Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-04-21

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] REFERENDUM BEGINS FOR CITIZENS OF SERBIA WHO WILL BE ABSENT ON APRIL 23

[02] SOLANA: EVIDENT PROGRESS IN REALIZATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS

[03] MAJOR CONTRACTS SIGNED WITH FIRMS IN RUSSIA

[04] LENI FISCHER URGES RESOLUTION OF KOSMET CRISIS THROUGH DIALOGUE

[05] SERBIAN SIDE ACCEPTS DIALOGUE, ETHNIC ALBANIANS REJECT IT

[01] REFERENDUM BEGINS FOR CITIZENS OF SERBIA WHO WILL BE ABSENT ON APRIL 23

Tanjug, 1998-04-20

The referendum on foreign mediation in the resolution of problems in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija started on Monday morning for citizens of Serbia who will not be in their places of residence on April 23, the day of the referendum.

Under the Rules of the Referendum Commission, citizens who will not be in their places of residence on April 23, being away on a trip or due to some other obligation, will be able to vote on Monday and Tuesday at the headquarters of the Municipal Commissions from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Scores of citizens voted on Monday in many towns in Serbia, and as many as 250 in Nis alone.

[02] SOLANA: EVIDENT PROGRESS IN REALIZATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS

Tanjug, 1998-04-20

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told a press conference in Sarajevo late on Monday that there was evident progress in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the realization of the Dayton Accords.

Solana said the coming months were very important for the further implementation of the accords, especially ahead of the very important general elections set for September.

Solana met with reporters following talks with the three members of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina - Chairman Alija Izetbegovic and members Kresimir Zubak and Dragan Kafetin, who was substituting for Momcilo Krajisnik.

Solana today also met with leaders of Bosnian opposition parties - the Croatian Farmers' Party, the Muslim-Bosnyak Organization, the Liberal Bosnyak Organization, the Party of Economic Prosperity, the Serbian Civic Council, and the Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina Social Democrats, the Social Democrat Party, and the Republican Party.

During today's visit to Sarajevo, Solana also conferred with representatives of the Offices of High Representative for Bosnia Carlos Westendorp, the international police IPTF, the Refugee Commissariat, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

[03] MAJOR CONTRACTS SIGNED WITH FIRMS IN RUSSIA

Tanjug, 1998-04-21

Yugoslav Chambre of Commerce President Mihajlo Milojevic said late on Monday that representatives of several Yugoslav companies and resarch institutes had signed a number of important contracts on cooperation with Russian firms in the past week.

The sides have agreed on a number of major projects on co-production, founding of mixed companies, and technology transfers, Milojevic said in a statement to Serbian Radio Television directly upon arrival in Belgrade from Moscow.

There is also work for our construction firms in the region of Moscow, Milojevic said. He explained that contracts on concrete cooperation had been signed by "Sever" of Subotica and "Pobeda" of Novi Sad. "Magnohrom" of Kraljevo and the Niksic iron works, "Ivo Lola Ribar" and "Mihajlo Pupin" of Belgrade are completing all preparations prior to contract signing, he said.

Milojevic also said the company "Montinvest" of Belgrade would probably have a new contract worth 50 million dollars in May.

[04] LENI FISCHER URGES RESOLUTION OF KOSMET CRISIS THROUGH DIALOGUE

Tanjug, 1998-04-20

President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Leni Fischer said Monday that the "opening of unconditional dialogue" between Serbian authorities and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija was the most important step toward the resolution of the crisis in Serbia's southern province.

Addressing a news conference on the first day of a Parliamentary Assembly session, Fischer said that the process for Yugoslavia's accession to the Council of Europe had started with the acceptance of Yugoslavia's application for admission to the Organization.

The news conference was informed that a debate on the situation in Yugoslavia, i.e., the Province of Kosovo and Metohija, would be held in the Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday, April 22, in the afternoon.

A Yugoslav delegation, headed by President of the Foreign Policy Committeee of the Yugoslav Parliament's Chamber of Citizens Ljubisa Ristic, will participate in the debate at the invitation of Parliamentary Assembly President Fischer.

Fischer urged a political solution to the problem of Kosovo and Metohija and opposed military interference, including an initiate of Yugoslavia's neighbours for the setting up of special forces which would act to prevent the spreading of a possible conflict outside of Kosovo and Metohija.

We do not support the resolution of the issue by military means, Fischer set out and said that a military option was incompatible with the activities of the Council of Europe.

The Yugoslav delegation opened on Monday contacts with participants in the Parliamentary Assembly session with a view to giving the real picture about the situation in Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia's position on the resolution of the problem of Kosovo and Metohija.

The Yugoslav delegation is underscoring that terrorism and separatism are at work in Kosovo and Metohija, that ethnic-Albanians are persistently boycotting dialogue and that the problem of Kosovo and Metohija is an internal affair of Serbia, which rules out foreign interference.

The Yugoslav delegation is also informing participants in the Parliamentary Assembly session about the readiness for issues to be resolved through dialogue with Kosovo and Metohija Albanians in keeping with European standards and, in particular, the standards of the Council of Europe and its convention on human rights and framework convention on minority rights.

The Council of Europe framework convention on rights of national minorities specifies, among other things, that members of all national minorities are obliged to be loyal citizens of the state they live in.

When it officially applied for admission to the Council of Europe a month ago, Yugoslavia expressed readiness to assume all obligations of a member of the "European Forty," including to sign the Convention on the protection of human rights and basic freedoms and the framework convention on the protection of national minorities.

[05] SERBIAN SIDE ACCEPTS DIALOGUE, ETHNIC ALBANIANS REJECT IT

Tanjug, 1998-04-20

The crisis in Kosovo and Metohija is an internal affair of Serbia and it does not call for foreign mediation, Information Secretary of Serbia's southern province Bosko Drobnjak has told the Austrian news agency APA. "Neighbours, too, are not invited to mediate in a family quarrel," Drobnjak set out.

He said that citizens of Serbia would say on April 23 whether they are for foreign mediation or not, and urged ethnic Albanians to participate in the referendum.

"The issue of Kosovo and Metohija is a global problem of all Serbs, since the territory is the nucleus of Serbian spirituality, culture and history. There can be no Serbia without Kosovo and Metohija, which is the cradle of the Serbian nation. Serbia was born in Kosovo and Metohija and no one can imagine Serbia without Kosovo and Metohija," Drobnjak stressed.

"Boycott and terrorism will not accomplish anything," he pointed up.

Drobnjak said that Kosovo and Metohija should get as broad as possible autonomy but only within the framework of the existing Constitution of the republic of Serbia. He stressed that ethnic Albanians cannot have the status of a people but only as so far one of a national minority.

"We are ready for dialogue but ethnic Albanians reject it," the Kosovo and Metohija official said and noted that the Serbian negotiating team had been in the provincial capital ten times for talks with ethnic-Albanian representatives who never showed up.

"We must prevent the outbreak of war at all costs. Dialogue is the only way and it is always better to have it before an armed conflict breaks out than after a war. A war in Kosovo and Metohija would engulf all of the Balkans," Kosovo and Metohija Information Secretary Drobnjak said and set out that Serbs would not start a war.

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