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MILOSEVIC EXTOLS RECONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS AS SOURCE OF PRIDE
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said in Leskovac, southeast Serbia, on Monday that in the months since the end of the war everyone has witnessed the huge successful efforts being made to rebuild as much as possible of what has been destroyed.
Speaking at the celebrations marking the liberation of Leskovac and the opening of a new rail station, Milosevic said that "the majority of the destroyed bridges, electric power installations, apartment buildings and economic facilities have either been reconstructed or rebuilt.
"These truly gigantic endeavours and successes in the reconstruction of the country, represent for all people living here and for future generations, a source of pride elevating the people to the pinnacles of the history of civilisation.
"Apart from this impressive reconstruction, we of the year 1999 are leaving to the future generations yet another cornerstone for the huge historical achievements about which I am speaking. We are proud to leave them the example of the heroic resistance to the monstrous destruction of a country and its people carried out jointly by 19 industrialised countries in the second half of the 20th century.
"These countries used both the most sophisticated weapons at their disposal, but also weapons seemingly employed for the very first time. During that war, whose aim was the occupation of Serbia, they dropped untested missiles on sleeping people at night. Serbia was awake, the people spent the nights on bridges, in the streets, squares and on roofs singing and waving their country's flags. The anti-aircraft defence of tiny Yugoslavia downed the most sophisticated planes and missiles, which aimed to destroy all life in this country - people, plants and animals.
"The enormity of our resistance was equally made up of a gigantic battle against weapons whose characteristics were unknown to us and of the determination that the killers are met with wide open eyes, hand in hand, upright and singing.
"It is not the first time that our people faced murderers upright and died singing, and that the victors are those who die. However, this time the belief that the unarmed people would conquer the powerful armada of the world's most heavily armed killers who did not even know whom they are murdering and for what reason, prevailed among the masses and fascinated the entire world.
"All images of our resistance went around the world, at least those countries who were unafraid to reveal them. In countries in which they were not published, this was done out of fear, so that the people out of whose ranks recruited were the murderers of a country which they barely knew existed, would not demand their responsibility. The same is taking place with the images of the reconstruction, which are being censored, just like the resistance was censored.
"The majority of the world knows that small and wounded Serbia is being rebuilt as fast as the missiles which destroyed it were able to fly, but the owners of these missiles are silent about our reconstruction in order not to threaten their superiority with which they want to intimidate the world. Although I mention superiority, I am not saying that the world is surprised by this, because violence never causes wonder, just condemnation, fear and the need for rebellion.
"The defence and reconstruction of Serbia are a dangerous inspiration and an almost contagious example for all who value their freedom, national dignity, who have their place in the history of civilisation and who know that the world has a chance only of it is populated by equal peoples and the international community made up of all states.
"Acceptance of the peace plan last June put a stop to the bombing of Serbia, and we received guarantees from the United Nations that it would protect normal life in peace in Kosovo. We received guarantees of the country's sovereignty and integrity, and the war stopped on those terms.
"However, it very soon transpired that the UN mission is incapable of honouring the UN guarantees and that its forces are largely dominated by representatives of NATO countries which now, with the help of ethnic Albanian criminals, terrorists and drug dealers and under the UN wing are committing the genocide of Serbs and all other non-Albanians in Kosovo which they could not achieve with bombs.
"By deciding to put its trust in the United Nations, our country has made its contribution to the cause of peace, a future without war, a new world which will be based on mutual cooperation, equality and prosperity for all. We want the United Nations always to bear in mind that the accord signed in June is binding on both signatory parties. Respect of the accord by one party binds the other to do the same. And everybody should be prepared to shoulder the burden of responsibility for their actions.
"Just now on one of the bridges we counted how many days it has taken since the end of the war to build the lasting facilities on the highway through our country all the way to Leskovac. We counted that it has taken 120 days. I cannot tell you how many days we shall count before our authorities and our people return to Kosovo, but I guarantee that the number is finite.
"Fellow countrymen, life is not easy in our country today. Life is difficult for many, indeed for most of the people. It does not take CNN or Deutsche Welle to tell us that, I, your president, can tell you that.
"But, I shall tell you also something that the western media are keeping silent about. Our country, Serbia in particular, has over the past ten years undergone every possible social and natural calamity that can befall a society that can befall mankind. We have not been spared a single evil ever recorded in the history of man.
"This decade has brought huge problems to many countries. For some it was war, for others refugees, some were exposed to sanctions, others to floods, earthquakes, some countries disintegrated, others changed their political systems.
"Each of those countries took long to heal and recover from its particular affliction, and its people knew that this was because of the floods or because of the war.
"With us, all the social and natural disasters happened at once, all in the same decade, between the years '91 and '99 - wars, refugees, sanctions, earthquakes, floods and incessant political and media pressure.
"Despite all this, we are still standing and have shown the world what it means to love and defend one's homeland, how a country should be built and restored.
"Furthermore, I wish to stress that we are getting no outside help for this great, successful and swift reconstruction. And hence the question - if all this is being done so successfully and so fast by relying on our own forces, how then can living standards be high, how can people live well in financial prosperity and without stress, and is there another country in the world and in the history of mankind that has gone through these same ordeals simultaneously, and is going through others still, without this reflecting on the quality of life of each individual.
"Fellow countrymen, dear friends, you who love freedom and justice so much and are the inhabitants of one of the most industrious regions, I wish you to preserve all these traits, never to give them up and to bring up your children in this spirit. On behalf of all the people of this country, I congratulate you on all the successes in the reconstruction and on your contribution in the mass and courageous activities which your partook as members of the Yugoslav Army and police during the aggression on our country.
"May all from this region who lost their lives during the NATO aggression rest in peace, and their families and all should know that they have joined the great army of patriots who have for centuries died in the defence of their country.
"I wish peace to all the citizens of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro. To all the citizens of Serbia, I wish a successful and speedy reconstruction that should end before the start of the winter. To the people of Montenegro, may they decide about their fate by themselves without casting even the shred of a doubt on the continuity of the Slav perception of goodness, Montenegrin chivalry and European feeling for civilisation.
"From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of all of us, I want the entire world to know that our country is a part of the world community. Here I have seen a slogan saying: 'The world is not made up of NATO, but also of Russia, China, India and others'. We also make up the world, just like all freedom-loving countries. The whole world should know that our country is a part of the world community, ready to cooperate on an equal basis both with the developed and underdeveloped peoples and countries, to respect everyone's contribution to world progress, and to everything that is humane and progressive in every nation, every society and every individual.
"However, I wish that the world never accepts violence and slavery. Such people have always lived here, and they are living here now. My felicitations for the Day of the Liberation of Leskovac to all fighters, builders and all citizens. Long live Serbia. Long live Yugoslavia," Milosevic said.
Milosevic arrived at the new rail station in Leskovac by train from Brestovac, on the Mis-Leskovac railway.
He visited the new station and congratulated the builders on the successful completion of the work.
The Yugoslav president was accompanied by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Premier Mirko Marjanovic, Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff General Dragoljub Ojdanic, Yugoslav Third Army Commander General Nebojsa Pavkovic, Serbian Parliament Speaker Dragan Tomic, federal parliament Chamber of Citizens Speaker Milomir Minic, federal vice prime ministers Nikola Sainovic and Jovan Zebic, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) General Secretary Gorica Gajevic and Serbian and federal ministers and deputies.
Several tens of thousands of inhabitants of Leskovac and the entire region often interrupted Milosevic's speech with applause and shouts of approval and support.
The numerous banners contained slogans saying "Slobo, we love you", "Slobo, Serbia is with you" , "We are building bridges, roads and the future" , "Believe in us" , "We will build a happier future".
Masses of people greeted Milosevic all the way from the rail station to the City Hall where he met with the local authorities and businessmen.
The Yugoslav president arrived in Brestovac via the reconstructed highway where he declared open five bridges, destroyed in the NATO aggression.
The completion of the work on the reconstruction of these bridges marks that the Belgrade - Leskovac highway is now fully operational.
Everywhere Milosevic was received warmly with ovations expressing support for his policy of peace, reconstruction and reforms.
Milosevic crossed the rebuilt bridges on foot, shaking hands with the crowds.
"However, we can say very clearly that our economic recovery, despite blockades is proceeding at an accelerated pace, and that the rise in the standard of living, which is our primary objective, will be as high as our economic results. Everything else is unrealistic and false illusion. The standard of living will rise at the same pace as economic results are achieved.
"Our institutions of power, parliaments and governments are doing, I can ascertain that, everything they can so that citizens, despite the traumas they lived through, live well, live better and they certainly do live better than the citizens of some neighbouring European countries who have not endured any of those blows which we have, or have endured only one.
"I know that there are also many omissions which are not the consequence of sanctions, or wars, or floods, or the presence of a large number of refugees. We know about some of those omissions and we endeavour to remove them, and some are well concealed by those who commit them, and the citizens are right when they point them out and for such accounts should be opened the doors of every deputy, every minister, every official everywhere.
"And if citizens consider that despite all those misfortunes that we have lived through and which we are living through, there are representatives of the people who could assure a better life for the people then they should be elected at the next elections to enable such a life for them. That is all that I have to say on that subject.
"Our country is looking at another important reconstruction, besides the one concerning destroyed bridges, houses, hospitals, roads and economic facilities. We are facing the reconstruction of all dimensions of our life - economic, political, cultural, moral. It must be thorough, integral and very organised.
"It is a necessity for our country that went through the nightmare of social and all other misfortunes for almost ten years. For that reconstruction we have to make quick decisions and preparations. At the same time, the reconstruction must proceed just as reforms.
"More specifically, the state and the society must recover, by building a new social, modern system of the economy, of political institutions, education, information.
"I must say that citizens should not be deceived that the reconstruction of the country and its development can be conducted by those who, allegedly, in the name of progress walk the streets in the evening hours in our cities. They are mostly cowards, blackmailers and lackeys.
"They were not in uniform during the bombing, they did not hold guns in their hands. Many of them have fled the country and waited for the bombing to stop and then to return there. They do not take part in the reconstruction, they were not on bridges to defend them during the bombing. They are not now on the bridges that are being rebuilt.
"But, with stones in their hands and a vocabulary which they learned in the offices of our murderers, they threaten to destroy what we have defended from NATO and what we have rebuilt after NATO's destruction.
"The only thing that they press for is that through violence this country plunges into civil war where, with outside support, would come representatives with Serbian names, or they could have German or Anglo-Saxon names. Why not.
"Colonisation does not have many considerations even today. When one country becomes a colony it is not, really, very important whether it its ruled by a domestic janizary or the coloniser himself.
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC: SERBIA IS A WIDE BRIDGE BETWEEN PEOPLES, STATES
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic opened Monday for traffic the highway from Belgrade to Nis, and further on to Leskovac, that was interrupted by the brutal, destructive NATO aggression on our country.
Talking to a large number of citizens on the bridge over the river Jasenica, President Milosevic said:
"I am very pleased that we all have the opportunity to share in the joy because of this huge worker success, the opening of the highway till Leskovac.
One hundred twenty days have passed from the end of the war till the opening for traffic of five bridges."
Milosevic said that the bridge over Jasenica was the first bridge and overpass among the ones to be reconstructed on that route. The next ones are those near Veliko Orasje, on Mijatovac, near Cuprija and two near Nis - one over Nisava River and one near Trupalske sume.
The Yugoslav president said that the opening of the highway marked the cessation of all regimes of limitation, all roundabouts, temporary solutions and pontoon bridges on that traffic artery and voiced hope that such temporary solutions will never be needed again.
"We started our reconstruction with bridges. Serbia itself is one wide bridge between peoples, between states. Every bridge in Serbia means a lot, not only for Serbia, not only for Yugoslavia, but also for all of the Balkans," President Milosevic said.
"We are one civilisation bridge integrating this region and it is certain that this reconstruction and rebuilding will help the promotion of relations in the entire region, on the Balkan peninsula and the promotion of our development, the development of our economy, and the raising of the standard of living of our citizens," the Yugoslav president said.
President Milosevic underlined that "reconstruction is proceeding quickly because of the high degree of unity in the realisation of tasks."
He recalled that the directorate for the reconstruction of the country was found on the tenth day of the war, April 4 this year, 67 days before the end of the war. "They worked all the time and made possible that with the end of the war works proceed more quickly," President Milosevic said giving credit to the members of the directorate.
President Milosevic said that the task of reconstruction of bridges on the Belgrade-Nis highway was scheduled to be completed on October 24.
"We are opening the highway today, two weeks ahead of schedule," Milosevic said and added: "I congratulate all the construction workers and all citizens this important worker success."
The ceremony of the opening of the bridge over Jasenica was attended by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Serbian parliament president Dragan Tomic, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, Yugoslav lower house parliament president Milomir Minic, Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, Yugoslav upper house parliament vice-president and SPS secretary general Gorica Gajevic, Serbian and Yugoslav ministers and others.
ANNAN FOR IMMEDIATE SENDING OF HUMANITARIAN AID TO SERBIA
It is necessary as soon as possible to send humanitarian aid to Serbia, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Rome on Monday.
The humanitarian situation in Serbia, where over 700,000 refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo and Metohija province are residing, was one of the main topics at today's talks between Annan and Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema.
It is necessary as soon as possible to define modalities for sending humanitarian aid to Serbia, Annan told a press conference.
D'Alema backed Annan's stand that aid should be sent to Serbia. He underscored he was concerned with the slow progress of the peace process in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, and urged the creation of conditions for a life of togetherness in the province, regardless of nationality.
Annan met last night with Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini. Views were exchanged on the current situation in the Balkans and Dini reiterated that Serbia should not be isolated.
Serbia is the most important part of the Balkans, and it should be included in the Pact on stability as soon as possible, Dini said.
E.U. CONDEMNS ETHNICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
The E.U. Council of Ministers adopted several conclusions over the situation in Kosovo and Metohija in a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, strongly condemning any form of ethnically-motivated violence and calling for the consistent implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
The conclusions, however, make no mention of the fact that the violence is committed by ethnic Albanians against Serbs and other non-Albanians in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, nor warn against the threat posed by ethnic Albanian terrorism in the province.
The ministers called on Kosovo's population and the international community to step up efforts in fighting organised crime.
They urged relevant bodies and organisations to propose measures for putting an end to crime that is on the rise throughout the province.
The issue is expected to be discussed at the Council's next meeting.
KOUCHNER - IMPLEMENTATION OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA RESOLUTION DIFFICULT JOB
Head of the UN civilian mission to Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) Bernard Kouchner admitted on Monday that numerous difficulties and obstacles had been encountered in implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
After meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, Kouchner said that the United Nations was making maximum efforts to protect Serbs in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, conceding, however, that these efforts had not been very successful.
Speaking of what he called the ethnic Albanians' animosity and retaliation against Serbs in the province, Kouchner said that it would take years before the two ethnic communities were reconciled again.
UN MISSION MEMBER KILLED IN PRISTINA BELIEVED TO BE BULGARIAN NATIONAL
The member of the UN mission to Kosovo and Metohija who was killed in central Pristina late on Monday is a Bulgarian national, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) quoted early Tuesday unidentified officials of the UN police force in Serbia's southern province as saying.
The report has not been confirmed in Sofia. The mission's spokesman in Pristina, the province's chief city, is expected to reveal the victim's identity.
The victim was attacked the same day he had arrived in Pristina by an unidentified terrorist who soon disappeared in the crowd, BTA quoted the officials as saying.
EXODUS OF SERBS EMPLOYED IN POWER PLANTS HALTS THEIR WORK
Out of approximately 7,000 workers of Serbian nationality who were employed in public enterprises of the Serbian Electric Power Industry in Kosovo and Metohija, only 150 are still at work, the director of the electric power industry in Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Kostic, told Tanjug.
"With the tacit blessing of members of the international civilian and military mission, Albanian extremists practically purged all Serbian employees so that only 150 Serbs are still performing their work duties, all of them in one enterprise - in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica," Kostic said.
The take over of electric power facilities by the international forces and Albanian "experts" has resulted in a catastrophic state of the facilities for the production of coal and electric power in that province, said Kostic and added that these days not a single thermo-electric power plant was operational in Kosovo-Metohija.
IVANOV ASKS ANNAN TO IMPLEMENT RESOLUTION 1244
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking him to take the necessary measures to correct the permitted digressions in the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution on Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
The Interfax new agency said on Monday quoting diplomatic sources that Ivanov said the resolution was not being implemented in a satisfactory manner. He asked Annan to take measures to correct this situation, using possibilities available to the Security Council.
Ivanov underscored that the resolution clause on the demilitarisation of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and other armed groups of Kosovo Albanians was not being implemented.
There are digressions in the principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, Ivanov said.
The letter underscored that it is necessary as soon as possible to renew the political process aimed at dialogue between the Yugoslav government and representatives of the Kosovo population on the province's status and its wide autonomy within a single state.
The Russian Foreign Ministry set out that Ivanov had sent similar letters to foreign ministers of G-7 countries.
TOM KENIGS DOUBTS SUCCESS OF UN MISSION IN KOSOVO
Tom Kenigs, a German, charged by the United Nations to form a civilian administration in Kosovo is increasingly doubtful about his job, the weekly der Spiegel reported Monday from Hamburg.
Kenigs, who was one of the closest assistants and friends of the leader of the German Greens, Joska Fischer, supported last spring NATO's aggression on Serbia, but now - Der Spiegel said, he is no longer sure whether he did the right thing.
The reason for Kenigs's doubts are the crimes committed on a daily basis by ethnic Albanian extremists and terrorists who ruthlessly burn, loot, persecute and murder all who are not Albanians, the Hamburg weekly reported.
"I often ask myself if I am on the right side," the UN representative was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel. Kenigs is even more doubtful about the chances for the successful completion of the job he has been charged to do.
His dream, Der Speigel said, is to see in reality the democratic order and a tolerant society in Kosovo, that Serbs who fled or were expelled return to their homes and that they all then celebrate that.
"Chances for such a society in Kosovo, however, are not at all optimistic," the weekly said, describing the atmosphere of fear in Kosovo - not only among Serbs, but also among ethnic Albanians who have different opinions from "KLA" leaders.
GREEK MINISTER SEES SELF-RULE, NOT INDEPENDENCE FOR KOSOVO-METOHIJA
Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province should have self-rule, not independence, according to Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopolous in Venice, Italy, on Monday.
This must be an autonomy where all nations and ethnic minorities would have equal rights, Tzochatzopolous said at an Aspen Institute symposium organised by the Italian defence ministry.
Otherwise, he cautioned as quoted by the Greek Vradyni newspaper, if a solution is found outside the UN Security Council's decision on Kosovo, a Pandora's Box will be opened for the ethnic minorities in the region with incalculable consequences for all.
The Greek Elefterotypia newspaper quotes Tsochatzopolous as strongly criticising the attitude of the European Union to Balkan developments.
He said that Europe was responsible for the current situation in the Balkans, because it had not devoted sufficient attention to the security problem in the region.
According to him, the only ones that can bring peace to Kosovo and the Balkans are the Balkan states themselves, not the E.U. and NATO states.
BRITAIN PLANS MOBILISATION TO MEET OBLIGATIONS IN BALKANS
The British Defense Ministry plans to carry out partial mobilisation of the reserve army structure organised within the Territorial Army (TA) in order to meet its obligations toward the peace missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, it was announced in London on Monday.
For the first time since World War II, Great Britain is compelled to carry out mobilisation of this structure for operative army work, as a result of increasingly frequent involvement in crises throughout the world, and a shortage of troops on the professional structure of the armed forces.
The Territorial Army was never on the same and equal duties as the regular professional army in the post-war period.
The mobilised troops would be on duty mostly in Kosovo and Metohija for a six-month period. The Territorial Army numbers 41,200 troops and officers.
E.U. MINISTERS INDIFFERENT TO HUMANITARIAN ISSUES CAUSED BY NATO BOMBING
The foreign ministers of the E.U. member states took a series of political decisions in a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, directly interfering in Yugoslavia's internal affairs and showing once again that they do not intend to solve humanitarian issues triggered by NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression.
Citing as an excuse concern for the Serbian people, the E.U. ministers approved fuel deliveries to the towns of Nis and Pirot, saying that their residents had been most badly affected by the NATO bombing.
Most of the body's 15 members took part in the bombing so that this decision is nothing but a transparent attempt to justify the NATO aggression that caused devastation in Yugoslavia.
One of the officials participating in the meeting commented cynically that the decision was of utmost importance because without this form of assistance the people would freeze to death.
The ministers also decided to lift a civilian flights ban on the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro and the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, saying that the lifting of the ban on the rest of Yugoslavia would be on the agenda of one of the coming meetings.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said that a debate on the lifting of the ban on the rest of Yugoslavia would very likely end at the next meeting of the E.U. Council of Ministers to be held in November.
France urges the lifting of the ban because the measure was taken during the war in Kosovo and Metohija so that there are no longer reasons for it to remain in force, he said.
SERBIAN MINISTER OPENS EXPOSITION OF LATEST TECHNOLOGIES IN BELGRADE
Serbian Minister of Science and Technology Branislav Ivkovic opened on Tuesday the 10th exposition of the latest technologies 'Novoteh'99,' at which over 60 research institutions have presented results of their work.
Welcoming participants in the exposition, Ivkovic said that Serbia and Yugoslavia were symbols of heroism, dignity and patriotism as well as symbols of struggle for the independence of one's country and one's people.
He said that a major task lying ahead of them was to establish "thousands of bridges" between Serbia's research organisations and universities on one hand, and its economy, on the other, with a view to ensuring the country's reconstruction and development.
These bridges must be adequate and must give results, he said stressing that the Serbian government would continue to back research work but expected it to bear results and to secure profitable employment in Serbia and Yugoslavia.
ANNAN TO DECLARE BIRTH OF 6-BILLIONTH INHABITANT OF EARTH
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in Sarajevo on Monday to symbolically declare a just-born baby the six billionth inhabitant of our plant, foreign news agencies said.
UN statisticians have determined Oct. 12 as the day when the population of Earth will reach six billion.
Annan, who arrived in Sarajevo from Rome, will meet this evening with the three-member Bosnia-Herzegovina presidency - Zivko Radisic, a Serb, Ante Jelavic, a Croat and Alija Izetbegovic, a Muslim.
This is Annan's first visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina since he became Secretary General on 1997.
The ceremony declaring the six billionth inhabitant of the Earth will be held on Tuesday afternoon in the Sarajevo Clinical Centre.
The five billionth inhabitant was born in 1987.