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PM BULATOVIC SAYS PRESSURES ON YUGOSLAVIA CONTINUE
Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic gave an interview to Voice of America this weekend in which he assessed the current situation in Yugoslavia, in particular developments in Kosovo and Metohija province, and the consequences of the brutal NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
Tanjug will present excerpts from the interview which has begun to appear in instalments in the Podgorica daily Dan.
Bulatovic said Yugoslavia was exposed to the NATO aggression, an extremely wrong move, which did not contribute to any of the proclaimed goals, but instead of stabilisation and the need to affirm human rights and freedoms, as well as national equality in the Balkans, actually brought new chaos and confusion.
Yugoslavia made a significant contribution to end this irrational aggression. It accepted the Security Council resolution which was largely unfavourable for Yugoslavia, because it wanted to include the international community through the United Nations in their true sense, Bulatovic said.
The aggression on Yugoslavia has today only changed its form, he said, it is no longer an armed aggression, but one of unprincipled and totally undeserved pressures, he said.
The United Nations does not have the strength duly to realise Resolution 1244 and secure peace and protection for everyone in Kosovo and Metohija, primarily non-Albanians, he said.
The federal government is trying to contribute by peaceful and democratic means to the return of peace, securing territorial integrity and national sovereignty, and settling all problems, Bulatovic said.
The present confusion in the southeastern Balkans must not and cannot last too long. If it does, it will further destabilise the region and all of Europe, and thus the whole international community, he said.
Asked to comment the situation in Yugoslavia and the Montenegrin government demand for a redefining of relations within the federation, Bulatovic said there were problems, but that they had become clear through the issue of the NATO aggression.
The Montenegrin authorities made a historic mistake in failing to accept that they were obliged under the Constitution and laws to defend Yugoslavia, Bulatovic said.
Yugoslavia is ready to talk with the Montenegrin government, but that government is unfortunately practising a policy, which lacks seriousness, the federal Prime Minister said.
The federal government treats Montenegro as an equal factor in the Yugoslav federation and provides all services envisaged under the Yugoslav Constitution, he said.
Montenegro must and should have that equal position. Bulatovic said he was ready as the federal Prime Minister and an influential political figure in Montenegro to discuss all concrete issues, but that he could not accept that someone grossly violates the Constitution and laws under the guise of alleged equality.
Equality is guaranteed under the Constitution, but it is not possible to take customs, payment operations services, and other incomes of the federation simply in order to incur damages on the other federal unit. The Montenegrin leadership has abandoned the Constitution and laws and completely placed itself in the service of those who wish to destabilise Yugoslavia, Bulatovic said.
Speaking about the platform for redefining relations within the federation proposed by the Montenegrin government, and asked if he
believed a compromise could be found or if Montenegro would be one step closer to exiting the federation, Bulatovic said the vast majority of Montenegrin citizens were against leaving the federation.
All public opinion polls show that 30 percent Montenegrin citizens support independence, while 70 percent are for a common state, which even Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has said to some foreign media, Bulatovic said.
Bulatovic said he believed the international community, or rather the group of most influential countries, had chosen the wrong way and the wrong partner in their desire to destabilise the legally elected Yugoslav leadership. There is no democracy in Montenegro, all decisions are made by the secret police, he said, adding he could not accept that big democracies have taken this example to be followed by other Balkan states.
Voice of America asked in closing where Bulatovic saw Yugoslavia in the future. Bulatovic said he was confidant the wrong policy toward the entire region would soon be forgotten and abandoned. He specified as the fundamental plans of the federal government the preparation of a package of economic reforms.
The Yugoslav government believes it is necessary to prepare further privatisation, pass laws on stocks and bonds, investment funds, open the country and the economy to become an integral part of the region and Europe, to which Yugoslavia belongs. Bulatovic said he was optimistic, and that Yugoslav people had endured, upright and brave, much more difficult and serious trials, and that he believed this was the end of a hard ten-year road.
YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER - THERE WILL BE NO HYPERINFLATION IN YUGOSLAVIA
Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic said on Friday that there would be no hyperinflation in the economic sense and that 1993, notorious by the galloping hyperinflation, would not reappear in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The federal government is making great efforts to stabilise the situation on the Yugoslav market which, at the time of the reconstruction of the country and the positive increase of production and foreign trade, recorded upsets and a worrying trend of rising prices, Bulatovic set out.
He stated that the prices are mainly increased out of non-economic reasons, which is why the federal government has activated the anti-monopoly committee, which has at its disposal legal economic and punitive measures.
Bulatovic added that the Serbian government is decisively trying to curb negative trends on the market.
He concluded that it is encouraging that bankers and economists are becoming aware that no one can have a long-term goal within the charmed circle of inflation.
STABILITY OF PRICES AND CURRENCY MUST BE PRESERVED
The Economic Council of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Main Board met on Friday to discuss the realisation of the stability of prices.
Economic Council President Mark Marjanovic, who is also Serbian premier, said in an introductory speech that urgent measures would be introduced with the aim of preserving the stability of prices and the national currency (dinar), which has been seriously threatened over the past weeks.
"The uncontrolled rise of the black market foreign currency rates to the dinar and the soaring prices could seriously threaten economic stability and the realisation of all other aims of the economic policy, primarily the growth of production, improvement of living standards and the continuation of reforms, and we must prevent this at all costs," Marjanovic set out.
"Today, inflation is our greatest enemy. This is why the prices and the exchange rate (of the dinar) should be returned to realistic levels as this is the key step for the re-establishing of stability and the halting of inflation," Marjanovic stated.
He said that the Serbian government, acting together with the Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country of the Republic of Serbia, is continuing the reconstruction solely out of realistic sources.
According to Marjanovic, the Serbian government will continue with the following activities:
- Program of the revival of major companies;
- Rebuilding of road and rail infrastructure;
- Normalisation of the supply of fuels and sources of energy;
- Re-establishing of market, technological and production links in the entire Serbia, thus enabling faster growth and lower production costs;
- Completion of agricultural activities;
- Further realisation of the economic-social program of employing people who have been left without their jobs due to the NATO aggression;
- Control of prices of products necessary for the living standards of the population as the lower purchasing abilities of the majority of people do not allow the free formation of prices for these products;
- Faster privatisation and finding strategic partners who are interested in investing in the Serbian economy despite the sanctions;
- Strong opposition to all forms of monopolistic and speculative actions, grey economy and all forms of economic crime;
- Insistence with the federal government for the maximum liberalisation of foreign trade and avoidance of unnecessary administrative measures hindering business activities with foreign partners.
Marjanovic said that the Serbian government is fully justified in demanding from the company and bank managers to carry out their obligations to return the prices and exchange rate of the dinar to realistic levels.
In the majority of cases there is no justifiable reason for increasing prices, as numerous manufacturers and trade organisations have done over the past few weeks, Marjanovic stated.
He said that this is why the implementation of anti-monopoly measures would return to the previous levels all prices, which have been increased without good reason and prevent their further growth, which is without economic basis, Marjanovic set out.
YUGOSLAV CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR BLAMES PRICE HIKES, CURRENCY SLIDE ON IMPORTERS, EXPORTERS, SOME BANKS
Inflation in Yugoslavia in September was 12.4 percent up on August, and the (national currency) dinar's agio rate and exchange rate on the parallel market against the German mark dropped sharply due to a chronic shortage of hard currency, on the one hand, and speculations in the exporters- importers-some banks triangle, on the other, according to the Yugoslav central bank governor on Friday.
Dusan Vlatkovic told a news conference in Belgrade that neither monetary policy nor the National Bank of Yugoslavia (central bank) were responsible for the September inflation, adding that the central bank had even reduced the money mass by 150 million dinars in September.
Vlatkovic noted that even if there had been a significant in-rush of dinars from the (Bosnian Serb) Republika Srpska, the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-secured Kosovo-Metohija province or the other Yugoslav republic, Montenegro, it could not have affected the recent monetary and price disruptions to any marked extent.
Although the central bank is under constant pressure to print fresh money, the central monetary authority is determined not to increase the money mass by the end of the year or to relax its restrictive monetary policy, he insisted.
According to Vlatkovic, the money mass stands at 14.4 billion dinars (one U.S. dollar fetches just under 11 dinars).
This means that money for all the necessary financing, from autumn agricultural works to public spending will have to come from re-channelling the existing banking funds and from the state's sources - taxes and tariffs, he specified.
The central bank takes the view that a policy of real interest rates - from the discount rate on Money One to the price of bank money - should continue even after the September hike of the retail prices, he said.
Stressing that the central bank would strive to curb the exchange rate of the dinar, which has slid by 85 percent on the black market since January, he said that the idea was to narrow the present wide gap between the official and the market exchange rates and bring them to a realistic level.
However, a devaluation of the dinar is not to be expected before the conditions are right, he said, explaining that this would necessitate changing the economic policy, consolidating foreign trade ties and establishing relations with international financial bodies.
He announced tighter control by the central bank and continued restrictive credit and monetary policy until the end of the year.
He stressed that, if this does not change the inflationary behaviour of individual commercial banks, the central bank will be forced to resort to the ultimate measure and stop the credit operation of the banks, which would cause problems for good operators, too.
Asked what would happen if Montenegro opted for the German mark as parallel legal tender in its territory or even for monetary independence, he said he did not believe it would come to this, adding he was confident the coming talks with the Montenegrin government would turn out well.
Should this happen anyway, consequences for the monetary system would be less severe than those in other areas, he said, adding that such changes would trigger significant changes in the existing monetary policy and the overall economic policy.
SUCCESSFUL RECONSTRUCTION OF COUNTRY
Since the start of the work on the reconstruction of the country from June 14 to October 18, traffic has been resumed on the key sections of the road and rail infrastructure in Yugoslavia. Numerous housing facilities have been turned over to the citizens who lost their homes during the aggression on Yugoslavia. Rebuilt and repaired have been a number of bridges and roads, thus reviving major routes through this country and establishing the shortest links between northern Europe and the East and Southeast.
Under the guidance of the Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country of the Republic of Serbia opened have been 120 construction sites, of which 41 road and seven rail infrastructure facilities, as well as 72 construction sites for housing and other facilities.
The achievements of the builders are imposing - so far completed has been work on 26 construction sites, with 38 facilities put into operation.
All projects for the reconstruction of destroyed or damaged facilities are financed out of realistic and stable sources.
Built and opened have been 12 road bridges, three rail and four auxiliary ones and 14 individual houses. Work has been completed on a section of a highway, one building each for the university, a hospital, sports hall and a hotel.
The builders are continuing work on apartment houses in order to enable people who have been left without their homes to move into new ones before the winter. The biggest construction sites of apartments and houses are in Aleksinac, Valjevo, Nis and Novi Sad.
The know-how of the construction workers, designers, overseers and, especially the 24-hour engagement of the Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country, have resulted in the successful completion of the first stage of the reconstruction with traffic infrastructure and housing facilities as the priorities.
Owing to the great efforts of the builders, rejoined have been the banks of rivers, separated by the aggressors. The bridge over the Danube near Beska, crucial for the major traffic route E-75, has been repaired in less than 40 days.
The totally destroyed stone bridge over the Ibar River near Brvenik, on the Kraljevo-Raska highway, has been fully reconstructed, and on the same section of the highway in Biljanovac, rebuilt has been the old steel bridge, thus returning to normal the traffic leading towards Kosovo-Metohija, Montenegro and Macedonia.
A rebuilt minor bridge over the Ibar near Brvanik has enabled the local inhabitants to communicate with the surrounding towns and villages.
On September 15, the citizens of Novi Sad were presented with a unique bridge on barges on the Danube, which enabled links between the Serm and Backa regions of the multinational Vojvodina province.
The bridge in Vranjski Priboj, important for the Pcinj area region, was opened ten days ahead of schedule.
On the Belgrade - Nis highway, in the direction of Leskovac, on October 11 opened were five bridges - over the Jasenica River, the overpass near Veliko Orasje, the bridge over Velika Morava near Mijatovac, the overpass near Trupalo and the bridge in Popovac near the Trupalske Forests, thus returning traffic to its previous routes.
The old stone bridge in Nis was reopened on Liberation Day. On October 14, the 55th anniversary of the victory over fascism, the citizens of Krusevac received a new bridge over the Zapadna Morava River, near the village of Jasika, thus re-establishing links of all parts of the Krusevac and Rasin districts with Sumadija. In Vrbas, opened was a new bridge over the Backi Canal.
Reconstructed were rail bridges in Vatin, Grdelica and Podina, near Zitoradja.
The Directorate for the Reconstruction of the Country said that underway is work on a total of 25 road and three rail infrastructure facilities, and in 66 high-rise facilities, including 619 apartment units in 34 construction sites, five education and three health institutions, four heating plants, two farms and 18 other public facilities.
SERBS FOR SERB DEFENSE CORPS - NO SECURITY WITH KFOR
Serb National Council for Kosovska Mitrovica Executive Board President Oliver Ivanovic said in the central Serbian town of Jagodina late Saturday that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija province "are initiating the forming of a Serb Kosovo Defence Corps because the KFOR cannot guarantee them a life in security."
Ivanovic told a Palma Plus Jagodina TV broadcast that "the so-called Kosovo Protection Corps, founded by the KFOR and UNMIK of ethnic Albanians, is not at all harmless, on the contrary, it is a serious and threatening formation which can at any time start killing and expelling the remaining Serbs."
Ivanovic said "Serbs demand only what ethnic Albanians got, they want the same rights."
"If ethnic Albanians have got their defence corps and are inviting Serbs to join it, we are also proceeding from the same fact - so we are inviting into the Serb Kosovo Defense Corps, SKOK, as we have named it, ten percent ethnic Albanians, Gypsies, ethnic Turks, Muslims," Ivanovic said.
Executive Board member Marko Jaksic said, "the forming of the SKOK and the cantonisation of Kosovo and Metohija are not a provocation of anyone. It is not our intention to provoke anyone in this way. It is just an existentialist issue for Serbs in Kosmet."
Cantonisation is not a division of Kosovo and Metohija, but the only way to save Kosovo and have it remain within Serbia, Jaksic said.
Being aware of this, it is not surprising that Hashim Thaci and the political leaders of Kosovo Albanians are deeply against cantonisation, as well as the UNMIK and UN secretary-general Kofu Anon, Jerks concluded.
COMMITTEE FOR COOPERATION WITH UN URGES PROTECTION OF KOSOVO SERBS
The Yugoslav committee for co-operation with the United Nations mission in Kosovo and Metohija province on Saturday expressed great concern over the threat to the population in that province, primarily Serbs, resulting from the tolerant stand of the UN peace force toward actions by ethnic Albanian terrorists, and again asked the force, KFOR, to secure protection of the lives and property of this population, which includes large numbers of elderly and weak persons and children.
A statement of the information subcommittee of this federal body said the committee had held a meeting in Belgrade to consider activities by its 11 subcommittees. The federal government set up the committee less than two months ago.
The peacekeepers are tolerant toward actions by ethnic Albanian terrorists who want to secure an ethnically pure territory at all costs, and expel all members of other nations who had lived in these lands for centuries. The committee especially underscored the problem of the lack of elementary security and freedom of movement for the about 3,000 Serbs surrounded in Orahovac, the subcommittee statement said.
LARGE QUANTITIES OF AMMUNITION, WEAPONS SEIZED NEAR ISTOK
International force KFOR troops and Spanish MPs arrested 16 persons during a search of the field in the area of the town of Istok in Serbia's southern Kosovo and Metohija province, the KFOR Press Center in Pristina said on Saturday.
During the action, large quantities of arms and ammunition were seized - five pistols, nine grenades, three grenade launchers, three hand grenades, 13 anti-tank mines, seven hand grenade launchers, 454 gas masks, and large quantities of ammunition of different calibre, the statement said.
The KFOR said the search of the field in this area would continue. It did not state the nationality of the arrested persons.
All Serbs moved out of Istok and its vicinity after the arrival of the international force.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS LOOTED AND BURNED ABOUT 400 GYPSIES' HOUSES
About 400 Gypsies' houses in Gnjilane in the past four months, Gypsies' activist Tefik Agusi told KFOR representatives at a meeting on Friday, said a statement released by the church-people's committee of Gnjilane on Saturday.
Agusi said genocide had been committed against the Gypsies of this town in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province. He said he had data on countless atrocities and crimes committed by ethnic Albanian terrorists.
About 6,000 Gypsies had lived in Gnjilane before the arrival of the UN force KFOR, but there are only about 200 of them in that town now, Agusi said.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN GANGS IN PRIZREN TAKING AWAY YUGOSLAV PASSPORTS
Five KLA members have forced their way into 16 ethnic Albanian homes in Prizren over the past three days taking away Yugoslav passports from their compatriots, the Centre for Peace and Tolerance in this city said on Saturday.
After being beaten and harassed, 15 ethnic Albanians gave up their Yugoslav passports which they had been issued several days ago in the building of the Temporary Executive Council of Kosovo and Metohija in Pristina.
The president of the Democratic Reform Party of Albanians, Sokolj Cosa, who is also the co-ordinator of the Centre for Peace and Tolerance in Prizren, had the telephone lines in his house cut and a dozen ethnic Albanian women threaten his mother every day ordering her to leave Serbia's southern province.
In Prizren, destroyed is everything, which reminds of Serbia.
YUGOSLAV ARMY SHOULD RETURN TO KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Yugoslav 3rd Army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic told a broadcast by Radio Belgrade on Saturday the Yugoslav Army and members of the Internal Ministry should return to Kosovo and Metohija province.
Gen. Pavkovic told the radio's first program show Reporter that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 guaranteed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and that the army could return on several counts.
"The first is under the military-technical agreement, that part of the soldiers return to secure the border, actually the border crossings, and police forces to secure cultural-historical monuments in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The second is in the event of the failure of the KFOR mission. If the mission fails, it is normal that we will return to our territory. And the third is if the UN and KFOR ask us to return, which would be the most logical thing to do," Gen. Pavkovic said.
"Our army, together with forces of the United Nations, would provide for the full security of all citizens in Kosovo and Metohija and create conditions for the problem of Kosovo and Metohija to be resolved in a peaceful manner," Gen. Pavkovic said.
IGIC: ALBANIA CONSTANTLY MAINTAINS TERRITORIAL ASPIRATIONS
Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Kosovo and Metohija Provincial Board President Zivorad Igic said in Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday that Albania's announcement that it will open a representative office in this southern Serbian province, and the silence of the local UN civilian mission in the face of such a rude provocation, could only lead to a further destabilisation of the already difficult situation in the province.
This announcement, as well as the recent illegal visit to Kosovo and Metohija of Albanian Foreign Minister Pascal Milo, shows that country's efforts to strengthen internationally and legalise under UN auspices, its long-term policy of territorial aspirations toward the ancestral Serb lands of Kosovo and Metohija, Igic said.
Several years ago, alone and in opposition to the whole world, Albania recognised the so-called Kosovo Republic and allowed it to open an office in Tirana, which was granted embassy status, Igic pointed out. This latest announcement, even if it remains as such, is a dangerous act, which directly targets the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
CRIME FLOURISHES IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Yugoslav State Prosecutor Vukasin Jokanovic said in Skopje on Sunday, after the close of a meeting of public prosecutors of south-eastern Europe in Ohrid, that participants had presented their experience in fighting all forms of crime in the region.
Participants also concluded it was necessary for regional countries to co-operate in the fight against crime, Jokanovic said.
In Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, since the arrival of the international force KFOR, all forms of crime are flourishing, he said. These criminal acts pose a threat to all regional countries, and even others in Europe, since they are murder, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, smuggling of arms, drugs, cigarettes, in parallel with extreme corruption, he said.
The meeting in Ohrid, the first of its kind, dealt with the status of public prosecutors in south-eastern European countries.
Jokanovic pointed out that the Yugoslav constitution guarantees full independence to the state prosecutor, as this office is not part of the executive authorities.
Public prosecutors of Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Republika Srpska, and the federation of Bosnia-Herzgegovina, and representatives of the Council of Europe also attended the meeting.
A protocol on co-operation between public prosecutor offices of Macedonia and Yugoslavia was signed in Ohrid.
ENCOURAGING STATEMENTS AND DISTURBING REALITY
Statements recently made by new NATO secretary-general George Robertson that ethnic Albanians must not be allowed to dominate in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, that the terror against Serbs must be stopped, and that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 is not being implemented satisfactorily, give a new quality of the approach of international factors to the general situation in the southern Serbian province, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) said in a statement on Saturday.
The actual state of affairs in Kosovo and Metohija, however, requires more than encouraging statements, primarily the resolve and consistency of the local internattional force KFOR and civilian mission UNMIK in stopping the ethnic cleansing of Serbs by ethnic Albanians and preventing daily crimes by ethnic Albanian extremists.
Unfortunately, there are no changes in this direction as yet, nor can they be hinted at by the developments in the field, the SPO statement said.
YUGOSLAVIA HAS A PROBLEM WITH U.S ADMINISTRATION, NOT THE COUNTRY ITSELF
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia does not have a problem with the United States, but with its administration which is conducting a pro-islamic policy and which has used the aggression on Yugoslavia in an attempt to discredit Europe in the economic sphere, Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic said on Friday.
Recalling that the NATO aggression was continued via the media and the fifth column within the country, Matic told a session of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) branch in Gornji Milanovic, central Serbia, that such pressures would be would be opposed by high-quality reporting, rather than by jamming.
Matic added that U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen who said that Yugoslavia had won the media war against NATO best confirmed the quality of the Yugoslav media, whose reporting is patriotic and truthful.
Saying that it is the opposition in Serbia, which is maintaining the international community's sanctions against Yugoslavia, Cohen set out that such an opposition dissatisfies the West.
EU TO ALLOCATE FOR KOSOVO-METOHIJA 270 MILLION EURO THIS YEAR
Within the European Union draft budget for next year, the European commission has proposed due to "unplanned expenditures" that more funds be allocated for Kosovo, but not even nearly as much as was mentioned in the first estimates of indispensable aid for the reconstruction of the province after Nato's bombing.
According to the first estimates of EU experts in the next five years for the reconstruction of Kosovo-Metohija should be earmarked annually around one billion Euro, but the sum in later projections was halved, and only later somewhat increased.
According to the latest plans, the EU will in the next three years allocate from its budget for Kosovo-Metohija around half a billion dollars. For Kosovo-Metohija should be allocated, since the arrival of KFOR in June this year till the end of the year, as humanitarian aid or for other expenses, a total of around 270 million Euro.
The European commission has asked that from budget reserves be allocated around 475 million Euro for the reconstruction of Kosovo-Metohija, and also aid for Macedonia and Bosnia.
The EU budget for next year, according to the proposal, should provide half a million Euro for the reconstruction of Kosovo-Metohija and that is due to be discussed next week when the budget for 2000 is drafted.
At the recent, first donors conference on Kosovo at which took part the representatives of the most powerful financial institutions and humanitarian organisations, it was promised that for the reconstruction of the southern Serbian province in the next "two to three years will be secured 2.2 billion Euro," although the needs, according to expert estimates, are much greater.
The European Union had this year a couple of unplanned expenditures which had to be covered from its, as it was stressed, "limited funds,"
in the first place for Turkey after the earthquake, and aid for East Timor.
The representatives of the UN Civilian Mission in Pristina also deplore underfunding. The mission's head Bernard Kouchner dramatically pointed the problem out to NATO Secretary General George Robertson.
A dispute concerning the site of the headquarters of the special UN Agency, that will collect funds and work out projects for the reconstruction of Kosovo-Metohija, as well as different interests of EU member countries on the issue are delaying the founding of the Agency.
At first it was planned that the headquarters of the Agency be in Salonika, Greece, and that an office be opened in Pristina, but many EU member countries consider that would be over-spending and that the Agency should only have a head office.
KOUCHNER ANNOUNCES "REGULATION REGIME" FOR MEDIA IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
UN Civilian Mission (UNMIK) head for Kosovo and Metohija, Bernard Kouchner, has appointed OSCE media director Douglas Davidson as temporary media commissioner in Serbia's southern province, it was announced in Pristina on Friday.
In a letter to the new media commissioner, Kouchner announced the establishing of a "regulation regime" for all media in Kosovo and Metohija.
Kouchner clearly stated that both he and Davidson would issue permits and act in other ways which will have a decisive impact on the character and way of work of the media in Kosovo and Metohija.
IVANOV DEVOTES IN ROME SPECIAL ATTENTION TO KOSOVO-METOHIJA
Resolute efforts for an autonomous Kosovo and Metohija, and the position that without the participation of Belgrade it will be difficult to achieve political stability in the Balkans, are the basic priorities of official Moscow which the Russian foreign minister will convey to his hosts in Rome - Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini.
It is expected that in the Russian-Italian talks on Monday, Ivanov will devote special attention to the issue of Kosovo-Metohija, insisting that the top Italian officials support the consistent implementation of Security Council Resolution 1244 that guarantees the integrity and sovereignty of FR Yugoslavia. He, it is expected, will demand from officials in Rome to make additional efforts for the protection of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.
Given the position of official Moscow, it is expected that the Russian diplomat will suggest in the talks that Europe review its decision on conditioning aid to Serbia, because Russia considers that Belgrade has exceptional importance for regional stability.
BELGRADE BOOK FAIR REGISTERS 395,000 VISITORS
The 44th International Book Fair in Belgrade registered, in six days of duration, 395,000 visitors, including 30,443 students and professors from other towns, it was said at the last news conference.
Director general of the association of publishers and booksellers of Yugoslavia, Ognjen Lakicevic, said that this year's book fair, given the conditions after the war, was better than the most optimistic forecasts.
At the fair there were this year fewer foreign publishers than last year, but more emphasis was given to publishers from Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska who have shown how devoted they are to their work, Lakicevic said.