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RECEPTION GIVEN TO MARK DAY OF BELGRADE'S LIBERATION FROM NAZI OCCUPATION
A meeting marking the 55th anniversary since Belgrade was liberated from Nazi occupation ended late on Tuesday in a reception given by heads of Serbia's Socialist Party (SPS) and Yugoslav Left (JUL) city boards, Dragan Tomic and Slobodan Cerovic respectively.
The reception was attended by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic, Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic, Yugoslav army and Serbian police officials, SPS and JUL leaders and other ranking Serbian and Yugoslav officials.
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC ATTENDS COMMEMORATION OF BELGRADE LIBERATION
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic attended Tuesday evening a commemoration celebrating the 55th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in World War II.
The celebration was attended also by Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Serbian parliament Speaker Dragan Tomic, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, federal and Serbian ministers, Socialist Party of Serbia Secretary-General Gorica Gajevic, Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff General Dragoljub Ojdanic, foreign diplomats and other renowned figures.
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES RUSSIAN AUTHOR ZINOVIEV
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received on Tuesday Russian author Alexander Zinoviev who is scheduled to open the Belgrade Book Fair later in the day.
Zinoviev praised the people of Yugoslavia and Milosevic for the strong resistance to the NATO aggression and the determined struggle of the people for the protection of their national interests, primarily freedom, independence and national dignity. According to Zinoviev, the Serbs are the bravest people in Europe whose resistance to the policy of dictate gives hope in a more just world of tomorrow. The attack on Serbia basically represents an attack on Russia. This and other temptations imposed by the advent of the globalisation era, require Russia's decisiveness to preserve its integrity and unity and prevent the usurping and imposing of power in international relations out of a single power centre, as the biggest threat to the future of mankind, Zinoviev set out.
Milosevic underscored that Zinoviev is highly regarded in this country both as an author, scientist and philosopher whose life and work are strongly characterised by calls for progressive values and the liberation of man and society from totalitarianism and all forms of violence, and a profound analysis of relations in the contemporary world.
Also present was the director of the Directorate for International Cultural Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Ministry, Milenko Kasanin.
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT ADOPTS DRAFT LAW ON LOCAL SELF-RULE
A Serbian government session, held on Tuesday and chaired by Premier Mirko Marjanovic, adopted a draft law on local self-rule and sent it for deliberation and adoption to the Serbian parliament, the republican Information Ministry has said. The draft law deals with local self-rule in a more comprehensive way than the previous laws.
The aim of the new law, based on experiences so far and on those of countries with a developed self-rule tradition, is to create legal conditions which would enable all citizens, to realise efficiently and legally in his district or city, all their basic interests and needs.
The new law will also improve the functioning of local self-rule in Serbia and enable its speedy development.
YUGOSLAVIA NEVER TO ACCEPT ACTS JEOPARDISING ITS SOVEREIGNTY
Chief of the Yugoslav army general staff Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic said late Tuesday that Yugoslavia would never accept acts jeopardising its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the southern province of Kosovo and Metohija.
Addressing a meeting marking the 55th anniversary since Belgrade was liberated from Nazi occupation in World War II, in the city's Sava Centre, Gen. Ojdanic commented on the Yugoslav people's unity and heroic defence of the country during NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression.
He said that the energy used in the defence of the country had been transformed into the energy of solidarity and enthusiasm in the country's reconstruction.
"We have launched the reconstruction process thanks to our builders' skill, solidarity of all Serbian citizens and our diaspora and our President Slobodan Milosevic's policy," he said adding that the reconstruction work would not be over once all that had been destroyed had been rebuilt but would continue through reforms.
WEST COMPLETES TOTAL WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA BY AGGRESSION
Yugoslav Army third army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic said in Negotin that the aggression on our country had been prepared for a long time by Western strategists, and it was the final stage of the total war waged since the end of the 80s.
Pavkovic, at a panel held late Tuesday evening, said that the United States, after failing to achieve its goals legally, resorted to terrorism as a very efficient means of political and armed violence.
"The terrorist character of the aggression is detected in the preparation of the ethnic Albanian secession, their armed rebellion, the forming of their paramilitary formations, in the delivery and trafficking of arms, the holding of allegedly political negotiations, in Rambouillet and in Paris, in fomenting an armed ethnic Albanian rebellion, in lending logistic support to that rebellion and finally air support," he said.
Pavkovic assessed that the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution on Kosovo and Metohija and the cessation of the bombing of Yugoslavia did not bring the definite defusing of the crisis, but that its placing under the authority of the world organisation and the arrival of peacekeeping forces in Kosovo-Metohija have only created pre-conditions for the process to be continued by political means, without the use of force by any side.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION URGING FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
The UN Security Council adopted on Tuesday a resolution stressing readiness to fight against terrorism, one of the worst evils of modern times.
The resolution was adopted unanimously after all 15 Security Council members spoke of terrorism at an open session, agreeing that all countries must join forces and cooperate in fighting terrorism and must prevent any assistance to, financing of and support for it.
None of the Security Council members denied that terrorism is a universal threat, although their positions on it showed that this serious issue is viewed differently.
The U.S. stand on terrorism focuses on a degree to which its citizens and targets in the world are jeopardised but tends to disregard a threat posed by terrorism by strong separatist movements like ethnic Albanian terrorists in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province and Moslem terrorists in Chechnya.
Russia's UN ambassador Sergei Lavrov, who presides over the Security Council in October, spoke of this form of terrorism that is in full swing in many parts of the world and of a danger of offering support to such terrorist and separatist goals.
ROBERTSON DUE IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ON FRIDAY
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson will visit Kosovo and Metohija Friday to meet officials of the UN civilian mission to Serbia's southern province (UNMIK) and the UN peacekeeping force KFOR, Brussels reports said late Tuesday.
NATO's newly-appointed secretary-general's visit to the province comes after the latest wave of murders of and intensified attacks on non-Albanians and KFOR troops by the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Brussels electronic media reported on Tuesday that, following yet another murder committed in Pristina, Kosovo and Metohija's chief city, on Monday, KFOR leaders had announced that they would tighten control and increase the number of KFOR troops in the city.
Robertson, who will be accompanied by ambassadors of the 19-member alliance on his visit to Kosovo and Metohija, is scheduled to visit Bosnia's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) and meet members of Bosnia's presidency in Sarajevo on Thursday.
SHOWDOWN WITH ALBANIAN TERRORISTS IMPLIED
Frustrated by the increasingly dangerous activities of ethnic Albanian terrorists, KFOR command has decided to tighten security measures in Pristina.
It has been said that as of Tuesday there will be more KFOR members and military vehicles in the streets of Pristina, following the murder of one Serb in the capital city of the southern Serbian province.
KFOR Commander German General Klaus Reinhardt, who condemned the murder, said Tuesday that the barbaric behaviour can no longer be tolerated and that all necessary measures will be undertaken to prevent the rampage of those who think that they can kill innocent people without any consequences.
Although Gen. Reinhardt did not specify who was behaving in a barbaric manner in Kosovo and Metohija, it is exactly known whom he meant. Since the arrival of peacekeeping forces in that Serbian province, it has become common practice not to make accusations against whom they are intended, at least not in the case of ethnic Albanian terrorists.
After the weekly KFOR statement that warned Albanian terrorists because of violating the agreement on the demilitarisation of the "KLA," the statement made by Gen. Reinhardt today, and other accusations and warnings, could be construed as an announcement of a more serious showdown of peacekeepers with Albanian terrorists.
What is clear is that KFOR since its arrival in Kosovo-Metohija to this day has not realised a single one of its three key commitments - create security conditions for all residents of Kosovo-Metohija, create conditions for the return of all refugees and displaced persons and the preservation of the multiconfessional and multiethnic Kosovo-Metohija.
The three commitments are contained in UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and someone should explain what has prevented KFOR from carrying out those commitments.
KFOR, besides that, is obligated to finally shed light on the fate of about 500 Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo-Metohija. The problem involves core human rights, which are so often cited by the powerful Western countries.
NEW "INVENTION" OF ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
Ethnic Albanian terrorists of the KLA have found a new way to intensify their bloody rampage in Kosovo-Metohija - they started putting up posters with the pictures and names of Serbs who are allegedly war criminals.
KFOR spokesman Maj. Roland Lavoie condemned the action of ethnic Albanian terrorists, stressing that it was "unacceptable."
"Those lists are illegal and dangerous," Lavoie said in Pristina, warning that the consequences of those actions of ethnic Albanian terrorists could be tragic for Serbs.
Lavoie said that a number of those posters have been signed by the KLA, but some are signed "Kosovo Liberation Corps," which is a new name for the KLA.
Posters with pictures and names of Serbs have appeared in a number of towns in Kosovo-Metohija, and their intention is clear - a new persecution and liquidation of Serbs. They are part of the dangerous action of ethnic Albanian terrorists whose goal is the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.
IVANOV - NATO MEMBER STATES MUST HELP YUGOSLAVIA'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY
NATO member states that launched aggression on sovereign Yugoslavia must take part in the country's economic recovery, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Tuesday after meeting with his Bosnian counterpart Jadranko Prlic in Moscow.
Ivanov described as unacceptable the West's attempts to set the compliance with requests concerning Yugoslavia's political situation as a condition for offering humanitarian assistance to the country.
All countries and in particular those that took part in the aggression must do all to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe that could hit the country as soon as the winter begins, he said.
Ivanov said that no stabilisation of Europe would be possible without Yugoslavia's full participation in international political activities and the consistent implementation of provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA PLAN COOPERATION DEVELOPMENT
China's Shandong province wishes to develop economic cooperation with Yugoslavia, Deputy Governor Du Shicheng and Yugoslav Ambassador to China Slobodan Unkovic noted Tuesday.
Unkovic is heading a Yugoslav business delegation to a forum on the development of economic cooperation between Shandong and Yugoslavia starting Wednesday in provincial capital Jinan.
Unkovic and Yugoslav businessmen will meet over 100 potential partners from Shandong to present Yugoslavia's potentials for developing cooperation in various fields.
Du said that economic cooperation would help intensify friendly relations between the two countries and peoples.
The forum on economic cooperation organised by the Shandong government is aimed at negotiating various specific cooperation projects.
Shandong has a population of 80 million and is one of the most highly developed Chinese provinces with an annual economic growth rate of 10 percent and a 10 percent share in China's GNP.
Unkovic said that the two countries, peoples and leaderships enjoyed a deeply rooted friendship, which came to the fore during last spring's brutal NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia hopes to develop economic cooperation with China in all sectors, Unkovic said, and added his delegation would present to Chinese partners Yugoslavia's potentials and reconstruction projects underway.
Unkovic and Du said that the pharmaceutical plant being completed in Jinan by the Serbian Hemofarm Company and a Chinese partner was a model for future joint investments.
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ACCUSED OF COMPLICITY IN NATO AGGRESSION
The British humanitarian organisation Christians against NATO Aggression (CANA) accused Tuesday Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey of complicity in NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on Yugoslavia.
In a statement distributed among reporters, CANA said that, by backing the NATO aggression and the British government's policy, the archbishop had violated Christian norms and basic humanness and had become an accomplice to this madness.
CANA said that the archbishop kept quiet about casualties and the destruction of Christian culture and Serbian Orthodox churches in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
It also accused him of hypocrisy because, despite his support for the NATO aggression, he had stated in a recent newspaper interview that he opposed wars in general.
CANA lashed out also against British Prime Minister Tony Blair for pursuing an aggressive policy.
The statement was signed by CANA's Director William Spring, who after working for years as a journalist and being active in humanitarian work, became a Protestant priest in northern London.
BELGRADE BOOK FAIR OPENS
The traditional 44th Belgrade Book Fair was opened Tuesday evening by Russian writer, philosopher and scientist Alexander Zinovyev in the presence of diplomats, public figures and representatives of local and foreign publishing houses.
Opening addresses were also given by writer and publisher Jovan Zivlak on behalf of the Yugoslav Association of Publishers and Booksellers which organises the fair, and by French writers Vladimir Volkov and Frederic Dutour.
Zinovyev said that the holding of the Belgrade Book Fair was an act of civic courage after Yugoslavia was made a victim of one of the most repugnant crimes of the century, a victim of a global false information propaganda, economic sanctions and direct military assault by the biggest powers of the western world.
This crime was planned and committed before the eyes of the entire humanity, a part of which remained indifferent, a part applauded and a part became an accomplice, Zinovyev said.
The crime was justified by appeals for democracy, justice and humanness, but the hundred-fold disproportion between the power of the aggressors and the victim was monstrous, Zinovyev said.
The aggressors deserve to be despised, but so do all others who tacitly endorsed the crime. Protests against the aggression were insignificant, Zinovyev said.
Only the first stage of the aggression is over. The aggressors have not lost the battle, but neither have they won. The Serbs did not win, but they remain undefeated, he said.
Zinovyev said he had thought much about the behaviour of Serbs during the aggression and concluded that no other people in Europe could have done better.
Referring to the limited protests against last spring's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, Zinovyev said it would not be fair to ignore the courage and honour of individuals in France, Germany and Russia who had raised their voices against injustice and violence.
MONOGRAPH, THE HEART IS ON THE LEFT SIDE, BY MIRA MARKOVIC
The monograph, The Heart is on the Left Side, in which are assembled 127 photographs from the family album of Prof. dr. Mira Markovic, accompanied by quotations from her book, appeared Wednesday at the 44th International Book Fair in Belgrade, on the stand of the publishing house Ekoplus.
The monograph has been published in Serbian, English and Russian, and, as Tanjug has learned the publisher is also considering editions in Spanish, Italian and French, and an especial edition in Chinese.
In the monograph can be seen photographs from the childhood, school and college days of Prof. Dr. Mira Markovic, and photographs of the Markovic-Milosevic family with children and from trips and vacations.
There are also pictures from public appearances of Mira Markovic in the country and abroad, her meetings with world figures, pictures of the foreign editions of her books, and of her appearances in the capacity of Yugoslav Left Directorate President.
The texts accompanying the photographs have been taken from books by Mira Markovic - Answers, Day and Night, Between East and West, and Yesterday and Tomorrow.
RUSSIA'S ZINOVIEV SAYS SERBIA LAST BASTION OF EUROPEAN CIVILISATION
Russian academician Alexander Zinoviev, a leading author, philosopher and sociologist, has said that Serbia is the last bastion of European civilisation and that the main goal of NATO's aggression was to crush its resistance.
In an interview published by the Podgorica daily Dan on Tuesday ahead of the opening of an international book fair in Belgrade, Zinoviev said that during the aggression on Yugoslavia he had felt resentment and had been desperate because he could do nothing about it.
Zinoviev said that he had raised his voice against the aggression wherever it had been possible to do so.
He said that he had been well aware that Russia was about to experience a similar fate and that this was only the beginning of a new era of violence and of a new structure of alleged peace in the world, dominated by the United States, global super-society, and certain West European circles that ruled the world.
He said that it was vital for Russians and Serbs to understand that they could not expect their enemy to show mercy and that Serbs must always and at all costs defend their national dignity.
Commenting on this year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Zinoviev said that Guenter Grass of Germany had won the prize because he had urged the bombing of Serbia.
RUSSIAN AUTHOR ZINOVYEV - 21ST CENTURY WILL BE MORE BLOODY AND VIOLENT
The war against Serbia has marked the start of a new era and it would be pointless to hope that the conscious of the West would awaken and stop the advent, Russian author, anthropologist and sociologist Alexsander Zinoviev said in the Association of Authors of Serbia on Tuesday.
Zinoviev, who is a guest of the Belgrade International Meeting of Authors and the Book Fair, protested against the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia which, as he said, inspired him to return to Russia this summer after 21 years in exile in the West in order to "be with his people to await the tragedy whose first stage was the attack on the Serbs."
Zinoviev's book "Great Turnabout", presented by the Swiss publishing house L'Age D'Homme at this year's Belgrade Book Fair, is a strong criticism of the new world order.
Zinoviev said he would no longer write fiction, which has no effect on social trends in Russia, but would focus solely on sociology. His new book, which has yet to be published, is a sociological analysis of what awaits us in the 21st century.
NEW BRIDGE IN VRBAS OPENED FOR TRAFFIC
Vojvodina executive council president and Socialist Party of Serbia main board member Bosko Perosevic opened for traffic a new bridge in Vrbas on Wednesday, marking the town's liberation day from fascism.
NATO destroyed on May 13 the old bridge in Vrbas, that linked the old town of Vrbas with other parts of the city and Vrbas with Sombor, Subotica and Novi Sad.
The new bridge in Vrbas, 35 meters long, with two lanes, was built ten days ahead of schedule by the Belgrade construction firm Mostogradnja and the Novi Sad firm Backi put.