Overview of the week's top stories
since 19 October 2001

On Monday night, police stopped the editorial board of Mladina’s "Rolanja po sceni" column in front of the PEN club in Ljubljana. The four men were asked to show their identification because they were congregating in the vicinity of the American embassy, where security has been heightened since the events of 11 September.

The four refused, and were taken into custody. Representatives of Mladina and the Society of Journalists were not allowed to see them, and could only speak to them by telephone. After about two hours, all four were released. They will still have to appear in court on charges of breaking the Law on Personal Identification.

Mladina is insisting that the four were not properly informed of why they were arrested, nor were they read their rights. "In no way can we allow the Slovene authorities to use their participation in the global anti-terrorist coalition as an excuse to attack freedom of the press," states a Mladina press release.

For two weeks now, Mladina has reported with outrage that the Slovene Information-Security Agency is monitoring the email of prominent academics, civil society and cultural activists. However, so far no one has suggested that there is any connection to this incident.

Ljubljana police press representative Robert Štaba gave a statement saying that due to international circumstance, the police have heightened security at a number of locations around Ljubljana, including the American embassy. He insists that the officers clearly stated the reason for requesting identification, and the legal basis for doing so. Since the four did not want to cooperate, they were taken into custody in accordance with the law.

Mladina is not the only media outlet affected. Of the four men, one is currently working for Delo, and has worked for Dnevnik, both of which are joining in the protests.

Regardless of the media "circus," the public does not seem bothered. A poll of more than 2000 people conducted by Dnevnik showed that more than 60 percent were not interested in the story and did not care.

During confirmation hearings in the US Senate back in August, Young made waves in Slovenia by saying that the country gives priority to European firms, and demanded equal treatment for Americans.

The media was even more shocked when he said that restrictions in various sectors, including telecommunications, insurance and banking, must be opened to US companies before Slovenia can join NATO. Further, he declared that Slovenia will also be judged by its rate of denationalization when it comes up for NATO membership.

More than 450 US citizens have unresolved property claims in Slovenia. Regardless of whether they were US citizens when the property was taken over by the government, Young insisted that the US has a responsibility to them.

The comments sparked a flurry in the media and led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a statement saying that Young did not yet know the complexity of the denationalization issue, and that its resolution is not a requirement for NATO membership.

Young has been ambassador to Bahrain since 1997, and was previously ambassador to Sierra Leone and Toga. Aside from working as an administrative advisor in the Netherlands, this is his first post in Europe.

The police released a 9-month report on suicide this week, showing an 8.7 percent drop as compared to the same period in 2000. All together, 410 suicides were reported nationally from January to September 2001, 39 less than last year.

However hopeful the statistics seem, there is still cause for alarm. About 600 of the total population of under 2 million commit suicide every year, giving Slovenia the sixth-highest suicide rate in the world. Only the three Baltic states, Hungary and Japan have higher rates.

In the first nine months of 2001, people over 64 years of age committed the most suicides. But alarmingly, the number in the 18 to 24 demographic rose since last year. There is strong precedence for this – in the 1960s, Slovenia led the world in suicide among young people.

According to Finance, authorities found a suspicious transaction that may be connected to terrorist activities. In April 1996, a sum of USD 500,000 was transferred to the SKB account of Chafik Ayadi, who is on the list of persons with connections to terrorist groups whose assets the US and UK are requesting be frozen.

The USD 500,000 was transferred into Ayadi’s account by a Saudi national, Salem bin Mahfouz. According to the CIA, bin Mahfouz’s sister Kaleda is one of Osama bin Laden’s wives.

Finance reported later in the week that their sources confirm that bin Mahfouz did not know that Ayadi had connections to terrorists. The money was given in good faith, and was intended to be used to construct homes for Bosnian refugees.

But if ever there was a Slovene film that could win the Oscar, it seems Kruh in mleko is it. Early last month, it won the most important award a Slovene film has ever won – the Golden Lion of the Future award at the Venice Film Festival.

Kruh in mleko went into domestic distribution this week after a sold-out gala premier in the director’s hometown of Tolmin. The director was on hand and fielded questions from the audience after the showing. It was expected that Kruh in mleko would have its domestic premier during the Ljubljana film festival next month, but in order to compete for the Oscar, the film had to be in domestic distribution by 31 October.

• A new network of NGOs called the Social Forum was founded on 24 October. Founding members include the Urad za intervencije; Political Laboratory; Globala; KUD Anarkiv, KUD Knap, the Youth Forum, the Institute for Ecology, Independent Syndicate of Slovenia, the Civil Association for Oversight of Institutions and ŠKUC. The Forum’s public debut will be a march called Quatarza (Quatarsis) on 9 November in Ljubljana, to protest the war in Afghanistan and the militarization of Slovenia.

• The National Gallery inaugurated its new Prešerenova street entrance this week. The structure, designed by the Sadar Vuga firm, links the Gallery’s two buildings. The new entrance was designed to display the Robb fountain, which is to be moved from Mestnji Trg and replaced by a copy.

• Friday, 19 October marked the first run on the new Ljubljana-Venice high-speed train route. The new Pendolino train left Ljubljana at 7:45 a.m. and was at Venice’s Santa Lucia station by 11:30, less than four hours later. The Pendolino hits speeds of up to 150 km per hour.