BELGRADE, 14 June 2000 C O N T E N T S : FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT RECEIVES REPRESENTATIVES OF DIRECTORATE FOR RECONSTRUCTION YUGOSLAV DEFENSE MINISTER OPENS EXHIBITION ON NATO AGGRESSION YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA LI PENG LEFT BELGRADE CHINA AND YUGOSLAVIA SHARE VIEWS ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA CHINESE MEDIA GIVES EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF MILOSEVIC - LI TALKS YUGOSLAVIA - LIBYA YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL RECEIVES LIBYAN NATIONAL OIL COMPANY DELEGATION YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA PRESS CONFERENCE ON ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AGGRESSION NATO AGGRESSION - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS NATO AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA WAS A CRIME NATO RESPONSIBILITY TO BE RE-EXAMINED YUGOSLAVIA - GREECE YUGOSLAV MINISTER MIRKOVIC RECEIVES GREEK AUTHOR KAKOULIDIS KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS DIENSTBIER REITERATES CRITICISM OF U.N. MISSION E.U. COUNCIL CONDEMNS ETHNICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA JANKOVIC: KOUCHNER'S LEGISLATURE IN KOSOVO COLLAPSES KOSOVO-METOHIJA ALBANIAN PAPER REAPPEARS AFTER BAN, DEFIES UNMIK KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS CONTINUE ATTACKS ON SERBS * * * FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT RECEIVES REPRESENTATIVES OF DIRECTORATE FOR RECONSTRUCTION BELGRADE, June 14 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday received the representatives of the Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country thus commemorating the start of work in rebuilding the war-ravaged country last year on June 14. The Directorate delegation was headed by the president of its board of managers Mirko Marjanovic, who is also the president of Serbia, and by Directorate Director Milutin Mrkonjic. The other guests included the directors of major companies which are participating in the reconstruction of the country. They brought Milosevic up to date with the results of their activities. During the past 365 days of untiring work more than 150,000 engineers, technicians and manual labourers have built bridges, roads, railways, power infrastructure installations, houses and apartments, industrial, health, cultural, sports and other facilities all of which were destroyed during the 78-day NATO bombing from March 24 - June 10, 1999. Over 90 percent of the planned work has been realized ahead of schedule. Top priority facilities, such as apartment buildings and power installations, bridges, roads and raillines along major routes, were rebuilt before the previous winter. The successful completion of the scope and extent of reconstruction gave a significant boost to the speedier development of the country, intensified production and improved living standards. Milosevic congratulated the builders and Directorate representatives on the extraordinary results and underscored that these efforts have confirmed the huge creative spirit of the people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and manifested superiority over all those who wanted to impose their will on this country by destruction. The successful work of numerous companies over the past year has resulted in multiple positive effects, reflected in the advancement of other branches of the economy, Milosevic said. He expressed belief that everything which was strongly expressed during the reconstruction so far, would also be evident in the future. YUGOSLAV DEFENSE MINISTER OPENS EXHIBITION ON NATO AGGRESSION BELGRADE, June 14 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Defense Minister Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic opened an exhibition on the 1999 NATO aggression on Yugoslavia at Belgrade's Military Museum on Wednesday, on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of the NATO air strikes and June 16 - Yugoslav Army Day. During the period of the aggression, from March 24 until June 10, 1999, NATO entered into alliance with the ethnic Albanian terrorist organization in Kosovo and Metohija, and that cooperation continues to this day, Gen. Ojdanic said. "Proof of this are the daily attacks of ethnic Albanian terrorists on non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija in the presence of KFOR forces," he said. The exhibition is divided into four chronological and thematic areas, proceeding from developments in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, its dismembering in 1991, through NATO air strikes on Republika Srpska in Bosnia in 1995 and the struggle of the Yugoslav army and police against ethnic Albanian terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija province, to the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and the signing of the Military Technical Agreement on June 9, 1999, and the cessation of the air strikes. The exhibit shows more than 300 photographs and maps, and 100 three-dimensional museum pieces, including parts of downed missiles and F-117, F-16, A-10, and Mirage aircraft, cluster and other bombs, and shells with depleted uranium filling. YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA LI PENG LEFT BELGRADE BELGRADE, June 13 (Tanjug) - Chairman of the Chinese National People's Congress (parliament) Standing Committee Li Peng ended his three-day official visit to Yugoslavia and left Belgrade on Tuesday. At Belgrade airport, Li was seen off by his hosts, the speakers of the Chamber of Citizens (lower house) and the Chamber of Republics (upper house) of the Yugoslav parliament, Milomir Minic and Srdja Bozovic, respectively. Li's visit and talks with top-ranking Yugoslav officials have been mutually assessed as a powerful affirmation of friendship and mutual support between the two countries whose relations are characterised by friendship, solidarity and mutual respect. During Li's talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic it was noted that significant results have been achieved in implementing the Friendship and Cooperation Declaration signed by Milosevic and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Beijing in 1997. Li's visit to Belgrade strongly affirmed the two countries' commitment to the policy of peace and to the affirmation of equal relations in the world. It also affirmed their resolute opposition to the policy of hegemony and diktat, and to the flouting of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, equality and non-interference in the internal affairs of states on any pretext whatever. China and Yugoslavia, it was reiterated, share the view that attempts to impose a unipolar global order by interventionism and by stoking separatism and terrorism directly jeopardise world peace, which all free nations and states must resolutely resist. CHINA AND YUGOSLAVIA SHARE VIEWS ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA BEIJING, June 13 (Tanjug) - Only by truly respecting Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and the legitimate interests of all ethnic communities in Kosovo-Metohija and by efficaciously implementing U.N. Resolution 1244 can the necessary conditions for a political settlement be created, a Chinese official said on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao was speaking at a news briefing in connection with shared positions of China and Yugoslavia expressed in talks that Chinese National People's Congress Chairman Li Peng had in Belgrade over the past days. Zhu said that the question of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-administered southern province of Kosovo-Metohija has taught the world at least two lessons. One is that new theories of interference by propagating the thesis that human rights are above sovereignty cannot solve so-called human rights issues, Zhu explained. On the contrary, he added, such theories further complicate the existing problems, including religious and ethnic problems, and are conducive to great disasters. The other lesson is that the fundamental principles of equality, sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of others, as defined in the UN Charter, are not outdated, he went on to say. These principles are still very important, according to Zhu. He said it was to be hoped that US-led NATO would learn its lessons from its last year's aggression on Yugoslavia and never again repeat such operations which run counter to the wishes of the people in the world who work for peace and development. CHINESE MEDIA GIVES EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF MILOSEVIC - LI TALKS BEIJING, June 14 (Tanjug) - The Chinese media on Wednesday continued giving extensive coverage to the visit of parliament president Li Peng to Yugoslavia, especially his talks with President Slobodan Milosevic. The leading Chinese daily Renmin Ribao, which carried a front page photo of the meeting, underscored the two countries' readiness to develop comprehensive cooperation and their identical views on major international issues. The paper said that Milosevic and Li jointly concluded that hegemonism and the policy of force have become the main source of instability and the cause of regional unrest throughout the world. In dealing with such a situation it is of great importance to adhere to the principles of the U.N. Charter, especially "the respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference into internal affairs," Renmin Ribao set out. The most influential Chinese daily quoted Li as saying that China attaches great importance to the development of economic relations and the reconstruction of Yugoslavia. China also wants Yugoslav companies to take part in the development of China. Renmin Ribao underscored Milosevic's view that the promotion of the process of multipolarization would be beneficial to world peace and that China plays an important role in this process and in opposing hegemonism. Milosevic is quoted as saying that the peoples of Yugoslavia and China are good friends who "respect, like and support each other." The China Daily carried on its front page a report on the Milosevic - Li talks titled "Li Denounces Hegemony." According to the paper, the Yugoslav president said that a multipolar world, which contributes to world peace, means that all countries should play a part in world affairs, rather than one power alone. YUGOSLAVIA - LIBYA YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL RECEIVES LIBYAN NATIONAL OIL COMPANY DELEGATION BELGRADE, June 14 (Tanjug) - The president of the Yugoslav committee for cooperation with African countries, Zoran Lilic, who is also Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic special advisor, on Wednesday received a delegation of the Libyan national oil company. The delegation was headed by Mehdi Khalil - the director of the oil company's special medical clinic in Tripoli and Mohamed Alarbe - a member of the board of directors of the national oil company. The Libyan delegation informed Lilic and federal Minister for Labour, Health and Social Policy Dr. Miodrag Kovac about the need for engaging top medical staff in their specialized clinic, especially professors of medical sciences and medical technicians. This would represent only the first stage of cooperation between the two friendly countries in the health sphere. Lilic underscored the need for and importance of the further promotion of overall cooperation between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. This is yet another example confirming the need for cooperation between the two countries in resisting those heads of state who, on the example of Yugoslavia, violated all norms of the international law, including the humanitarian law, by restoring to an open aggression on a sovereign country. Kovac underscored the importance of the agreement on health cooperation between Yugoslavia and Libya, which was signed in Tripoli in April 1999 and then ratified by the federal parliament. The Libyan delegation said that their country, people and leadership fully support the people of Yugoslavia in their struggle against the spread of hegemonism and the creation of a new colonial world system which would serve to boost the development of only a small number of privileged countries, headed by the United States. YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA PRESS CONFERENCE ON ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AGGRESSION MOSCOW, June 13 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister for Development, Science and the Environment Nada Sljapic held a press conference at the Yugoslav embassy in Moscow to extensively inform the Russian and foreign press about the ecological effects of last year's NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Sljapic made a stopover in Moscow on her way to St. Petersburg where she will inform the participants of the International Economic Forum about the content of a report on the state of the environment in Yugoslavia in regions which came under attack by the aggressors. The report is based on technical evaluations by domestic and foreign experts, parallel with a report prepared in the United Nations. Today Sljapic visited the independent International Ecology University in Moscow to discuss future cooperation between Yugoslav and Russian scientific institutions in the sphere of ecology with the president of this institution, Stanislav Stepanov, and his deputy, Ludmila Popova. NATO AGGRESSION - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS NATO AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA WAS A CRIME LONDON, June 13 (Tanjug) - The March - June 1999 NATO aggression on Yugoslavia represented a crime which continues after the end of the bombing through an economic blockade and political sanctions, an international conference in London concluded on Saturday. The conference, organized by the British parliamentary committee for peace in the Balkans, sent a call to all European governments to immediately lift all the sanctions against Yugoslavia and provide direct financial support in the reconstruction of the infrastructure which was destroyed by the NATO aggression. The meeting was held in Convey Hall in London's City before several hundred participants from Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, Greece and Germany. It was opened by the chairwomen of the committee for peace in the Balkans, Labour MP Alice Mann, while the introductory speeches were held by playwright Harold Pinter, Swedish MP Karin Vegestal,who is also a member of the Swedish committee for solidarity with Yugoslavia, journalist Eve Ann Prentis, Yannis Dragasakis from Greece and Misha Gavrilovic, a Serb representing the British - Serb Alliance for Peace. The working title of the conference was "NATO, Yugoslavia and the new world order - one year after the NATO bombing." The gathering underscored all the tragic effects of the aggression for the overall relations in the world. The participants of the conference concluded that following the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, no country in the world is safe because NATO threatens all who dare oppose Washington's wish to dominate the world." NATO RESPONSIBILITY TO BE RE-EXAMINED ATHENS, June 13 (Tanjug) - Greek MPs of the ruling PASOK Panaiotis Kritikos and Stellios Papetemelis have addressed Foreign Minister Iorgos Papandreau, demanding a re-examination of the responsibility of NATO and its member-states in the 1999 aggression on Yugoslavia. This initiative by the two prominent MPs came in reaction to a recent report by Amnesty International and growing numbers of institutions and individuals who are demanding that NATO answer for the crimes committed in Yugoslavia. YUGOSLAVIA - GREECE YUGOSLAV MINISTER MIRKOVIC RECEIVES GREEK AUTHOR KAKOULIDIS BELGRADE, June 13 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister for International Cultural and Scientific Cooperation, Cedomir Mirkovic, received on Tuesday prominent Greek author Georgios Kakoulidis, who organized numerous activities in support of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1999 NATO aggression. Kakoulidis informed Mirkovic about the initiatives for strengthening ties between the peoples and cultures of the two countries and making them permanent, the federal information ministry said in a statement. Mirkovic praised the noble initiative for closer ties between the peoples and cultures of Yugoslavia and Greece and promised federal support to the idea for opening a Greek cultural centre in Belgrade and a Serbian cultural centre in Athens, it was said. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS DIENSTBIER REITERATES CRITICISM OF U.N. MISSION PRAGUE, June 13 (Tanjug) - Special U.N. human rights rapporteur Jiri Dienstbier on Tuesday again criticized the international community and UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner for failing to implement Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo-Metohija. Speaking to the Czech news agency CTK, Dienstbier expressed surprise over Kouchner's severe reaction on Monday in Pristina when the UNMIK chief ordered the Czech diplomat to "shut up" after the latter criticized him. "I criticized those who bombed Yugoslavia and who are now unwilling to fulfil their obligations, to secure funds, and the police and judiciary who would implement Resolution 1244," Dienstbier set out. He underscored, however, that the UNMIK head should logically also be held responsible for the non-fulfilment of Resolution 1244. Upon returning to Geneva following a ten-day visit to Yugoslavia in March, Dienstbier said that the international activities in Kosovo-Metohija were a total fiasco and that representatives of the international organizations, who are fully aware of this, fear conflicts with the members of the so-called KLA. Irritated by such comments, Kouchner said that he "has no intention of ever again meeting" with the U.N. special rapporteur. E.U. COUNCIL CONDEMNS ETHNICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE BRUSSELS, June 14 (Tanjug) - The European Union Council of Ministers held a session in Luxembourg on Tuesday at which it condemned the ongoing ethnically motivated violence in Kosovo and Metohija and urged representatives of all ethnic communities to pledge to counter violence. The E.U. ministers, however, failed to mention that the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province has been practically completely ethnically cleansed of Serbs through ethnic Albanian terrorism. In the conclusions adopted after a debate on the situation in the western Balkans, the E.U. ministers reiterated strong support to the due implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija as the guidelines for activities by the international community. In over a year, however, the U.N. missions KFOR and UNMIK have failed to realize any of the objectives of this resolution. No security has been provided for all citizens of the province, and there is no multi-ethnic structure of the population because of the persecution of non-Albanians. The conclusions indirectly admit that Serbs are unprotected. Strong support is given to efforts by UNMIK and KFOR to take additional measures to ensure the safety of the Serb minority in Kosovo and Metohija and step up the capability of the police and judicial organs to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence. In describing the "well-prepared municipal elections" in the province as important, the E.U. Council is overlooking the fact that any elections at this time would be a farce, when about 350,000 non-Albanians have been expelled from Kosovo and Metohija. Such a move would only serve U.N. High Commissioner Bernard Kouchner to cover up his failures and the disastrous situation in the province. The conclusions made no mention of any possible suspension or lifting of the political or economic sanctions against Yugoslavia and Serbia, on which a number of E.U. countries insist. SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA JANKOVIC: KOUCHNER'S LEGISLATURE IN KOSOVO COLLAPSES BELGRADE, June 14 (Tanjug) - Serbian Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic said in a statement to Tanjug on Wednesday that the legislature organized in Kosovo and Metohija province by international representative Bernard Kouchner is in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 and a complete failure. The situation in courts and prisons is disastrous, Jankovic said. The minister said several hundred Serbs have been detained without clear cases or indictments, most often only through complaints filed by ethnic Albanians, members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). "Trials are not set or their start indefinitely postponed and Serbs justly refuse to take part in the illegal court panels," Jankovic said. The role of visiting foreign judges is more than vague, he said. "These persons themselves do not know whether they will chair a criminal court or be on panels chaired by ethnic Albanian judges," Jankovic specified. The only option in agreement with U.N. Resolution 1244 is that legislative organs, public prosecutors and judges legally elected in the Serbian parliament resume work in Kosovo and Metohija. It is high time that the civilian mission UNMIK make this possible and the implementation of Yugoslav and Serbian laws with respect to anyone committing a crime in Kosovo and Metohija, Jankovic said. KOSOVO-METOHIJA ALBANIAN PAPER REAPPEARS AFTER BAN, DEFIES UNMIK PRISTINA, June 13 (Tanjug) - An ethnic Albanian newspaper in UN-ruled Kosovo-Metohija, banned last week for inciting to murder, reappeared on Tuesday carrying the same text for which it was banned eight days ago. The UN civilian mission (UNMIK) in that Serbian (Yugoslav) province had shut down the newspaper Dita for a week on the grounds that it had provoked the murder of UNMIK translator Petar Topoljski, a Serb. The first libellous text had appeared in April, accusing Topoljski of crimes allegedly committed while he was a member of a militia. Two weeks later, he was found stabbed to death, but the paper was not banned until last week, when it was temporarily shut down on the orders of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner. Editor Blerim Savileqi and publisher Bellull Begaj on Tuesday vowed Dita would not change its editorial policy, would publish alleged crimes and calls for lynching Serbs as well as names of UN officials who "organise prostitution rings and steal relief aid". The paper makes no mention of crimes committed by ethnic Albanians, who have driven 350,000 non-Albanians from the province, murdered or abducted 1,500 Serbs, torched, demolished or plundered 30,000 Serb homes over the past year. KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS CONTINUE ATTACKS ON SERBS ORAHOVAC, June 14 (Tanjug) - Ethnic Albanian terrorists attacked a house in the Serb part of Orahovac at 11.15 p.m. Monday, amateur radio operators reported from Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province on Tuesday. The sources said no casualties had been reported, but that there was considerable damage to the house, which is owned by Budimir Milosavljevic. Troops of the international force KFOR, assisted by ethnic Albanian members of the Kosovo civilian police force, sealed off the entire district after the shelling, further provoking Serbs who had rallied outside Milosavljevic's house. The Serbs maintain the ethnic Albanian policemen had in fact wanted to determine the effect of the shelling and the extent of the damage. The radio operators also said in their report that ethnic Albanian extremists had torched a Romany house in Orahovac on Sunday. The Romany district of Orahovac directly borders with the ethnic Albanian part of this Kosovo town. __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
