http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=2864882&startrow=31&d ate=2002-11-19&do_alert=0 SLOVENIA' S INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITY DEMANDS REFERENDUM ON ENTRY TO NATO BELGRADE, November 19 /from RIA Novosti's Aleksandr Slabynko/ - Prominent figures of Slovenia's intellectual community - writers, artists, scientists, public activists - have demanded that the national parliament hold a referendum should the upcoming NATO summit in Prague invite the country to join the Alliance. The relative statement, which was signed by 188 prominent cultural and scientific figures, demands that the government arrange the referendum and a thorough, open and competent discussion of all the positive and negative consequences Slovenia is going to face if it joins NATO. The intelligentsia believes the arguments in favour of the NATO membership the government had offered were not sound enough and resulted in a greater number of those sceptical about the prospect. Professor Kovacevic believes the government will have a tough time trying to convince the nation to support NATO. There are fierce opponents to the entry to NATO among those who signed the statement. Darij Zadnikar, a professor of philosophy at Ljubljana University, qualified the political elite's assertion that the NATO membership means "joining the world" as dangerous manipulation of public opinion. The scientists and men in the arts urge the national vote on the entry to NATO should take place simultaneously with a referendum on Slovenia's admission to the European Union, due as early as in March, 2003, according to unofficial reports. Slovenia is a claimant for the EU membership along with Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia and Estonia. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
