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Serbia Today 96-05-22
Serbia Today
22 May 1996
CONTENTS
[01] RECOVERY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA IN PEACE
[02] PRIME MINISTER MARJANOVIC VISITS GREECE
[03] THERE WILL BE NO DEVALUATION
[04] DIPLOMATIC SPRING OF FR YUGOSLAVIA
[05] COOPERATION WITH BELGRADE - A POLITICAL PRIORITY
[06] KLEIN: DEMILITARIZATION STARTED YESTERDAY NOON
[07] BACKGROUND OF THE USTASHI RALLY IN BLEIBURG FIELD
[08] FALSEHOODS IN THE SERVICE OF THE REGIME
[09] POPE WAS SILENT ON CRIMES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
[01] RECOVERY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA IN PEACE
President of the Republic Slobodan Milosevic received yesterday the acting President of the
Republic of Srpska Dr. Biljana Plavsic and the Vice President of the Republic of Srpska Dr. Nikola
Koljevic, who informed him of the most important political activities in the Republic of Srpska. These
activities are aimed, first of all, at the implementation in full of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the
economic recovery of the Republic of Srpska. It was underlined that the forthcoming elections are of
decisive importance for the creation of democratic institutions of the system and that in this respect it is
necessary to realize full cooperation with the mission of the O.S.C.E. which was entrusted with the
competencies for electoral activities by the Dayton Agreement. The need was emphasized for securing the
freedom of movement and timely appointment of the electoral commissions in all the municipalities of the
Republic of Srpska. Biljana Plavsic informed President Milosevic about preparation of the rules for
equitable representation of political parties in the pre-electoral campaign in the Republic of Srpska.
(Politika, May 22, 1996)
[02] PRIME MINISTER MARJANOVIC VISITS GREECE
Prime Minister of Serbia Mirko Marjanovic yesterday left for Greece. In the talks with the Prime
Minister of Greece Kostas Simitis will be discussed bilateral relations. On Thursday and Friday Marjanovic
will in Corfu attend the commemoration ceremonies on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the arrival
of Serbian Army to this Greek island during the World War One, which will commence by the memorial
service in front of the Mausoleum in Vid island and placing of wreaths into "the blue sepulchre". Prime
Minister Marjanovic will address the memorial academy ceremony in remembrance of the arrival of
exhausted Serbian warriors in the year 1916 and the sessions of the Serbian Parliament and Government in
Corfu from 1916 to 1918. (Politika, May 22, 1996)
[03] THERE WILL BE NO DEVALUATION
At the meeting of the Federal Prime Minister Dr. Radoje Kontic with the representatives of the
republican governments, issues were discussed of the implementation of the economic policies for the year
1996, with a special emphasis on the economic and monetary movements. Joint assessment was that both
the federal and the republican governments are firmly upholding the determination to achieve the targets of
economic policy, most of all preservation of the stable exchange rate of the local currency - dinar, stable
prices, increase of production and exports and growth of the social product. Firm foreign exchange rate of
the dinar is the best way to dispute speculations about an alleged devaluation of the dinar, because there are
no grounds for that in any orientation of the governments. (Borba, May 22, 1996)
[04] DIPLOMATIC SPRING OF FR YUGOSLAVIA
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is experiencing its diplomatic spring, writes the distinguished
Chinese weekly "Liaovan", observing that there is almost no day in which some of the countries is not
renewing its diplomatic relations with Belgrade. This magazine considers this quite natural, because the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was making continuous efforts for a comprehensive and permanent
solution of crisis in former Yugoslavia, underlining that "it has given its contribution to the solution of this
crisis, and especially to the termination of war in Bosnia-Herzegovina". The target of Yugoslav peaceful
policy this magazine sees, among others, also in the desire of the FR of Yugoslavia to return to its rightful
place in the United Nations and to obtain credits and investments for the recovery of the economy and
development of the country. Full and rightful return into all the international organizations is still
encountering obstacles by some, and the weekly is seeing as the main difficulty in this the solution of
question of succession of former SFR of Yugoslavia. (Politika ekspres, May 22, 1996)
[05] COOPERATION WITH BELGRADE - A POLITICAL PRIORITY
President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov in his interview for the Spanish newspaper
"El Pais" stated that the present international position of his country is much clearer. "Cooperation with the
neighboring countries, especially with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is our political priority",
underlined Gligorov. According to him, also the most important economic cooperation is forthcoming with
the FR of Yugoslavia, because the recent Macedonian-Yugoslav agreement on normalization of the
relations "really represents possibilities for the two neighboring countries to revive their economic relations
which at one time were highly developed". (Borba, May 22, 1996)
[06] KLEIN: DEMILITARIZATION STARTED YESTERDAY NOON
The UN Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem Jacques Klein, announced
in Beli Manastir that the demilitarization of this region officially started yesterday noon. "Demilitarization
is a very important step because we are getting rid of arms and are getting closer to the much more peaceful
phase in which economic recovery of the Region will occupy a central place", said Klein. He reiterated that
passing of the law on amnesty in the Croat Parliament was one of the conditions for the commencement of
demilitarization. Amendments of the Law on Amnesty, which pertain only to Serbs who were living in this
region before the year 1991, and not to Serbs who have escaped here from the other parts of Croatia,
according to Klein, are important most of all because of the psychological demilitarization of the Region,
"because it is impossible to demilitarize military effective before you achieve a psychological
demilitarization". By making a telephone call to the UN Bureau in Zagreb from the post office in Beli
Manastir, UN Administrator symbolically established telephone communication between Serbian Region
and Croatia after five years of suspension. In this he underlined that communications were established
thanks to the efforts of both Serbian and the Croat sides. President of the Serbian Region Goran Hadzic on
this occasion underlined that establishing of telephone connections "is in accordance with the Erdut
Agreement, which the Serbian side will respect in full". (Politika, May 22, 1996)
[07] BACKGROUND OF THE USTASHI RALLY IN BLEIBURG FIELD
A few days ago in the Bleiburg field three flags were to be seen - the Austrian (hosts), Croat (the
present one) and the Ustashi flag. Everything was in the sign of a letter "U" at this mass political and
religious rally devoted to the alleged victims of "the Partizan terror". Vlatko Pavletic, one of the leaders of
the ruling politics in Croatia, as the main speaker, strived to present Bleiburg as the Croat national sacred
grounds. For the tragic end of Pavelic's troops in early May of 1945, he accused the British, Serbs and
communists, which was euphorically greeted by all the present living members of the Fascist Ustashi
movement. About what had really happened in the Bleiburg field was at one time testified by the British
State Commission which disputed any thesis of the mass crimes, because it had discovered only some forty
graves. Later on, the Croat Ustashi emigration was constantly increasing this number, so the Bleiburg myth
was suddenly inflated by the arrival of the HDZ (Croat Democratic Community) into power in Croatia. The
new Croat leaders started using the figure of 10,000, for General Drago Krpina from the closest Tudjman's
entourage to increase this "chip" even up to 600,000. Tudjman, knowing as a historian that there are some
crucial documents, remained nevertheless with the figure of 40,000 killed in Bleiburg, but only so that he
may give himself the right to claim that even in Jasenovac there was no higher number of killed Serbs and
Jews. Therefore, it is a question of a farce with a clear intention to construe mathematic "equilibration". Of
course, all this with the aim to erase the Ustashi genocide of Serbian people in Croatia, and brutally
equilibrate the victims of Fascism and their killers, by mixing their remains in Jasenovac. (Politika, May 22,
1996)
[08] FALSEHOODS IN THE SERVICE OF THE REGIME
The scandal with publishing of a forged letter in the Zagreb "Vecernji list", in which six
distinguished Serbian intellectuals allegedly are giving their support to Tudjman for reorganization of
Jasenovac, seems to be leading to court. This was stated at the press conference by the embittered
"signatories" of the invented letter. "Our names, standing for scientific, philosophic and literary
achievements, have been abused by appalling criminal act and vicious criminal offense", said one of them,
Veselin Golubovic, while Prof. Svetozar Livada stated: "A flagrant invention and a premeditated lie were
intended to misinform the public, and to discredit us both in professional circles and in the eyes of the
general public". Sinisa Tatalovic gave one possible explanation for this vicious act of Croat politics: "By
this letter an attack was made on leading persons in the Alliance of Serbian Organizations who are trying to
unite Serbian organizations in Croatia, to protect the national identity and human rights of members of our
national community". (Vecernje novosti, May 22, 1996)
[09] POPE WAS SILENT ON CRIMES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
After the departure of the Pope John Paul Second from Slovenia, mutual compliments were
replaced these days by a profound interpretation of Pope's messages, and among them were found also those
which are considered extremely disputable. It seems that the most disputable are Pope's views of the past
and his suggestions for the Slovenian Catholic future. The most influential Slovenian daily newspaper
"Delo" in its editorial commentary writes that Pope recalled only negative consequences of the Communist
revolution and "forgot" to mention the crimes "which the Catholic Church during World War Two
committed against Sloven people". Pope could not resist his ideological urge, writes "Delo", "which can
bring about an imposition on the Sloven people of yet a new dominant ideology instead of the previous
one". Pope's insistence on reconciliation was qualified by some commentators as a typical ideological
approach, based on the inexorable attitude of the Church towards the most hateful communist ideology,
with a simultaneous false stand towards the role of Catholic ideology during the war conflicts. (Politika,
May 22, 1996)
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