![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
TIME TO STEP UP PRIVATISATION PROCESS
The Serbian government is actively working on creating an environment for stepping up the privatisation process while preserving the value of property, Serbian Deputy PM Dragan Tomic said on Friday.
The government has taken many measures to secure a greater liberalisation of the market and foreign trade relations, and it believes stepped up privatisation can now take place, Tomic told a press conference in Belgrade.
Tomic underscored that the restructuring of the economy and the privatisation process in Serbia are implemented in keeping with the economic policy, and are realised successfully.
There is continued keen interest of foreign partners, they are pressing their governments to permit investments in Yugoslavia.
Tomic said significant steps have been taken to relieve the economy of burdens in the fiscal policy, and the new draft fiscal laws are aimed at creating an environment that will enable the restructuring of the economy.
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: WORLD GIVES HUGE SUPPORT TO YUGOSLAVIA
We are returning to Belgrade, following all talks and contacts at the UN seat in New York, with the clear message that the world and the international community have a better understanding of Yugoslavia and our policy, and support us in the defence and realisation of all our legitimate goals, Federal Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said at the Belgrade airport upon his return to the country.
Jovanovic said that during all these talks support had been expressed primarily for Yugoslavia's consistent respect and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and specially for our insistence on the principle of the respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the resolution of the Kosovo and Metohija problem through peaceful and political means within an autonomy in Serbia and Yugoslavia.
Jovanovic recalled that the federal government delegation, which attended the 54th U.N General Assembly session, over the past week had had more than 50 meetings with the delegation heads of other countries and with numerous prominent figures.
"Out of such a large number of meetings and talks, I would like to stress the importance of those with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Namibian President Sam Nyuoma, Russian and Chinese foreign ministers Igor Ivanov and Tang Jiaxuan respectively, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the president of the 54th General Assembly session Tio Ben Gurirabo," Jovanovic said.
Jovanovic said that the world organisation supports the respect of the principles of the UN Charter in international relations and does not recognise any reason for its violation, especially the implementation of force and interference into the affairs of a sovereign country.
Also reaffirmed was the position that a safe future can be build only on the principle of the respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and equality of all countries, regardless of their size.
Jovanovic said that the General Assembly session had focused on the effects of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
He set out that the numerous contacts in New York had also served for underscoring the daily violations of the UN Charter by some representatives of international civilian and security forces in Kosovo and Metohija.
"Everyone is deeply concerned by such conduct and all the people we met, including the UN representatives, insisted on the consistent respect of Resolution 1244," Jovanovic stated. "We underscored the absolute unacceptability of the transformation of KLA into the so-called Kosovo Protection Corps," he added.
Jovanovic set out that everyone with whom he had met in New York had shown readiness to continue cooperation and intensify contacts with Yugoslavia.
COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC REFORMS MEETS IN SESSION
The Council for Economic Reforms of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Main Board met in session on Thursday to discuss draft laws in the area of the fiscal policy.
The session was chaired by Main Board Vice-President Dusko Matkovic and attended also by Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic.
The council backed the measures and priorities of Serbia's economic policy in national reconstruction, production and export growth, maintaining economic and social stability, and stepping up reforms, primarily in the area of privatisation, a statement from the session said.
The new customs and tax laws and other measures will provide significant preconditions for liberalising business operations in order to secure the most efficient possible integration into international activities, it was heard.
The council fully backed a package of fiscal laws proposed by the Serbian government, as well as all government activities so far essentially aimed at providing for the welfare of Serbian citizens and creating conditions for the general progress of society, the statement said.
SERBIAN DEPUTY PM RECEIVES FRENCH MANAGEMENT DELEGATION
Serbian Deputy PM Milovan Bojic received on Thursday at the Belgrade University Administration Building the president of the Franco-American University for Management MBA, Marie-France Joseph, and her deputy Michel Lemieux.
Bojic said that, at the current moment of the reconstruction of Yugoslavia, in conditions of the transformation of the economy, growing trade, the formation of new ownership structures and attracting of foreign capital, educated managers are "equally needed as a seriously ill, anaemic patient needs a transfusion."
Bojic expressed belief that cooperation between Belgrade's Faculty for International Management and the Franco-American University would be more intensive and successful. He added that the Serbian government would be active in this respect.
Also present at the talks was the president of the Faculty for International Management in Belgrade, Milija Zecevic.
COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC REFORMS MEETS IN SESSION (REOPENS)
Finance Minister Borislav Milacic told the session that the proposed package of seven tax laws stimulates business activities and the development of small and medium companies and reduces taxes on new earnings.
Milacic added that the proposed laws and tax reductions would stimulate all companies which are investing into the reconstruction of the country, introduce tax exemptions for those who suffered huge material damages in the aggression, lower excise duties and VAT, and returning goods from "grey" into regular legal trends.
Milacic set out that obligations towards the state have reached 9.2 billion dinars (12 dianrs to the dollar).
Speaking about the draft Law on the Sale of a Part of the Business Facilities of the State of Serbia, Milacic stated that in question are almost one million square metres which are being leased.
Federal Vice Prime Minister Jovan Zebic said that various illegal actions and abuses in the payment of taxes, have cost the federal government almost two billion dinars.
YUGOSLAV AMBASSADOR ON TERRORIST ACTIVITIES OF SO-CALLED KLA
Head of the permanent Yugoslav mission to the UN Office in Geneva, Ambassador Branko Brankovic on Friday sent a letter to representatives of international organisations, underscoring that terrorists of the so-called KLA have been spreading terror over the non-Albanian population in Kosovo and Metohija for the past 10 years, not sparing even ethnic Albanian citizens who are loyal to the Republic of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
In spite of this, terrorists of the so-called KLA enjoy political and other support from a certain number of officials of the United States and certain European countries, which they secure mostly through money provided by the drug mafia, Ambassador Brankovic said.
"The government of the FR of Yugoslavia expects the most urgent engagement of the Security Council to the effect of full implementation of its Resolution 1244 (1999). In that sense, the Security Council has the obligation to undertake the necessary for KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner to cease their activities which are providing legitimacy to the terrorists of the so-called KLA, giving them the opportunity to avoid responsibility for all terrorist acts they had committed so far and are still committing," the letter said.
The letter was sent to Vladimir Petrovsky, the Director General of the UN Office in Geneva, Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jiri Dienstbier, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in former Yugoslavia, Cornelio Sommaruga, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and George Weber, the Secretary-General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Ambassador Brankovic sent the letter also to Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Secretary-General of the World Health Organization, Brunson McKinley, the Director General of the International Organisation for Migrations, and Carl Bildt, the Special Representative of the UN secretary-general for the Balkans.
The letter said "open support to terrorists of the so-called KLA was particularly pronounced one year prior to the NATO aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia, during the NATO aggression itself, as well as after the aggression and in the presence of KFOR and UNMIK."
"As a 'reward for generous help' that terrorists of the so-called KLA gave to NATO aggressor countries in the course of the 78 days long barbaric bombing of the FR of Yugoslavia, KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner are now trying to give legality to the so-called KLA and its terrorists by setting up the 'Kosovo Protection Corps'," the letter said.
"Such an activity undertaken by the KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner is in function of securing the implementation of the already known plans of a number of NATO countries with a view to breaking up the sovereign and independent FR of Yugoslavia and attempts, as was the so-called Rambouillet agreement, to transform the territory of the FR of Yugoslavia into a NATO base," Ambassador Brankovic said.
It is a fact that the failure of KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner in implementing Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) has created in Kosovo and Metohija an Eldorado for drug dealers, arms smugglers, for securing hide-away for hardened world terrorists, and for the organisation of terrorist activities not only in the Balkans, but in the wider area of Europe.
The international community is investing great efforts to stamp out terrorism and liberate the world of the consequences of this evil. Anyone who resorts to terrorism is committing a serious crime against humanity. When support to a terrorist organisation such as the so-called KLA becomes a state policy, it then turns into state terrorism, which is a violation with the fundamental norms of international laws and the UN Charter, Brankovic said.
Ambassador Brankovic asked representatives of the international community to invest maximum efforts to put an end to the terrorism of the so-called KLA, to stop the creation of terrorist bases in Kosovo and Metohija, and to take the first important step to root out terrorism in the Balkans and south-eastern Europe.
The ambassador also enclosed a very extensive document on terrorist activities of the so-called KLA before and during the NATO aggression. Brankovic pointed out that the Yugoslav government expects international organisations to take the necessary steps for the due and full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1244.
ARMY BARRACKS SINKOVCE REBUILT
At a ceremony in the army barracks Sinkovce in Leskovac, marking the day of the Yugoslav Army anti-aircraft defence units, were handed over for use Thursday renovated facilities in the compound of those army barracks which were destroyed in the recent NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
The ceremony was attended also by the commander of the Third Army, Lt. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, and Pristina corps commander Lt. Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic.
In only 61 days, two command facilities have been restored for use and rebuilt five facilities for the accommodation of troops and a cafeteria.
Sinkovce commander Mico Djapa said that facilities in the army barracks had been targeted by the enemy aviation 45 times, but that fortunately there were no casualties because the troops, and military equipment, had been moved to other locations.
"Enemy missiles of huge destructive power destroyed 22 facilities, damaged heavily 37 facilities and lightly 21, while eight buildings remained untouched," he said.
District chief Zivojin Stefanovic said that Leskovac, a town in south Serbia was in its recent history bombed two times - in 1941 by Nazi Germany and in 1944 by Western allies when 4,500 citizens lost their lives, and the town was razed.
"Unfortunately, our town was again attacked on March 24 this year by enemy aviation. In that part of Serbia alone the NATO aggressor made uninhabitable 5,000 housing and other facilities," he said.
Lt. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic said that that the success of construction workers and of the Yugoslav Army members was the best confirmation of the firmness of the sincere and true unity of our people and our army, our people who together with the armed forces defended the country, and who are now rebuilding the country after NATO's aggression, he said.
YUGOSLAV LEFT LEADERS MEET WITH DISTRICT, MUNICIPAL PARTY OFFICIALS
Yugoslav Left (JUL) leaders have met with district and municipal party officials in southern Banat, the JUL Directorate's press section reported on Friday.
The meeting dealt with political and economic conditions in the district, stressing that results achieved in the reconstruction of the area, specifically the reconstruction of oil refinery and other industrial facilities in Pancevo, which is the key factor of economic development in the district, were a major stimulus to the domestic economy in general, said a statement issued by the press section.
The meeting also noted that attempts to undermine harmonious multiethnic relations in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina had failed to win support by the district's population, the statement said.
The meeting also voiced determination to persevere in activities concerning the JUL commitments in the field of reconstruction, reforms and changes, this being a way of eliminating all irrationalities and inefficiency in the Yugoslav society, the statement said.
YUGOSLAV MINISTER RECEIVES UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR
Yugoslav Transport Minister Dejan Drobnjakovic on Thursday received Ukrainian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Volodimir Furkalov and discussed problems of renewing navigation on the Danube following NATO's razing of several bridges on this important international waterway.
The two sides concluded that the international community has done nothing to efficiently re-establish navigation on the Danube even three months following the end of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia.
Drobnjakovic said Yugoslavia had not rejected any international initiative, but that it insisted on the federal government Memorandum on navigation on the Danube and the reiterated stand that this issue must be resolved in parallel with clearing the Danube bed and the reconstruction of the destroyed bridges.
The minister pointed out that experts of the Danube Commission had determined that this grave problem needed financial support from international financial institutions. Under the conditions of the several-year international blockade, Yugoslavia is unable quickly and efficiently to establish navigation on the Danube without financial support of the international community, or renew the objects destroyed by NATO during its 78-day aggression on Yugoslavia last spring, said the statement released by the federal Secretariat of Information.
RUSSIAN COMMISSION SAYS NATO TRAMPLES ON INTERNATIONAL LAW
The Russian Duma's commission on the assessment of developments concerning Yugoslavia from the point of international law has said that NATO grossly violated relevant international norms, primarily those in the field of international law, when it launched aggression on Yugoslavia.
Addressing a meeting at the Belgrade University School of Law on Thursday, the commission said that conclusions about the violation of the UN Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, as well as conventions on conventional arms, genocide and a protocol banning the use of mines and explosive devices, would be compiled into a document that would be distributed among experts in the field all over the world.
The commission based its conclusions on the Yugoslav government's 'White Book' and information available to it in Russia, but also from its visits to areas most severely affected by NATO's bombing and from documents presented them by Yugoslav officials.
Yelena Guskova, a historian and Balkans expert, said that the commission's visit was an attempt to restore the former major role of international law, saying that if this did not happen, Russia would be the next victim.
Guskova said that the Balkan countries had had two options - either to submit to the new world order or to oppose it the way Yugoslavia had done.
This fact gives hope that developments will take a different course after all than that insisted on by the United States, she said.
She said that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija represented the degradation of the United Nations because it had practically legalised and justified the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
According to Pavel Leptev, another commission member, the resolution defines Kosovo and Metohija as an integral part of Yugoslavia, which, together with the respect for Yugoslavia's sovereignty, constitutes a major element of the resolution, while everything else is temporary in nature.
KFOR PREVENTS VIOLENCE OF ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS
On Thursday, around 15.00, a group of two hundred ethnic Albanians blocked the road Pristina-Kosovo Polje-Pec waving Albanian flags, broke through the KFOR cordon and headed towards the Russian hospital in Kosovo Polje.
Thanks to the efficient intervention of KFOR members and the international police, mostly Italian carabineri, Albanian extremists were stopped.
At a distance of some 500 meters stood a group of 300 Serbs who held Serbian and Yugoslav flags and the death notice for Zoran Galic.
Galic succumbed two days ago to his wounds in the Russian hospital in Kosovo Polje which were inflicted by a knife three days ago outside his house in Ugljare.
KFOR forces are controlling the situation for the time being in that area.
The residents of Kosovo Polje, following the latest violence of ethnic Albanians, have sent an urgent invitation to the president of the provisional executive council of Kosovo-Metohija Zoran Andjelkovic, Yugoslav government committee chairman for relations with the UN civilian mission in Kosovo-Metohija (UNMIK) Ambassador Stanimir Vukicevic, KFOR commander Gen. Michael Jackson and UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner to come immediately to Kosovo Polje, in order to prevent the expansion of the conflict.
TENSIONS IN KOSOVO POLJE NEAR PRISTINA STILL HIGH
Tensions in Kosovo Polje at Pristina, chief city of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, are still high following demonstrations staged by ethnic Albanians on Thursday.
One Serb house, located at the outskirts of Kosovo Polje, was torched late on Thursday, with the Centre for Peace and Tolerance receiving a series of phone calls by town residents who informed it about the stoning of Serbs houses and threats by ethnic Albanians.
Residents of Bresje, Ugljare and Kosovo Polje refused Thursday after meeting with officials of the UN peacekeeping force KFOR and head of the UN civilian mission to Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) Bernard Kouchner to remove a barricade on the Pristina-Pec route at Bresje.
KFOR and UN civilian police have blocked access routes to the St Sava primary school and the local health care centre, redirecting traffic.
Ethnic Albanians have announced that they will rally at the intersection of the route leading to Pec and that leading to the railway station in central Kosovo Polje on Friday.
On Thursday, ethnic Albanian demonstrators threatened to the few non-Albanians passing by and ethnic Albanians who refused to join them despite strong KFOR and UN civilian police forces.
ETHNIC ALBANIANS STONE CONVOY WITH SERBS RETURNING TO KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Ethnic Albanians attacked twice on Friday a convoy of two buses and several cars with Serbs returning from Nis and its environs, in the south-east of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, to its Kosovo and Metohija province.
The convoy with over 150 people, women and children included, came first under attack at Livadice and then at Luzane, both in Podujevo municipality, when scores of ethnic Albanians started throwing stones at it.
No one was seriously injured in the incident, with the convoy reaching Kosovo Polje near Pristina, Kosovo and Metohija's chief city, around noon.
According to the passengers, who were terrified, a vehicle of the UN protection force KFOR escorted the convoy but the force's members riding in it did nothing to prevent the attack.
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AND HEALTH THREATENED
As a result of the unprecedented cruel pressure to which Yugoslavia has been exposed for years, the growth and survival of three million children in this country are threatened, Yugoslav official Margit Savovic said on Thursday, opening a round table on the rights of children and health.
Savovic heads the Yugoslav commission for cooperation with the United Nations children's fund UNICEF.
The meeting was organised at the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine by the Yugoslav Center for Children's Rights and the UNICEF.
Savovic warned that the latest investigations showed that ten percent of Yugoslav children are psychologically permanently damaged because of experienced stress and trauma.
Since 1991, Yugoslav children have been denied many elementary rights, she said. Punishing Yugoslavia for crimes it never committed, the big powers imposed economic sanctions and practically completely destroyed its economy, systems of education, health and social institutions, she said.
According to UNICEF figures for 1998, children in Yugoslavia are the most endangered children's population in Europe. The European average is six percent, while children in Yugoslavia are believed to be threatened at a rate of 29 percent.
TRADITIONALLY GOOD ECONOMIC COOPERATION
The traditionally good and firm ties between the economies of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska (RS) should continue to be strengthened and enriched by new dimensions, Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce President Mihailo Milojevic said at a meeting on Thursday with his RS counterpart Nedeljko Suzic.
Both sides concluded that the businessmen are greatly interested in promoting trade and all other forms of economic cooperation, with possibilities in the sphere of trade, cooperation, joint investments and joint companies.
In order to ensure unimpeded cooperation it is necessary to stimulate the opening of joint firms, lift customs duties for companies on the basis of joint investments and production cooperation, coordinate and simplify administrative procedures in the realisation of foreign trade deals and step up compensation transactions.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SERBIA PROTESTS OVER BURNING OF BOOKS IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
The national library of Serbia protested strongly Thursday to UNESCO because of the burning of books in Serbian by rampaging Albanian extremists in Kosovo and Metohija and called for the urgent protection of the entire the cultural wealth in the province.
We were astonished to hear that ethnic Albanian terrorists have burned or in other ways destroyed in libraries in Kosovo-Metohija, from where they previously expelled Serbs, over two million books in the Serbian language, including works by Pushkin, Goethe and Balzac, whose anniversaries will be celebrated this year by the entire world, the letter said.
In addition, the systematic destruction of ancient and priceless monuments of culture (monasteries, churches and other objects), and of valuable archives, lead us to believe that Albanian terrorists are intent on destroying everything that bears testimony to Serbian history, civilisation and culture in the southern Serbian province.
The statement recalled that since the arrival of the international forces in Kosovo in mid-June 1999, not a single book has been burned in libraries in Serbia, in whatever language they were published.
That is also true for libraries in Kosovo, in which, besides books in Serbian, there are thousands of books in Albanian and Turkish, and in the languages of ethnic groupings living there.
As a library that assures the professional functioning of the entire library system, the national library of Serbia is denied access to the university library in Pristina, named after the Nobel prize winner Ivo Andric, and to other libraries in Kosovo-Metohija, except the rare ones that have not been placed under the control of Albanian terrorists.
We expect from UNESCO to form an international commission that would, under the protection of KFOR and the UN mission in Kosovo, determine all relevant facts and inform about them the cultural public in Serbia, in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Europe and the world, and propose urgent measures for the protection of the entire cultural wealth in Kosovo, the letter said.
RECEPTION IN HONOUR OF 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF PR CHINA
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China was held Thursday in the Belgrade Hyatt hotel a reception attended by many public figures.
The great anniversary of the friendly Chinese people, was congratulated to Ambassador Pan Zhanlin by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, Serbian parliament president Dragan Tomic, Yugoslav Left directorate president Mira Markovic, Yugoslav parliament upper house president Milomir Minic.
Attending the reception were a large number of ranking state officials, representatives of the Yugoslav Army, scientists and politicians and members of the diplomatic corps.
The People's Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949 when after centuries of dynastic rule, the country, embarked on the policy of communism and development of a socialist social system.
China, as an Asian country with the largest number of inhabitants in the world and a size similar to that of Europe, has in the past 20 years achieved remarkable successes in all domains and is making huge progress with a tendency to become one of the leading super powers in the 21st century.
PAN ZHANLIN - CHINA AND YUGOSLAVIA ARE TRADITIONAL FRIENDS
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Yugoslavia Pan Zhanlin in a statement for Radio Yugoslavia described as positive relations between the two countries, stressing that China and Yugoslavia have traditionally friendly relations and cooperation.
Chinese and Yugoslavs are friendly peoples and I am certain that in the future they will pursue fruitful cooperation, Ambassador Pan Zhanlin said.
Ambassador Pan, speaking about the importance of the 50th anniversary of the founding of PR China, said that the country was developing quickly in all fields and that the Chinese people was doing its utmost for the realisation of development goals.
Ambassador Pan, commenting the assertion that Yugoslavia appreciates highly the role of China in the defence of the principles of the UN Charter said that his country will always be in favour of peace, and not of hegemony.
Ambassador Pan pointed out that the peaceful foreign policy of China was based on respect for the principles of independence and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
On those principles, China is building international links and opposes the attempts of big countries to subjugate smaller countries, Ambassador Pan Zhanlin told Radio Yugoslavia.
BELGRADE POLICE PRESS SECTION RELEASES STATEMENT
The Belgrade police press section issued a statement late Thursday following a rally held at the city's Square of Republic in the afternoon.
The statement runs as follows:
"Before the start of a rally at Belgrade's Square of Republic on Thursday afternoon, leaders of the so-called Alliance for Change were warned by relevant police authorities that the right to rallies does not imply the right to harass people in the streets, to destroy property or hinder traffic outside an area where a rally is to be held.
"Despite the fact that the rally's organisers heeded the warning, they took hooligans outside the area where rally was to be held and unexpectedly and brutally attacked police officers in the zone of the Brankov bridge who were on a regular duty. They appear to have done this confidant that a surprise attack would make it impossible to offer help to the police officers under attack.
"The hooligans used in the attack stones, bricks, poles and glass bottles which they threw at the police officers, shattering glass on a number of business premises and entrances to buildings in Brankova and Pop Lukina streets.
"The police efficiently intervened restoring law and order and safe traffic within a short period of time. "Twenty-one persons were arrested on the charge of criminal and other offences."
JUL DEMANDS RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE WHO ATTACKED POLICE ON WEDNESDAY
The Yugoslav Left (JUL) has demanded that all gangs and individuals who attacked members of the Serbian Interior Ministry on Wednesday evening in Belgrade should be called to account and that the judicial organs, prosecutor's office and other corresponding organs immediately take all steps in keeping with the law, JUL spokesman Ivan Markovic said on Thursday commenting yesterday's riots caused by the Alliance for Changes.
Markovic, who is also JUL Directorate secretary, said that "the police were brutally attacked while they were directing the traffic and securing public peace and order in the interest of all citizens."
The attackers are "criminals, street thugs and well-known hooligans from sports events," Markovic said.
JUL demands that those who intentionally injured police officers on duty should be held responsible and the public informed about this, Markovic stated.
BULGARIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS PANCEVO NEAR BELGRADE
A Bulgarian business delegation and officials of the oil refinery and the petrochemical and nitrogen plants in Pancevo, which sustained severe damage during NATO's aggression, met Friday at the regional chamber of commerce based in the town.
The officials informed the delegation, made up of Executive Director of the Sofia-based Energomontaz holding company Alexander Simeonov, Executive Director of Energomontaz Vek Georgi Raychev, Deputy Director of the Vratsa-based Bank of Bulgaria Teto Angelov, Director of the Danis company and Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce member Ivo Vladimirov, about the scope of the damage caused to the refinery and the plants, reconstruction work and development plans.
They said that NATO had waged a chemical war against Yugoslavia, unprecedented in the world, because it had bombed three chemical plants in Pancevo, about 10 km north-east of Belgrade, in one day alone.
It was noted that the two regions had had successful business cooperation and that the NATO aggression had made impossible the signing of yet another major contract between them.
The delegation is to hold separate talks with the management of the oil refinery and the petrochemical and nitrogen plants in order to specify forms of assistance and cooperation.