Yugoslav Daily Survey, 97-07-31

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV-BELARUS COMMISSION SESSION ENDS

[02] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL SAYS ONE SIDE HAS TO LOSE

[03] ACCORD ON AIR TIME FOR PARTIES OPEN FOR SIGNING BY SEPT 5 - MINISTER

[04] SERBIAN GOVERNMENT, TV, PARTIES SIGN AIR TIME ALLOTMENT ACCORD

[05] SERBIAN CHURCH LEADER CONDEMNS DESECREATION OF JEWISH GRAVES

[06] YUGOSLAV CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RE-ELECTS MILOJEVIC ITS PRESIDENT

[07] TALKS WITH LONDON CLUB RESUME IN BELGRADE

[08] YUGOSLAV MINISTER WRITES TO RABBI OVER JEWISH GRAVES DESECRATION

[01] YUGOSLAV-BELARUS COMMISSION SESSION ENDS

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

The first session of an inter-governmental Yugoslav-Belarus Commission for trade and economic cooperation ended in Minsk on Wednesday. The Yugoslav delegation was headed by Yugoslav Foreign Trade Minister Borislav Vukovic, who is also president of the Yugoslav part of the Commission.

The Yugoslav Government said in a statement that both sides had expressed great interest in promoting cooperation, which had already been successful, especially in the field of agriculture, services, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, transport and the tourist industry.

It was agreed that cooperation agreements should be signed in the field of veterinary medicine, the construction and tourist industries and telecommunications and that higher forms of industrial cooperation, such as joint investments and joint appearance on the third markets, should be one of the forms of future cooperation.

During the visit, which was given much media coverage in Belarus, Minister Vukovic was received by First Deputy Prime Minister Peter Prkonovich and Foreign Minister Antonovich.

[02] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL SAYS ONE SIDE HAS TO LOSE

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Bosnian Serb member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik has said that the constitutional crisis in the Republika Srpska is about to be settled and that the ruling will have to go against one side. Krajisnik was speaking in an interview to the Thursday issue of the Pristina daily Jedinstvo.

"I have wished so much and pleaded with Mrs Biljana Plavsic that there must be no winners and no losers in this conflict, because there can be no worse thing than a Serb winning against the Serbs. She did not want a compromise, she rejected this."

Krajisnik believes that the crisis in the Republika Srpska was created under the influence of international factors who wish to make the Republika Srpska appear to be a criminalised state in order to be able to evade the sending of assistance with an excuse. "International factors have skilfully imposed this plan of which we are aware, but, unfortunately, Mrs Biljana Plavsic isn't. Mrs Plavsic has some new advisors, people who came from the abroad, whose views about our affairs are different than ours and she just left the team. She separated from us and went to Banja Luka," Krajisnik said.

He said that Plavsic had made two fatal mistakes which the "people can never forgive" - she dissolved Parliament and "attacked Radovan Karadzic without any reason, just because somebody in the West told her that the Republika Srpska would be isolated if she did not dissasociate herself from him."

Krajisnik said that the Republika Srpska could now be rightfully described as a nearly independent state, because only small part of the prerogatives which make state a state belong to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Everything except foreign affairs has remained on the level of entities, i.e. on the level of the Republika Srpska.

"We could not agree what Bosnia-Herzegovina is, we have left this to the future to show through the implementation of the Dayton Accords. In any case, in relations in Bosnia-Herzegovina we have already accomplished important things in keeping the basic and agreed independence of the Republika Srpska," Krajisnik said.

[03] ACCORD ON AIR TIME FOR PARTIES OPEN FOR SIGNING BY SEPT 5 - MINISTER

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Serbia's Information Minister said late on Wednesday that the Accord on equal representation of parties on state radio and television in the run-up to elections, signed earlier in the day, would be open for signing until Sept. 5.

Presidential and parliamentary elections in this Yugoslav republic have been called for Sept. 21.

Minister Radmila Milentijevic said she was happy about Wednesday's discussions on the draft accord held at the Serbian Government between reresentatives of the Government, state Radio and Television and 24 parties.

Speaking after the meeting, Milentijevic added that there had been many suggestions made which were interesting and to the point, and that some of them would be incorporated in the text of the Accord.

She stressed that the original text would be revised in the light of the suggestions made this evening, saying she was confident that the parties that had not attended the meeting would also sign the Accord after it had been amended.

[04] SERBIAN GOVERNMENT, TV, PARTIES SIGN AIR TIME ALLOTMENT ACCORD

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Officials of the Serbian Government, state Radio and Television and 24 parties that will contest the next polls signed an Accord late on Wednesday on equal representation of parties in the election campaign, the Information Ministry said.

Presidential and parliamentary elections in this Yugoslav republic have been called for Sept. 21.

Meeting at the Serbian Government, they coordinated the text of the Accord with amendments to the Law on Parliamentary Elections adopted by Parliament, in the section about differences in the presentation of the parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties.

Air time allotted to the parties on state television in the run-up to elections will depend on the size of the parties' parliamentary clubs for the parties represented in parliament, and on the number of election tickets for the non-parliamentary parties.

The Accord lays down principles for the equal representation of all contestants in the coming elections, with the signatories agreeing that the same principles should hold for all media, be they state, private or otherwise, regardless of who finances them.

The Accord will remain open to all political organisations to sign before the expiration of the deadline for the nomination of candidates for the elections, which is Sept. 4.

The text of the Accord will be made public, in line with the Law on the election of parliament deputies, the statement said.

[05] SERBIAN CHURCH LEADER CONDEMNS DESECREATION OF JEWISH GRAVES

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church sent on Wednesday a message to the head of the Jewish Community in Yugoslavia, Aca Singer, deploring a recent desecration of Jewish graves in Belgrade's Zemun district.

"Returning to Belgrade late on Tuesday after a lengthy absence, we learned about the desecration of nine tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Zemun (over the weekend). "Condemning this vandal act on behalf of the Serbian Orthodox Church and in our own name, we expect that the perpetrators of this dishonourable deed will be tracked down and punished. We take this opportunity to renew to you the assurances of our sincere consideration," Patriarch Pavle said in the message.

[06] YUGOSLAV CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RE-ELECTS MILOJEVIC ITS PRESIDENT

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

The Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce Assembly on Wednesday re-elected Mihajlo Milojevic Chamber of Commerce President for a four-year term.

Addressing businessmen, Milojevic said that the positive trend of operation of Yugoslav companies had continued in the first half of this year and that the stability of prices and the national currency, the dinar, had become reality.

Despite grounds for satisfaction with these results, Milojevic said that "there are very serious reasons for objections, both by us and by foreign partners, in connection with a slow adjustment to the new ambience and implementation of new economic laws. Objections also refer to a slow introduction of technologies, fresh capital and best world experiences and working methods into practice."

Milojevic stressed the need for using Yugoslav brains, knowledge and experience in the technological, investment and all other forms of cooperation with competent foreign partners.

He said that "we have reason to support and appreciate each good business move and project - from the small ones to those like the gas arrangement with Russia, oil arrangement with China and telecommunications arrangement with Italy and Greece."

The Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce Assembly also elected Milutin Cirovic and Drago Sofranac chamber vice presidents.

[07] TALKS WITH LONDON CLUB RESUME IN BELGRADE

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Talks about the Yugoslav initiative on the rescheduling of debts with the Co-Chairmen of the London Club of creditor banks will resume in Belgrade on Wednesday and Thursday, the Yugoslav Government said in a statement.

An agreement to resume the talks was reached in London in late June, in a meeting with Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Danko Djunic and Yugoslav Minister in charge of coordination of activities and cooperation with international financial organisations Nebojsa Maljkovic. The Yugoslav proposal for the rescheduling of debts is based on the Yugoslav economy's realistic possibilities to fulfil its obligations towards all creditors. It is based on the fact that only economies with a stable growth rate based on orientation towards exports can fulfill all their obligations towards creditors in the long run.

Additional information requested by commercial banks' representatives about the sources and dynamics of influx in and ouflow of funds from the Yugoslav economy as the basis for the rescheduling of obligations will be reviewed at the talks, the statement said.

[08] YUGOSLAV MINISTER WRITES TO RABBI OVER JEWISH GRAVES DESECRATION

Tanjug, 1997-07-30

Yugoslav Minister Zoran Bingulac wrote on Wednesday to Yugoslav Chief Rabbi Cadik Danon in connection with the weekend's desecration of nine headstones at the Jewish cemetery in Belgrade's Zemun district. Bingulac, who heads the Government's Commission for relations with religious communities, condemned the vandal act in the strongest terms and hoped that the perpetrators would soon be found, a Government statement said.

Harmony and mutual respect existing between the Serbian and Jewish people in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia could not be jeopardised by anything, not even by this senseless deed which was calculated to disturb the public, Bingulac said.

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