Overview of the week's top stories
since 5 October 2001

The announcement was made hot on the heels of last week’s speculation that Drnovšek has lung cancer. Two years ago, Drnovšek was forced to abandon his post as prime minister for three months when a tumor was removed from his kidney.

However, SLS+SKD leader Franci But told Delo that Drnovšek’s departure will require that all of the ministers will have to resign and be reappointed. He said that this will be an opportunity for his party as well as others to "consider whether they are prepared to cooperate in the government or not."

In its cover story this week, Mladina suggests that the Slovene Information-Security Agency (Sova) has been monitoring telecommunications throughout the country since the terrorist attacks in the United States. Sova is particularly interested in academics and people involved in culture and civil society, according to the magazine’s sources.

Existing legislation only foresees Sova monitoring international telecommunications. It is only allowed to monitor telecommunications within Slovenia in the event of a significant probability of a threat to national security. But the National Security Council met on 12 September and determined that the attacks in the US do not represent any present danger to Slovenia itself.

So long as there is no threat to national security, Sova has no authority to monitor telephones, mail, email or faxes. If it is in fact doing just that, it is acting outside the law.

Plus, according to existing legislation Sova must obtain a court order before monitoring telecommunications, and then may do so only in cooperation with "businesses which handle the delivery of postal packages or telecommunications." However, neither Arnes nor IJS are businesses, but computer centers of educational organizations. Therefore, Mladina supposes that Sova is stepping even further out of bounds.

Once Mladina broke the story, the daily Delo jumped in. On Tuesday, they asked representatives of Sova whether the accusations of Mladina were true. However, the Sova representative merely gave assurances that the organization has always executed its duties in accordance with the law.

Also this week, the European Journalist Federation (EJF) joined its voice to those already calling for speedier justice. The EJF has more than 70,000 members in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. Last week, the Society of Journalists of Slovenia made public letters from both the International Federation of Journalists and the Southeast Europe Media Organisation addressed to the government.

Late last week, Minister of Culture Andreja Rihter announced her decision in the case of the Roman Catholic Church’s claim on the ownership of Bled Island and its church. The decision says that the baroque church on the island will be returned to the Bled Diocese, while the island itself is ineligible for denationalization and will remain in the hands of the state.

Rihter cited the Law on Natural and Cultural Heritage, which restricts the denationalization of cultural monuments in public or social ownership. That law was already in force when the Law on Denationalization was enacted. She also believes her position is supported by the Law on the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, which prohibits the denationalization of monuments of national significance.

Both the church and the island are major parts of the Slovene heritage, but the fact that the church, while socially owned, is administered by the Bled Tourist Agency means that the Law on Denationalization does apply and denationalization is permitted. The island itself, on the other hand, is fully owned by the state and is protected from denationalization.

The leaders of the town of Bled support the decision, but the Bled Diocese disputes it, adding that it is in any case incomplete since it does not address the question of monetary restitution for the island.

If the decision is enacted, it will finally resolve the ownership dispute and pave the way for much-needed restoration of the island and its church. The ownership dispute of the past ten years has made conservation and restoration efforts acutely difficult.

The decision will become legally binding after 30 days if there is no opposition. The Church first filed a denationalization request in this matter a decade ago.

The new offices of the Center of Non-governmental Organizations of Slovenia (CNVOS) opened on 7 October at 13 Mestni Trg in Ljubljana. CNVOS was established earlier this year by some 27 NGOs but now includes more than 40.

CNVOS has set for itself the task of developing and strengthening the NGO sector, by improving legal, tax-related and human resources conditions to improve the quality of NGO work.

Established at the beginning of 2001, CNVOS represents a pact between the NGO sector and the government. It is intended to act as an intermediary between the two and should give NGOs more of a say in the preparation of legislation and government policies.

The strengthening of the NGO sector is a focus of European Union policies, and along those lines, CNVOS is being supported by the governmental Service for European Affairs (SVEZ). For the period 2001-2006, SVEZ will provide some SIT 20,000,000 (USD 83,000).

• This week, Dnevnik has claimed that officials at Abanka have found two accounts connected to terrorist organizations. Abanka, however, refuses to confirm the rumor. Dnevnik is also reporting that Slovene security service may have two Slovene citizens in custody. The two reportedly have strong business and personal connects to the Middle East. Again, however, no one will offer confirmation.

• According to the Society for Tibet, the Dalai Lama has tentatively decided to go ahead with his European tour, depending on circumstances in Central Asia. He reportedly reconsidered after a petition by Czech president Vaclav Havel. The trip will last from 10 to 23 October, with stops in Slovenia, Croatia, France and the Czech Republic where he will participate in the Forum 2000 meeting. On 20 October, the Dalai Lama is to appear at Ljubljana’s Hala Tivoli.

• Ljubljana’s K-4 club will have a grand re-opening on 16 October at 21:00. The club has renovated its space and refocused its efforts on reinvigorating the Slovene electronic music scene. The club’s new mission will include an array of lectures and seminars to increase awareness of electronic music as well as workshops to improve musicians’ and DJs’ skills, in cooperation with Kiberpipa and Galerija Kapelica.