BELGRADE, 19 June 2000 C O N T E N T S : YUGOSLAVIA - QATAR -MILOSEVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO QATAR HEAD OF STATE -REPORTERS BESET YUGOSLAV MINISTER JOVANOVIC YUGOSLAVIA - SOUTH AFRICA -DEPUTY YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER ENDS VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA -YUGOSLAV BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS RUSSIA'S SVERDSLOVSK REGION YUGOSLAVIA - ALGERIA -YUGOSLAV NATIONAL DAY AT 33RD INTERNATIONAL FAIR IN ALGERIA FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA -MATIC: TELEVISION BUILDING CANNOT BE MILITARY TARGET -YUGOSLAV MINISTER FOR REFUGEES RECEIVES E.U. HUMANITARIAN BUREAU DELEGATION -PREPARATION OF PROJECT FOR SANATION OF ECOLOGY EFFECTS OF NATO AGGRESSION -ECHO AID TO YUGOSLAV REFUGEES SO FAR AMOUNTS 75 MILLION EURO SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA -KFOR FIND SIX TONS OF ILLEGAL ETHNIC ALBANIAN ARMS IN KOSOVO -SERBS PREVENT ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS FROM ENTERING ENCLAVE KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS -KFOR FORMER COMMANDER REINHARDT CRITICIZES NATO AND KOUCHNER -DIENSTBIER REITERATES CRITICISM OF UNMIK AND KFOR * * * YUGOSLAVIA - QATAR MILOSEVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO QATAR HEAD OF STATE DOHA, June 19 (Tanjug) - The key news item in Qatar on Sunday was that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had sent a message to the head of state of that Gulf country Emir Sheikh Hammad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The message was conveyed by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic in talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Abdal bin Khalifa al-Thani in the Qatar capital of Doha. The message pertains to bilateral relations and cooperation between Yugoslavia and Qatar in international activities. REPORTERS BESET YUGOSLAV MINISTER JOVANOVIC DOHA, June 19 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic leaves for Jordan on Monday after an official visit to Qatar, confirming yet again Yugoslavia's good relations with Arab countries. In addition to meetings and talks with Foreign Minister Ahmad bin Abdul al-Mahmoud and the ministers of finance and power, Jovanovic was received on Sunday also by Prime Minister Sheikh Abdal bin Khalifa al-Thani. In all the meetings, Jovanovic was welcomed as an envoy of a friendly country with which there is accord on the stand that the development of international relations must be based on the equality of all states, regardless of their size and power, and opposition to sanctions which cause much bigger problems than the ones for which they are allegedly imposed. Qatar reporters were very interested in Minister Jovanovic's visit. They wished to hear first-hand about key Yugoslav stands, both on international relations and on the situation in Yugoslavia and Kosovo and Metohija province. Minister Jovanovic gave statements and interviews to the paper Al Raja, a private Qatar TV station which is received in all Arab countries, he spoke for over 20 minutes live on a Qatar radio station, and he is scheduled to give several more interviews on Monday. The visit by the Yugoslav delegation, the first since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries in 1989, was given large publicity in Qatar media. YUGOSLAVIA - SOUTH AFRICA DEPUTY YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER ENDS VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA PRETORIA, June 19 (Tanjug) - Deputy Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zoran Novakovic on Monday concluded a three-day visit to South Africa which took place at the invitation of Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign minister of this most developed African country. During long and friendly talks with his host, Novakovic conveyed a message from Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic to South African Foreign Minister Nkozana Zumo. There was an exhaustive exchange of views on current international relations, the nature of globalization and a unipolar world. The sides agreed it was necessary to work together on preserving and reaffirming the Charter and the original principles of the United Nations, and that Yugoslavia should again become active in the Non-Aligned Movement. The South African side carefully and respectfully received a report on the failure of the United Nations mission in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, the abuse of the mission by its head Bernard Kouchner, and the Yugoslav government's strong demand to the U.N. Security Council to secure full implementation of Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija. During the meeting, the sides agreed on a protocol on cooperation between the two foreign ministries and the imminent concluding of a series of inter-state agreements aimed at promoting cooperation. Novakovic also held talks with representatives of the South African Chamber of Commerce on possibilities for promoting economic and banking-financial cooperation. Interest was expressed in the concrete engagement of South African potentials in projects concerning Yugoslavia's renewal. Novakovic was received on Saturday also by Prime Minister Ezop Pahad. They discussed issues in connection with the development of bilateral cooperation and cooperation in international relations which is of mutual interest, especially within the Non-Aligned Movement. YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA YUGOSLAV BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS RUSSIA'S SVERDSLOVSK REGION EKATERINBURG, Russia, June 19 (Tanjug) - A delegation of Yugoslav businessmen, headed by Chamber of Commerce President Mihajlo Milojevic, is on Monday visiting Russia's Sverdlovsk region. The delegation comprises representatives of the biggest companies in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, such as the Mechanical Engineering Works of Nis, Sever of Subotica and Zastava of Kragujevac. Russia's industrialised Sverdlovsk region has the highest rating with foreign investors and creditors. After talks at the Urals Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which were attended by local government officials, the Yugoslav businessmen had contacts with numerous local company executives. Urals Chamber President Yury Matushkin said the region, which comprises seven provinces, has a great interest in expanding and diversifying cooperation with Yugoslavia, and hoped these contacts would be conducive to its development. The reputation of Yugoslav manufacturers who export to this market is a good basis for increasing trade, as well as other forms of cooperation, he said. YUGOSLAVIA - ALGERIA YUGOSLAV NATIONAL DAY AT 33RD INTERNATIONAL FAIR IN ALGERIA ALGIERS, June 19 (Tanjug) - During the Yugoslav day at the Yugoslav pavilion at the 33rd international fair in Algiers Yugoslav businessmen met with numerous Algerian counterparts, political and public figures. Also present were the representatives of the diplomatic corps, including the ambassadors of Russia, Ukraine, Brasil, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. The charges d'affaires at the Yugoslav embassy, Jovan Dasic, said that despite the almost three-month bombing during last year's NATO aggression and the ten-year economic sanctions, Yugoslav companies have managed to resume their participation at the International Fair in Algiers and stage a return to this north African market. This proves that Yugoslavia has opted for the development of comprehensive economic cooperation with the world, especially its traditional partners, including Algeria, Dasic stated. Yugoslav economists pointed out their readiness to establish partnership relations with firms in Algeria. Thus, the chemical industry Hemofarm of Vrsac contracted a joint venture agreement and the construction of a plant for the manufacture of drugs with a partner in the city of Constantine. FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA MATIC: TELEVISION BUILDING CANNOT BE MILITARY TARGET BELGRADE, June 19 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav information minister Goran Matic on Monday asked the Yugoslav Red Cross to interpret, in keeping with the Convention of the International Red Cross, whether the building of the radio and television can represent a legitimate military target. In a letter to Yugoslav Red Cross President Radovan Mijanovic, Matic demanded that this humanitarian organization presents its view about the decision of the main prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, and the tribunal's committee, both of which claim that the building of the Serbian Radio and Television (RTS) in Belgrade, which was bombed on April 23, 1999 during the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, was a "legitimate military target. The building sustained a direct hit which killed 16 staff. Matic recalled that the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia published a report on the basis of which Del Ponte decided not to open an investigation against NATO for the killing of civilians during last year's aggression on Yugoslavia. On the basis of this report, the tribunal committee concluded that the RTS building was a legitimate military target in keeping with the 1956 Convention of the International Red Cross, although in the case of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, NATO's explanation that in question was a mistake, was accepted. "Since the International Red Cross convention is being cited, we would appreciate your opinion on this," Matic said. YUGOSLAV MINISTER FOR REFUGEES RECEIVES E.U. HUMANITARIAN BUREAU DELEGATION BELGRADE, June 19 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister for Refugees, Displaced Persons and Humanitarian Aid, Bratislava Morina, has received a delegation of the European Union's Humanitarian Bureau, headed by regional controller for the Balkans Esko Ketrashinsky, the federal Information Ministry has said. Morian informed the E.U. delegation about the extremely serious situation of the refugees and displaced persons, underscoring that humanitarian problems must urgently be resolved. She called on the E.U. to lift its economic and political sanctions against Yugoslavia, adding that this country is currently providing for over one million refugees and displaced persons from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia's southern Kosovo-Metohija province. Morina praised the Humanitarian Bureau's programs so far for refugees and displaced persons, especially the collective centres and numerous social institutions. She, however, expressed hope, that more efforts would be made to create conditions for the safe return of the refugees to their homes. Ketrashinsky said that the Humanitarian Bureau is determined to continue the initiated activities and speed up the realization of providing aid to the refugees in Yugoslavia. He added that since June 1999, 75 million Euro have been invested in humanitarian programs in Yugoslavia and that the European Commission would approve an additional 32 million Euro to Yugoslavia. PREPARATION OF PROJECT FOR SANATION OF ECOLOGY EFFECTS OF NATO AGGRESSION BELGRADE, June 19 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Ministry for Development, Science and the Environment is preparing 27 projects for the sanation of the damage to the ecology carried out during the March - June 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the cities of Novi Sad, Pancevo, Kragujevac, Bor and their surroundings, a press conference was told on Monday. Medium-term projects for removing the effects of the razing of the national parks on the mountains Fruska Gora (in the north) and Kopaonik (in the south) are worth about 20 million dollars which experts hope to secure with the help of the international community. In Fruska Gora there are more than 100 big missile craters, while Kopaonik was hit 21 times with 72 missiles and ten containers of cluster bombs. Many of the latter failed to explode and are now pose a huge threat. ECHO AID TO YUGOSLAV REFUGEES SO FAR AMOUNTS 75 MILLION EURO BELGRADE, June 19 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Red Cross General Secretary Rade Dubajic received on Monday the representatives of the ECHO humanitarian organization which has so far sent 75 million Euro in aid, via the Yugoslav Red Cross, to 800,000 refugees and displaced persons in Yugoslavia. ECHO representatives announced that this year's program has stepped up aid by 30 million Euro. During the talks cooperation so far between the Yugoslav Red Cross and ECHO was highly praised. Dubajic underscored that aid to the population of Kosovo-Metohija is insufficient and unequally distributed in regions populated by Serbs and other non-Albanians. ECHO representatives expressed understanding for the complex humanitarian situation pledging to do everything in their power to ensure that aid reaches all who need it in the territory of Yugoslavia, a statement said. SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA KFOR FIND SIX TONS OF ILLEGAL ETHNIC ALBANIAN ARMS IN KOSOVO KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, June 19 (Tanjug) - The international security force KFOR in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province will on Monday destroy weaponry discovered and seized over the past three days in a search of the former stronghold of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the area of Drenica in central Kosovo and Metohija. KFOR said about 500 troops took part in the search and that the weapons and ammunition were found in four bunkers near Klecka village, two being in close proximity to the summer headquarters of KLA former commander Agim Cheku, now the commander of the so-called Kosovo Protection Corps. More than six tons of illegal arms, including 30-50 pieces of automatic weaponry, 100 boxes of ammunition, 10 mortars and 10 hand grenade launchers have been seized, KFOR said. The weaponry was transferred to a KFOR base and will be destroyed this morning. KFOR also found specific documents and a military training ground in the area of Drenica. A KFOR member said the ground seemed to have been recently used. No details were given about these findings. A KFOR English contingent spokesman said Drenica had been the central headquarters of the former KLA and that it would be surprising if its leaders, current members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, did not know anything about these weapons. SERBS PREVENT ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS FROM ENTERING ENCLAVE STRPCE, June 19 (Tanjug) - A group of ethnic Albanian terrorists tried to enter the area of the biggest Serb enclave in southern Kosovo and Metohija - Strpce, on Sunday, but local Serbs decisively prevented this. The Strpce Committee for Protection and Human Rights said on Monday that Serbs had set up barricades which prevented the ethnic Albanians from entering the village. A skirmish broke out, one automobile was demolished and the passengers turned back on foot. U.S. and Polish members of the KFOR did not intervene in this incident which lasted several hours. In a talk with the local administrator of the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK for Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, Serbs said they had recently allowed 60 ethnic Albanians to enter the neighbouring village of Vica. They had claimed to be former inhabitants of the village, but were now maltreating Serb families. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS KFOR FORMER COMMANDER REINHARDT CRITICIZES NATO AND KOUCHNER BERLIN, June 19 (Tanjug) - Former commander of the international force KFOR in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, German General Klaus Reinhardt sharply criticized NATO and U.N. Kosovo mission chief Bernard Kouchner at a closed meeting in Brussels last week, the Berlin daily Die Welt said on Monday. Gen. Reinhardt was in command of KFOR from October 1999 until April 2000, when he was replaced by Spanish General Juan Ortuno within a regular rotation. The vanity and wilfulness of certain NATO members is mostly to blame for the failure to resolve numerous practical problems in Kosovo and Metohija, Gen. Reinhardt was quoted as saying. He said many of his requests had been lost in the red tape in Brussels. Gen. Reinhardt said he had succeeded only after four months of difficult negotiations to persuade certain countries to give at least approval in principle to send additional troops to the big crisis spot of Kosovska Mitrovica. The general also criticized the extremely unsuccessful head of the civilian mission UNMIK. He said Kouchner had been insufficiently active on the transformation of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) into the so-called Kosovo Peace Corps. Die Welt said that KFOR had discovered tons of weaponry in Drenica last weekend, which belonged to the KLA. This discovery indicates that the officially disbanded KLA had never surrendered all its weapons, the daily said. DIENSTBIER REITERATES CRITICISM OF UNMIK AND KFOR PRAGUE, June 19 (Tanjug) - Special U.N. human rights rapporteur for the former Yugoslavia, Jiri Dienstbier, reiterated on Czech television his criticism of the work of UNMIK and KFOR in Kosovo-Metohija, and of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner. Asked why Kouchner had rudely told him to shut up, Dienstbier said Kouchner had probably been upset especially since he had been criticized at a recent U.N. Security Council session. "Kouchner is in fact criticizing himself and in this he is right," Dienstbier set out. He confirmed that he continues to believe that "UNMIK and KFOR have been incapable of carrying out a single realistic goal in Kosovo-Metohija." "Although a year has passed since the start of the mission in Kosovo-Metohija, there is still not enough money, police, judges nor other staff who could contribute to the realization of Security Council Resolution 1244," Dienstbier stated. He underscored that the international community is responsible for the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo-Metohija because it has failed to oppose this adequately. Dienstbier calmly pointed out that in Kosovo-Metohija there is no understandable (and well-founded) hatered by the ethnic Albanians who are avenging themselves upon the Serbs for the previous state of affairs, rather in question are "well-planned and organized actions." __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
