BELGRADE,20 June 2000 C O N T E N T S : FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - SERBIAN PRESIDENT: FREEDOM AND COUNTRY HAVE NO PRICE - SIGNIFICANT RISE IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IN SERBIA YUGOSLAVIA - JORDAN - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH JORDANIAN COUNTERPART YUGOSLAVIA - UN - SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER RECEIVES DIENSTBIER KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS - ORTHODOX INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SUPPORTS YUGOSLAVIA SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - Z.ANDJELKOVIC - KFOR SHOULD LEAVE KOSOVO-METOHIJA - SERB CAFE TORCHED IN KOSOVSKA KAMENICA - CENSUS IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA FAILS * * * FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA SERBIAN PRESIDENT: FREEDOM AND COUNTRY HAVE NO PRICE BELGRADE, June 20 (Tanjug) - The Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia (PSJ) presented Serbian President Milan Milutinovic with its highest award at a ceremony at the Yugoslav Army Club in Belgrade on Tuesday. The Grand Charter for Exceptional Creative and Patriotic Acts was presented by PSJ President Ilija Vukovic. Milutinovic said it was a great honer to receive this award hand in hand with the brave members of the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Interior Ministry. "We have always, and will continue to view freedom as the essence of our national being. We have learned that only when we are free, in our own country and home, can we develop, create, be successful in all spheres, live a better and more humane life and rule our own future and life," Milutinovic stated. He underscored that we are facing much hard work in the further development of Serbia and that the results achieved so far testify to the existence of manpower and knowhow and that the Serbs are a capable and brave nation which is not afraid of challenges and big endevours. "We will need patriotism and unity in the coming period because only this will enable us to continue our development and advancement," Milutinovic pointed out. PSJ also presented its highest award to the envoy of the Yugoslav Army's Chief of General Staff - General Milan Simic, who is also the head of the Morale Department, and to the representative of the Serbian police - Colonel Miroslav Mijajlovic. Vukovic said that "our first and foremost task is our country and the unity of all patriotic forces and in this respect we express our support to the state leadership headed by the biggest patriot and hero Slobodan Milosevic." SIGNIFICANT RISE IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IN SERBIA BELGRADE, June 20 (Tanjug) - The current political situation in Serbia was discussed at an extended session of the Serbian government's central coordination team for economic revival which includes both ministers and a number of directors of major companies, the Information Ministry has said. The session, chaired by Vice Premier Dragan Tomic, concluded that in the first five months this year industrial production was 16.3 percent up on the same period last year, which indicates that it is realistic to expect the realization and even exceeding of the projected 15-percent growth rate for the entire 2000. The exceptionally dynamic production hike in the second half of this year will especially contribute to the realization of the program of the overall reconstruction of the country and enable the planned construction of 10,000 apartments. This will boost the engagement of the civil engineers and the industry of building materials. According to Tomic, the Serbian government is preparing a package of measures which will ease the problems of the agriculture resulting from the severe drought and also improve the price motivation of the farmers along with protecting the living standards of the population. YUGOSLAVIA - JORDAN YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH JORDANIAN COUNTERPART AMMAN, June 20 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia and Jordan have identical views on the role of the United Nations and believe that the principles of the U.N. Charter are a legitimate basis for relations which should exist among countries, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and his counterpart from Jordan, Shakhir Al Beek, said on Monday. Jovanovic and Al Beek met in Amman directly after the arrival of the Yugoslav delegation from an official visit to Qatar. Jordan is opposed to sanctions and urges their lifting because of its firsthand experience of sanctions imposed against neighbouring Iraq, the Jordanian diplomats said. Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba came under a seven-year blockade after Amman refused to respect the sanctions against Baghdad. The Jovanovic - Al Beek talks, which were attended by top Jordanian Foreign Ministry officials, underscored that claims about an alleged conflict between the orthodox and islamic faiths is a huge deception launched by those who want to rule the world and, by spreading mistrust, divisions and conflicts, are trying to control the sources of energy, strategic raw materials and markets. Jovanovic informed his hosts about the failure of the international security presence in Serbia's southern Kosovo-Metohija province, about the facts on the violence of the ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists and the persecution of the Serbs and other non-Albanians of the province carried out in the presence of KFOR and UNMIK. Jovanovic also spoke about the process of reconstruction and modernization of the Yugoslav infrastructure and economy following the NATO aggression. Both sides underscored a wish to promote bilateral relations and cooperation. YUGOSLAVIA - UN SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER RECEIVES DIENSTBIER BELGRADE, June 20 (Tanjug) - Serbian Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic received on Tuesday special U.N. human rights rapporteur for the former Yugoslavia Jiri Dienstbier and Belgrade office chief Barbara Davies, the Justice Ministry has said. During the detailed talks, Dienstbier expressed concern over the situation in Kosovo-Metohija underscoring the problems of prisoners who have spent months in jail in expectance of the start of their trials. Attempts to engage judges from abroad have failed. The U.N. representatives reiterated their interest in the status of ethnic Albanian prisoners in Serbian prisons and in certain court proceedings before Serbian courts. Dienstbier was also interested in the upcoming law on terrorism. Jankovic underscored the passive stand of the international community and its organs in locating the missing and kidnapped Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija and the need for stepping up activities in this sphere. He set out that the NATO aggression in Yugoslavia continues through terrorist acts and attempts to cause unrest and mistrust in the current authorities. Jankovic pointed out that all ethnic Albanian prisoners in jails in Serbia are safe and are treated according to the existing laws. He added that all trials are concluded in keeping with the facts. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the Serbs held in "Kouchner's" illegally set up prisons in Kosovo-Metohija," the minister stated pointing out that the fate of these people remains uncertain. Once again confirmed was the successful cooperation between the Serbian Justice Ministry and the U.N. human rights office in Yugoslavia, a statement said. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS ORTHODOX INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SUPPORTS YUGOSLAVIA TEL AVIV, June 20 (Tanjug) - The European Orthodox Interparliamentary Assembly (EIPS) adopted at a session in Jerusalem on Monday a resolution on Yugoslavia submitted by the delegation of the Yugoslav parliament, which is an active participant. The document clearly condemns the gross violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo-Metohija and fully supports the Yugoslav leadership, said Yugoslav delegation head Milutin Stojkovic who is also a member of the EISP International Secretariat. According to Stojkovic, the document strongly denounces the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo-Metohija, the expulsion of over 360,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians from this Serbian province and the simultaneous illegal arrival of 250,000 Albanian nationals. The resolution also calls on all countries, especially the orthodox ones, to help Yugoslavia speedily remove the effects of last year's NATO aggression, and on all who attacked this country to pay compensation for the damages inflicted. The Albanian delegation strongly opposed the adopted of this document claiming that in Kosovo-Metohija "NATO was the liberator, rather than the aggressor." Delegations from Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania abstained from voting. The session was attended by the representatives of 18 countries out of the total of 20 EIPS members. SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA Z.ANDJELKOVIC - KFOR SHOULD LEAVE KOSOVO-METOHIJA MT. JASTREBAC, June 20 (Tanjug) - A year after the arrival of some 50,000 U.N. troops to Kosovo-Metohija, the situation in Serbia's southern province has never been worse, the president of the Kosovo-Metohija Executive Council, Zoran Andjelkovic, said on Monday evening. In talks with a delegation of the Chinese Association of Journalists held in a resort on Mt. Jastrebac, central Serbia, Andjelkovic, who is also Serbian Minister for Sports and Youth, said that following the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo-Metohija (June 10, 1999), 360,000 non-Albanians have arrived there, 1,100 people have been killed, over 1,000 listed as missing and more than 50,000 houses destroyed. Underscoring that not a single provision of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo-Metohija has been implemented, Andjelkovic stated that instead of creating a multiethnic society in the province, the ethnic cleansing of Serbs is currently being conducted. "Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity are being disputed by allowing easy access to Kosovo-Metohija to criminals, drug dealers and all participants of violence and killings," Andjelkovic set out. According to him, the leaderships of Serbia and Yugoslavia assessed that the United Nations organization has not fulfilled its goals in Kosovo-Metohija and has jeopardized its own legality and integrity. "The mission should withdraw from Kosovo-Metohija and allow the Serb security forces to return there and establish peace and order," Andjelkovic said. Underscoring that the developments in and around Kosovo-Metohija are carefully monitored in China, the head of the delegation of Chinese journalists, Zhang Desyu, pointed out that the situation in the province proves that the problem of national minorities can only deteriorate with the interference of foreign powers. The application of war and force can only result in fatal consequences and threaten peace, security and lives because problems between members of different communities can be resolved solely through peaceful means, Zhang stated. SERB CAFE TORCHED IN KOSOVSKA KAMENICA KOSOVSKA KAMENICA, June 20 (Tanjug) - A Serb cafe, located close to a KFOR checkpoint in the centre of the town of Kosovska Kamenica, has been torched, the local human rights committee said on Tuesday. All 50 square metres of the prefabricated facility burned to the ground along with everything inside. So far the arsonists remain unknown. Members of the Russian KFOR contingent have twice before put out fires in this cafe, but this time the flames, spurred on by some spilt gasoline, were faster. After the fire, an anonymous telephone call to the owner's father, Srboljub Todorovic, also threatened to burn down his family house, located in central Kosovska Kamenica. Last week, an ethnic Albanian who had rented the cafe over the past five months, cancelled his contract. CENSUS IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA FAILS KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, June 20 (Tanjug) - The census, conducted in Kosovo-Metohija over the past few months by the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has failed, OSCE spokesman Hans Christian Klassing said on Tuesday. Klassing told a press conference in the southern (ethnic Albanian) part of the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica that the results of the census in north Kosovo-Metohija are unsatisfactory with devastating results. According to him, a total of 88,000 people from six districts in north Kosovo-Metohija participated in the census. Of this figure only 100 are Serbs and none Romanies. In the region of the entire province, 460,000 people have responded to the UNMIK census, thus proving that even the ethnic Albanians have failed to take seriously UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner's administration. __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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