Yugoslav Daily Survey
(Morning edition)
BELGRADE, 23 March 2000
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - UNHCR
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVED
U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
OGATA: ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADERS OPPOSE
THE RETURN OF SERBS AND OTHER
NON-ALBANIANS
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
BOOK "THE HEROES OF THE FATHERLAND"
HAS BEEN RELEASED
SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
U.N. CIVILIAN AND MILITARY MISSIONS ARE
SIDING WITH ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS
MOSCOW AGAIN CRITICIZES KOUCHNER
IVANOV: NATO AGGRESSION BROUGHT
KOSOVO CRISIS INTO DEADLOCK
DIENSTBIER: INTERNATIONAL OPERATION IN
KOSOVO IS A TOTAL FIASCO
NATO AGGRESSION - ANNIVERSARY
RESPONSIBILITY FOR USING BANNED
AMMUNITION
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - FLIGHT BAN
CZECH REPUBLIC HAS LIFTED THE FLIGHT
BAN ON YUGOSLAVIA
* * *
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - UNHCR
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVED U.N.
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
BELGRADE, March 22 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin
Jovanovic received on Wednesday U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees Sadako Ogata.
Ogata said that UNHCR had always held in high esteem Yugoslavia's
great efforts and sacrifices in assisting refugees who had
sought shelter
in the country since the outbreak of the crisis in the former
Yugoslavia.
She said that the number of refugees and displaced persons in
Yugoslavia had soared over the past year, saying that UNHCR would
continue offering the necessary humanitarian assistance in
cooperation
with competent Yugoslav bodies and would help create conditions for
the safe and unhindered return of refugees and displaced
persons to their
homes.
Jovanovic said that Yugoslavia was a country with the highest number
of refugees in Europe, explaining that over 700,000 refugees from
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia still sheltered in it as well as
350,000
Serbs and other non-Albanians who had fled its southern province of
Kosovo and Metohija before U.N.-sponsored ethnic cleansing and
terrorising practised by ethnic Albanian extremists.
In the light of NATO's March 24-June 10 1999 aggression and
continuation of illegal sanctions against Yugoslavia that are a
form of the
most massive violation of basic human rights, refugee rights
included,
the country expects UNHCR and the international community to
offer it
greater assistance in the future.
Jovanovic welcomed statements to the effect that the Croatian
government is ready to ensure a speedier, unhindered and safe
return of
refugees, saying that actions to this effect and results were
that what
really counted.
OGATA: ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADERS OPPOSE THE
RETURN OF SERBS AND OTHER NON-ALBANIANS
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata said on Wednesday that among
ethnic Albanian leaders there is no willingness to support the
return of
Serbs and other non-Albanians to Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija
province.
During a press conference in the Hyatt Hotel, Ogata said that ethnic
Albanian leaders for the last year have shown no desire to
support the
return of Serbs and other non-Albanians. On the contrary, there is a
tendency to expel even those who remained, she said.
Ogata added that such an attitude is in contrast with the UNHCR
principle that all refugees and displaced persons should return
to their
homes, and that the UNHCR mission in Kosovo and Metohija is doing
everything to convince the remaining Serbs that they should not
leave
the province.
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
BOOK "THE HEROES OF THE FATHERLAND" HAS
BEEN RELEASED
BELGRADE, March 22 (Tanjug) - The book entitled "The Heroes of the
Fatherland" containing biographies and photographs of Yugoslav Army
soldiers and Serbian police officers killed in the fighting
against ethnic
Albanian terrorists and the NATO aggressors was presented on
Wednesday in a meeting of the Yugoslav government's committee in
charge of the publishing of the book.
Yugoslav Defence Minister Army General Dragoljub Ojdanic, who also
chairs the committee, said that the book would keep alive in
the minds of
the posterity the memory of heroic deeds and sacrifices made
during the
patriotic resistance to the terrorising and the aggression.
Ojdanic said that Yugoslav President and Supreme Commander
Slobodan Milosevic had written the book's preface as a gesture
of his
deepest respect for the heroes who had been killed and their
families.
"The Heroes of the Fatherland reflects the deepest respect for
and eternal
gratitude to members of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police who
were killed in this patriotic war," he said.
The book contains biographies and photographs of 1,002 Yugoslav
Army soldiers and Serbian police officers who were killed or
listed as
missing.
Ojdanic said that their names were placed in the alphabetic
order rather
than according to their rank, position or office, because "they all
sacrificed what was most valuable - their lives - for their
fatherland's
freedom and honour."
Copies of the book, published by the government, would be
distributed
first among the families of
the killed heroes.
SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
U.N. CIVILIAN AND MILITARY MISSIONS ARE SIDING
WITH ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
BEIJING, March 23 (Tanjug) - Unless it takes energetic action to
implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 and arrests the
deterioration of the situation in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija
province,
the council will lose confidence at international level, Kosovo and
Metohija Provisional Executive Council President Zoran Andjelkovic
said in an interview to the Chinese news agency Xinhua on
Wednesday.
Andjelkovic warned that neither mission acts in keeping with the
resolution, but in fact sides with ethnic Albanian terrorists
who are
conducting ethnic cleansing of Serbs.
Andjelkovic pointed out that about 1,000 civilians have been
killed in
Kosovo and Metohija in the presence of the missions UNMIK and
KFOR in the past nine months, 860 people have been kidnapped and
360,000 non-Albanian citizens of the province have been forcibly
expelled from their homes.
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS
MOSCOW AGAIN CRITICIZES KOUCHNER
MOSCOW, March 23 (Tanjug) - Russia has again criticized Head of
U.N. Civil Mission for Kosovo and Metohija Bernard Kouchner for
violating the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
This time, the accusations were provoked by his decision to impose a
change of number plates on vehicles. The new documents for the
registration of vehicles, allegedly in line with basic international
standards are now being introduced in Kosovo and Metohija, the
Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The alleged need to regulate the data and to register all the
vehicles in the
province, is in reality a cover up for something else - the
attempt to
introduce a non-existent state entity of Kosovo and Metohija on an
international level, by using the new registration symbol KS, the
statement said.
IVANOV: NATO AGGRESSION BROUGHT KOSOVO
CRISIS INTO DEADLOCK
MOSCOW, March 23 (Tanjug) - It is completely obvious that the NATO
aggression on Yugoslavia has led the resolving of the crisis in
Serbia's
Kosovo and Metohija crisis into a deadlock, Russian Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov said in an article published on the occasion of the
anniversary of the onset of this aggression by 'Nezavisimaya
Gazeta' on
Thursday.
Analyzing the consequences of the aggression, Ivanov said this
act was
the strongest attack on the United Nations Charter and the basic
principles of legal order and international stability in general.
Ivanov underscored that any long-term solution for the situation in
Balkans is impossible without including Belgrade in that process.
DIENSTBIER: INTERNATIONAL OPERATION IN
KOSOVO IS A TOTAL FIASCO
PRAGUE, March 23 (Tanjug) - U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human
Rights in ex-Yugoslavia Jiri Dienstbier said that the international
operation in Kosovo and Metohija has proved to be a total fiasco.
Representatives of international organizations are also aware
of that, and
are afraid of a possible conflict with so-called Kosovo
Liberation Army
(KLA) members, he said.
After his ten-day tour in Yugoslavia, Dienstbier told reporters on
Wednesday that according to what he had heard from Head of U.N.
Civil Mission in Kosovo and Metohija Bernard Kouchner and other
international community representatives, they were reluctant to
implement the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
NATO AGGRESSION - ANNIVERSARY
RESPONSIBILITY FOR USING BANNED AMMUNITION
BRUSSELS, March 23 (Tanjug) - Representatives of the Yugoslav
diaspora in Belgium have asked that all the NATO officials who
decided
on the use of radioactive ammunition with depleted uranium
filling in
last year's bombing campaign in the southern Serbian province of
Kosovo and Metohija, should be put on trial.
It is important that the NATO leaders give detailed information
as to
where and in what quantities the dangerous weapons were used, in
order to enable authorities to take adequate measures of
protection, said
the diaspora representatives at a news conference in the
International
press centre.
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - FLIGHT BAN
CZECH REPUBLIC HAS LIFTED THE FLIGHT BAN ON
YUGOSLAVIA
PRAGUE, March 22 (Tanjug) - The Czech government decided in a
meeting on Wednesday to lift the flight ban on Yugoslavia
backing the
E.U. Council's decision to this effect of February 28.
CTK news agency quoted the Czech Foreign Ministry as saying that the
resumption of flights between Prague and Belgrade by Czech airlines
CSA and Yugoslav airlines JAT was important also in the economic
sense.
JAT is expected to reopen the line to Prague on March 30. It
will fly to
the Czech Republic's capital Thursdays and Sundays.
CSA is expected to fly to and from Belgrade also twice a week.
)Evening edition)
BELGRADE, 23 March 2000
NATO AGGRESSION - ANNIVERSARY
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC LAYS WREATH AT
TOMB OF UNKNOWN SOLDIER
MILUTINOVIC: "FRONT PAGE" - FOR TRUTH,
AGAINST LIES
ANNIVERSARY OF NATO AGGRESSION ON
YUGOSLAVIA MARKED IN MADRID
FIRST LESSONS DEVOTED TO HEROIC DEFENSE
FROM NATO AGGRESSION
SERBIAN WRITERS' ASSOCIATION APPEALS TO
WORLD CONSCIENCE
NATO AGGRESSOR ACTED COWARDLY -
YUGOSLAV ARMY
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
MRKONJIC RECEIVES MPS FROM DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES
YUGOSLAVIA - KOSOVO-METOHIJA - RUSSIA
AMBASSADOR MILOSEVIC INTERVIEW TO
KRASNAYA ZVEZDA
MOSCOW AGAIN CRITICIZES KOUCHNER
RUSSIA CALLS OFF AGREEMENT TO SEND
POLICE TROOPS TO KOSOVO
KOSOVO-METOHIJA - SITUATION
YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL VUKICEVIC VISITS
PRIZREN, ORAHOVAC, VELIKA HOCA
ETHNIC ALBANIANS FORCEFULLY OCCUPY 27
SERBIAN APARTMENTS
* * *
NATO AGGRESSION - ANNIVERSARY
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC LAYS WREATH AT TOMB OF
UNKNOWN SOLDIER
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Mt.
Avala near Belgrade on Thursday, on the occasion of the
anniversary of
the onset of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
With top military honors and to the sounds of the national
anthem, the
Yugoslav President paid tribute to those who gave their lives in the
heroic defense of the fatherland.
After laying the wreath, Milosevic wrote in the Book of
Impressions, on
behalf of comrades in arms and citizens: "Eternal glory to the
heros of
the fatherland who died defending the freedom and dignity of
the people
and state from new fascism."
MILUTINOVIC: "FRONT PAGE" - FOR TRUTH,
AGAINST LIES
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Milan Milutinovic
said on Thursday that the pages of the Belgrade daily Politika
on the 78
days and nights of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia were a
"chronology of heroism, resistance, defiance, faith and hope of our
people that they are fighting for the right thing, for their
country, for
freedom, for honour, for dignity, for the present and future
generations,
for peace and justice - for truth, and against lies."
Speaking about the book "Front Page" which comprises the front pages
of Politika from March 23 until June 11, 1999, Milutinovic said
it was
true that Serbia and Yugoslavia did everything toward problems in
Kosovo and Metohija being resolved peacefully, that they were
defending themselves from separatism and terrorism using state
measures, and that the so-called international community helps
separatists and terrorists.
It is also true that the "diplomatic farce in Rambouillet and
Paris was an
attempt at a great hoax, our state and people were given an
ultimatum
and we rejected that ultimatum because, if accepted, it would
have meant
the occupation of Yugoslavia and a 'referendum' on the secession of
Kosovo and Metohija," Milutinovic said.
Milutinovic also said it was true that NATO had suffered a real
military
and political defeat. The war stopped when the problem was
returned to
the political and military area and when the United Nations Security
Council took over guarantees for the peace and security of
citizens in
Kosovo and Metohija, he said. Unfortunately, it is also true
that the
international force KFOR and civilian mission UNMIK in the southern
Serbian province have not realized U.N. Security Council Resolution
1244 and that the UNMIK administration head by Bernard Kouchner is
"just the logistics of ethnic Albanian terrorism," Milutinovic said,
concluding that Serbia was reconstructing very successfully and
rapidly
through great efforts of the state and all its citizens.
ANNIVERSARY OF NATO AGGRESSION ON
YUGOSLAVIA MARKED IN MADRID
MADRID, March 23 (Tanjug) - The Atheneo Cultural Center of Madrid
late on Wednesday marked the anniversary of the onset of the NATO
aggression on Yugoslavia.
The packed audience heard speeches by center President Carlos Paris,
prominent Spanish politician and coordinator of the united left
Julio
Anguita, correspondent from Belgrade and foreign editor of TV Madrid
Teresa Aranguren, Professor Manuel Balestro, and Yugoslav
Ambassador to Spain Ratomir Vico.
The meeting was organized not only to remember and condemn an act
unrecorded in the modern-day history of international
relations, but also
to warn against the chaos, crime and ethnic cleansing in Serbia's
Kosovo and Metohija province which are the balance of the
intervention
in Yugoslavia in the name of alleged humanitarian rights, the Center
President said. Anguita called the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia
genocide of the new age, and the demonization of peoples, like
that of
Serbs, a substrate of fascism.
Kosovo is becoming a source of long-term instability in Europe
and the
region. Naturally, this does not suit Europe, but that is the
very way it
can forced to submit to an interventionist policy, Ambassador
Vico said.
FIRST LESSONS DEVOTED TO HEROIC DEFENSE
FROM NATO AGGRESSION
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - The first class in every elementary
and secondary school in Serbia on Friday will be devoted to the
brutal
air strikes on Yugoslavia and the heroic defense of the country
from the
NATO aggressor.
Students will hear a ministry statement about the suffering of
the Serbian
people and the destruction of material goods during the 78-day
aggression which began on March 24, 1999. Students and teachers will
have the rest of the day off for activities in connection with
the marking
of this date.
SERBIAN WRITERS' ASSOCIATION APPEALS TO
WORLD CONSCIENCE
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - The Serbian Writers' Association
UKS on Friday hosted the promotion of a document which appeals to
the world conscience on the occasion of NATO's use of weapons with
depleted uranium in Yugoslav territory.
The Appeal was signed by 105 prominent professors of law,
scientists,
intellectuals, and writers from Serbia, Greece, Russia and
France. It
was created during the 78-day NATO aggression on Yugoslavia last
spring as an expression of resistance and a warning that the 19 most
powerful forces of the world did not attack only Yugoslavia,
but, some
of them, even themselves, UKS President Slobodan Rakitic said.
"It is not clear to any of us, or to most well-meaning people,
why such a
force was used, why so many people were killed and valuable objects
destroyed, but it is certain that we have yet to expect the
effects of the
depleted uranium with apprehension," Rakitic said.
NATO AGGRESSOR ACTED COWARDLY - YUGOSLAV
ARMY
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - It is encouraging that NATO
criminals are these days admitting their crimes committed in
Yugoslavia,
accusing each other and shifting the blame to others, Yugoslav Army
Chief of Information and Morale, Maj. Gen. Milan Simic said in
Belgrade on Thursday.
Speaking at an expanded session of the leadership of the WWII
veterans' organization devoted to the anniversary of the onset
of the
NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, Maj. Gen. Simic underscored that
Yugoslavia was brutally attacked a year ago by 19 of the most
powerful
and darkest forces.
Such resolve as was demonstrated by the Yugoslav Army, members of
the police, the people, and the state leadership in their wish
to defend the
fatherland, has never been recorded in history, he said, adding that
March 24, 1999, was the most shameful date for the peoples "whose
executioners attacked our country."
Maj. Gen. Simic also pointed out the words of Yugoslav President and
Supreme Commander Slobodan Milosevic that the Yugoslav Army is the
best army in the world and said that this evaluation was
repeated in a
recent analysis of the combat readiness of the Yugoslav Army.
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
MRKONJIC RECEIVES MPS FROM DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES
BELGRADE, March 23 (Tanjug) - Directorate for National
Reconstruction Director Milutin Mrkonjic received MPs from different
countries on Wednesday.
The MPs are visiting Yugoslavia at the invitation of the Yugoslav
Parliament on the occasion of the anniversary of the beginning
of the
NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
Speaking to the MPs from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia,
Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovakia and the Czech
Republic, Mrkonjic said that the Directorate for National
Reconstruction
was founded April 4 1999 on the decision of Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic, only 10 days after the beginning of the brutal
aggression against Yugoslavia.
Saying that the first phase of reconstruction was successfully
finished,
Mrkonjic added that in the period between April 4 - December 31, the
Directorate renewed vital objects of traffic, communal and housing
infrastructure, as well as power, postal, petrochemical,
industrial and
partly agrarian installations.
In the second phase, which also includes development, work will be
finished on the remaining objects, especially industrial
installations
which were seriously damaged during the aggression, Mrkonjic said.
YUGOSLAVIA - KOSOVO-METOHIJA - RUSSIA
AMBASSADOR MILOSEVIC INTERVIEW TO KRASNAYA
ZVEZDA
MOSCOW, March 23 (Tanjug) - Belgrade will demand a termination of
the mandate of the international forces in Serbia's Kosovo and
Metohija
province (KFOR) if United Nations Security Council Resolution
1244 is
not implemented, Yugoslav Ambassador to Russia Borislav Milosevic
said in an interview to the Russian daily Krasnaya Zvezda on
Wednesday.
The Ambassador also said, in reaction to certain statements by NATO
officials, that Yugoslavia was not preparing to take any
military action
against the KFOR.
MOSCOW AGAIN CRITICIZES KOUCHNER
MOSCOW, March 23 (Tanjug) - Russia has again criticized Head of
U.N. Civil Mission for Kosovo and Metohija Bernard Kouchner for
violating the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
This time, the accusations were provoked by his decision to impose a
change of number plates on vehicles. The new documents for the
registration of vehicles, allegedly in line with basic international
standards are now being introduced in Kosovo and Metohija, the
Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The alleged need to regulate the data and to register all the
vehicles in the
province, is in reality a cover up for something else - the
attempt to
introduce a non-existent state entity of Kosovo and Metohija on an
international level, by using the new registration symbol KS, the
statement said.
RUSSIA CALLS OFF AGREEMENT TO SEND POLICE
TROOPS TO KOSOVO
MOSCOW, March 23 (Tanjug) - Russia said today that it is forced to
call off an agreement to send a special police unit to Kosovo and
Metohija, due to the doubts raised by the attitude of the U.N.
secretariat
and the U.N. Civil Mission in this southern Serbian province.
In a special statement released on the Government decision, the
Russian
Foreign Ministry said that the negative tendencies in the
Province have
gone too far, that the security situation of non-Albanians was
deteriorating and that there were growing activities of Kosovo
Albanian
separatists, terrorists and criminal structures.
The U.N. secretariat and U.N. Civil Mission leaders have an
ambivalent
stand on the urgent deployment of the international civil staff
in Province
the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
KOSOVO-METOHIJA - SITUATION
YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL VUKICEVIC VISITS PRIZREN,
ORAHOVAC, VELIKA HOCA
PRIZREN, March 23 (Tanjug) - President of the Yugoslav Committee
for Cooperation with the U.N. Mission in Kosovo and Metohija
Stanimir Vukicevic visited Prizren for talks with UNMIK
regional civil
administrator Lennart Myhlback, and Orahovac and Velika Hoca, the
Committee said on Thursday.
In the talk with the Administrator, Ambassador Vukicevic spoke about
the bad security situation in this region and in other places
of Serbia's
Kosovo and Metohija province since the arrival of the international
forces KFOR.
Vukicevic acquainted Myhlback with Yugoslavia's priorities,
stressing
the issue of the return of temporarily displaced Serbs and other
non-Albanians to their homes and farms. Yugoslavia expects that the
KFOR and U.N. civilian mission UNMIK ensure conditions for their
complete security and safe life, Vukicevic said.
ETHNIC ALBANIANS FORCEFULLY OCCUPY 27
SERBIAN APARTMENTS
GNJILANE, March 23 (Tanjug) - The Human Rights Committee in
Gnjilane said on Friday that a forceful occupation of 27
Serbian flats
was reported in a five-story building in Vojvode Stepe street
of this
Kosovo municipality.
All the apartments were looted, and subsequently occupied by ethnic
Albanian families.
According to a Serb witness in a nearby building of the same row of
houses, two weeks ago a large number of Serbian flats was
occupied in
an organized manner, so that even KFOR troops, which have a control
post in front of the building did not react in any way.
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