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Slovenia News Bulletin Overview of top stories since 14 March 2004 This week’s headlines…
And in other news…
Unrest in Kosovo elicits Slovene responseThe outbreak of renewed conflict in Kosovo was condemned on 18 March by Slovene President Janez Drnovšek, who issued a press release in which he said, “violence cannot be a solution to problems and relations between various ethnic groups, neither can it be a means of achieving political goals.” He added that it also means a “vote of no-confidence in the efforts of the international community, the United Nations Security Council and the European Union, which have made great efforts towards the stabilization, development and democratic perspectives of Kosovo and the wider region.” Drnovšek also commented on the outbreak of ethnic violence within Serbia which has, among other things, seen the destruction of historic mosques in Belgrade and Niš, and vandalism at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, where a Hungarian play was being staged. He said that “the tragic events in Kosovo cannot be an excuse for violent rage in parts of Serbia and Montenegro.” He called on representatives of the Albanian, Serbian and other ethnic groups in Kosovo, as well as on the highest representatives of Serbia and Montenegro, to do everything possible to calm the situation. He also called on the international community to work with local institutions to investigate the reasons for the outbreak of the violence and to take action against those who have incited it. The story was in the center of the Slovene media’s attention as well. All three major dailies, Delo, Večer and Dnevnik, started covering the violence in Kosovo on Thursday morning and continued to devote attention to it by week’s end. Coverage in Delo compared the Wednesday night rampage in Kosovo to Kristallnacht, a major pogrom against Jews in Hitler’s Germany. The daily blamed the situation on a general frustration in Kosovo, which has been administered for five years by the international community, though legally it remains a province of Serbia. According to Delo, the Albanians see the international community as being an occupying force preventing their desire to declare an independent state, while the Serbs blame the international community for trying to turn Kosovo into an Albanian-only area in a run-up to declaring the province’s independence. Delo advocated a partition of Kosovo into Serb and Albanian portions as the only viable solution. According to Večer, it was just a question of time until violence would erupt again in Kosovo. The international community was preoccupied with imposing a peace on the local Albanians and Serbs without looking far enough into the future to make that peace a lasting one. Once the world’s attention drifted to crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and elsewhere, Kosovo was forgotten. Večer looked at the wider region and arrived at a grim conclusion. “The international community’s fear of a new escalation of violence in the Balkans after last night’s incidents is all the more greater, because presidential elections are slated for 14 April to replace President Boris Trajkovski, who recently died in a plane crash near Mostar.” Trajkovski was credited with reigning in tensions in between Macedonians and Albanians, who make up nearly one-third of the country. Those tensions nearly led to an all-out war in Macedonia, which borders Kosovo, and the possibility of war there has never quite gone away. Dnevnik came down hardest on the international community, saying that the Balkans remain a mystery to outsiders even after the explosive events of the past 15 years. The daily suggested that the international community’s administration in Kosovo has become complacent and overlooked a large number of presumably random ethnic incidents in recent years which should have shown that the situation in the area was less than peaceful under the surface. The paper accused Albanians in Kosovo of taking advantage of the guilty conscience of Europe in order to take revenge on Serbs with relative impunity. Dnevnik sees the only resolution to the problem in Kosovo as being a clear, long-term plan of action on the part of the international community, decisive political pressure on both Albanians and Serbs, and more economic assistance.
Protestors strike as Slovenia joins elite World Bank group World Bank President James Wolfensohn made a two-day visit to Ljubljana starting Tuesday, and it was not a visit he is likely to forget anytime soon. The highlight of the visit was to be the signing of a letter on the graduation of Slovenia into the ranks of developed countries, but anti-globalizationists had another agenda. The graduation letter was signed at a public ceremony on Wednesday. During the ceremony, Wolfensohn was hit by an egg full of green paint, and Finance Minister Dušan Mramor was also splattered. Police blamed a group of about ten anti-globalizationists who were in the audience. Wolfensohn showed up at a reception at Cankarjev Dom still wearing some green paint in his hair. Prime Minster Anton Rop commented, “This is proof that we are in a democracy: we have anti-globalizationists as well.” The Cankarjev Dom reception was held in honor of the debut of the book Slovenia: From Yugoslavia to the European Union, published recently by the World Bank. The book traces Slovenia’s transition and includes contributions by several important figures, including President Janez Drnovšek, former central bank governor France Arhar and others. More anti-globalizationists calling themselves the “United Colors of Resistance” tried to raise a banner at the reception but were escorted out by security. Slovenia began its graduation procedure in 2000, and is the first country to meet World Bank development criteria since Cyprus graduated in 1992. As of 2000, Slovenia was no longer eligible for development money from the Bank, and now it will begin donating money to fund development projects in other countries. With Slovenia, the World Bank now has 28 member states which are lender countries.
Belarusian president kicks up a storm On 15 March, the arrival of Belarusian President Aleksander Lukašenka to Ljubljana stirred up controversy. Lukašenka was invited by the Ribnica company Riko, which makes road mechanization equipment. The Belarusian President did not plan to meet with any local politicians, but did meet with former President Milan Kučan. The two reportedly discussed European Union expansion. A report by STA stated that Lukašenka is known as being anti-democratic. “His victory at the last elections was proclaimed just an hour after polling stations closed, he has violated human rights, suppressed Belarusian culture and history and shut down the majority of the independent Belarusian press, and so doors are frequently shut to him,” the press agency explained. The day after Lukašenka’s arrival, Jernej Pavlin asked Kučan at a press conference why he met with the Belarusian leader. Pavlin is the head of the youth branch of NSi Youth of Slovenia and an NSi candidate for the European Parliament elections to be held this summer. Pavlin explained that he believes that Lukašenka’s presence in Slovenia, and Kučan’s meeting with him, was a huge foreign policy error which reflects poorly on the country as it is about to join the EU and Nato. Pavlin pointed out that Kučan is on a state pension and maintains an office paid for by taxpayers, and so he should act responsibly. On the 17th, the Foreign Ministry explained that Lukašenka was in Slovenia on a personal visit and that he was given a visa only after consultation with European Union organs. Since the EU requires visas for travelers from Belarus but has no other unified restrictions on Belarusian citizens or on Lukašenka himself, there was no reason for his visa request to be denied.
Delo giving away books With its 17 March issue, Delo launched a major campaign to increase its daily sales: purchase of the issue gave readers the opportunity to get a free hardcover copy of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. A new book in the series “Vrhunci stoletja” (Classics of the Century) will be featured each week for the next 29 weeks. After the first week’s giveaway, the books will cost just SIT 990 (about USD 5.00). Most of the books on the list are world classics, though four are by Slovene authors. The price is remarkably low given the fact that books in Slovenia are quite expensive. From 12 to 17 March, some 90 percent of 115,000 copies of The Name of the Rose were pre-ordered. Since the book is to be available to Delo readers until 25 March, a reprint will be necessary though the number of copies has yet to be decided. Subscribers have been given the option of paying in advance for the whole collection of 30 books, and Delo has reportedly taken more than 2500 such orders already. According to a report in Finance, a similar promotion was begun last October by Vijesti in Montenegro, and some 32,000 copies of The Name of the Rose were sold in the course of one week. More than one million books were sold in the 30-week promotion and Vijesti’s circulation rose from 22,000 copies to 41,000. Similar promotions have also been undertaken in Brazil, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, the UK and elsewhere, and newspapers in Bosnia and Serbia are planning on following suit in the near future. The project is organized by the Spanish marketing agency Mediasata. They have arranged for the reprinting of the books and took care of copyrights, while Delo is handling the actual reprinting and distribution of the books. Dnevnik was also offered the project but turned it down in favor of creating their own program. Since they are not bound by the Mediasata list of titles, they are able to include more Slovene authors among their offerings. They are currently offering the Czech novel Good Soldier Švejk in three volumes for SIT 2850 (about USD 14.00). No word yet on the success of their project.
And in other news…
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