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YUGOSLAVIA'S MILOSEVIC RECEIVES MESSAGE FROM CHINA'S JIANG
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received on Friday a personal written message from Chinese President Jiang Zemin, delivered by Chinese Ambassador in Belgrade Pan Zhanlin, a government statement said.
The message stresses China's principled support for Yugoslavia and expresses admiration for the people whose bravery defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country against NATO's air strikes earlier in 1999.
JIang says that China had from the start condemned in clear terms the NATO aggression, and strongly demanded that the air strikes and the threat of a humanitarian disaster cease at once.
China has always advocated a peaceful political settlement for Kosovo-Metohija which will respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and guarantee equality to all people and all ethnic communities, the message says.
It further stresses the solidarity of China and the Chinese people with Yugoslavia and expresses China's readiness to give economic assistance to the Yugoslav people within its means in the process of reconstruction of the NATO-devastated country.
China will continue to develop friendly relations and all-round cooperation with Yugoslavia, the message reads.
PROTEST TO SECURITY COUNCIL FOLLOWING TERRORIST ATTACK ON SERB REFUGEES FROM ORAHOVAC
Yugoslavia has lodged a strong protest to the chairman of the UN Security Council because of the latest terrorist attack on a convoy of Serbian refugees from Orahovac who were, allegedly, protected by KFOR forces.
The letter of protest, addressed to Security Council chairman, Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, points out that the manner in which a large group of 1,500 people carried out the brutal attack indicates that there is evidence that the terrorists were once again in collusion with representatives of the UN mission, who, apparently, knew ahead of time the exact time and place of passage of the convoy.
Responsibility for the latest crime, rests undoubtedly with the UN civilian mission which persistently refuses to implement its mandate of creating a security environment for all residents of Kosovo and Metohija, as defined by Security Council Resolution 1244.
Responsibility, the letter further said, also rests with Security Council members who, in their smugness, have undertaken the task to create security conditions in a part of the territory of a sovereign state, but have demonstrated that they are incapable of realizing that. Also responsible is the special envoy of UN secretary general for Kosovo-Metohija, Bernard Kouchner.
The Yugoslav federal government, Jovanovic recalled, has repeatedly warned the Security Council and brought to the attention of other international organizations, the exceptionally difficult situation of around 4,000 Serbs in Orahovac, mostly women and children, besieged by "KLA" terrorists. Unfortunately, KFOR forces continued to ignore terrorist activities aimed at completing the ethnic cleansing of Orahovac.
The letter warned that the presence of a large number of armed "KLA" terrorists in the surroundings of Orahovac, and the attack on the convoy of Serbian refugees, are conclusive evidence that
"KLA" terrorists have not been disarmed. The farce of the so-called "demilitarization" was intended to dupe the public, while the real objective was a has remained that the "KLA" be transformed into a legal and organized military structure that would later become an army of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The protest also pointed to the double standards of the UN mission in Kosovo-Metohija and called on the Security Council to use its authority to determine the responsibility for the deterioration of the security situation, and then to take appropriate steps.
YUGOSLAV PM OPENS LIM RAIL BRIDGE
Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic opened the rail bridge over the Lim river in Donja Bistrica on the Belgrade-Bar railway on Friday expressing hope that this reconstructed bridge would strengthen the unity of the people of Serbia and Montenegro.
The construction of a rail line linking Serbia and Montenegro required that 254 tunnels were dug and 234 bridges errected, Bulatovic set out adding that no obstacle could stop the natural ties and unity between Serbia and Montenegro.
"Regardless of all political illusions and ruses, the majority of the citizens of Montenegro favour the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Bulatovic stated.
Underscoring that the defence of Yugoslavia from the NATO aggression was heroic and that the people of Yugoslavia, its state leaders, the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police had amazed the entire freedom-loving world and stopped the NATO strategists, Bulatovic said that we would continue to be like that in the coming decades which will mark the full affirmation of Yugoslavia in the world.
Even today, after many lies about relations within Yugoslavia have been dispersed, some political forces, which do not have the support of the people, are blindly following the orders of those who bombed Yugoslavia, Bulatovic said adding that the aggression is continuing in other ways.
Blackmail, pressures and threats are being applied with the aim of ousting the legally elected leadership of this country, he said pointing out that the Yugoslav leadership, headed by President Slobodan Milosevic, is determined to protect the national interests.
"We want to revive cooperation also with those countries which carried out the aggression on Yugoslavia, but only after certain conditions are met," Bulatovic said adding that the basic conditions for this are the respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, the payment of war reparations and bringing before justice those who are responsible for crimes against civilians
Bulatovic recalled that the bridge over Lim, one of the biggest and most beautiful in this part of Europe, was bombed on April 13 and 15 and that its destruction had completely halted rail traffic between Belgrade and Bar, i.e. between Serbia and Montenegro.
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVES IRAQI DELEGATION
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic, vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), received on Friday Harit El Kashali of Iraq's ruling Arab Baath Socialist party.
El Kashali, chairman of the party's committee for international relations, is heading a delegation on a visit to Yugoslavia.
During the ensuing friendly talk, Jovanovic informed the delegation about Yugoslavia's foreign policy tasks and efforts to alleviate the consequences of NATO's aggression, as well as about the situation in the Balkans and in the rest of Europe.
The violation by the world's richest nations rallied in NATO of the UN Charter and UN decisions and of fundamental principles of international law was condemned during the discussion.
A positive view was taken of the development and prospects of bilateral relations and cooperation.
The meeting was attended by Iraqi Ambassador to Yugoslavia Sami Sadun Gatik Al Kinani, a government statement said.
YUGOSLAV, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS CONCLUDE TALKS
Delegations of the Yugoslav parliament and the Russian State Duma Commission for data on crimes committed during NATO aggression on Yugoslavia held successful and mutually beneficial talks Oct. 27-31.
The two sides confirmed that they would actively contribute to the collecting and publishing of data about crimes committed during NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, a statement released by the Yugoslav parliament said.
The delegation of the State Duma Commission said it would publish data about NATO aggression and activate the Russian public opinion and parliaments of other states and the international community to condemn NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and demand that those responsible for the committed crimes be held accountable.
The Yugoslav side set out that it would give full access to the State Duma Commission to data and material of relevance for a true and objective picture and understanding of all aspects of NATO aggression and the media war waged against Yugoslavia, as well as to documents about the consequences of NATO aggression, above all the devastating air strikes and the killing of innocent citizens.
The two delegations underscored a high degree of mutual cooperation and the mutual wish for the State Duma Commission successfully to complete its work and the State Duma to adopt relevant documents, the released statement said.
RUSSIAN DELEGATION PLEDGES HELP FOR YUGOSLAV RECONSTRUCTION
A delegation of a Russian State Duma (lower house) commission collecting data about NATO's crimes in Yugoslavia on Saturday visited Pancevo, north-east of Belgrade, and promised aid for rebuilding NATO-demolished facilities.
The delegation reiterated the position that those who committed the crimes must be brought to book, according to a Serbian Radio and Television (RTS) report late on Saturday.
Local administrator Zoran Nikolic briefed the delegation about the devastation wreaked in the NATO aggression from March 24 to June 10, stressing that both industrial and civilian facilities had been targeted.
Nikolic quoted that NATO bombs had damaged 60 houses, demolished 2 bridges, smashed RTS relays, and had not spared even a medical facility, causing damage in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's northern Juznobanatski district estimated at 1 billion U.S. dollars.
The delegation toured the Petrohemija and Azotara chemical factories, the oil refinery and the Lola Utva plane factory, where they could see that much of the NATO-inflicted damage has been repaired through the efforts of the employees and the state.
The guests from Russia stressed that Russia would help eliminate the consequences of the air strikes and revive production in the factories as soon as possible.
They added that Russia had allocated 80 million dollars from the budget and granted a 150-million-dollar credit for assisting Yugoslavia.
By the end of the year, Yugoslavia would get from Russia 300 million cubic metres of gas and 150,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, and there were plans for facilities in bilateral trade and for starting Russian-Yugoslav joint ventures, they said, as quoted by RTS.
KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS WOUND TEACHER IN VITINA
A group of Kosovo Albanians fired at Serb teacher Milisav Ilic if Vitina on Friday afternoon and wounded him seriously, local Church Committee representatives said.
Six Kosovo Albanians of the neighbouring village of Lubiste came to Ilic's house during the day, allegedly in search of a missing tractor. They tried forcibly to abduct Ilic's son, said the committee statement, as carried by radio amateurs.
Ilic intervened to defend his son, and the terrorists shot him with six bullets. His family brought him to the nearby field hospital of the international force KFOR in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
Six buses arrived today in Kosovska Vitina, acting on orders of the Croatian government, to take away ethnic Croats from the area, the sources said.
About a dozen elderly ethnic Croats remained to continue living with the remaining local Serbs.
"We are leaving in the hope that the situation will change, and we will return when security is the same as it was at the time when it had been established by Serbian police," said a woman of the village of Lepnica as she was boarding a bus.
HAND GRENADE THROWN ON SERBIAN YOUNG MEN IN LIPLJAN
Saturday evening, around 18.00, in the Lipljan suburb of Novo naselje, predominantly inhabited by Serbs, occurred a new crime of Albanian terrorists in which according to the Center for Peace and Tolerance, have been seriously wounded three people.
The attack occurred when from a passing car from the direction of Prizren was thrown a hand grenade on a group of Serbian young men playing soccer in a field.
After a KFOR unit, stationed in Lipljan, came to the crime scene, Serbs, in an act of protest against the inefficiency of the international security forces, laid down in front of their jeeps.
KFOR members dispersed the gathered Serbs with tear-gas, Radio-Television Serbia reported.
YUGOSLAV UN COMMITTEE SAYS SERBS IN ORAHOVAC MUST GET RELIEF
Yugoslavia's committee for cooperation with the UN civilian mission (UNMIK) to Kosovo- Metohija said on Saturday that all kindred sub-committees must work together to surmount problems plaguing the more than 4,000 Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija's town of Orahovac, a committee statement said.
Serbs in Orahovac are captives, with their freedom of movement and personal safety heavily curtailed, it was stressed at the committee's session, chaired by Co-Chairman Slobodan Tomovic.
A plan was proposed for organising classes in primary and secondary schools, and for providing heating fuel and teaching aids.
It was noted that classes are being normalised, as evident from the fact that the number of children attending classes has risen by 600 in the past fortnight in the Kosovski district alone.
In the information sphere, it was noted that five radio stations and three newspapers have been started since the setting up of this committee, and seven Yugoslav media now have their offices in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-secured Kosovo-Metohija province, the statement said.
SECURITY COUNCIL WILL REVIEW MANDATE ABUSES IN KOSOVO, MATIC SAYS
Yugoslav Information Secretary Goran Matic said that Kosovo and Metohija was once again a historical and civilization spot where, like 600 years ago, civilizations and worlds are opposed.
Taking part late Saturday evening in a program of local television in Jagodina, central Serbia, Matic said that Kosovo-Metohija will become synonymous with the struggle against the new world violence and that the whole world will understand on its example that there must be multi-polarity because those in charge cannot be "frustrated individuals and conspiring groups" who in powerful countries possess a great military potential.
He assessed that NATO does not know what is the real problem in Kosovo-Metohija and does not want to understand the problem, because "judging by how UN Security Council resolution 1244 is being implemented, very soon in Kosovo-Metohija there will be no other nationalities except Albanians."
Matic said he believed that very soon the Security Council would discuss who has abused the UN mandate in Kosovo and created a far worse situation.
"KFOR commander Gen. Reinhardt has already accused the French of being responsible for the attack on the convoy of Serbs near Pec, which is another example that not everyone is ready to be lenient towards terrorists when it comes to the implementation of Resolution 1244," the Yugoslav minister said.
Assessing that KFOR is not capable of realizing the agreed policy in Kosovo-Metohija, he pointed out that the Security Council will be forced to call the Yugoslav security forces to come to their aid.
"Everyone coming from NATO countries to Kosovo-Metohija are avoiding to register with Yugoslav state bodies, because they represent war criminals, who in an aggression have killed more than two thousand civilians and more than 300 children," he said.
"We have won a battle, but the war is not over. The aggression has continued through political, media, economic and other forms of pressures to achieve what has not been achieved by war," Matic said.
SERBIAN SOCIALISTS BLAME U.N. FOR RAGING VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
A Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) official said on Sunday that the international KFOR force is unable or unwilling to stop the violence and crimes against Montenegrins, Serbs and other non-Albanians in U.N.-administered Kosovo-Metohija.
Speaking in Zvecan, Kosovo-Metohija, Zivorad Igic of the SPS Main Board Executive Board said that the Kosovo-Metohija socialists' fear that the Sept. 19 deadline for the disarming of ethnic Albanian terrorists would not be honoured unfortunately proved true.
Igic, who heads the SPS board for the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province, quoted the Board to the effect that violence and terrorism have continued with the same intensity and the same tragic consequences since that date.
"It has turned out that the international security force is not doing the job it has been sent here for a year to do, together with the UN civilian mission (UNMIK)," Igic said.
He quoted that, over the four and a half months since their deployment, there have been more than 10,000 crimes, more than 5,000 of them serious criminal offences, committed in Kosovo-Metohija.
He noted that the mission, in whose presence the crimes have been committed, does not deserve to continue to carry out its mandate, because it has turned out to be no more than an observer of the violence and a recorder of the crimes.
PUTIN CALLS FOR FULL STATUS OF YUGOSLAVIA IN OSCE
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged that Yugoslavia's full status in the OSCE be restored, as he said the success of the mission in the Balkans could hardly be expected otherwise.
Prime Minister Putin made the statement in an extensive interview to the Norwegian Dagbladet on the eve of his arrival in Oslo for an international meeting devoted to the Middle East.
Putin underscored that Russia had significantly contributed to the creation and functioning of the OSCE on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
He said that the OSCE could have played a more "significant role in all stages of the Balkan crisis, including the developments" in Kosovo and Metohija.
"Regrettably, in many concrete situations, the OSCE potential was not put to full use, because of differences in the intentions of OSCE member-countries," the Russian Prime Minister told the Norwegian newspaper.
"We consider that it would be very useful to restore Yugoslavia's full participation in the work of the Organization, without which the success of the mission in the Balkans can hardly be expected," Prime Minister Putin stressed.
LAVROV REITERATES CONCERN OVER SITUATION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations and current Security Council President Sergei Lavrov reiterated in New York on Monday Russia's concern over the situation in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
In spite of a vast contingent of superbly armed KFOR troops who have wide authorization, attacks on Serbs, Romanies and other non-Albanians, continue there, Lavrov said in an interview to the Itar-Tass news agency.
All of this proves that talks on multiethnic Kosovo and Metohija remain just that, he said.
Lavrov said the deputy UN secretary-general had reported to the Security Council, at the request of the Russian delegation, about the recent provocation in the Kosovo town of Pec, when an ethnic Albanian mob attacked a line of Serbs who were being escorted by KFOR troops out of the province.
These Serbs were citizens of Orahovac, a town blocked for months by ethnic Albanian extremists who are preventing the deployment of the KFOR Russian contingent in that area, he said.
The KFOR and UNMIK leaders are conducting long and so far completely fruitless talks with the ethnic Albanians, Lavrov said, but it is now quite clear who is on the rampage in this town, he said.
According to expert estimates, much more than half the local Serbs have already left Kosovo and Metohija, Lavrov said.
BRITAIN'S COOK ACCUSED OF UNTRUTHS ABOUT KOSOVO-METOHIJA
British Foreign Minister Robin Cook has been accused in Parliament of making untrue statements about the situation in Kosovo-Metohija during NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia, it was reported in London on Sunday.
The British Parliament's all-party Balkans Committee has accused Cook of speaking untruths about the number of victims of alleged Serbian repression and deceiving the public in order to justify the March 24-June 10 aggression.
Cook will answer the charges in Parliament next week.
Committee Chairman Alice Mann (Labour) said that while every death was tragic, she could still not condone NATO's military campaign against Yugoslavia.
Exposure of the manipulation of the number of victims of a "genocide" allegedly perpetrated by the Yugoslav republic of Serbia and the latest findings that NATO lied to the people during its air strikes, have revived popular interest in that senseless adventure, in which the London government was one of the leaders.
The Sunday Times newspaper quotes findings by international experts in Kosovo-Metohija that expose the lies of the NATO propaganda machine.
According to these findings, the number of ethnic Albanian victims of alleged Serbian repression in the course of NATO's aggression was far lower than the western leaders had said while invariably accusing Serbia of "genocide."
The Sunday Times quotes Spanish expert Emilio Perez Pujol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the effect that the number of victims in Kosovo-Metohija is not calculated in thousands, as publicly insisted, but rather in hundreds.
Pujol said there could have been no more than 2,500 victims, including those who died from unknown causes that could not be blamed on anyone.
One thing is clear, according to the Sunday Times - there was no genocide in Kosovo-Metohija.
It was dishonest and wrong of the western leaders to use the term to justify the NATO aggression, the London weekly said.
HEARING HELD IN BERLIN INTO NATO AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA
Last spring, NATO mounted an aggression on Yugoslavia not in order to protect human rights in Kosovo- Metohija, but so as to expand its power, gain new markets and enact its new global strategy, it was heard in Berlin on Saturday.
The assessment was reached unanimously at a European hearing for an international trial of NATO for its war against Yugoslavia, held in Berlin's Heilige Kreuz (Holy Cross) Evangelical church, which was filled to capacity for the occasion.
The gathering was addressed by jurists and historians from 12 European countries and the United States of America.
They stressed the aggression was a crime punishable under all norms of international law and most of all - according to the prime mover behind the indictment of NATO in the United States, Ramsey Clark - as a deliberate and premeditated crime against civilians.
When the war ended, much time and energy was wasted to establish whether NATO had destroyed 3 or 7 Yugoslav army tanks, but no thought was spared for the 328 demolished schools and 33 demolished hospitals, said Clark, former U.S. attorney-general.
Clark has drawn up a 19-count indictment, under which NATO and the leaders of its member-states should answer before an international court in the spring of 2000 for violating international law and for crimes against humanity.
German political scientist Tobias Pfliger said that the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, in which the United States and Germany had played a leading role, had been planned long ahead, in the summer of 1998, and was just waiting for a pretext to be launched.
Ahead of its 50th anniversary, NATO wished to implement at all costs its new global strategy which leaves no room for international law or for the UN Charter, and under which NATO arrogates the right to "enforce the law" at will all over the world, Pfliger said.
Former Admiral in the Bundeswehr Elmar Schmelling said that, in preparing for the war, NATO had waged a lengthy propaganda smearing campaign, in which the media had played a shameful part.
The local participants in the Berlin hearing especially strongly criticised Germany's role during and since the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
Berlin publicist Peter Gerlinghof said that Germany had wanted the war even before the Greens-Social Democrats coalition came to power, headed by Gerhard Schroeder and Joseph Fischer.
In this, he added, the Constitution, which clearly forbids the German army from taking part in operations outside the national territory, was totally ignored.
Also sharply criticised was German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping who, when the German public questioned the validity of the aggression, mouthed absolute fabrications about mass graves, death camps and torturing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija.
All this has subsequently turned out to be untrue, of course, fabricated to serve NATO's propaganda purposes and demonising an entire nation in the process, Gerlinghof stressed.
The speakers referred also to the current situation in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-secured Kosovo-Metohija province.
They noted that it is only now that the worst violations of human rights, persecution and killing of Serbs, as well as of Goranies, Romanies, ethnic Turks and other non-Albanians, are happening.
The importance was stressed of this and similar gatherings for the future, in order to prevent future aggressions under NATO's new strategy.
This was especially stressed by Zoran Stojanovic of Belgrade, who said that mankind today would probably gain little from initiatives of this kind, but that future generations would certainly be grateful for them.
Clark exhorted against keeping quiet and for raising one's voice against the arrogance of a power that is certainly plotting new wars.
YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA SIGN MEMORANDUM ON COOPERATION IN HEALTH SERVICES
Yugoslavia and China signed in Beijing on Sunday a memorandum on cooperation in the field of health protection, which will be of great importance to cooperation between their health services.
On the Yugoslav side, the memorandum was signed by Vice Premier of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia Milovan Bojic, and on the Chinese, by Minister of Health Zhang Vengkang.
The memorandum covers cooperation in health protection and medical research.
Minister Zhang said that Yugoslavia and China are linked by deep and historic friendship, and stressed the support of the Chinese people and leaders for Yugoslavia, its reconstruction and the protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He expressed great respect for the Yugoslav health service.
Yugoslav medical workers gave first aid and early treatment to Chinese nationals wounded in NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this year, in the course of NATO's air strikes on Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10.
Pursuant to the agreement, a top-level Chinese health department delegation is due in Yugoslavia soon, in view of the fact that the agreement envisages for long-term and strategically important cooperation.
Yugoslav Ambassador to China Slobodan Unkovic thanked Minister Zhang for the cordial reception accorded to Vice Premier Bojic and for the agreement about cooperation in the sphere of health protection.
This cooperation reflects the spirit of the Declaration of friendship and cooperation signed by Presidents Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Jiang Zemin of China in Beijing two years ago.
ASSOCIATION OF JOURNALISTS OF SERBIA AWARDS JOURNALISTS
The Association of Journalists of Serbia has bestowed the most important journalist award - for life achievement - to the director and editor-in-chief of Tanjug, Dusan Djordjevic, to a retired journalist of Pristina Jedinstvo daily Mirko Cupic, and to the correspondent of Radio Belgrade from Kraljevo, Marko Markovic, the Association said Sunday.
The Gold Charter for 1999 has been awarded to Mirko Marinovic, a veteran journalist, to Vladimir Djundjevic, a retired journalist of Politika daily, and to Miodrag Stojiljkovic, a journalist of Radio Belgrade.
A large number of journalists have also received special recognition named after prominent figures from the history of journalism, such as the founder of the Serbian press, Dimitrije Davidovic, a leftist journalist from the 19th century, Svetozar Markovic, and Milan Zegarac, a reporter of the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti who was killed in 1991 while reporting about the war in Slavonia (Croatia).
The award Milan Zegarac for reporting from a war zone has been bestowed to Branislava Stanisic, a Tanjug journalist, to Branko Kopunovic, a journalist of the daily Vojska, to Zivomir Vucic, a journalist of the Pristina daily Jedinstvo, to Dusan Stojic, a journalist of the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, and to Radovan Brankov, a journalist of Radio Belgrade.