>GERMAN MP BLASTS GERMANY, E.U., NATO OVER YUGOSLAVIA BERLIN, September 20 >(Tanjug) - An MP of Germany's leftist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) on >Wednesday accused the German Government, the European Union and NATO of not >wanting peace in the Balkans. This, according to Wolfgang Gehrke speaking for >Berlin's Neues Deutschland newspaper, is evident from their officious meddling >in Yugoslavia's internal affairs ahead of September 24 elections. If the >European Union and NATO are already so certain before the event that Yugoslav >President Slobodan Milosevic will cheat to win the elections, then what they >are doing is only adding to the tensions in the region, Gehrke said. The PDS >authority on foreign policy in the Bundestag said he feared that at work here >was a highly dangerous policy of the west which might precipitate another war. >The PDS, successor to the former East German communists, is the only political >party in Germany to have consistently and constantly condemned NATO's >March-June 1999 aggression on Yugoslavia as an act unprecedented in recent >European history. Gehrke again pointed out that the PDS had always insisted on >defining the status of Kosovo-Metohija with strict respect for U.N. Resolution >1244 which says that this province of the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia must >remain in Yugoslavia. > >YUGOSLAVIA - MACEDONIA TALKS ON YUGOSLAV-MACEDONIAN TRADE COOPERATION SKOPJE, >September 19 (Tanjug) - Macedonian Minister of Economy Borko Andrejev received >on Tuesday the Yugoslav Ambassador in Skopje Zoran Janackovic, at the latter's >request, who handed him a letter from the Yugoslav foreign trade minister, >Borislav Vukovic, and they talked about bilateral trade cooperation in this >year. The statement, issued by the Yugoslav Embassy, said that Janackovic >urged for more intensive, closer contacts at all working levels of the >Yugoslav-Macedonian mixed commission and conveyed the proposal of the Yugoslav >side for a meeting of the sub-committee for trade-economic cooperation. >Andrejev thanked for the letter and said he hoped to meet soon with Minister >Vukovic. He supported the initiative for a meeting of the sub-committee and >stressed that Yugoslavia was a serious trade partner of Macedonia, adding that >relations with it should be intensified and new forms of cooperation >developed, while respecting all agreements, the statement said. > >YUGOSLAVIA-NATO-TRIAL TRIAL OF NATO LEADERS RESUMES BEFORE BELGRADE COURT >BELGRADE, September 19 (Tanjug) - The trial of NATO leaders for crimes >committed in advance of and during last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, >which began on Monday, resumed before the Belgrade District Court on Tuesday. >On trial are U.S. President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine >Albright and Defence Secretary William Cohen, as well as British, French and >German statesmen and senior NATO officials. They are charged with inciting to >a war of aggression, war crimes against civilians, use of banned weapons, >attempted murder of top Yugoslav Government officials and violation of >Yugoslavia's territorial sovereignty. On Tuesday morning, the prosecution >continued to present evidence of war crimes against civilians. First it showed >evidence of attacks without clearly defined targets, where NATO >indiscriminately bombed military and civilian facilities, a practice banned >under international humanitarian law and conventions of war. Video footage, >records of crime scene investigations, medical files, statements by >eye-witnesses and victims showed that many attacks on military facilities were >carried out in such a way as to make civilian casualties a certainty. Evidence >was also presented of unlawful and wanton large-scale destruction of property >not justified by military requirements, a practice which is also banned under >international law and international conventions. Most facilities were heavily >damaged or destroyed, which shows that the attacks were designed to destroy >Yugoslavia's entire economy and infrastructure, not to attain military >advantage, it was noted. In substantiation were quoted facts showing that most >facilities were attacked over and over again, indicating that the intention >was to destroy them completely, not just to put them out of commission. > >TRIAL OF NATO LEADERS RESUMES BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) - The trial of >NATO leaders for crimes committed during the 78-day aggression on Yugoslavia >resumed on Wednesday before the District Court in Belgrade. Today was >presented evidence in connection with the third, fourth and fifth counts of >the indictment - use of banned weapons, assassination attempt of the president >of Yugoslavia and the violation of the territorial sovereignty of Yugoslavia. >Evidence was presented on the use of ammunition with depleted uranium U238 by >NATO in Kosovo-Meothija and on eight locations in south Serbia towards >Kosovo-Meothoija, as well as in Montenegro. Evidence and video footage that >confirm the use of cluster and graphite bombs was shown and the testimony of >court experts engineer Radojko Pavlovic, from the Nuclear Research Institute >in Vinca, and of engineer Radojko Pavlovic from the Serbia's Interior Ministry >was heard. They gave their expert opinion about the inhuman use of banned >weapons and in the process of presenting evidence pointed out that >radio-active munition and cluster bombs were according to all world war >doctrines banned weapons because they bring suffering exclusively to the >civilian population. In connection with the fourth count of the indictment, >assassination attempt of the president of Yugoslavia, video footage was shown, >a police investigation report read and as a court expert engineer Radmilac >presented the main characteristics of the U.S. cruise missile tomahawk that >struck the residence of the Yugoslav president. > >KOSOVO-METOHIJA - TERRORISM ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN U.N.-RUN KOSOVO-METOHIJA >GRAVELY WOUND SERB KOSOVO POLJE, September 19 (Tanjug) - Ethnic Albanian >terrorists lobbed a grenade into a Serb's home in the U.N.-ruled Serbian >(Yugoslav) Kosovo-Metohija province on Monday, gravely wounding the owner, >according to reports on Tuesday. The Serb, Vukasin Davidovic, aged 61, has >been rushed to hospital in the Province's northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, >where the doctors are fighting for his life. Davidovic has suffered a massive >blood loss from wounds inflicted by flying fragments of the shell, lobbed by >the terrorists through the window of his house in Kosovo Polje near the >Province's chief city of Pristina. > >KOSOVO-METOHIJA - UN -RUSSIA RUSSIA CONDEMNS PERFORMANCE OF BERNARD KOUCHNER >MOSCOW, September 19 (Tanjug) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has >expressed the great dissatisfaction of his administration with the work of >Bernard Kouchner, chief of the U.N. Mission in the Serbian province of >Kosovo-Metohija. Ivanov, who is attending the U.N. General Assembly session in >New York, said that Kucher's behaviour contributed to the violation of many >provisions of the U.N. resolution on Kosovo-Metohija. At present, there are no >conditions for holding local elections in the Province, he reiterated. Bernard >Kouchner has been actively insisting on these elections, and wants to hold >them this autumn, Ivanov said, adding that security conditions must be created >before elections can be held. Only then would the elections serve the purpose >of providing political solutions to the problems in the Province, otherwise >the situation will become more and more complicated, Ivanov said. According to >Moscow media, Ivanov also expressed great dissatisfaction with the fact that >soldiers of the Kfor British contingent did not allow Russian Ambassador to >Yugoslavia Valery Egoshkin to enter the Province, without any justification. >Russia will address this issue energetically in the U.N. Security Council, >Ivanov said, and added that he had had a sharp conversation on the incident >with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Ivanov also said that similar >incidents had occurred before to other diplomats as well, adding that the >events in question resulted from the erroneous policy followed in the Serbian >province by Kouchner. > >GROWING DEMANDS FOR KOUCHNER'S REPLACEMENT MOSCOW, September 20 (Tanjug) - Two >prominent Russian officials, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Duma Foreign >Relations Committee President Dmitry Rogozin, on Tuesday sharply criticized >Kosovo and Metohija U.N. civilian mission UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner, even >demanding his replacement. Ivanov told Russian reporters in New York, where he >is attending a U.N. General Assembly session, that Kouchner is the very cause >of many problems in the southern Serbian province. Kouchner is directly >responsible that many articles of the U.N. Security Council resolution on >Kosovo and Metohija are not being realized, Ivanov said. Ivanov spoke in very >undiplomatic terms about actions by this sham humanitarian worker from France >who is ready even to organize farcical local elections in Kosovo and Metohija >in spite of warnings from many sides that this is neither realistic nor >possible at the present time. Rogozin spoke in even sharper tones. He demanded >that Kouchner be replaced as soon as possible because he has proved in his >work so far that he is not capable of carrying it out. _______________________________________________________ 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 list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
