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MILOSEVIC RECEIVES DIRECTORS OF RAIL COMPANIES OF SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received on Thursday the general directors of the rail companies of southeastern Europe who are meeting in Belgrade at their 15th conference.
The delegation included representatives from Yugoslavia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania and Bulgaria, the International Rail Union, the conference chairmen - Yugoslav Railways board of directors president Milomir Minic, Yugoslav Railways General Director Svetolik Kostadinovic and Belgrade Rail Comany General Director Zivorad Maksimovic. They informed Milosevic about the work of the 15th conference of the top representatives of Balkan railways, which this year mark the tenth anniversary of joint work.
Speaking on behalf of the foreign guests, Romanian Railways president Viorel Simut said that the railways of southeastern Europe are closely linked and mutually dependent through joint business interests and are an important communications bridge between Europe and Asia.
Milosevic expressed satisfaction over the succesful cooperation between the railways of the Balkan countries and supported their strategic development saying that a coordinated development of the rail infrastructure, the free flow of people and goods and the lifting of administrative barriers clearly represent the goals of all Balkan countries, whose interest it is to participate equally in the integration processes on the continent.
The Balkan countries should not wait to take part in the European integrations, rather, they should form mutual ties in the region, Milosevic said.
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC AWARDS NATIONAL HERO DECORATION TO 53RD PARATROOPER BRIGADE
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is also the supreme commander, decorated on Thursday the Yugoslav Army 53rd paratrooper brigade with the Order of the National Hero for acts which serve as an example of heroism, determination, self-sacrifice, disciplined and responsible realisation of tasks in the defence of the sovereignty, territory, independence and constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The decoration was awarded on the occasion of the day of the formation of this brigade (Oct. 14) and its 55th anniversary, the Yugoslav president's military cabinet said.
RECONSTRUCTION OF OIL DERIVATIVES STORAGE DEPOTS BEGINS IN NIS
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic said Thursday that the beginning of the reconstruction of oil derivatives storage depots in Nis, southeastern Serbia, was of vital importance to the entire Yugoslav republic.
"We shall complete the reconstruction of these facilities, destroyed by the NATO aggressor, by February 14," he said adding that the facilities were crucial to the region and the rest of the country.
Milutinovic voiced confidence that builders would complete the rebuilding of the depots by the set deadline as they had done in the case of all other facilities that had been reconstructed.
The rebuilding of the storage depots, financed by the directorate for the country's reconstruction and the Jugopetrol oil company, is carried out by the MIN holding company of Nis, the Gosa holding corporation of Smederevska Palanka and the Morava Krusce company of Nis.
The directorate and Jugopetrol are expected to invest about 37 million dinars in the rebuilding of six diesel and petrol storage depots whose total capacity will amount to 14,000 cubic metres.
Also attending were Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, the directorate's head Milutin Mrkonjic, Yugoslav Minister for Relations with International Financial Institutions Borka Vucic, Yugoslav Telecommunications Minister Ivan Markovic, Yugoslav Refugee Minister Bratislava Morina, Serbian Construction Minister Dejan Kovacevic, Serbian Minister of Power Industry and Mining Zivota Cosic, Zoran Arandjelovic of Serbia's Socialist Party (SPS) executive committee and Nisava River district deputies to the Yugoslav and Serbian parliaments.
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER - UNITY OF STATE AND PEOPLE
Federal Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said on Wednesday that the created unity between the state and the people is a firm basis for building the future in the new millennium.
Speaking at a special session of the local assembly of Cuprija, central Serbia, marking the 55th anniversary of the liberation of this city from the occupation in World War Two, Jovanovic set out that the experiences gained from the defence during the NATO aggression and from the reconstruction of Serbia should be assessed in the correct manner and that this is the result of huge sacrifices and efforts, rather than of somebody's help and handouts.
Jovanovic stated that the reforms and development represent the building of a modern Serbia and Yugoslavia, their modern economy and science and reconstruction in the sphere of the economy, society, culture and moral.
The basic condition for this is the unity of the people and the state, Jovanovic said adding that this is being achieved with the aid of great discipline, firmness and unity in the government and state.
Expressing gratitude for the October award which he received from the Cuprija authorities, Jovanovic stated that this represents a recognition to the creators of our policy and strategy of independent development, to the efforts for equal cooperation and equal relations in the world and for democratic relations characterised by equality between large and small countries and all members of the United Nations.
The special session was attended by the head of the republican Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country Milutin Mrkonjic, Federal Sports Minister Velizar Djeric, the president of the federal parliament's Security Board Milutin Stojkovic, republican and federal deputies from the Morava river region and representatives of the Yugoslav Army.
SERBIAN MINISTER SAYS MINORITIES FREELY PROMOTE NATIONAL IDENTITIES
The purpose of those who demand various forms of autonomy for Vojvodina is to destabilise that province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, and Serbia itself, Serbia's minister for minority affairs is quoted as saying.
In a text entitled "A good foundation for coexistence," carried by the daily Borba in its Thursday issue, Minister Ivan Sedlak says that all people in Serbia, whatever their nationality and religion, are free to develop their national identities in all fields.
In substantiation, Sedlak quotes free education for the minorities in their languages, from primary school to university levels, which is something no other country in the region has.
He goes on to say that, of 109 secondary schools in Vojvodina, 37 teach complete curricula in one of four minority languages, 26 of them in Hungarian.
He further says that, although the year has been difficult, all traditional cultural events of the ethnic minorities have been held.
He notes that none of the ethnic communities in Vojvodina has been assimilated into a majority nation through all the centuries of coexistence, which is rare in the world.
YUGOSLAVIA REGISTERS INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT PRICE RISE
Yugoslavia has registered a 36 percent rise in the wholesale price of industrial products in the January-September period as against the same period last year, according to the Yugoslav statistics bureau.
In September, the wholesale price of industrial products rose by 47.6 percent as compared to September 1998. The price of foodstuffs went up 29.2 percent, of other industrial products 51 percent and of spirits 72.2 percent.
The price of industrial products rose by 14.5 percent in September as against the month before, with the price of foodstuffs and spirits going up seven and 14.6 percent respectively and of other products 16.5 percent.
KFOR SAYS SERB WOMAN FOUND MURDERED, TORCHED IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
Norwegian peacekeepers found the body of a murdered Serb woman in a torched house in Kosovo Polje early on Wednesday, the Press Service of the international KFOR force in Kosovo-Metohija said.
According to the statement of the KFOR Press Service in Pristina, chief city of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-secured Kosovo-Metohija province, the woman was first murdered, and then torched.
Her name was not disclosed, and the Centre for peace and tolerance in Kosovo Polje has no information on the crime.
The KFOR Press Service further said that two German troopers were killed in a car crash on the Urosevac-Brezovica road late on Tuesday.
Also late on Tuesday in Istok, a civilian whose identity has not been disclosed was killed in a traffic accident, and the body of an unidentified ethnic Albanian woman was found near the village of Kostric in the Vitina municipality.
OSCE'S VOLLEBAEK CONDEMNS UNMIK MEMBER'S MURDER BY ETHNIC ALBANIANS
The president of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) condemned on Wednesday the cold-blooded murder of UN official in U.N.-secured Kosovo-Metohija Valentin Krumov by ethnic Albanians.
According to police reports, Krumov was abducted, beaten up and subsequently shot to death by a gang of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija's city of Pristina on Monday for speaking a language they mistook for Serbian.
The OSCE president, Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, said it was impermissible that a person should be murdered for speaking a certain language.
Vollebaek described the murder as a cowardly and dastardly act of mindless violence which has no place in a civic society that the UN civilian mission (UNMIK) to the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province is working to achieve.
KOSOVO-METOHIJA EGYPTIANS WRITE TO KOFI ANNAN
Ethnic Egyptians, loyal citizens of Yugoslavia, are among the victims of ppersecution by ethnic Albania terrorists in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province, subjected to evictions, looting and harassment, the Association of Kosovo-Metohija Egyptians said in a letter addressed Wednesday to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Before the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and intensive persecution, the province had a population of 100,000 ethnic Egyptians, of whom 30,000 have since fled, the letter says.
The remaining members of the community in the province are living virtually under house arrest with no freedom of movement, and are under pressure of forced assimilation by the terrorists, the letter says.
This community of Yugoslav citizens originating from old Egypt is thus in danger of disappearing, andd consequently appeals to Kofi Annan to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo-Metohija, the letter says.
NATO CONSIDERING PARTIAL PULLOUT OF TROOPS FROM KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Statements by top NATO officials at the alliance's Brussels headquarters indicate that the alliance is working on plans for a possible partial pullout of troops from the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
According to head of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Guido Venturoni of Italy, a decision on the withdrawal of a part of about 43,000 strong NATO troops participating in the UN peacekeeping force KFOR might be taken next spring.
Venturoni, who visited Denmark's capital Copenhagen on Tuesday within his tour of European countries, said that the alliance would very likely consider the possibility of withdrawing a part of the troops from the province next spring, stressing, however, that it was to soon to talk about it.
STABILITY OF BALKANS CANNOT BE REALIZED WITHOUT SERBIA
"The stability of the Balkans cannot be realised without Serbia. This is why the Serb people cannot be demonised by the West, rather, the international community should intercede on behalf of their destiny," the Italian government's representative for the reconstruction of the Balkans, Franco Bernabe, said in an interview to Thursday's daily L'Unita.
"Undoubtedly there is a serious problem regarding the humanitarian situation in Serbia and this is why the West should coordinate the forms of its activities," Bernabe warned. He described as a mistake the decision to hold back economic aid to Serbia because, thus, the developed world risks to increase the anger and hurt feelings of the Serb people towards the West.
Europe must make an effort and do everything, including political and diplomatic activities, to help Serbia, Bernabe said.
MACEDONIAN POLICE PROVE KFOR SPOKESMEN'S CLAIMS TO BE FALSE
Macedonian police said Thursday that a vehicle of the UN protection force in Kosovo and Metohija KFOR had been in the wrong lane of the Skopje-Veles motorway on Oct. 10 when it had almost collided with cars with leaders of Macedonia's opposition Social Democratic Alliance.
The police thus denied repeated claims by KFOR spokesmen Colin Stone and Jan Joosten that the report was nothing but a fabrication.
The police said that the KFOR vehicle with three British soldiers had joined the wrong lane of the motorway at Katlanovo moving at 120 km per hour in the direction of Skopje.
Thanks to the presence of mind of the chauffeurs of the cars with alliance officials, including its leader Branko Crvenkovski and its presidential candidate Tito Petkovski, a head-on collision with the KFOR vehicle was avoided, the police said.
The police have not yet established what the KFOR vehicle, belonging to the force's unit stationed in Obilic near Pristina, chief city of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, was doing in Macedonia.
Stone and Joosten were also unable to provide the necessary information, conceding finally, however, that the incident had occurred.
Foreign troops stationed in Macedonia are responsible for about 150 traffic accidents that have left seven people dead.
The worst accident occurred on the Skopje-Veles motorway on August 28 when a KFOR vehicle collided with a car killing all its passengers including Macedonian Minister Radovan Stojkovski, his wife and ten-year daughter and their chauffeur.
CZECH STATE-ECONOMIC DELEGATION VISITS YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT
Assistant Federal Foreign Trade Minister Verica Matkovic received a state-economic delegation from the Czech Republic, headed by the general director of the Czech agency for supporting trade, Judith Stourachova, the federal Information Secretariat has said.
The Czech delegation was made up of Czech ambassador to Yugoslavia, Ivan Busniak, and the representatives of major Czech banking and financial associations and companies.
Discussed was bilateral economic cooperation and possibilities for the cooperation of Czech firms in the reconstruction of the NATO destroyed facilities in Yugoslavia.
Stourachova conveyed the great interest of the Czech companies for participating in the reconstruction of Yugoslavia. Within the project Reconstruction of the Balkans, 750 tenders have been submitted which, after the delegation reviews the priorities during the visit to Yugoslavia, should become concrete projects which will be jointly financed by the Czech government.
Underscoring the traditional cooperation between Yugoslav and Czech economies, Matkovic said that Czech firms are welcome on the Yugoslav market through various forms of cooperation, barter arrangements and joint ventures in the sphere of the power industry, transport, infrastructure and industry.
YUGOSLAV NATO-WROUGHT ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE EXCEEDS 3 BILLION DOLLARS
An inspection of 18 natural reservations and 2,000 bombed animal and plant habitats in Serbia showed a damage from NATO air strikes of at least 3.13 billion dollars, according to a Serbian official on Wednesday.
Serbian Environmental Protection Institute Director Radomir Mandic said in Novi Sad, north Serbia (Yugoslavia), that of 25,000 missiles dropped by NATO on Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10, at least 15,000 fell in the countryside, away from military targets.
Speaking at a round-table debate on environmental damage caused by the NATO aggression, organised by the Serbian ministry for the environment at the Novi Sad Fair, Mandic said that four of Serbia's five natural parks and all major reservations were targeted.
"About 500 missiles dropped on the national park on Mt Fruska Gora (near Novi Sad) destroyed more than 10 hectares of forests and more than 10,000 birds, including some rare species," he said.
Heavy damage has been sustained also by the national park on Mt Kopaonik (central Serbia), where 70 shells and 10 cluster bombs destroyed hectares of forests and a large number of indigenous species.
They destroyed also the mausoleum of Serbia's naturalist of world fame Josif Pancic.
NATO-INCURRED DAMAGE ESTIMATED IN MONTENEGRO AT ABOUT DM 500 MILLION
The damage sustained by Montenegro during NATO's March 24-June 10 bombing is estimated at about 500 million German marks, with direct damage incurred on the Yugoslav republic amounting to 4.73 million German marks.
The institute for strategic studies and forecasts in Montenegro's capital Podgorica, which has estimated the damage, has established that Montenegro's gross domestic product will be down by about 19 million German marks this year because of the NATO bombing.
Social consequences of the NATO aggression include also an increase in the number of workers who have been laid off by about 15,000, while an estimated number of about 6,000 people will lose their jobs.
MONTENEGRIN COMPANY TO RESUME COOPERATION WITH ITALIAN PARTNER
The Koni garments manufacturer in Niksic, in the west of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, will resume cooperation with Italy's Igam firm that was severed due to NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on Yugoslavia.
Koni's director Miodrag Djokovic and Igam's owner Covsima Tarantina agreed to extend the contract between the two companies for another three years.
Koni is to finish and deliver to the Italian partner 2 million garments in the next three years.
YUGOSLAV FILM WINS GOLD MEDAL AT CZECH FESTIVAL
A Yugoslav documentary The Law of Nature by Petar Lalovic won the gold medal at the world festival of ecology films in Krumlov, Czech Republic.
The film shows the complex self-preservation processes and natural selection of wildlife.
The festival showed 160 documentaries by authors from 25 countries.
Yugoslav Ambassador to the Czech Republic Djoko Stojicic received the award on behalf of Lalovic.
ETHIOPIAN BAISA WINS BELGRADE THROUGH HISTORY RACE
Ethiopian athlete Fita Baisa won the Belgrade through History race held for the fourth time Wednesday around the Kalemegdan Park.
Baisa ran the 6,000 meter race in 17 minutes, 8 seconds, one second faster that Paul Tergat (Kenya) and four seconds faster than Golumri (Morocco).
The best Yugoslav runner was Dragoslav Prpa who came in tenth.
Times -
1. Baisa (Ethiopia) 17.08
2. Tergat (Kenya) 17.09
3. Golumri (Morocco) 17.12
4. Nizigama (Burundi) 17.15
5. Benzine (Algeria) 17.23
6. Nombi (Uganda) 17.27
7. Kimutai (Kenya) 17.32
8. Drugin (Russia) 17.33
9. Guera (Portugal) 17.36
10. Prpa (Yugoslavia) 17.37
------------
13. Devic (Yugoslavia) 18.05
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17. Bogicevic (Yugoslavia) 18.27
The 4,000 meter ladies' race was won by Constantina Dica (Romania) with 13.14, followed by Luminica Gogirlea (Romania) and Sonja Stolic (Yugoslavia).
JUL'S MIRA MARKOVIC GIVES INTERVIEW TO FAMIGLIA CRISTIANA WEEKLY
The Vatican's weekly Famiglia Cristiana prominently features in its latest issue an interview with Yugoslav Left (JUL) leader Mira Markovic by its editor Carlo Remeni.
The magazine, which has a circulation of 1.2 million, carries the text under the headline "We are a great nation," with the caption "Mira Markovic speaking" superimposed.
An editorial draws the readers' attention to the force of character and intelligence of Ms Markovic.
It stresses that, fully aware that she is speaking for the most widely circulated organ of western European Christians, she uses strong arguments, though never actually getting down to a directly religious note.
The editorial layout of the exclusive interview indicates in the sub-title Ms Markovic's naming of the true culprits for the disintegration of the former Yugoslav federation and the geopolitical nature of the new Yugoslavia.
"Nationalism is the biggest evil that can befall a nation. For ten years now, I have been warning that this will destroy Yugoslavia. I can state with authority that the disintegration of Yugoslavia was caused and encouraged from outside.
"We are aware that we are a small, but not-budging obstacle in the way of a giant," the magazine quotes Ms Markovic as saying.
This year, the true Roman Catholic believers have gone through countless difficult experiences which have served as eye-openers even for the most gullible among them when it comes to the true anti-Christian nature of the giant in question.
The president of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, speaking at the celebration dinner of the 50th anniversary of NATO, bragged that NATO is better than the Bible!
It should also be noted that, during NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on Yugoslavia, the U.S. president arrogantly publicly rejected out of hand a personal message from Pope John Paul II pleading for a suspension of the air strikes at least during the Easter holidays.
During the NATO aggression this year, the Vatican showed signs of solidarity with and compassion for the suffering of an Eastern Church nation, for the first time in recent history.
The opening of the pages of Famiglia Cristiana magazine to Ms Markovic, too, is a sign that the Roman Catholic world is becoming open to the truth about the Yugoslav people who are heroically defending their freedom and independence.
Judging from the first informal reactions, the publication of the interview in the most influential European Roman Catholic magazine is certain to lend a powerful impact to the positive process of spreading the truth and awakening the conscience of the western European Christians and of all Europeans of good will.