The home side opens the scoring just three minutes into the match, off a header from Michalis Konstaninou. Irakles gets another from Marios Christodoulou just six minutes later, en route to a 2-1 triumph. (c) ANT1 Radio 1998Antenna News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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