>BELGRADE, 4 September 2000 C O N T E N T S : FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF >YUGOSLAVIA - YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES GREEK AMBASSADOR - YUGOSLAV >MINISTER MEETS WITH SLAVICIST CONVENTION DELEGATES - MINISTER IVKOVIC: >YUGOSLAVIA HAS GREAT INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL > >YUGOSLAVIA - VENEZUELA - YUGOSLAV BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS VENEZUELA >YUGOSLAVIA - KAZAKHSTAN - > >YUGOSLAV AMBASSADOR TO KAZAKHSTAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS > >YUGOSLAVIA - JAPAN - YUGOSLAVIA AND JAPAN HOLD JOINT WORKSHOP ON COMPUTER >SIMULATION SCIENCE > >YUGOSLAVIA - GERMANY - YUGOSLAV CONSUL LAYS WREATH ON MEMORIAL TO NAZI VICTIMS > >YUGOSLAVIA - RED-CROSS - ICRC CONDEMNS NATO AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA > >EU - MINISTERIAL - MEETING - E.U. MINISTERS END INFORMAL MEETING IN FRANCE >SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - > >FIFTEEN SERBS BREAK OUT OF PRISON IN U.N.-RUN KOSOVO-METOHIJA - U.N.-SEIZED >TREPCA WORKERS CONTINUE PROTESTS - U.N. KOSOVO-METOHIJA POLICE TRACKING SERB >PRISON ESCAPEES WITH DOGS FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS - NATO RAIDS ON YUGOSLAVIA >WERE GRAVE STRATEGIC ERROR - CHINESE PRESS - WAR CRIMES COURT INVESTIGATES >KOSOVO-METOHIJA ALBANIAN KLA - YUGOSLAV DIPLOMACY RUNS WESTERN BLOCKADE - >CHINESE PAPER > >* * * FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES >GREEK AMBASSADOR BELGRADE, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir >Bulatovic received on Monday the outgoing Greek Ambassador to Yugoslavia >Panayotis Vlassopoulos, a Yugoslav government statement said. They noted that >Yugoslavia and Greece play an important part in the development of relations >in south-east Europe, and that they should concentrate on improving economic >ties and overall cooperation in this part of Europe. > >YUGOSLAV MINISTER MEETS WITH SLAVICIST CONVENTION DELEGATES BELGRADE, Sept 3 >(Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's foreign minister has met with delegates to a >convention on Slavic languages visiting the medieval Kalenic Monastery near >the central Serbian (Yugoslav) town of Jagodina, a statement said. Zivadin >Jovanovic expressed pleasure that the hundred or so students of and >researchers in the Serbian language and culture from 23 countries visited >Kalenic Monastery at the time of an annual festival of folk art, according to >the statement. During the meeting it was noted that interest in the Serbian >language, history and culture has been growing in the world, especially in the >past two years. About 11,000 young people in the world study the Serbian >language at universities in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Japan, Italy, South >Korea, France, Lithuania and other countries. The Serbian language department >at the Sorbonne in Paris has 100 students, 200 University of Seoul students >read Serbian, while Great Britain, Germany and Poland, for instance, are >responding to growing demand by opening new departments. > >MINISTER IVKOVIC: YUGOSLAVIA HAS GREAT INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL SMEDEREVO, Sept >3 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia have great intellectual >potential which is increasingly putting itself in the service of social >development, according to a Serbian minister on Sunday. Speaking in Smederevo, >southeast of Belgrade on the River Danube, Minister of science and technology >Branislav Ivkovic stressed the importance of the government's project for the >development of small and medium-sized companies as a way of restructuring the >economy. Touring the Sartid Metal Works Institute of Metallurgy, Ivkovic said >the Serbian government was supporting those manufacturers that offer >substitutes for imported raw materials, equipment and know- how, and those >where high finish makes their goods more marketable. "More than one thousand >programmes of this kind have been approved, conditions have been created for >employing 33,000 workers, with a planned investment of more than two billion >dinars (one U.S. dollar - 43 dinars) from the Serbian Development Fund", he >said. He stressed the employment would be genuinely market-geared, not a >cosmetic move. > >YUGOSLAVIA - VENEZUELA YUGOSLAV BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS VENEZUELA CARACAS, >Sept 3 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's business delegation is continuing intensive >contacts with competent officials of state institutions and private companies >in Venezuela. The delegation, headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Zoran >Jeremic and Belgrade Chamber of Commerce President Branislav Vujinovic, is >having talks in the sectors of industry, agricultural machinery, industrial >farms, construction, etc. On Saturday, the delegation had separate talks on >concrete forms of cooperation with the governors of the states of Bolivar and >Merida. The Yugoslav businessmen had contacts and talks at the National >Association of Agricultural Producers, the Federation of Associations and >Chambers of Commerce and Production, as well as individual bilateral meetings. >This was followed by an exhaustive discussion with deputy ministers of >agriculture, industry and trade, in which both sides recognised favourable >scope for developing cooperation in all areas. They agreed about a need to set >up a joint committee on economic cooperation. > >YUGOSLAVIA - KAZAKHSTAN YUGOSLAV AMBASSADOR TO KAZAKHSTAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS >MOSCOW, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's first non-resident ambassador to >Kazakhstan Borislav Milosevic presented credentials to Secretary of State Abis >Kekilbayev in the capital Astana on Monday. Kekilbayev has been authorised by >President Nursultan Nazarbayev to accept credentials. Milosevic conveyed >greetings and best wishes for the welfare of Kazakhstan from Yugoslav >President Slobodan Milosevic to President Nazarbayev. Kekilbayev expressed the >friendly sentiments entertained by the leadership and people of Kazakhstan >towards Yugoslavia, and wished Yugoslavia peace and prosperity. > >YUGOSLAVIA - JAPAN YUGOSLAVIA AND JAPAN HOLD JOINT WORKSHOP ON COMPUTER >SIMULATION SCIENCE BELGRADE, Sept 3 (Tanjug) - The First Yugoslavia-Japan >Joint Workshop on Computer Simulation Science has ended in Belgrade, the >Belgrade University Chancellor's Office said on Sunday. The two-day Workshop, >organised by the Belgrade University Science and Technological Development >Centre, was opened by Chancellor Jagos Puric. It was attended by Japanese >Ambassador in Belgrade Noriaki Owada, the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's >Minister of Science and Technology Branislav Ivkovic, representatives of the >Yugoslav ministry of telecommunications, Serbian PTT Company, etc. Six >Japanese and 12 Yugoslav lecturers read papers. On the Japanese side, the >gathering was addressed by Tetsuya Sato, director of the National Fusion >Science Institute's Computer Simulation Science Centre, and NEC Inc. President >Tadashi Watanabe. Among the speakers on the Yugoslav side were Bozidar Stanic >of the Belgrade University School of Electrical Engineering, Milos Skoric of >the Vinca Nuclear Science Institute, and Zoran Petrovic of the Belgrade >Institute of Physics. The Japanese guests described the Workshop as highly >successful and important to the development of this field in both Yugoslavia >and Japan. It has been agreed that the next Workshop be held in Japan in 2001. > > >YUGOSLAVIA - GERMANY YUGOSLAV CONSUL LAYS WREATH ON MEMORIAL TO NAZI VICTIMS >DUESSELDORF, Germany, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's consul general in >Duesseldorf, Germany, Vlado Nadazdin, has laid a wreath at a memorial to Nazi >victims, on the occasion of an anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. >The memorial at the Stalag 365 labour camp at Stickenbrock near Bielefeld >honours the labourers and prisoners, among whom numerous Serbs - members of >the National Liberation Army and the resistance movement and other >anti-fascists - murdered by Nazis during the war. An anti-war proclamation was >read out at the ceremony, condemning last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia >and the involvement of Germany in another anti-Yugoslav war. Noting that >Germany's involvement in the NATO aggression transgressed against the >country's constitution, the proclamation demanded the lifting of unjust >sanctions against Yugoslavia, indemnity for war damage and help in rebuilding >the country. > >YUGOSLAVIA - RED-CROSS ICRC CONDEMNS NATO AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA GENEVA, >Sept 4 (Tanjug) - After the international organization Human Rights Watch in >New York recently condemned last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, the >International Committee Red Cross (ICRC) has strongly criticized western >alliance. The ICRC urged the international community to ban the use of cluster >bombs after last year's aggression on Yugoslavia. The ICRC statement appealing >for a ban on cluster bombs has not been announced yet, but it has been >distributed to diplomatic missions accredited to the U.N. in Geneva. According >to an unofficial statement, the ICRC acted with discretion in an attempt to >avoid fresh criticism against Great Britain and the U.S. whose airforces >dropped these bombs in the U.N.-run Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija. The >statement warns that a great number of cluster bombs that were dropped in >Yugoslavia during the aggression have not exploded, and they are a constant >danger for the people in that Serbian province, specifically for children. A >cluster bomb contains 2,000 explosive charges, small bombs or schrapnels, even >incendiary shells. The U.S. had used such bombs in Vietnam and Britain in the >Falklands, and they were also used in the Gulf war in 1991, but this is the >first time that the ICRC has appealed for a ban. The statement stresses that >NATO planes had dropped around 290,000 cluster bombs in Kosovo-Metohija, of >which more than 10 percent have not exploded. Some of them fell up to a >kilometre away from the intended targets. The Human Rights Watch accused NATO >of killing around 500 people in Kosovo-Metohija. > >EU - MINISTERIAL - MEETING E.U. MINISTERS END INFORMAL MEETING IN FRANCE >BRUSSELS, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - European Union states' foreign ministers ended >their informal two-day meeting in Evian, France, on Sunday with a principled >debate on sanctions unlawfully clamped on Yugoslavia over the Kosovo-Metohija >situation. Despite efforts by a number of E.U. members, however, the Union did >not adopt a recommendation for their further easing or complete lifting. >According to many, there is no justification for further keeping the sanctions >in place. Before the Evian meeting, several E.U. officials had urged for >recommending that some of the sanctions be lifted, primarily the oil import >ban, but the motion was opposed by Great Britain, which advocates the United >States' positions in the Union. Top-ranking officials of the Council of Europe >in Strasbourg have recently urged for lifting part of the sanctions. The call >was echoed by the Austrian government's official and, according to media in >Brussels, a statement at Evian by German Foreign Minister Joseph Fischer, too, >tended in the same general direction. > >SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA FIFTEEN SERBS BREAK OUT OF PRISON IN >U.N.-RUN KOSOVO-METOHIJA KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Sept 3 (Tanjug) - Fifteen Serbs >broke out of prison in the U.N.-run town of Kosovska Mitrovica in the Yugoslav >republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province on Saturday, where they had long >been held without a charge or a trial. According to a U.N. mission (UNMIK) >spokesman, two of the escapees were quickly recaptured, and the international >force Kfor was scouring the area for the others. The spokesman said one of the >prisoners had been allowed to use the phone at around 9 p.m. On his return to >the cell, other prisoners in the cell attacked his guard, took away his keys, >slightly wounding him in the process, and set the others free. > >U.N.-SEIZED TREPCA WORKERS CONTINUE PROTESTS ZVECAN, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - Workers >held their daily peaceful rally outside the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan, >U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija, on Monday, protesting the seizure of the plant by >the international force KFor on Aug. 14. The protesters were addressed by one >of the executives, Svetislav Pavlovic, who stressed that Trepca was occupied >not out of concern for the people's health, but out of a desire of the >international force to expell Serbs from that Serbian (Yugoslav) province. >Pavlovic said the management and trade unions would meeting in Bujanovac on >Tuesday over the newly-created situation, and that a share-holders' meeting >had been called for Sept. 8. > >U.N. KOSOVO-METOHIJA POLICE TRACKING SERB PRISON ESCAPEES WITH DOGS KOSOVSKA >MITROVICA, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - U.N. police are using hounds to track down Serbs >who escaped from a U.N.-run prison in the north of ethnically divided Kosovska >Mitrovica late on Saturday, according to international mission sources. The >U.N. police confirmed on Sunday that 15 Serb detainees, held for more than a >year without a charge, had escaped from prison. Most of the escapees had been >falsely denounced by ethnic Albanians and arrested for alleged war crimes. >U.N. Kosovo-Metohija mission (UNMIK) chief Bernard Kouchner has pleaded >difficulties in setting up a functional justice system in the U.N.-run Serbian >(Yugoslav) province of Kosovo-Metohija as a reason for the delay in the >trials. The truth is that Kouchner, acting contrary to U.N. Resolution 1244, >has destroyed the legal system that had operated in the province before the >deployment of UNMIK and the international force KFor in June 1999. He has >allowed its remnants, administered solely by ethnic Albanians, to survive and >operate with a strong bias in favour of the terrorists and separatists. >According to UNMIK's statement, two of the Serb escapees were recaptured later >on Saturday night. No word was immediately available about the remaining >runaways. U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel described the prison breakout as a >serious incident threatening the reputation of the U.N. mission to >Kosovo-Metohija and the peacekeepers. It was not clear what reputation Manuel >seeks to protect, when one knows that ethnic Albanian terrorists have driven >some 350,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Muslims, Romanies, ethnic Turks and other >non- Albanians from the province since the deployment of Kfor and UNMIK. >During KFor's and UNMIK's tenure, the terrorists have perpetrated nearly 5,000 >terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,000 people were murdered and 1,000 >others disappeared. > >FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS NATO RAIDS ON YUGOSLAVIA WERE GRAVE STRATEGIC ERROR - >CHINESE PRESS BEIJING, Sept 4 (Tanjug) - Last year's NATO aggression on >Yugoslavia was a grave strategic mistake, according to a Chinese authority on >international relations on Monday. The prominent China Daily newspaper quotes >the analyst, Sa BenWang, as saying that, despite external and internal >pressure, Yugoslavia resisted NATO's airstrikes and economic sanctions and is >rebuilding under President Slobodan Milosevic's leadership. Analyzing the >unjustified and misguided NATO aggression, Sa said that U.S. President Bill >Clinton's claims of a NATO triumph against Yugoslavia are unacceptable and >that the facts show the western military alliance scored no victory against >Yugoslavia. A growing number of western analysts believe that NATO's >aggression on Yugoslavia was an irreparable error of strategy, according to >the Chinese expert. The crisis in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's >U.N.-administered Kosovo-Metohija province shows that the United States' >striving after hegemony is a waste of time, the author said. > >WAR CRIMES COURT INVESTIGATES KOSOVO-METOHIJA ALBANIAN KLA LONDON, Sept 4 >(Tanjug) - For the first time since it was set up, the international war >crimes court for former Yugoslavia has opened an inquiry into the ethnic >Albanian terrorist and separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for anti-Serb >crimes in Kosovo-Metohija. According to the Sunday Times of London, the >investigation might radically change the world's view of the conflict in the >Serbian (Yugoslav) Kosovo-Metohija province in which ethnic Albanians have >been regarded as innocent victims of Serbian repression. It might eventually >turn out that the accusing finger should point at senior KLA officials, after >which it would be a problem to persuade NATO countries to arrest them, the >Sunday Times quotes an unnamed official of the Hague-based tribunal as saying. >Among those liable for this treatment might be Hashim Thaqi, Washington's >darling, whose name is associated with numerous crimes committed before and >since the deployment of the international peace force to Kosovo-Metohija in >June 1999. Others might include Ramush Haridinaj and Agim Cheku, whose name is >associated with the liquidation of Serb civilians in Croatia, where he was >general in the army of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in the early >1990's. The international Kosovo-Metohija force KFor and U.N. mission UNMIK >have been silent, at least officially, about recently discovered mass graves >with bodies of Serbs and other Kosovo-Metohija non-Albanians. UNMIK chief >Bernard Kouchner has been striving hard to accuse Serbs of mass crimes, >deliberately shutting his eyes to the crimes of ethnic Albanian separatists, >which are being committed even now, when 50,000 KFor troops have been >stationed in the province. Over the past year, more than 1,100 Serbs, >Montenegrins and Romanies have been killed in the U.N.-administered province. >Nobody has been convicted of these crimes, which is incredible, especially >since many of the crimes took place in the presence of witnesses. The Tribunal >is engaged on an investigation of the KLA for crimes it is suspected of >committing before NATO troops' deployment to Kosovo-Metohija, according to a >Tribunal spokesman, speaking for the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC. The >investigation started with five incidents, trying to find the victims, >witnesses and evidence, spokesman Paul Risley said. > >YUGOSLAV DIPLOMACY RUNS WESTERN BLOCKADE - CHINESE PAPER BEIJING, Sept 4 >(Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's diplomatic activity has effectively countered some >Western countries' policy of isolating Yugoslavia, according to an influential >Chinese newspaper on Monday. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic's >recent fruitful visit to Cuba was part of Yugoslavia's positive diplomatic >efforts and showed that Yugoslav diplomats are running the Western blockade, >the Renmin Ribao newspaper said. Despite efforts by the United States and some >other Western countries to isolate Yugoslavia since NATO's anti-Yugoslav air >campaign last year, the Belgrade government has taken positive countermeasures >and is winning the diplomatic battle, the daily said. According to Renmin >Ribao, Yugoslav diplomatic efforts are focused on historical friends, such as >Russia and China. The paper quotes Russian officials as saying at the time of >Jovanovic's visit to Moscow last May that Russia wants to strengthen and >expand comprehensive cooperation with Yugoslavia to the full, and that Moscow >opposes an international isolation of Yugoslavia. _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform mailing list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism mailing list for global anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
