Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-06-02

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION TRAVELS TO SOFIA

[02] REGISTRATION OF VOTERS IN BOSNIA ELECTIONS STARTS IN YUGOSLAVIA

[03] KRAJISNIK SAYS PEOPLE WILL PRESERVE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN SERBIAN PROVINCE SEND CHILDREN OUT TO PROTEST

[05] SERBIAN VICE PREMIER MARKOVIC RECEIVES TURKISH AMBASSADOR

[06] OBSERVERS: HUGE IMPROVEMENT IN PARLIAMENTARY OVER PRESIDENTIAL POLLS

[07] CONVINCING LEAD OF COALITION "LET'S LIVE BETTER"

[08] UNHCR'S NYBERG: DIALOGUE WITH CROATIAN EMBASSY IS IN PROGRESS

[09] BELGRADE TO HOST FESTIVAL OF SWEDISH FILM ON JUNE 2-6

[10] CHINESE EMBASSY GIVES 400 BOOKS TO BELGRADE FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

[01] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION TRAVELS TO SOFIA

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Yugoslav Economy Minister Rade Filipovic is heading a Yugoslav delegation Monday to Sofia for talks about the continuity of bilateral cooperation for the adequate valorization of energy potentials and geographic positions of the two countries, aimed at the efficient development of energy.

The delegation will hold talks in the Black Sea Energy Center in Sofia about the inclusion of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the activities of interlinking the Balkan region in the field of electric energy, which is one of Yugoslavia's priorities.

[02] REGISTRATION OF VOTERS IN BOSNIA ELECTIONS STARTS IN YUGOSLAVIA

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

The registration of citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina who will vote in the Bosnian general elections on September 12-13 started throughout Yugoslavia on Monday, OSCE provisional Belgrade Office Spokesman Zivota de Luca told Tanjug.

He said that all registered voters would vote only for the municipality in Bosnia-Herzegovina where they had been registered in the 1991 census and would have to decide whether they would cast an absentee ballot in Yugoslavia or would leave for Bosnia-Herzegovina and vote in the municipality they had lived in in 1991.

The registration will be monitored by 38 OSCE supervisors.

[03] KRAJISNIK SAYS PEOPLE WILL PRESERVE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Republika Srpska member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik has said that Bosnian Croats are now fighting for what the Republika Srpska has and that Muslims are fighting to scrape together a unitary state. Speaking in an interview to Jagodina TV station Palma Plus late on Sunday, Krajisnik said that the Republika Srpska was a result of the wish of Bosnian Serbs and that the "people will preserve it."

"Through special ties with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia we wish to achieve a unified national space of Serbs and Montenegrins, to have national rather than state unity, to agree on all points vital for the Serbian nation, wherever we live," Krajisnik said.

"Everything that is happening to us in the Republika Srpska, in Kosovo and Metohija and in Montenegro is a single big scenario, aimed at weakening and breaking up the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Krajisnik said.

[04] ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN SERBIAN PROVINCE SEND CHILDREN OUT TO PROTEST

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija Province on Monday marched children out into the main street of the Province's chief city of Pristina to demonstrate.

The demonstration was called by the ethnic Albanian Protest Organising Committee.

The pre-school children were joined in the street by their elders, "regular" participants in separatist demonstrations, who took the opportunity to demonstrate to the world their support for terrorism and to demand the Province's secession. The children carried coloured balloons, flowers, banners, flags and pennants of Albania and the United States.

In the incident-free demonstration, the children, supported by the grown- ups, for half an hour chanted "Freedom-Independence", "Rugova", "Drenica", "Liberation Army of Kosovo", and "I will give up my life rather than give up Kosovo".

[05] SERBIAN VICE PREMIER MARKOVIC RECEIVES TURKISH AMBASSADOR

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Serbia's Vice Premier Ratko Markovic received on Monday Turkish Ambassador in Belgrade Alev Kilic to discuss ways and means of peacefully settling the crisis in this Yugoslav Republic's Kosovo-Metohija Province. A Government statement quoted Markovic, in his capacity as chief negotiator in talks with the Province's minorities, as briefing Kilic about the negotiating team's talks with representatives of all ethnic communities living in Kosovo-Metohija.

Markovic stressed the state team's insistence that unconditional dialogue is an irreplaceable political method for reaching a peaceful settlement of the crisis and for a further democratisation of life for all in the Province as part of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Ambassador Kilic supported the initiated dialogue as the best way to restore stability in Kosovo-Metohija, which in turn would secure peace and stability in the Balkans, in which Turkey was very much interested. He supported especially the participation of the Turkish minority in the talks with the state, the statement said.

[06] OBSERVERS: HUGE IMPROVEMENT IN PARLIAMENTARY OVER PRESIDENTIAL POLLS

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Foreign observers said on Monday that Sunday's parliamentary polls in the Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro had gone on well on the whole and were a huge improvement over last year's presidential election.

President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Javier Ruperez told a news conference in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica that most recommendations made by the OSCE mission had been applied. The important thing was that all parties now work for establishing a climate of dialogue and trust in Montenegro, he said.

He noted that the state media had mainly respected the law for the covering of the elections in their special programmes during the election campaign, but that news programmes had shown a clear domination of the ruling party.

According to the Observer Mission's findings, there has been an increased police presence and activity throughout Montenegro in the past two weeks.

Observers reported an insignificant number of cases of intimidation, and noted complaints of alleged illegal actions by state bodies, such as house searches without a warrant. They added that the competent bodies should thoroughly investigate all these cases and take the necessary steps where appropriate.

The election day itself was characterised by a large turnout, and by a correct application of the voting and vote-counting procedures, the OSCE Obsever Mission said in its report.

[07] CONVINCING LEAD OF COALITION "LET'S LIVE BETTER"

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Montenegro's Central Electoral Commission said on Monday that 94 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's early parliamentary and local polls in this Yugoslav republic had been counted.

Of these votes, the coalition "For a Better Life" of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic won 49.5 percent, Commission President Stevan Damjanovic told a news conference. Their chief rivals, the Socialist People's Party (SNP) of Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic won 36.07 percent of the votes, and the Montenegrin Liberal Alliance, 6.2 percent.

The other 14 parties and coalitions that contested the elections did not win the required 3 percent of the votes that would take them into the republic's Parliament.

Damjanovic said that returns from 40 polling stations - 26,000 ballot papers in all - remained to be counted. The greatest number of the polling stations for which results are not yet available are in Podgorica - 35, comprising about 22,000 voters.

Returns from 2 polling stations in Plav, 2 in Herceg-Novi and 1 on Zabljak also remain to be counted. Damjanovic said that all results published so far were unofficial, and that complete and again unofficial results were due on Tuesday.

[08] UNHCR'S NYBERG: DIALOGUE WITH CROATIAN EMBASSY IS IN PROGRESS

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

A Spokesman for the Belgrade office of the UNHCR said on Monday that the office had opened talks with the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade about Croatia's procedure for the return of refugees. Spokesman Mons Nyberg told TANJUG that the procedure, adopted by the Croatian Government a fortnight ago, was being evaluated, and the Croatian Embassy was expected to give the benefit of its experience in the process of implementing the document.

Nyberg added that the UNHCR was not completely satisfied with the Croatian refugee repatriation procedure, considering it to be still restrictive, because it did not provide for mass returns. He said that the UNHCR wished to see people returning in groups, without a lot of red tape, but the positive thing was that there was any kind of procedure at all. He added that the UNHCR had information that the Embassy had begun receiving applications from refugees for return.

He said that, since Feb. 1, the UNHCR had registered 16,689 individual applications from refugees in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for returning to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. The UNHCR had evidence of 24, 000 additional individual applications for return submitted by refugees to the Belgrade Office between April 1996 and the end of May 1998.

The international community sees Croatia as being mostly to blame for the delay in the repatriation of refugees, both those in Yugoslavia and of Krajina Serbs in the (Bosnian Serb) Republika Srpska who wish to return in large numbers, according to Nyberg.

He said he felt optimistic that the coming summer would bring positive developments in the refugee repatriation process.

Refugee societies in Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, and also the UNHCR, High Representative Carlos Westendorp as well as the OSCE and the widest world public were very much interested in this, he said.

[09] BELGRADE TO HOST FESTIVAL OF SWEDISH FILM ON JUNE 2-6

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

Days of Swedish Film will be held in Belgrade on June 2-6, organised by the Swedish Embassy to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Film Archives and the Belgrade Cultural Centre.

The festival, in the course of which will be screened 8 films, will be opened by Swedish Ambassador Mats Staffansson, and will begin with the film "Alfred Nobel" by Vilgot Sjoman, Yugoslav Film Museum Director Dinko Tucakovic told a news conference on Monday.

Yugoslav Film Archives Director Dragoslav Zelenovic launched a book on the Swedish film, which he said was a retrospective of the film industry of the country which was this year the cultural centre of Europe.

The Panika theatre of Uppsala, Sweden, gives a performance of the play The Institution of Life at the National Theatre in Belgrade at 9 p.m. on Monday. On Wednesday, June 3, mezzo-soprano Katarina Karson and pianist Stefan Vingefor give a recital at the Belgrade Cultural Centre Art Gallery, beginning at 8 p.m.

[10] CHINESE EMBASSY GIVES 400 BOOKS TO BELGRADE FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

Tanjug, 1998-06-01

A delegation of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Belgrade, headed by cultural attache Liu Junghung visited the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade where, on behalf of the Chinese Government, it handed over 400 books as a gift to the Library of the Department of Oriental studies.

Handing over the books, Liu Junghung said that the gift of the Chinese Embassy was the beginning of more intensive future cooperation with the department of Oriental studies of the Faculty of Philology, founded 24 years ago.

Faculty Dean Slobodan Grubacic, thanking for the gift, said that the Chinese Embassy's gift was huge aid, not only material, but also spiritual.

Faculty Vice-Dean and chief of Center for Far Eastern studies Ljiljana Markovic said at the ceremony that the gift "will strengthen the efforts of students to improve their knowledge of China, its civilization and the Chinese language."

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