BELGRADE, 29 May 2000 C O N T E N T S : FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC: REBUILDING OF SERBIA PRIDE OF EUROPE (1) PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC ANNOUNCED NEW CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA RUSSIAN DUMA DELEGATION VISITED RANILUG BEZBORODOV: ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS - PLANNED ACTION KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - TERRORISM THREE SERBS MURDERED IN CERNICA FROM FOREIGN PRESS OPPOSITION RALLY IN BELGRADE DRAWS RELATIVELY LOW TURNOUT FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC: REBUILDING OF SERBIA PRIDE OF EUROPE (1) NOVI SAD, May 29 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic arrived on Monday by train to Novi Sad by way of the newly-built railroad-road bridge over the Danube, marking the resumption of traffic on the shortest traffic link between north and south Europe. Opening for traffic the bridge across the Danube at Novi Sad, Milosevic at a magnificent people's rally of more than 150,00 citizens of Novi Sad, Vojvodina and the Republic greeted with ovations said: "Dear citizens, allow me to greet you all and express great satisfaction that we all have an opportunity to share in the joy for the success, for a great working success by which we mark the greatest results achieved in the reconstruction and recovery of the country. This time last year war was waged against Yugoslavia. The aggression of the NATO pact. It was one of the most blatant examples of violence against a people in the second half of the 20th century and the only war in Europe after WW II. The nature of the war was really unusual. Quite unique. The war was waged by the biggest and strongest European countries, under the command of a non-European country, the United States, the most powerful country of our time, against a rather small European country, exhausted by years of economic sanctions imposed by those countries. Who, along with sanctions brought also war, because the sanctions did not produce the amount of suffering necessary to lose the will to fight and to extinguish the love for freedom. Why have cruel sanctions been introduced against Serbia, and then an even crueller war started against it? Criminals and murderers will never be able to explain this to anyone intelligent and honest. When the explanation comes, truthful and convincing for the whole world, those criminals will be history. But until then, the war that was waged against Serbia will be on the conscience, or as our people says on the soul, of the entire world. It is little consolation for us that the murderers of our people will not sleep peacefully as long as they live. Even the worst of men understands from time to time, in some part of his conscience, that he did evil. Ideologists and NATO pact commanders, and even their army, will have difficulty avoiding that reality, although we by our Slav nature tend to forgive, especially those who are not directly responsible. But many have also stayed awake after the war. Not because of pangs of consciousness, but because of an honourable conscience. In this country, since the war ended to this day, many have not slept at night because they were working. In less than a year, the bombed country has been rebuilt so quickly that it has most probably not been registered in the experience of modern Europe. We, of course, have not rebuilt everything that was destroyed. Damaged have been many apartment buildings, family houses, schools, churches, monasteries, hospitals, health institutions, state institutions, but most of them have been rebuilt by the most modern and quickest means. This bridge, which we are opening today for the use of citizens, symbolizes in the best way the impressive and daily results of reconstruction and rebuilding. So far no-one in the world has succeeded to build this kind of project, for which two years are needed, in 100 days. And it is at the same time a railroad bridge. That is why we came by train, but not any kind of train. We came here in a train whose carriages are of domestic production, which have been designed and manufactured in our factories for speeds of 200 km per hour. That is a great result, because today only four countries in Europe can produce independently carriages for such speeds. Without carriages for such speeds cannot be realized TGV railroad projects anywhere in the world. And one of those four countries is our country, and this bridge has very good technical-construction solutions. It is modern in form, essential traffic and communication wise, and morally superior. It represents a sparkling construction and moral victory. We have prevailed over our enemies not because we are stronger, but because we are better. That is the combination that makes the world go round since its creation. We in Yugoslavia, the most European country, build our country with a lot of love, with a lot of knowledge and a lot of work. If there is something of what Europe should be proud of in the year 2000, that is the rebuilding of Serbia. But if there is something of what Europe should be ashamed of in the year 1999 - that is the devastation of Serbia. No-one should tell us where is Europe and where it is not. First and foremost, because Europe is situated on every foot of the soil belonging to the European continent. Behind the classification of European countries into those who are in Europe and those who are waiting to be admitted to it, there is a cynical division into superior and inferior countries and peoples. That tendency to separate peoples into upper and lower class has already been seen. If Europe accepts it, it runs the risk of being placed as a whole in the zone of lower class peoples and countries, and also of lower class continents. There are no higher and lower races and peoples, but there are better and worse people in all races and in all peoples. The best are those who have a high opinion of themselves, but who also respect others, who build their life and their country by relying on their own forces and capabilities, but who are ready to help everyone else, and especially the weakest, who love good people, who believe in good and contribute to it themselves. And who are the worse? The entire world saw that a year ago when, among other things, the bridges in Novi Sad disappeared in a wink. The worse kind of men outside Yugoslavia were detroying our country. The worse kind of men in Yugoslavia serve them today. Those who destroyed our bridges, just as we, who are rebuilding them, should be a lesson to Europe and to the world. Let Europe, historically important and discouraged at the end of the 20th century, learn from small Serbia, also on this bridge what is the meaning of historical dignity and human freedom. On what human values should be built a new era into which we are entering, and the whole world should know that it will be a target, just as Serbia was a target, if it does not put up a resolved, united resistance which is necessary and justified, just as resolved, united, necessary and justified was the resistance put up by Serbia against violence and humiliation. Long live the heroic and creative people of Serbia. Long live free Yugoslavia. Let there be a free Europe. I congratulate the builders of this bridge on their huge success, on their great contribution to the reconstruction of the entire country, on their greatest patriotism. A country is best loved by those who defend, build and develop it. I wish you, dear builders the best of happiness with your families. I wish the citizens of Vojvodina that this bridge becomes a symbol of progress for all people who live in it. I propose that this bridge be named after Bosko Perosevic. I wish peace and prosperity to our whole country, President Milosevic said. PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC ANNOUNCED NEW CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS NOVI SAD, May 29 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said in Novi Sad on Monday that the beginning of the building of the second lane of the Belgrade-Novi Sad highway will start in a few days and that the works will be completed within two years. In talks with the political leadership of Vojvodina and the representatives of the most successful firms in Vojvodina, President Milosevic said that after works are completed on the highway between the two biggest cities in Yugoslavia, builders will immediately start construction works on the highway section towards Subotica. President Milosevic assessed that everything that happened in the past few years in Yugoslavia and in neighbouring countries, unequivocally indicates that peace is the fundamental factor also of economic development of every country. That, he said, is best evidenced by the "disastrous situation in countries in our environment," in spite of the praise and aid received by the governments there from Western capitals. "On the other hand, we have shown that a free country is capable of developing more quickly and better than countries that have lost their freedom. That is why we a "a bad example" for them, he added. Speaking about good relations between ethnic communities in Vojvodina, Milosevic underlined that it was precisely in Vojvodina that had failed the policy of national confrontation successfully applied by the West in the break-up of multiethnic states. Attending the talks also were Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic and Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic, Yugoslav and Serbian ministers. F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA RUSSIAN DUMA DELEGATION VISITED RANILUG PRISTINA, May 29 (Tanjug) - A Russian Duma delegation headed by Nikolai Ryshkov, president of the Duma commission for helping Yugoslavia overcome the consequences of NATO's aggression, has visited Ranilug, one of the largest Serbian villages in Kosovska Kamenica municipality, the information service of the Serbian National Assembly (SNS) of Kosovo and Metohija said. On that occasion the high-ranking guests talked with representatives of the Serbian National Assembly of Kosovska Kamenica, who informed them about the difficult position of Serbs due to incessant attacks by Albanian separatists and extremists as well as about the incapacity of the international forces to protect them, the statement said. The guests from Russia promised that the Russian contingent within KFOR will remain in Kosovo and Metohija and take a more active role in the implementation of Resolution 1244, and thereby improve the security of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, the statement said. BEZBORODOV: ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS - PLANNED ACTION MOSCOW, May 29 (Tanjug) - The increasingly frequent attacks by Albanian extremists on Russian peacekeepers is the result of a planned action aimed at expelling the Russian military contingent from Kosovo and Metohija, said on Sunday Russian Duma defense committee deputy chairman Nikolai Bezborodov. General Bezborodov is a member of the delegation of Russian parliamentarians who visited Kosovo and Metohija. In his assessment, the implementation of UN S Resolution 1244 "has reached a critical point when the Russian contingent in starting to be a nuisance for some." Western politicians assume that the U.S. and NATO have achieved their goals, and there are very few Serbs left in the province. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - TERRORISM THREE SERBS MURDERED IN CERNICA PRISTINA, May 29 (Tanjug) - Three Serbs, including a four-year-old boy, were killed Sunday evening in an attack of Albanian terrorists on a group of villagers of Cernica in Gnjilane municipality. Tihomir Trifunovic (43), Vojin Vasic (57) and Milos Petrovic (4) were killed Sunday evening around 20.00 hours, when Albanian terrorist Afrim Zechiri opened automatic weapon fire on a group of Serbs, villagers of Cernica, radio-amateurs reported from Kosovo and Metohija. In the attack were seriously wounded Petko Jankovic (35), who was shot four times, and less seriously Zoran Stolic. The wounded were immediately transferred to the U.S. military base Bondsteel near the village of Sojevo and their wounds are not life-threatening. KFOR U.S. forces spokesman Russel Berg has confirmed that a KFOR patrol did not react, or did not return fire. Thanks to that, Zechiri managed to get away after the attack. FROM FOREIGN PRESS OPPOSITION RALLY IN BELGRADE DRAWS RELATIVELY LOW TURNOUT Belgrade, May 27 - Some 10,000 people showed up today for an anti-government rally, a relatively low turnout reflecting popular disappointment with the leaders of the political opposition here, reported a journalist of the "New York Times". Unlike previous rallies, this one heard only three opposition leaders speak - not all 16 - and there were more speakers from other parts of serbian society, including academics, women's activists and student movement Otpor, or Resistance. With declining numbers, this rally is likely to be the lest of its kind form now. Polls indicate that the support of the opposition can be shaky and is not growing. A poll just done for the National Democratic Institute shows that more than 80 percent of those polled say opposition leaders spend so much time fighting among themselves, said Erlanger. __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
