Yugoslav Daily Survey, 97-03-05

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE CONSULTS ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE NEW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

[02] KRAJISNIK: AGREEMENT ON SPECIAL RELATIONS VERY USEFUL FOR SERB PEOPLE

[03] SERBIAN INFORMATION MINISTER ON DEMOCRATIZATION OF MEDIA

[04] YUGOSLAV INFORMATION MINISTER RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL OFFICIAL

[05] YUGOSLAV U.N. AMBASSADOR'S LETTER TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

[06] SERBIAN MINISTER: PROGRAMME ON CONSOLIDATION OF KOSMET ECONOMY SOON

[01] PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE CONSULTS ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE NEW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Kontic's new Federal Government programme concept was supported by the majority of parties in the Federal Parliament, and he will continue consultations on the composition of the cabinet with party representatives.

Kontic was to discuss all this with the representatives of the 'Zajedno' ('Together') coalition on Tuesday, but they did not respond to his invitation nor did they inform him about their reasons, the Secretariat said.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

[02] KRAJISNIK: AGREEMENT ON SPECIAL RELATIONS VERY USEFUL FOR SERB PEOPLE

We shall not describe the agreement as historic, the future generations will assess and qualify it as it deserves. We have drawn it up not for the political needs of the men-in-power but for the people, because the people had expected the realization of the Dayton Agreement provisions on the rights of Serbs, such as the Muslims have achieved by their agreements with Croatia through the Muslim-Croat Federation, Krajisnik explained.

Krajisnik said he hoped that the international community would approve the agreement too and that a similar agreement on economic relations would also be concluded between the Muslim-Croat Federation and Yugoslavia. We shall propose this to Mr. Izetbegovic and Republika Srpska will try to reach a similar agreement on economic cooperation with Croatia as we believe that Republika Srpska must open all its borders, he added.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

[03] SERBIAN INFORMATION MINISTER ON DEMOCRATIZATION OF MEDIA

Information minister Radmila Milentijevic gave a reception at Belgrade's National Museum for Yugoslav journalists and foreign correspondents accredited to Yugoslavia. Diplomatic press attaches also attended.

Welcoming the guests, Milentijevic said that her first job would be to prepare a new Law on information that should set up some mechanisms that would be acceptable both to the journalists and to the public. The Law would incorporate recommendations by the political parties, workers in the media and Western European experts, she explained.

Milentijevic said that there were many good and talented journalists working in the state media, but their conditions of work had to be changed to allow those working their to give full expression to their abilities and potential.

Asked about democratization of the media, she said that this would practically mean better balanced news not only by the state radio and television, but also by media such as Radio B-92. She explained that this meant not showing demonstrations in Belgrade day in and day out, although the media had every right to show the demonstrations and should do so. 'But life in Serbia is more than just the demonstrations. Serbia is much bigger than this, there are many other things happening here that should also be reported by the media,' Milentijevic said.

She said that the media should show everything that was news, and that news was everything that happened and affected the future of the nation.

Asked to give her personal view of the state radio and television reporting of the protests, Milentijevic said she had not been in Yugoslavia all the time of the protests and would have to look over the old reports.

If Belgrade state television news programmes had not shown a realistic picture of the political events in Serbia, then this would have to be corrected, she said.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

[04] YUGOSLAV INFORMATION MINISTER RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL OFFICIAL

Brcin informed White in detail of Yugoslavia's constitutional and legislative provisions which guarantee the freedom of the press. Speaking of the Federal Government programme priorities, he singled out ownership and structural transformation, which will include Federal media.

The Yugoslav Information Minister pointed to the Federal Government's commitment to the policy of peace, accelerated economic development and freedom of the media as an indispensable element of a genuinely democratic society.

Brcin and White also discussed technical and technological problems, personnel and professional issues of the Yugoslav media, the Secretariat said.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

[05] YUGOSLAV U.N. AMBASSADOR'S LETTER TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

On Wednesday, the body will debate U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's report urging the Croatian Government to ensure the necessary conditions for holding local elections in the region and to guarantee the same rights to all people, regardless of nationality.

In his letter to the Security Council President Zbigniew Wlosowicz, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic appealed to the body to make efforts to create the necessary conditions for holding the upcoming local elections. This primarily means ensuring that Croatia honour its commitments under the basic agreement signed in late 1995 between the Zagreb regime and the region's Serbs, the letter said.

Stressing that the organisation of the elections was in the care of the U.N. Transitional Authority (UNTAES), Jovanovic said that the situation in the region was unstable and that there was visible tension.

He said that Croatia had not discharged its obligations assumed in order to avoid a climate of distrust and insecurity of the Serb population and prevent their moving out of the region.

Jovanovic said that the matter that gave rise to the greatest concern was that the Croatian Government was putting various administrative barriers in the way of refugees's return to the region.

He stressed that Croatia was ignoring the right of 350,000 Serb refugees from the Serb Krajina and West Slavonia regions, who had found shelter in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to vote in the elections.

Jovanovic said that on February 11, the European Union had said that Serb refugees from Croatia at present living in the neighbouring countries should be allowed to return in safety and exercise the right to vote in the future elections.

The letter drew attention to Croatian authorities' practice of saying one thing to the international community and doing quite the opposite on the ground, and completely ignoring the provisions of the Serb-Croatian basic agreement.

Ambassador Jovanovic appealed to the Security Council to pass a resolution at its Wednesday session inviting the Croatian Government to honour its commitments.

He stressed that this was the chief precondition for holding free and just elections in the Serb region of East Slavonia, Baranya and West Srem.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

[06] SERBIAN MINISTER: PROGRAMME ON CONSOLIDATION OF KOSMET ECONOMY SOON

'No talks, however, especially not negotiations on separatist demands and appetites, will be accepted, or fantastic proposals by certain political parties in Serbia for the alleged division or ceding of this southern Serbian Province, which have no real sense at all,' he said.

'It is absolutely certain that no-one has the right to sell out or give away a single part of the Serb state, certainly not Kosovo and Metohija,' said Lazic.

The Minister in charge of the consolidation and development of Kosmet's economy announced the imminent adoption of a programme for the economic- financial consolidation of the Province, which he said would contribute to the stabilization of the overall situation there.

A special directorate will be in charge of the realization of this programme. It will be based in Pristina and, in addition to regular Republican development funds, it will have an additional source of income. Namely, the Provincial Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Kosmet deputies in the Serbian Assembly have launched an initiative for the adoption of a Special Law calling for part of the sales tax funds being earmarked for the development of undeveloped Kosmet municipalities, Lazic said.

Speaking about the agreement on normalizing the situation in the area of education, Lazic said it 'once again demonstrated the constant readiness of the topmost Serbian leadership to give special attention to the problems in education in Kosovo and Metohija and to resolve them in the best way, by including children of the Albanian national minority in the regular system of education.'

A working group popularly called three-plus-three is currently working on this problem, trying to analyze all the aspects and possibilities for the concrete realization of the agreement.

'Demands by ethnic Albanian representatives in this working group are a problem here, however, since they only want school buildings, and not really to join in the teaching programme of the Republic of Serbia, in which they live and whose citizens they are,' the Minister said.

They demand this even though the state has enabled Albanian language classes in elementary schools and provided conditions for secondary school education in the languages of the national minorities, he said.

'That which the ethnic Albanian representatives in the working group demand, something that does not exist anywhere in the world, is yet more evidence of their separatist orientation, which certainly can not be tolerated,' he said.

'The Republic of Serbia fully secures education and complete schooling for all children born and living here, regardless of their national affiliation, and it will certainly not permit classes to be carried out according to programmes aimed at its toppling,' minister Lazic said.

Yugoslav Daily Survey, 1997-03-05 ; Tanjug, 1997-03-04

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