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WASHINGTON ANNOUNCES CHANGE IN SANCTIONS POLICY TOWARD YUGOSLAVIA
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright late Wednesday announced an about-turn in the country's policy toward Yugoslavia, indicating that the holding of "free and fair elections" would be sufficient reason to lift part of the sanctions, including the air traffic ban and oil embargo.
The U.S. administration had earlier claimed that the drastic pressure through economic and political sanctions would continue as long as Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was in office.
Albright said the U.S. was also taking a positive stand on the initiative of European Union countries that certain towns in Serbia be provided with heating fuel this winter.
In keeping with the different interventionist measures with which U.S. President Bill Clinton is trying to impose his dictate through direct interference in Yugoslavia's internal affairs, Albright told the briefing in very precise terms how she wanted these elections to look, what prior conditions should be met, who would monitor them and how, and she even claimed to know who would lose the elections if they proceeded according to her wishes.
Earlier, the well-informed New York Times had implied that the Clinton administration had become aware that firm isolation was doing more harm than good, and that the United States was frustrated because it had failed to bring Yugoslavia and Serbia to their knees either by sanctions or air strikes.
YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION VISITS MOSCOW
A Yugoslav parliamentary delegation headed by President of the lower house foreign policy committee Ljubisa Ristic started Wednesday its visit to Russia by attending the first session of the joint commission of the parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus and of the Yugoslav parliament.
The commission was created in line with a decision of the last session of the parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus, in which Yugoslavia has observer status.
The delegation also comprises MP's Milutin Stojkovic, Zoran Zizic and Stevan Kesejic.
The commission session was opened by parliamentary assembly Vice-President and Russian State Duma Vice-President Sergei Baburin, who said that the creation of the joint commission was a step towards realizing the wishes of the peoples of Russia, Belarus and Yugoslavia.
The commission was constituted by electing its president - Nikolai Cherginets, President of the Belarussian upper house commission for international relations and national security. Ljubisa Ristic was elected one of the two vice-presidents.
The commission comprises 13 members, four of them from Yugoslavia.
The basic task of the commission is to study and endorse the process of Yugoslavia's joining the Union of Russia and Belarus.
The commission proposed to the parliamentary assembly to urge the Russian government and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to activate the state commission for aid to Yugoslavia and to implement aid agreements, and to back Yugoslavia return to the UN and other international political and financial institutions in which its membership was suspended.
The Yugoslav delegation held a separate meeting with the parliamentary assembly Secretary Vladimir Axionov and attended a session of the humanitarian fund Slavomir for aid to the people of Yugoslavia.
GEN. OJDANIC MEETS WITH MONTENEGRIN PM VUJANOVIC
Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, who is visiting Montenegro to inspect the 2nd Army, met on Wednesday with Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic, as republican President Milo Djukanovic was absent. The current security-political situation in Yugoslavia was
discussed in open talks, with special emphasis on Montenegro, it was announced by the General Staff and the prime minister's office.
Certain issues in connection with relations between the Yugoslav Army and Montenegrin organs of authority were also discussed, as well as some aspects of promoting cooperation between army commands and units and Montenegrin organs in the interest of peace, security and the general welfare of the citizens of Montenegro, Serbia and Yugoslavia, the statement said.
CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF VISITS NAVY
Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff, Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, accompanied by navy commander, Rear Admiral Milan Zec, on Thursday began a tour of part of the commands and units of the navy, the staff information service said.
Rear Admiral Zec reported to Gen. Ojdanic about the state of combat readiness and working and living conditions of navy members, and the dynamics of reconstructing objects destroyed or damaged during the NATO aggression.
Gen. Ojdanic conferred with professional members of the army and informed them about the current military-security situation in the country and neighbourhood, and the acute tasks of the Yugoslav Army.
During the tour, the general also met with army members wounded in the NATO aggression who are being treated at the Meljine Army Hospital, and wished them a speedy recovery.
Gen. Ojdanic directly saw the state of combat readiness of navy commands and units and expressed satisfaction with the training and fitness demonstrated by these units during the exercises, the statement said.
SERBIAN KOSOVO-METOHIJA OFFICIAL RECEIVES RUSSIAN KFOR DELEGATION
President of the Kosovo-Metohija Interim Executive Council Zoran Andjelkovic received Wednesday a delegation of the press service of Russian KFOR troops and briefed them of the problems in Serbia's southern province.
Andjelkovic spoke of the poor security situation of Serbs in the province, especially in Orahovac, Velika Hoca and Kosovska Mitrovica.
Since KFOR's arrival, 330,000 non-ethnic Albanians have fled the province, where only 100,000 Serbs remain today, Andjelkovic said.
KFOR tolerates barricades erected by ethnic Albanians around Orahovac, but uses force to dismantle barricades erected by Serbs in protest against violence, Andjelkovic said.
KFOR and UNMIK also apply double standards as regards education. In the Serb community of Plemetina, they are creating multiethnic schools, while there are no Serb schools in Pristina, Obilic or Lipljan, he said.
Hashim Thaci's extremists and terrorists have taken power by force in Kosovo-Metohija, while KFOR and UNMIK watch without acting, Andjelkovic said.
The Russian delegation said they would brief the Russian KFOR command and the Russian government of the situation.
U.N.-SECURED KOSOVO-METOHIJA HAS NO LAW AND ORDER - SERBIAN OFFICIAL
The Yugoslav army and police withdrew from Kosovo-Metohija on the understanding that the state bodies would continue to function, but this is not the case, according to Serbia's public prosecutor on Wednesday.
Speaking for Belgrade Radio B92, Dragisa Krsmanovic said that this state of affairs was contrary to the provisions of the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 1244 on that province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Krsmanovic said that law and order had not been secured in U.N.-administered Kosovo-Metohija, that terrible crimes against Serbs were being committed with the purpose of "ethnically cleansing" the province, leaving there only ethnic Albanians.
He went on to say that all this was being done under the wing of the UN peace force, and that somebody should be held accountable for this situation.
Leaders of the ethnic Albanian terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) must be held accountable for the crimes of the organisation's members, he said, adding that those crimes could not be blamed on rogue KLA elements.
He further said that, during NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on Yugoslavia, competent state bodies had carried out investigations and autopsies, so that now they had evidence against those guilty of the aggression.
According to Krsmanovic, inquiries have been instituted in Yugoslav courts against 12 persons in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany implicated in the matter.
Inquiries had been insistuted also against those who had been in direct command of the anti-Yugoslav campaign - NATO Commander Europe Wesley Clark and former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, Krsmanovic added.
The inquiries would be followed by indictments before the District Court in Belgrade, he said, adding that proceedings against the western leaders had been instituted also in several courts in the world.
SERBS IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S GNJILANE PROTEST WITH KFOR, UNMIK
The Serb Church Council in Kosovo-Metohija's town of Gnjilane has lodged a strong protest with the local command of the international KFor force and UN civilian mission (UNMIK) chief Bernard Kouchner over the murder of a Serb.
The protest was joined by the council of the local village of Koretiste, accusing KFor and Kouchner of having done nothing to prevent the murder of Cedomir Nikolic.
Nikolic was abducted by ethnic Albanian extremists on the Gnjilane-Bujanovac road on Nov. 1, and subsequently killed in the village of Dobrcane. His body was found on Nov. 2.
The Council said KFor troops manning the checkpoint at the village of Dobrcane had done nothing to prevent the murder, which was tantamount to the UN peace force's complicity in the ethnic Albanian crime.
Attacks on Serbs in the U.S. zone of responsibility, in the north-western part of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-administered province of Kosovo-Metohija, continue unabated.
Trajko Djoric, a 65-year-old Serb, was beaten up outside the village of Pasjane near Gnjilane by ethnic Albanians from the nearby village of Velekinac.
In Gnjilane, two Serb houses - belonging to Bozidar Zubic and Trifun Arsic - were stoned.
KOSOVO-METOHIJA TURKS MEET WITH KFOR OFFICIAL
Ethnic Turkish community leader in Kosovo-Metohija Zejnelabadin Kureis met in Kosovo- Metohija's city of Pristina on Wednesday with Major Roland Lavoie of the international KFor force.
Kureis, member of the ethnic Turkish Democratic Party Main Board, told reporters after the meeting they had discussed the present unfavourable position of ethnic Turks in that U.N.-administered province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Before NATO's air strikes on Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10, the ethnic Turkish community in Kosovo-Metohija had numbered more than 50,000 members, and had enjoyed all rights, Kureis said.
They had had dozens of primary and secondary schools and even university-level education in their mother tongue, as well as societies for promoting their national identity and culture, he added.
Television and radio programme in the Turkish language had been broadcast from studios in the province's cities of Pristina, Kosovska Mitrovica, Prizren and Gnjilane, and they had printed a daily newspaper and several magazines, he went on to say.
When the air strikes started, more than 10,000 Turks fled Kosovo- Metohija, and another 30,000 have left since the deployment of KFor, he said.
According to Kureis, nobody guarantees the remaining ethnic Turks' safety of person and property, and a large number of them are living on a subsistence level.
SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS LAWLESSNESS PREVAILS IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
Serbian Minister of Justice Dragoljub Jankovic said Wednesday that the admission of OSCE Pristina mission chief Dan Everts that the judiciary system in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province is not functioning demonstrated the inability of international KFOR peacekeepers and UN civilian mission UNMIK to implement the relevant Security Council Resolution 1244.
Jankovic told Radio Yugoslavia that Everts's statement also confirmed that total lawlessness prevailed at present in Kosovo-Metohija.
It also shows that the time has come for a full implementation of the Resolution 1244, including the establishment of all state structures, above all the judiciary system, and the return of Serbian and Yugoslav police and army to the province, Jankovic said.
The international community has completely taken the side of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija, including unfortunately the terrorist KLA, while its attitude towards Serbs and other ethnic groups is totally negative. The international community is in fact doing everything to ethnically cleanse the province in violation of the Resolution 1244, Jankovic said.
After UNMIK's arrival in the province last June, a decision was taken to establish a 3-1 ethnic Albanian - Serb ratio of judiciary personnel, but this principle was quickly abandoned, above all for security reasons, Jankovic noted.
There was no safety for Serbs appointed to temporary judiciary posts by UNMIK heads Sergio Vieira de Melo and Bernard Kouchner. One judge was killed, another was abducted, and all were subjected to brutal assaults and their property was looted or destroyed, Jankovic said.
The demands of ethnic Albanian judiciary that Yugoslav and Serbian laws be ignored in Kosovo-Metohija have forced the remaining Serb judiciary personnel to resign, Jankovic said.
Everts's proposal that foreign judges be appointed in the province is absurd and unacceptable, as they do not know the Yugoslav and Serbian legal systems, the language or local customs, Jankovic said.
VEDRINE CRITICIZES U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AS HEGEMONISTIC
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine on Wednesday criticized the U.S. concept of international relations, describing it as hegemonistic.
We cannot accept a world which is politically one-polar, or culturally uniform, or the unilateralism of one super power, Vedrine told an international conference on the XXI century and challenges of globalization, which was organized to mark the 20th anniversary of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI).
Vedrine said the multi-polar world advocated by France could be constructed only if the European Union presented one of its poles and if the poles collaborated.
The two-day Paris conference is attended by presidents Johannes Rau of Germany, Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, Henri Konan Bedie of Ivory Coast, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, and E.U. High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana.
FRENCH UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS CONDEMN SILENCE ON KOSOVO
A group of French University professors strongly condemned the current situation in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province in the Paris daily Le Monde on Wednesday, in particular crimes against Serbs and other non-Albanians.
"Serbs and Romanies who remained in Kosovo are victims of countless crimes, from pressure to depart to murder. Serb buildings, public and private, are regularly destroyed or damaged, and the KFOR is obliged to protect Orthodox monasteries," the report said.
Criticizing such a situation in which the mere use of the Serbian language could bring one's life in jeopardy, the professors warned against the silence of Kosovo Albanian leaders and of French papers on the current suffering of the non-Albanian population in Kosovo and Metohija.
The authors underscored the fact that the victims of current crimes in Kosovo and Metohija are children and elderly people, pointing out that no explanations about alleged ethnic Albanian revenge, especially against the weak, could justify taking the law into their own hands. "Execution without an investigation or trial is not a legal act but murder," the report said.
The professors expressed doubt about freedom of expression in Kosovo and Metohija, where the Kosova Press news agency, "considered the official organ of the Kosovo Liberation Army, sent death threats to Koha Ditore Editor-in-Chief Veton Suroi in hardly veiled terms" because he recently condemned crimes against Serbs in the southern Serbian province.
NATO APPOINTS RALSTON SUCCESSOR TO CLARK AS EUROPE COMMANDER
The NATO Council appointed Wednesday General Joseph Ralston of the United States Air Force to succeed General Wesley Clark as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from May 2000, NATO headquarters in Brussels said in a statement.
US President Bill Clinton had formally asked NATO's 19 member governments to release Clark and approve Ralston, in a letter to the alliance Secretary-General Lord George Robertson, chairman of the defence planning committee.
"The committee agreed with great regret to release General Clark," the statement said.
Clinton's proposal was also approved subsequently by the NATO permanent council session held at ambassadorial level.
RESPECT OF RESOLUTION 1244 NECESSARY
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 adopted on June 10 requires of all countries to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, the Chinese news agency Xinhua pointed out on Thursday.
Xinhua carried protest lodged by Yugoslav Ambassador to the United Nations Vladislav Jovanovic with the Security Council president on the occasion of the intention of Kosovo and Metohija UN mission chief Bernard Kouchner to conduct a census in the province at this time.
The leading Chinese daily Renmin Ribao said on Thursday that Yugoslavia had completed the first stage of post-war renewal, repairing many vitally important infrastructure and traffic objects, electric and telecommunications plants.
By early November, Yugoslavia has repaired 26 road and five railway bridges, and built new houses for 520 families which lost their homes in the brutal NATO bombardments, Renmin Ribao said.
21ST CENTURY, CENTURY OF PROSPERITY, HUMANNESS
President of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) Directorate, Professor Dr. Mira Markovic Wednesday visited the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Clinic of the Clinical Centre of Novi Sad, capital of the Yugoslav northern province of Voivodina, where she toured a redone and partly new wing housing the maternity ward.
"This last spring, during the bombardments of Yugoslavia, when the biggest military power in the world bombed maternity hospitals in a small country, I thought that that would be the last picture of the 20th century and that it would cast a immense shadow on everything good done for humanity in this century," Mira Markovic said.
She said she was very pleased that the building of the maternity hospital was nearing completion.
"More has been done for humanity materially, economically, politically, socially, culturally and in all other ways in the 20th century than in all the preceding centuries put together. That is why all historical reasons exist for me to believe that the 21st century will be a century of great prosperity and possibly also of real and genuine humanness," Professor Dr. Markovic set out, and wished all children, including those who will be born at the new maternity hospital in Novi Sad, a life in a humane world and a world of abundance.
Mira Markovic was accompanied on the tour of the completed wing of the maternity hospital by Voivodina Assembly President Zivorad Smiljanic, Yugoslav Ministers of Telecommunications Ivan Markovic and of Development, Science and Ecology Nada Sljapic, Serbia Health Minister Leposava Milicevic, head of the Voivodina Government Bosko Perosevic, many other public figures and medical workers.
SPS LENDS SUPPORT TO SERBIA GOVERNMENT MEASURES
The Serbia Government measures aimed at checking the unjustified increases in prices and returning prices to the previous level are giving positive results, the Executive Commitee of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) established Wednesday at a session chaired by SPS General-Secretary Gorica Gajevic, the SPS Press Service said.
The halting of the unjustified increases in prices and the maintaining of stable prices and a stable dinar are vitally important for the activation of the overall economic activities and the preservation of the living standards, a released statement said.
The SPS fully supports the Government of the Republic of Serbia and other relevant authorities in their further consistent implementation of these measures. The flouting of the measures constitutes an open undermining of the country's economic and social stability, and all who fail to abide by the measures are working against the interests of the citizens and the country's overall stability, the statement stressed.
The SPS Executive Committee said that the completion of the first phase of the country's reconstruction was a major victory of the citizens, the builders and the leadership that pursues a policy that is in the interest of the state and the people.
The reconstruction of vital infrastructure and production facilities, schools, hospitals, and housing units in a record time is a reflection of unity and a high degree of patriotism, the statement said.
The reconstruction and social stability are priorities in the defense of the country and the protection of the citizens, it underscored.
STOJANOV SAYS NO DISCUSSION OF ATOMIC BASES WITH CLINTON
It was confirmed in Sofia late Wednesday that Bulgarian President Petar Stojanov and U.S. President Bill Clinton would not discuss the stationing of army bases with nuclear weapons in the territory of this Balkan country.
Ahead of the impending meeting with Clinton in Sofia, Stojanov said it was absurd to deploy nuclear arms in the territory of a small Balkans country.
Stojanov confirmed he would discuss Bulgaria's rapprochement and cooperation with NATO with the U.S. president.
The date of Clinton's visit to Bulgaria has not been officially confirmed in Sofia as yet. This will be the first visit of a U.S. president in the history of Bulgaria.
TANJUG PRESENTS AWARDS TO REPORTERS
Commentators Stevan Cordas and Vojislav Lalic are the winners of the first prize awarded for best text or best series of texts in the past 12 months by the Tanjug news agency to its reporters on the occasion of its anniversary.
On the occasion of Tanjug Day, Nov 5, the jury announced on Thursday that the second prize went to correspondents Dusan Anicic from the central Serbian town of Jagodina and Zoran Danilovic from Belgrade's suburb of Obrenovac.
The third prize went to reporters Davor Lukac, Fadilj Lukaj, Nedeljka Stanisavljevic, and Radmila Lalic.
Tanjug Director and Editor-in-Chief Dusan Djordjevic presented a special posthumous award to editor Svetlana Brkic for her exceptional long-term work in the Tanjug-Ekos Desk and her exceptional working contribution during the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
In the Tanjug competition for best photograph, the first prize went to Zoran Jovanovic of the Vecernje novosti daily, the second prize to Zoran Milovanovic of the daily Vojska, and the third prize went to Slobodan Pikula of the daily Borba.