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YUGOSLAVIA RECORDS 9.7 PERCENT INCREASE IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
The Yugoslav Government, chaired by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, Thursday reviewed an information on the current economic trends, a government statement said.
The Federal Government established that the continued sanctions by a part of the international community negatively reflected on the country's reconstruction, economic-activity conditions and the value of the contracted deals with foreign partners, and slowed down the realization of the contracted deals.
Nevertheless, the industrial production in Yugoslavia rose 9.7 percent in October over the previous month.
The industrial production growth in Serbia stood at 10.7 percent, while industrial production dropped 4.3 percent in Montenegro.
The increases of retail prices have been slowed down but not halted. The Federal Government has, therefore, decided, in full cooperation with the Serbia Government and the National Bank of Yugoslavia, to continue decisively combating increases in prices, and underscored that in the conditions of a restrictive monetary policy and lowered interest rates there was no economic reason for prices to rise, but only for them to drop.
SERBIA RECORDS INDUSTRIAL-PRODUCTION GROWTH HIGHER THAN PLANNED
Serbia Deputy Prime Minister Dragan Tomic Thursday said that industrial production in Serbia rose 17 percent for the first ten months of the year, exceeding the planned annual figure of 15 percent.
Tomic told a news conference that industrial production was expected to rise by about 20 percent in both November and December, topping the figure for October.
The Serbia Deputy Premier said that some firms had increased their production by as much as three to four times, compared with last year.
The Serbia Government has taken all necessary measures to stabilize the market as soon as possible, Tomic underscored, and specified that the market would be fully supplied with sugar, cooking oil, milk and meat by the end of next week.
He stressed that all retail prices which had been raised without any justification must be returned to the Sept. 1 level, to which end he said the Federal Government Anti-Monopoly Commission had been activated.
The Serbia Deputy Premier said that the market, financial and agricultural control had been stiffened and full warehouses of the goods that are in shortage had been discovered.
Tomic set out that the country's reconstruction, which he said was a prirority, was proceeding very successfully, and voiced hope that the second phase of the reconstruction of the infrastructure and economic facilities destroyed or damaged in NATO aggression would be just as successful.
Serbia Finance Minister Borislav Milacic told the news conference that the money supply was being kept under full control and the interest-rate policy had been radically changed, as the rates had been cut by as much as four times.
Milacic set out that full financial discipline was a key task in the country's reforms and development.
YUGOSLAVIA'S JOVANOVIC SAYS OSCE SERVES NATO'S PURPOSE
Yugoslavia's foreign minister said on Thursday that the Istanbul summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) showed that this Organisation was serving the purpose of NATO and the western military industry.
Zivadin Jovanovic said that the conditions of, manner of preparation for and participants in the OSCE summit, which opened earlier on Thursday, showed that the OSCE had been turned into an instrument of NATO and the western military industry.
Jovanovic was speaking at the graduation of the first generation of students from the Diplomatic Academy in Belgrade.
He said that the OSCE's attitude to Yugoslavia as a founding member of the Organisation bore out Belgrade's thesis that the OSCE defeated its purpose and had allowed itself to be turned into NATO's instrument of pressure on a European state and nation.
Speaking about the tasks of Yugoslav diplomacy, he stressed that its first job was to defend the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which had for years now been grappling with an offensive of separatism and terrorism.
Another important job of the diplomatic service, he added, was to work to create conditions necessary for further development and for the reconstruction of the devastation caused by NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10, 1999.
He went on to say that the Yugoslav diplomatic service was "the diplomatic service of an independent and sovereign state, and it serves the vital interests of the states and nation, while taking care not to harm another subject in international relations."
He further said that Yugoslavia was a victim of NATO, which had used the ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province as its scouts on land and, occasionally, as its land forces.
However, he stressed, the western military alliance had failed to achieve its object, " which was to occupy and subjugate our country and our people."
Jovanovic said it was hard to imagine that a nation and state that had successfully resisted the greatest military power should not show the same determination in the defence against new forms of aggression.
He explained that aggression on Yugoslavia took several forms, the first of which was political aggression, whereby efforts were being made to destabilise the country internally.
He went on to say that centres for destabilising Yugoslavia had been set up in some neighbouring countries and within various international centres.
"This is to the credit neither of the countries nor of the governments that have allowed it," nor is such practice conducive to closer ties between neighbours or to neighbourly relations, according to Jovanovic.
This was conducive, rather, to the imposition of the will of others on the whole region, he added, explaining that these efforts were upheld by corresponding financial measures.
Another form of aggression, according to Jovanovic, is economic aggression, taking the form of an outer wall of sanctions in the economy, science, technology and transport, and yet another is a media blockade.
He went on to say he was sure that Yugoslav diplomacy would help narrow the scope for political hegemony and the subjugation of other nations.
He hoped also that international law and international organisations would, in the foreseeable future, escape from the jaws of the military industry and the forces of hegemony and return to the road of right and the principle of equality.
Jovanovic further said that the doctrine of limited sovereignty, which was being propagated in the name of democracy and human rights, was a threat that the world was beginning to perceive and that the influential states fully understood.
They were, therefore, working for a multi-polar world, based on the equality of states and nations regardless of the power of their military, economy or population, he explained.
He stressed that the NATO aggressors and advocates of continuing the aggression would not understand that the independence, national entity, dignity and glorious defence of the national interests and independence displayed by the Yugoslav people had deep roots.
These powers are wasting their time, and the economic and media blockade of Yugoslavia has no future, according to Jovanovic.
He went on to say that the diplomatic service had the special and topical job of leading the country out of the isolation and breaking down the outer wall of sanctions.
Yugoslavia was achieving this, he added, through a policy of openness and a philosophy of freedom of movement of people and ideas, of economic, cultural, scientific and other goods.
He said that, on the other side of Europe, a conference was being held to discuss rebuilding Kosovo-Metohija, the cradle of the Serbian religion, an integral part of Serbia and the repository of capital cultural and historical wealth on the European continent.
Saying that, despite all this, Yugoslavia was not invited to attend, he wondered if anybody there believed they could take the right decisions without Yugoslavia's participation.
"We believe that there are forces that do not want peace and stability in the Balkans and in Europe, or European development, and are provoking conflicts in order to halt Europe in its development," he said.
He added that day-to-day reactions seemed to indicate that Europe was beginning to realise the meaning and effect of its policy of blind obedience to NATO and the U.S. Administration.
Yugoslavia, he stressed, was working for equality-based relations and cooperation, and in most parts of the world had partners for cooperation in all fields.
Repeating that the Yugoslav diplomatic service had the special job of creating conditions for rebuilding NATO-wreaked devastation, he noted that the country was embarking on a period when, along with the reconstruction, it was intensifying work on restructuring the economy, increasing its competitiveness and productivity.
This would necessitate the diplomatic service's full involvement, so as to get as many foreign partners as possible, achieve speedy reconstruction, modern technological and economic development and the closest possible ties with progressive economies in Europe and the world, he stressed.
He noted that the more foreign partners secured by the national diplomatic service and the economy for economic development, the clearer would appear the futility of any kind of sanctions against Yugoslavia.
EARLY ELECTIONS IN SERBIA WILL NOT BE HELD, NIKOLIC SAYS
Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister and vice-president of the Serbian Radical Party Tomislav Nikolic told Krajina television in Negotin (eastern Serbia) that early elections in Serbia will not be held and that local elections in conformity with the new law on local self-rule will be held in the first half of the year 2000.
The date of parliamentary elections will be fixed by the authorities, and not by the opposition, Nikolic added, stressing that the Serbian parliament accepted the initiative of SPO and of other opposition parties to talk about elections.
Nikolic, reffering to recent developments in Montenegro, said he believed the majority of the population there will not allow secession and that Yugoslavia must recover sovereignty over Kosovo and Metohija, which will be achieved by the definite accession of FR Yugoslavia to the alliance with Russia and Belarus.
MONTENEGRIN AUTHORITIES VIOLATE YUGOSLAVIA'S LEGAL SYSTEM
The Yugoslav Justice Ministry said Friday that the amnesty law recently adopted by the Montenegrin parliament undermined and violated Yugoslavia's legal system.
A statement issued by Justice Minister Petar Jojic said that the law granted amnesty to persons charged with and sentenced for crimes committed against the Yugoslav army between June 24, 1998, and June 30, 1999. Moreover, under the law, persons suspected of these crimes are not subject to investigation.
Jojic said that, under the Yugoslav constitution, only the Yugoslav parliament could grant amnesty for crimes provided for by the federal law.
Moreover, under the Montenegrin constitution, the Montenegrin parliament can only pardon persons charged with crimes provided for by the Montenegrin law.
In the light of the fact that crimes against the Yugoslav army are provided for by the Yugoslav law only, the Yugoslav parliament alone can grant amnesty to persons charged with or sentenced for these crimes, he said.
Parliaments of Yugoslavia's two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, are not authorised to grant amnesty in these cases, he said.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT WARNS KOSOVO ALBANIANS TO STOP VIOLENCE
European parliament on Thursday warned Kosovo Albanians that the European Union might reconsider its contribution to the reconstruction of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija if they continued their violence and persecution of local Serbs.
The text of a resolution which was adopted by MPs condemned acts of murder, abduction, arrest, abuse of power, disturbance, intimidation, arson, robberies, as well as destruction and confiscating of property and apartments - to which Kosovo Albanians constantly resort in their actions against Serbs.
Unless the situation regarding human rights is substantially improved, European parliament believes the E.U. should re-examine its financial contribution to Kosovo's reconstruction, the MPs warned.
The resolution underscored that all the population of Kosovo and Metohija, regardless of ethnic origin, should have the right to remain in the province or return there. This is an indirect condemnation of the ethnic cleansing against Serbs and other non-Albanians by Kosovo Albanians.
The document strongly criticizes the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (an ethnic Albanian terrorist organization) for making mockery of the United Nations civilian mission UNMIK and the values proclaimed to justify the NATO operation - last spring's NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia.
Still armed groups of civilians are asked to stop their aggression and join in the peaceful reconstruction of Kosovo and Metohija, which cannot be a task of international organizations alone, the resolution said.
In closing, the resolution recommended that all political forces in Kosovo and Metohija renew dialogue.
KOUCHNER FOUNDS HOUSING AUTHORITY IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Head of the UN civil mission in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) Bernard Kouchner has passed a decree on the founding of a housing and ownership authority in the province, after the UNMIK had for five months been mostly passive while Serbs were being driven out of their homes and ethnic Albanians moved in.
A released UNMIK statement said Friday that the housing and ownership authority was the first step towards the resolution of the complex issue of the ownership of housing facilities by the UNMIK and the UN Housing Centre, since it stressed housing was one of the most sensitive and complex issues facing the Kosovo and Metohija inhabitants.
The newly founded authority will register the abandoned private and state-owned housing facilities, mediate in ownership disputes or, in special cases, transfer the cases to competent commissions, made up, each, of two international experts and one local one, according to the UNMIK statement.
A memorandum on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in the province, which the Yugoslav government recently forwarded to the UN, said that new tenants had forcibly moved into 757 housing units owned by non-Albanians in the provincial capital of Pristina by September, into over 200 in Kosovska Mitrovica, 153 in Gnjilane, and 124 in Grahovac, whereas the figures for Pec and Prizren, where many Serbs used to live, are not available as the two towns have been ethnically cleansed.
POLICE BEGIN INVESTIGATION OF MISSING SERBS IN DJAKOVICA
Two policemen of the United Nations civilian mission UNMIK in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province on Thursday officially began an investigation into the disappearance of five Orahovac Serbs in Djakovica a fortnight ago, radio amateurs reported from Orahovac.
The policemen spoke to the men's families about all the details in connection with this incident. The family members pointed out that the incident had been reported just one day after the disappearance, and expressed protest that the UNMIK and international force KFOR had decided to launch an investigation after two weeks.
Orahovac Serbs on Thursday decided to stop signing up for free wood for fuel, since they had established that the lists were to have been used by the KFOR for subsequent arrests and possible charges of war crimes, the radio amateurs said.
The KFOR tried to get such lists on previous occasions as well, but never succeeded. This time, Serbs became suspicious when the KFOR asked for the names of all family members, and not just its head and the number of household members.
PROBLEMS OF SERB VILLAGES IN KOSOVO'S VUCITRN MUNICIPALITY
The population of Priluzje and other Serb villages in the municipality of Vucitrn, Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, are having great difficulties with fuel, transporting patients to the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital, telephones, reception of humanitarian aid shipments, as ethnic Albanians are obstructing UN civilian mission (UNMIK) decisions.
Villagers on Thursday met with Kosovo and Metohija Serb National Council Executive Committee President Oliver Ivanovic, Telekom Srbija Director for Kosovska Mitrovica Petar Bisevac, and KFOR Vucitrn battalion commander. The villagers said telephone lines were not working for two months.
The officials said work was under way to repair the problem and that the lines should be operational within the next seven days.
Speaking about the fuel problem, villagers said the UNMIK had guaranteed they would get 3,000 tons of separated coal from the Obilic mine, but that this had not been delivered yet because ethnic Albanians were preventing deliveries with various tricks, and the UNMIK was doing nothing.
Villagers have also been denied specialized medical help since the mining of a bridge and railway on the Kosovo Polje-Lesak route. Doctors of the Priluzje Medical Center can send patients to the Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital in a vehicle of the KFOR Belgian contingent on Tuesdays and Fridays only, according to an UNMIK decision.
There is enough humanitarian aid in Priluzje, but not in other places. The situation is the most difficult in the village of Milosevo, which has 22 Serb houses with about 100 occupants. Serbs are the minority population there and they are not receiving humanitarian or any other aid.
The Vucitrn KFOR commander said his troops were on regular patrol and that there had not been any major incidents in this area in the past two months.
CONVOY WITH HUMANITARIAN AID PROCEEDS TOWARDS GNJILANE
A convoy with humanitarian aid for the Kosovo-Pomoravlje District made a short stopover in Vranje Thursday, Serbia Minister without portfolio Djura Lazic and member of the Yugoslav Sub-Committee for Humanitarian Affairs Dragan Jezdic told Tanjug.
The Sub-Committee for Humanitarian Aid secured the aid in cooperation with the Serbia Commission for Displaced Persons, the Serbia and federal governments and the Serbia and Yugoslav Red Cross.
The aid in food and hygienic articles is intended for the Serbs displaced from three villages in the Vitina municipality who are now staying in the village of Donja Budriga.
The convoy will be escorted by the KFOR in specified sections.
It is the second contingent of humanitarian aid being sent to the Kosovo-Pomoravlje District, Lazic said and set out that the Serbia government, in cooperation with the federal government, had sent 100 tonnes of seed wheat and the necessary amount of oil to Kosovo and Metohija for the autumn sowing, and was about to send also fertilizers.
" Schools are working in the Kosovo-Pomoravlje District, some medical facilities are supplied with medicaments, and the veterinary protection is organized," Lazic said.
He set out that the Serbia government, the Sub-Committee for Humanitarian Affairs, the Commission for Displace Persons, the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations were investing major efforts, in cooperation with the Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with KFOR ad UNMIK, to improve the position of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Serbia's southern province.
YELTSIN, CLINTON DISCUSS SITUATION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Bill Clinton of the USA focused their talks in Istanbul Thursday on the situation in northern Caucasus and arms control, Yeltsin's deputy chief-of-staff Sergei Prihodko said in Istanbul after the meeting.
However, Russian media also quoted sources in the Russian delegation at the OSCE summit as saying that the two presidents had devoted much of their one-hour meeting also to the situation in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, so that more details are not available for the time being.
Moscow commentators do not doubt that Kosovo and Metohija was a central topic of the Yeltsin-Clinton meeting, since open disagreements between the two presidents had broken out at the OSCE plenary precisely over Yeltsin's statement that the U.S.-led NATO had committed aggression on Yugoslavia.
Prihodko did not say anything about whether the two presidents had brought their views any closer on the anti-terrorist Russian operations in Chechnya.
In his brief statement to the press, Prihodko only said that President Yeltsin had "presented to the U.S. President Russia's position on northern Caucasus and informed him about the efforts made by Russian authorities, including those to return life back to normal in Chechnya."
Prihodko said that views were also exchanged on prospects of European cooperation and European security issues, and set out that the talks were held in a "very candid atmosphere."
After the meeting, Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton appeared before the press but made no statements.
Attending the talks on behalf of the Russian side were also Ministers Igor Ivanov of Foreign Affairs, Igor Sergeyev of Defense and Sergei Shoygu for Emergency Situations, and on behalf of the U.S. side, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and presidential national security adviser Samuel Berger.
U.S. AGAINST MONTENEGRO'S, KOSOVO AND METOHIJA'S INDEPENDENCE - AMBASSADOR
U.S. ambassador in Skopje Mike Inic has said that his country does not back independence for Montenegro and Kosovo and Metohija.
In an interview published Friday by the Skopje Jutarnji Vesnik newspaper, Inic said that these territories were an integral part of Yugoslavia and that his country remained firm on that position.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija makes this clear and the United States urges its implementation, he said.
Inic could not confirm reports that Clinton might visit Macedonia's capital Skopje within his tour of the Balkans, saying that such a plan did exist and that it had not been rejected.
Clinton would in that case meet with Macedonia's newly elected president Boris Trajkovski if he is sworn in by that time, he said.
GORBACHEV SAYS U.S. PLAYING VERY DANGEROUS GAME
Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet Union's last president, has warned that the United States is playing a very dangerous game and has rejected all accords on cooperation reached in the interests of the resolution of global issues.
In an article published by the Prague Lidove Noviny newspaper, Gorbachev said that the United States had earlier agreed on the gradual transformation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact from purely military organisations into political organisations.
Gorbachev said that developments had taken quite a different turn, saying that the moment the Soviet Union had disintegrated, the United States had decided to re-animate NATO and to proclaim that it had taken responsibility for the entire world.
He said, however, that the United Nations was still active, saying that Russia and China were UN members and that the West could hardly ignore them primarily because of their right to veto.
At the point when former UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali proposed a programme of UN reforms and the world body's higher efficiency, he was replaced by Kofi Annan because the United States has to have its puppets everywhere, he said.
Gorbachev said the United States was not to be trusted because it had violated all agreements, adding, however, that it was impossible to build Europe without U.S. assistance the same it was impossible to build it without Russia's assistance.
CLINTON DUE IN ATHENS, PROTESTERS TO DEFY BAN
Strict police measures of control and security have been imposed in Athens on Friday because of a visit by U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is due here tonight from Istanbul, and announcements by protesters that they would defy a ban on anti-U.S. rallies during the visit.
Greek police engaged about 7,000 special officers who will use force if necessary. Clinton's visit was postponed to Nov 19 because of fierce anti-U.S. protests organized throughout Greece recently. The government issued a ban on protests during the visit.
Leftist forces, the Greek Communist Party, the Sinaspismos Coalition of the left and progress, and the Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI) will go ahead with a planned rally in Athens' central Syntagma Square today "in spite of the unacceptable and unconstitutional ban by the government."
Clinton will this evening attend an official dinner hosted by Greek President Costas Stephanopoulos, and have separate talks on Saturday morning with the president and Prime Minister Costas Simitis, and address a Greek-U.S. auditorium, media reported.