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Author:  http://www.borba.co.yu/daily.html  


Publisher/Date:  Borba (Yu)  


Title:  October 4, 1999  


Original location: English language daily supplement


MILOSEVIC MEETS WITH STATE OFFICIALS

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Friday held a meeting with top state officials. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic reported on the activities of the Yugoslav delegation during the 54th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Assessing the activities as positive, he underscored the importance of the wide contacts and talks with foreign ministers, heads of state or government of tens of countries of Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Australia.

In the course of these meetings, there was a high degree of accord that the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia had been the most violent blow to international laws and the UN Charter. The vast majority of countries of the world support Yugoslavia in its opposition to the policy of dictates, pressures and interference in internal affairs, and believe that the policy of independence and equal co-operation practised by Yugoslavia is of essential importance for the affirmation and protection of the elementary principles of the UN Charter and preventing the establishment of a uni-polar world order. It is especially important that all foreign statesmen had urged the due implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija, and strict respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia, which this resolution guarantees. The widest support was given to Yugoslavia's request for war compensation resulting from the aggression.

In spite of efforts at isolation and continued pressures even after the end of the aggression, which had failed to achieve the NATO goals, Yugoslavia's renowned and international position are really strengthening.

The foreign minister's collectors had repeatedly pointed out that Yugoslavia has a key role in realising peace, security and stable development in southeastern Europe. That is why all efforts to impose limitations and conditions on Yugoslavia are acts against peace.

This year's General Assembly session shows that the vast majority of member states urge a multi-polar world, due respect for the principles of the UN Charter, and reject the policy of force, interventionism and fait accompli.

Yugoslavia supports the role of the United Nations as the most important factor of peace and stability, urges reform and democratisation of relations within the world organisation, and resolutely rejects any attempts at abusing the United Nations, the practice of bypassing it and violating its Charter, which directly threaten the objectives of peace, stability and equality of the members of the international community.


PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES BOR MUNICIPAL, BUSINESS DELEGATES

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Friday received a delegation of the municipality of the eastern Serbian town of Bor and the local mining-smelting complex RTB Bor.

The production capacities of the mining-smelting complex RTB Bor will resume normal production after repairs of a vital transformer station, which was destroyed in the NATO aggression. This major construction undertaking will mark Oct 3 - Liberation Day of Bor, the delegates said.

Informing Milosevic about this important breakthrough in national reconstruction, the delegates also spoke about directions for the further development of one of the biggest work collectives in Yugoslavia. Already this month, production will reach the pre-aggression level, and the Veliki Krivelj copper mines are being expanded to increase annual production from 9 ml tons of ore to 10.6 ml tons. Processing of polimetallic ore in Majdanpek will increase to one million tons annually, or about 40,000 tons of zinc and 10,000 tons of lead concentrate, they said.

Congratulating the businessmen on these positive results, President Milosevic said the resumption of production in the RTB Bor was of great importance for economic stability and overall economic growth in Yugoslavia, increasing the social product and standard of workers. This valuable result is even greater having in mind that overall renewal is under way through the country's own forces and abilities, as well as the fact that destroyed plants and capacities are being renewed in record time, he said.

The delegates presented to President Milosevic a Golden Plaque of the town of Bor for his personal courage and statesman's wisdom in defending the sovereignty of Yugoslavia, for national renewal and reconstruction following the NATO aggression, for his peace-loving policy and the economic recovery and rebirth which he launched in the interest of a better life for Yugoslav citizens and workers.

Yugoslav Deputy Premier Nikola Sainovic attended the reception.


MARJANOVIC - ALL OF SERBIA IN SIGN OF RECONSTRUCTION

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic said Friday that all of Serbia was in the sign of reconstruction and that impressive results testify to the great moral strength and unity of the people who have demonstrated in the most difficult conditions their ability to rebuild the country and in that way defend it from all foreign pressures.

"That persistence and strength of the entire people is the greatest guarantee that we will never be subjugated, or incapacitated economically," Marjanovic said in talks with businessmen and leaders of the Danube district in Smederevo.

We are pressured because we want to preserve freedom and independence, because we resist the obstinacy of several world power brokers, and stand in their way for taking control over the entire world, Marjanovic said.

The Prime Minister recalled that underway are works at 102 construction sites of which 80 are high-rise building facilities, as heating plants and electric power units, and at 22 construction sites are bridge reconstruction.

The prime minister recalled that for financing the first phase of reconstruction for facilities to be completed by November 1, have been earmarked nearly one billion dinars (US dollar = 12 dinars).

Already agreed are the reconstruction of facilities in the second phase to be completed after November 1, Marjanovic said, specifying that it will cover the reconstruction of 14 bridges, two roads, one tunnel, the building of over 100 apartments and two health centres of a total value of 600 million dinners.

At the same time, he added, preparations are made for drawing up contacts for the reconstruction of eight more bridges, two railway bridges, and 1900 housing units, three health centres and two schools.

Our largest generators in thermo-electric power plants are operational, and repairs of the transmission system are also nearing completion and as well as the overhaul of thermo-electric and hydroelectric power plants, Marjanovic-said. "All conditions have been met to assure sufficient electric power for the forthcoming winter season," he said.

By putting into operation, ahead of schedule, of the reconstructed oil refinery in Pancevo and reconstructing facilities in the Novi Sad refinery will produce in the first phase daily 8,000 tons of fuel, Marjanovic said.

Marjanovic pointed out that the industrial production since June has registered a double digit growth rate.

Also secured are sufficient quantities of diesel fuel, of quality seeds and fertilisers for harvesting 1.8 million hectares, for processing over 2.5 million tons of sugar beet and 500,000 tons of oleaceous plants, for harvesting one million hectares and for picking and processing fruits and vegetables.

Marjanovic said that the goal of the economic-social program was to create jobs for workers who due to direct or indirect consequences of the NATO aggression have remained without work.

So far, he added, in that way jobs have been created for over 30,000 workers, while the remaining 50,000 will work in reconstructed factories.

The Serbian Prime Minister stressed that maintain economic and social stability constitutes the third key lever of the policy of the Serbian government.

In the first eight months despite the war and severe sanctions the average monthly price hike was only two percent, Marjanovic said.

Our response to inflationaly pressure is to provide a more favourable climate for production and for raising the standard of living through market measures, to protect the standard of living of citizens by controlling the prices of key products, and through subsidies, interventions from commodities reserves and other measures to maintain the economic interest of producers and the stable supply of the market.

The government will also undertake, through fiscal and other measures, to reduce the illegal economy, by resolutely preventing abuses of monopoly positions on the market and of all forms of economic criminal realise a more just distribution of newly established values, Marjanovic said.

Marjanovic pointed out that the government of Serbia was pursuing the program of reforms adopted by the Serbian parliament.

Emphasising that special attention will be devoted to the process of restructuring of enterprises, Marjanovic said that concrete programs are expected of economic-financial consolidation and ownership transformation.

In enterprises that are on a list of a special government program, activities are directed at finding strategic partners who will bring to the enterprises additional capital, the Prime Minister said.

Marjanovic assessed that privatisation was conducted successfully and said that a shares fund of the republic will be set up soon that will manage the shares left over after the second round of privatisation and the shares to be acquired by the pensioner and disability pension insurance.


BOJIC: SERBIA WORKING AND BUILDING FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS

Serbian Deputy Premier Milovan Bojic said in the eastern Serbian town of Bor on Sunday that the republic is speedily being renewed and working and building for the welfare of all those who live in it.

"We never wanted to give up our brothers outside the borders of our land, that is why we suffered unprecedented sanctions which exhausted our economic activities," Bojic said at an official session of the Bor Assembly marking the 55th anniversary of liberation from German occupying forces in World War II.

The session was attended also by Yugoslav Deputy Premier Nikola Sainovic.

Bojic said "our house is indeed on a crossroads, a crossroads of major interests, but none of us have the right to leave this house, to abandon it for others to take over."

After the session, Sainovic and Bojic toured a construction site for a transformer station at the Bor mines, which was destroyed during the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia last spring.

Works are also under way at the Bor mines to increase production in the Veliki Krivelj copper mine from nine million tons to 10.6 million tons annually, and to bring polimetallic ore processing in Majdanpek to one million tons annually.


UNITED IN DEFENSE - UNITED IN RENEWAL

Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Secretary-General and federal parliament Chamber of Republics Vice-President Gorica Gajevic said on Saturday that the struggle for national defence was continuing with a struggle for renewal and that it brings a new victory every day.

The struggle for renewal is admirable, as the struggle for defending the country had been, she said, opening a new digital telephone exchange in multi-ethnic Kovacica, a town about 50 km northeast of Belgrade.

Led by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the courage of the army, police, all citizens, and the huge unity, we stopped the most powerful war machine in the world, preserved the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state, and gave the United Nations a chance to affirm the principles of its Charter, Gajevic said.

She said she was confident Serbia and Yugoslavia would "in the coming period also be successful in the battle against new forms of aggression which those who had at one time fled the country are now trying to impose through violence in our streets, trying to divide the people by engaging criminals and hooligans."

"This nation never puts cowards, traitors or mercenaries at its head," Gajevic said.

The municipality of Kovacica, where 23 ethnic communities live in harmony, was celebrating Liberation Day in World War II.

Gajevic told people of Kovacica to preserve what they have nursed for two centuries - their culture, tradition, language, script, and the fact that their first-door neighbour is their best friend, regardless of nationality or religion.

Senior federal, republican and provincial officials, municipal leaders, and SPS officials, as well as Slovak Ambassador attended festivities marking Liberation Day to Yugoslavia Miroslav Mojzita.


SPS OFFICIAL IGIC: PEACEKEEPERS REFUSE TO SEE CONTINUATION OF DESTRUCTION

Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Main Board member Zivodar Igic, who is also the head of the Kosovo and Metohija SPS branch, has said that claims by the peacekeepers that the situation in Serbia's southern province is improving, cannot be accepted even by political ignorants, and certainly not by the Serb population which sees and feels that situation on its own skin.

"The ignoring of reality represents a new threat to the Serb people as well as to those who exposed them to that threat," Igic told the local television station in Jagodina.

Officials of the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and Metohija boast in the success of the demilitarisation and disarming of the ethnic Albanian terrorists of the so-called KLA, but clearly refuse to see the continuation of the destruction and killings, he said.

According to Igic, responsibility for the continuation of the crimes in Kosovo and Metohija still rests with KLA, i.e. its members in the new uniforms of the "transformed" Kosovo Protection Corps because in the thirteen days since the end of the demilitarisation and disarmament, the number of crimes remains the same.


MILICEVIC-DIENSTBIER TALKS ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Serbian Health Minister Leposava Milicevic on Saturday received UN special rapporteur on human rights Jiri Dienstbier and UN human rights mission chief Barbara Davis.

Milicevic informed the UN officials about the humanitarian situation and state of human rights in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, primarily from the aspect of providing medical assistance.

The entire health system in the province has been destroyed with the arrival of the international forces KFOR, she said. Doctors and other medical staff, Serbs but also ethnic Albanians, have mostly left the province under pressure of ethnic Albanian terrorists who threaten them and their families, Milicevic said.

Republican ministry representatives tour enclaves with Serbs, securing elementary aid in medicines and food. They have stepped up monitoring of the quality of all parameters of the environment, she said.

These officials are denied access to territories where ethnic Albanians live, however, so that no hygiene or epidemiological protective measures have been organised there, she said.

A large number of families have moved into the province from Albania, with children who have not received vaccines against many contagious diseases, so that it can be expected that the health situation in Kosovo and Metohija will very quickly become the worst in the world, the minister said.

The inflow into health funds is many times smaller than before the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, because many economic facilities have been destroyed, she said.

In the past three years, 80 percent of health protection costs were secured in Kosovo and Metohija within republican funds, as ethnic Albanians did not pay taxes or duty, and 52 percent of employees of medical institutions had been ethnic Albanians of all levels of education.

Until recently, 58 Albanian-language papers had been published in the province, in comparison with 14 in Albania, and even though these media urged the population to boycott efforts by the republican health ministry, polio vaccination was successful. In the first round of vaccination, 94 percent of the 100,000 children of pre-school age, including 98 percent ethnic Albanians, were vaccinated, and 97 percent in the second round, she said.

Moreover, 90 percent of patients treated in medical institutions in Kosovo and Metohija had been non-Serbs.

Asked by Davis why state organs had launched criminal proceedings against some ethnic Albanian doctors, Minister Milicevic said they had taken medical equipment and medicines out of hospitals and into woods.

Milicevic told the UN officials about the consequences of the 78-day NATO agression. She presented them with photo-documents collected by May 20 on civilian victims and on damage to health objects in Yugoslavia.

The officials also received part of a study being prepared by the Medical Department of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and data of the Belgrade Emergency Medical Centre. The study shows that there had been many more civilian than military or police casualties during the aggression.

Speaking about human rights, Minister Milicevic said the international community was treating Serbs as a nation outside the law, declaring an open season on Serbs.

Serbs enjoy only the right always to be the guilty party and to be killed, and the international community is presently condemning them to death if it continues to send only blankets and food as humanitarian aid, she said.


YUGOSLAV MINISTER FOR REFUGEES RECEIVES UN RAPPORTEUR

Federal Minister for Refugees, Didsplaced Persons and Humanitarian Aid Bratislava Morina received on Saturday special UN Human Rights Rapporteur Jiri Dienstbier to discuss the current humanitarian situation in Yugoslavia.

Morina set out that since the arrival of KFOR, 250,000 Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians had left Kosovo and Metohija under pressure by the terrorists of the so-called KLA, while 400 Serbs had been killed, 500 kidnapped and 600 wounded.

Serbs living in Orahovac, Kosovo Polje, Gorazdevac and many other places are in a specially difficult position since they have no electricity, food and water, Morina said warning about the inadmissible attempts to make conditional relief aid to Yugoslavia by so-called democratic changes.

Dienstbier promised to make additional efforts for the more active engagement of the international community in the return of refugees and displaced persons and in providing humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia.


ANDJELKOVIC EXPECTS EUROPE TO RISE ITS VOICE

The president of the Temporary Executive Council of Kosovo and Metohija, Zoran Andjelkovic, said on Saturday that the attacks on Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians in Serbia's southern province, which continued even after Sept. 19, are a confirmation that the so-called KLA has not been demilitarised and disarmed and that it has only changed its name.

Andjelkovic told the local television station in Jagodina that the forces which are in charge of disarming the ethnic Albanian terrorists, are aware of the fact that KLA has not disarmed by turning over the 10,000 weapons which are outdated and not in working order.

"It is sad that UN Civilian Mission head for Kosovo and Metohija, Bernard Kouchner, has said that it is necessary to understand the wish of the ethnic Albanians for revenge," Andjelkovic set out underscoring that the people heading UNMIK cannot advocate principles which prevent the creation of a civilian multiethnic society.

He expressed hope that the international community would find the strength to return to its mandate.

"I expect Europe, which strives towards a humane society, to rise its voice against violence and those who tolerate terrorists and repression in Kosovo and Metohija," Andjelkovic stated.


BERISHA FOR INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

Former Albanian president and leader of the leading opposition Democratic Party Sali Berisha said that his party supports the creation of an independent Kosovo and a "Greater Albania" which would rally all ethnic Albanians living in the Balkan Peninsula.

Speaking at a party congress, which began in Tirana on Thursday, Berisha urged the union of ethnic Albanians into "a federation of free Albanians in the Balkans" unless "anti-Albanian racism is stopped." Speaking about the situation in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, he emphasised that they considered "protectorate status for Kosovo only as the first step toward winning independence."

In his speech at the congress, Berisha defended the rights of ethnic Albanians in Montenegro and Macedonia, western news agencies reported.

Berisha did not hesitate to interfere in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia or Macedonia.


SEVERAL PERSONS KILLED, KFOR RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPER WOUNDED

In Kosovo and Metohija in the past 24 hours, bodies of several murdered persons have been found, there were mortar and firearms attacks, and KFOR troops seized large quantities of arms in several actions, a KFOR spokesman told a news conference in Pristina on Friday.

Maj. Roland Lavoie said KFOR troops found bodies of an elderly Serb couple in a house in Prizren.

Two Serbs were attacked near Vitina. One was killed and the other sustained grave injuries and was taken to the U.S. hospital in Urosevac.

A Russian peacekeeper was wounded near Kosovska Kamenica, and large quantities of arms were found in a KFOR action. A Serb was wounded on a road near Podujevo at 8.10 a.m. Friday. He was taken to the English hospital in Lipljan with stomach wounds, the spokesman said.


GREAT CHARTER FOR PATRIOTISM GRANTED TO YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT

The presidency of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia at a session held Friday expressed unreserved support to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, his efforts and contribution to preserving the unity, freedom, peace and progress of the homeland.

The Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia decided unanimously to grant the great charter for patriotism to the hero and biggest patriot of Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic, for exceptional efforts in preserving freedom, independence and progress of Yugoslavia.

President of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia Ilija Vukovic said that the Yugoslav president stood at the head of the patriotic forces and the state, fought for the equality of all citizens, peoples and states and urged neighbourly co-operation and peace in the Balkans and in the world.

Emphasising that the Yugoslav president consistently complied with the UN Charter, Vukovic specified that Slobodan Milosevic fought against the rearranging to the world to suit imperialist interests, exemplified by NATO and the fascist policy of the U.S. administration headed by Bill Clinton.

Commenting the rallies held across Serbia by the Alliance for Change, members of the presidency of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia said that people obstructing the reconstruction of the country and who attempt to overthrow the government by force must be stopped, and also condemned the behaviour of the government of the capital city of Belgrade for lending support to hooligans. Patriots conveyed to "Americans and Clinton's NATO alliance that the president of the state is elected by legal means and in institutions and cannot be dismissed in the streets," and demanded from the competent bodies in Serbia to "take measures for the protection of citizens from "NATO street drummers."

Stressed at the meeting was the need to strengthen the unity of the people and state leadership, and concluded that the "violation of the Yugoslav Constitution has become a regular practice of the current regime of Milo Djukanovic (in Montenegro), who is pursuing a separatist-secessionist policy of breaking up the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."


BARRICADES REMAIN IN PLACE

Some one hundred ethnic Albanians, including children, gathered Friday around 16.00 in Kosovo Polje and started provoking Serb passers by and calling to account their brethren who did not want to join them.

The international forces in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR) are controlling the situation and do not allow ethnic Albanians, waving flags of Greater Albania, to approach the barricades set up by Serbs at some 500 meters towards Bresje.

Bernard Kouchner, UN civilian administrator in Kosovo and Metohija has met with a four member group of Serbs from Kosovo Polje and Bresje but no agreement has been reached to date, and the barricades will remain in place, Tanjug has learned from a Serbian representative for co-operation with KFOR.


U.S. SOLDIER KILLED IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA

One U.S. paratrooper lost his life during a military exercise in Kosovo-Meothija, it has been confirmed at the NATO seat in Brussels.

The accident occured near Vitine in the eastern part of Kosovo-Metohija during an exercise in which took part some 120 paratroopers from the U.S. contingent there.

The statement said that the parachute of one of the paratroopers did not open, without giving the name of the U.S. soldier.


KFOR AND SERBS CONTINUE TALKS

Serbs in Kosovo Polje and Bresje continue to control all roads leading into these towns despite KFOR and UNMIK demands for the removal of all barricades which were erected after Serb-ethnic Albanian disputes over the use of schools in Kosovo Polje.

The Serb delegation in charge of contacts with KFOR said that the Serbs of Kosovo Polje had decided on Friday evening to stand firm in their demands that the elementary school Sveti Sava is attended solely by Serb children and that the school Vuk Karadzic is given to the ethnic Albanians, who previously seized all schools in Pristina, Obilic and Lipljan.

The Serbs said they would agree that ethnic Albanian children attend all schools in Kosovo Polje after KFOR and UNMIK secure conditions for the holding of joint classes in schools in Pristina, Obilic and elsewhere.

The KFOR command promised to evict all ethnic Albanians, who forced their way into Serb apartments in Kosovo Polje, although this decision caused protests by ethnic Albanians.

KFOR and the Italian police are controlling the situation on Saturday.


ETHNIC ALBANIANS RALLY, GO ON RAMPAGE

About a hundred ethnic Albanians rallied again at about noon on Saturday outside the Culture Hall in Kosovo Polje to provoke passers by, waving Albanian flags and shouting.

Local Serbs are still keeping barricades on all roads leading to this town in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija. During last night's rally, ethnic Albanians demolished a kindergarten in the town and stoned several Serb houses, the Centre for Peace and Tolerance said.

On Friday afternoon, another group of ethnic Albanians tried to break through the barricades, and after KFOR troops forced them to take another route, the dissatisfied ethnic Albanians remained there for some time, protesting loudly.

Radio amateurs reported from Strpce today that local Serbs decided to remove security barricades from all roads leading to this town on Sunday, after they received assurances that two elementary school principals, abducted by ethnic Albanian terrorists several days ago, would be released on Monday.


"QUIET" IN KOSOVO, BUT WITH MANY INCIDENTS

The KFOR Information Centre of Pristina on Saturday said the situation in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province is relatively quiet, but facts given in the statement indicate quite the opposite.

An improvised hand grenade was thrown at a civilian automobile in Pristina at 1.45 a.m. Saturday. During a night search of an uninhabited building in Pristina, KFOR troops found an anti-tank mine and removed it immediately.

Sporadic fire was heard in central Kosovska Mitrovica last night, and a strong explosion echoed in the northern part of the town shortly after midnight.

A traffic accident occurred near Dragas in Sector South of the international forces. Two civilians were killed and three wounded.

The French foreign legion battalion on Friday completed the process of destroying ammunition, mines and explosive devices seized from the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation that calls itself the Kosovo Liberation Army. The munitions had been stored in depots in Plana and Serbia, KFOR said.

A U.S. paratrooper was killed in Sector East on Friday, the KFOR spokesman said. His parachute failed to open during an exercise called Rapid Guardian.

A Canadian helicopter ran into a power line 12 km north of Pristina, but managed to land safely despite damage to the craft.


KOSOVO DIVIDED INTO SECTORS ACCORDING TO ECONOMIC INTERESTS

There is a growing impression that economic interests of the key NATO countries, in addition to military-political reasons, are behind the entry and criteria for deployment of the international peace forces in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province. Research conducted by Tanjug in the field recently directly indicates material factors which have mostly not been mentioned in public so far.

The province's northern sector (the district of Kosovska Mitrovica) is controlled by French troops. For the past five years before the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, France had been keenly interested in investments in the non-ferrous metallurgy of the mining-smelting complex Trepca. France is also very interested in the ferronickel factory of Glogovac, which it now controls. French firms had already paid deposits for imports of zinc and launching production at the Zinc Metallurgy of Trepca.

British interests in thermo-electric power plants induced them to take control of the central part of Kosovo and Metohija. Their haste in taking over control of major electricity plants and installations is evident in the immediate dismissals of Serb workers in this field. Earlier, when privatisation had been announced in Serbia, the British companies British Power, Bankers' Trust and Nat West had been very interested in the electric power industry of Obilic and the local plants of the Serbian oil industry NIS.

Italian troops of the KFOR are in control of the district of Pec, western Kosovo and Metohija. Italians immediately took control of the Zastava Iveco plants with which Fiat of Italy had maintained business co-operation for several years. Observers believe Italians wanted this sector also because of the relative closeness of the Adriatic Sea and the Italian border.

Germans have military-economic control of the rubber industry Balkanbelt of Suva Reka, which had maintained co-operation with Deutsche Kontinental. Balkanbelt had acquired all its installations and production technology for dumper-tyres and belts from the Czech firm Matador. German funds account for 60 percent of Matador's capital.

Germans probably chose this sector also because of top quality Metohija wines. Over 40 million litres of top quality wines made according to the best ecological technology of German design were left in the cellars of Kosovo vine of Mala Krusa, Metohijavino of Suva Reka, and Orvino of Djakovica, after the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces. Before breaking off trade relations with Serbia, the German firm Racke had annually purchased 25 million litres of Metohija wines.

Judging from what international peace forces have done in the Serbian province so far in the area of security and preserving its multi-ethnicity, it can be concluded that the nominally proclaimed goals are far from being realised. However, support to ethnic Albanian extremists and taking over of their "own" zones of economic influence seem to have been the main motives of the NATO leaders.


ETHNIC ALBANIANS ADVANCING INTO KOSOVO POLJE

Ethnic Albanian terrorists seized the railway station building in Kosovo Polje at about 4 p.m. Saturday.

The situation is alarming, as numerous members of the international forces KFOR in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province are unable to hold back ethnic Albanians who are moving toward this town in growing numbers from Pristina and neighbouring villages populated by ethnic Albanians, the Center for Peace and Tolerance of Kosovo Polje said.

Ethnic Albanians plan to take full control of this town, including the railway station, the sources said. A train on the route Kosovo Polje - Leposavic was stoned today as it left the Kosovo Polje railway station.

The train had left a few minutes ahead of schedule as the engine driver had observed several hundred ethnic Albanians moving toward the station building, the centre said.

The definite abductions of about a dozen Serbs who were in the two cars was avoided. All windows were broken on the cars, in spite of a KFOR escort, the centre said.


JUL JOINS CELEBRATIONS OF 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF PR CHINA

In the Yugoslav Left (JUL) directorate has been held a a session of the committee for international co-operation on the occasion of the great anniversary of the friendly Chinese people - half a century since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

At an expanded committee, attended also by Chinese Ambassador in Yugoslavia Pan Zhanlin, JUL president Ljubisa Ristic said that JUL, as all progressive and peace-loving forces in the world, celebrates that day as their own holiday, because China with its dynamic development, reforms, opening up to the world and principled stand for freedom, peace, equality, has become the hope of the world in the next millennium.

Speaking about PR China as one of the centres of the multi-polar world, JUL international cooperation secretary Vladimir Stambuk pointed to the exceptional importance of the role of the country which is consistently defending the UN Charter, the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity, the prunciples of non-interference in internal affairs of others and mutual respect of countries and peoples.

At the committee session, presided over by Tatjana Lenard, it was said that not only leftist parties of the world but also the entire planet own a debt of gratitude to PR China for its results and comprehensive progress and achievements in all spheres that have made it an unavoidable factor of world peace and security.

Yugoslavia appreciated greatly the resolute "No" to hegemony and domination, notably to the break up of Yugoslavia, sanctions and brutal NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, it was said at the meeting.

Ambassador Pan thanked for the messages of support to PR China and its people, pointing to the traditional friendship of the Chinese and Yugoslav peoples.

PR China respects the fact that Yugoslavia, which is defending its sovereignty and borders supports a unified PR China, which in turn wishes Yugoslavia independence and prosperity, Ambassador Pan said.


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