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Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-01-29Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Yugoslav Daily SurveyCONTENTS
[01] PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC WELCOMED BELARUS PRESIDENT LUKASHENKOTanjug, 1998-01-28Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic welcomed and cordially greeted Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko at the White Palace in Belgrade on Wednesday afternoon. President Lukashenko was accorded a state welcome outside the White Palace. [02] SERBIAN PARLIAMENT'S FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HOLDS CONSTITUENT SESSIONTanjug, 1998-01-28The Serbian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee held a constituent session on Wednesday and in keeping with an agreement between the party club heads, elected Ratomir Vico of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) as President and Bozidar Vucurovic of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) as his deputy. Until the election of the President, the session was presided by Zivadin Jovanovic of the SPS, who should have been the Committee President under a previous agreement. He said that this had been agreed before his appointment as Yugoslav Foreign Minister, after which the SPS decided to nominate Vico instead. After the end of the session, Vico told reporters that he expected success in the Committee's work and active cooperation among all its members, because in all democratic societies there is a consensus of all parties on international cooperation. This session completed the setting up of 23 permanent parliamentary committees. [03] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER KONTIC RECEIVED BELGIAN AMBASSADORTanjug, 1998-01-28Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic received on Wednesday the newly appointed Belgian Ambassador in Belgrade Joris Couvreur. In a cordial and candid talk, the two sides voiced readiness for an all- round intensification of Yugoslav-Belgian relations, especially economic cooperation, a Government statement said. Prime Minister Kontic reiterated Yugoslavia's lasting commitment to the development of bilateral, regional and sub-regional cooperation, especially the development of relations with the developed Western countries and the European Union. Kontic said he expected that the E.U. would soon reconsider its decision not to extend the autonomous trade measures for Yugoslavia in 1998. Ambassador Couvreur paid recognition to Prime Minister Kontic for successfully mediating the resolution of the political crisis in Montenegro. The Belgian Ambassador said his country was ready to step up the renewal and expansion of all-round relations with Yugoslavia, especially trade. Ambassador Couvreur conveyed Belgium's interest in Yugoslavia soon becoming a full member of all major international organizations, which he said would help promote economic cooperation with Yugoslavia. The Belgian Ambassador pointed out the importance of the upcoming "Yugoslav Business Week" in Belgium and Luxembourg for direct contacts and the contracting of business deals. [04] BOSNIA COUNCIL OF MINISTERS ADOPTS THE TEXT OF A BILL ON LICENCE PLATESTanjug, 1998-01-28The Council of Ministers adopted on Wednesday in Sarajevo the text of a Bill on uniform licence plates for all of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The text of the bill was earlier approved by the governments of the two Bosnia-Herzegovina entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. The new licence plates are to be presented to the public by the international community's High Representative Carlos Westendorp on February 2. The new licence plates will be mandatory as of July 1. According to earlier reports, there will be no national symbols on the plates, but only letters in the Cyrillic and Latin scripts and numbers. The Council of Ministers also adopted the text of a Bill on customs tariffs. It discussed bills on travel documents and on the Council of Ministers and its future headquarters. [05] VICO: DOUBLE STANDARDS AT THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SESSIONTanjug, 1998-01-28Serbian Minister Ratomir Vico, who is also the Chairman of the Serbian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Board, has told the press that it is regretful that so many double standards were present at Wednesday's session of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly which was debating the situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). We will make every effort to remove all that is incorrect, unobjective, arbitrary or gives a biased view of Serbia and FRY, Vico said. Vico recalled that the Federal Foreign Ministry prepared a document to be presented by the Yugoslav delegation at the Strasbourg meeting and expressed hope that this would clarify matters as much as possible. I expect that the Parliamentary Assembly will have understanding for the arguments which our delegation will present, Vico said. [06] TALKS ABOUT YUGOSLAVIA ONLY WITH YUGOSLAVIATanjug, 1998-01-28The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted on Wednesday a draft resolution on Yugoslavia, but the tone in the debate and key stands set out by leading Assembly figures were favourable all around. The author of the draft resolution, Hungary's Andras Barsony, softened down in a subsequent interpretation of the document, taking on a milder tone in regard to the situation in Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija at the closing news conference. Barsony has altered his stand considerably after an intervention by Assembly President Leni Fischer who strongly refused attempts to bring in ethnic Albanians as "witnesses." She said the Assembly recognized only talks with representatives of the Yugoslav Parliament, who were invited to speak in Strasbourg. Barsony later on told reporters that Albanian representatives from Kosovo and Metohija were unknown, as Albanians never voted in elections, and said the boycott was "not good." The plenary session rejected extreme demands that questioned the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, most strongly advocated by liberal Lord Russel Johnstone of Britain. A positive atmosphere prevailed in Strasbourg, and friendly overtures were made to Yugoslavia, to which delegation members Ljubisa Ristic, Ivica Dacic and Milan Komnenic extensively contributed. The possibility of Yugoslavia's participation in the Assembly as a "special guest" was mentioned. After hours of debate, resulting in positive comments regarding Yugoslavia's willingness and success in implementing the Dayton Accord, it was clear that talks about Yugoslavia could be held only with Yugoslavia, not without, and even the most extreme hardliners will have to concede. Strasbourg might be one of the gates for Yugoslavia's return to the international community, as acknowledgements were voiced respecting Yugoslavia's policies of good-neighbourliness, dialogue, and its contribution to implementation of the Dayton Accord. [07] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION'S SPEECH WELL-RECEIVED AT THE SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPETanjug, 1998-01-28An attempt to present in a biased manner the Yugoslav policy and the situation in the country through documents prepared in advance ended in failure at a session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The Assembly decided to put on the agenda a debate on the situation in Yugoslavia and its implications for the Balkans preparing in advance a draft resolution and a draft memorandum, but only few participants wanted to use the debate for their goals after the Yugoslav delegation had addressed the Assembly on the matter. The two documents, in whose drafting no contact had been made with relevant Yugoslav institutions, failed to achieve the goal, with members of parliamentary groupings taking a far more favourable attitude towards Yugoslavia than that offered in the documents. Speaking on behalf of Socialists in the Assembly, Miguel Angel Martinez of Spain said Europe needed Yugoslavia in its project of democratisation, stressing that his grouping wished to see Yugoslavia taking part in the Assembly's work as a special guest as soon as possible. Vladimir Zhirinovski of Russia offered strong support to Yugoslavia and its stand, warning Lord Russell Johnstone, representative of Europe's Liberals, that terrorism in Northern Ireland in no way differed from that in Kosovo and Metohija. He said Kosovo and Metohija was an integral part of Serbia and Yugoslavia. Zhirinovski asked the participants why France should not let Corsica become independent or Spain the Basque provinces. Sergei Glotov of Russia, Left representative, commended Yugoslavia for its readiness to cooperate with Europe. Glotov spoke of immense losses incurred on Yugoslavia through the international embargo, saying that an enviable degree of the freedom of the press existed in the country. He accused ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija of encroaching on the country's territorial integrity and of killing people just for being loyal to their own state. Glotov praised Yugoslavia's efforts to help implement the Dayton Peace Accords, calling for the country's reintegration into the international community. Viktor Vishnyakov, a Liberal Democrat, condemned the two documents as one- sided, praising Yugoslavia's commitment to cooperation with neighbours and its contribution to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement. [08] HEAD OF THE YUGOSLAV DELEGATION SATISFIED WITH THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE SESSIONTanjug, 1998-01-28Yugoslav Parliament Member and head of the Yugoslav delegation invited to attend a session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday in Strasbourg, Ljubisa Ristic, said he was satisfied with the results of the delegation's talks with the Council leaders. Ristic said his talks with Council President Leni Fischer and her assistants resulted surprisingly quickly and easily in an agreement on the ways and means of initiating the procedure of admitting Yugoslavia as a full member of the Council through awarding it the status of a special guests without any pre-conditions or debates on issues that used to hinder such a move in the past. "We have agreed essentially that Yugoslavia's presence is absolutely necessary whenever Yugoslavia is being discussed", Ristic said and added that the Council needed Yugoslavia's presence as regards many other issues too. Yugoslavia has a "considerable interest" in being a party to and signatory of various agreements concerning human rights and similar issues, as such agreements would protect Yugoslavia from "extremists, such as exist in Europe including the Council, who demand from us two or three times more than they expect from others or themselves", Ristic said. "Conventions and agreements reached within the Council of Europe would be an excellent protection for Yugoslavia from the behaviour and actions of such extremists", Ristic said. Today's session has demonstrated that the Council of Europe, its Parliamentary Assembly and the international community in general must "start bridling their own extremists such as Lord Russel Johnstone, who shamelessly demanded today a further disintegration of the present Yugoslavia", Ristic said. "In and unprecedented manner, Johnstone has advocated a secession of some parts of Yugoslavia, demonstrating that extremists have had the last word in what has been happening to Yugoslavia so far in its relations with the international community", Ristic said. Ristic said that the level of parliamentary development was very good for this stage of reviving Yugoslavia's relations with the international community. In our opinion, it is much easier to achieve this through parliamentary channels and we have taken this opportunity to present our stands on the resolution drafted here and to express our disagreement with separating the issue of Kosovo from that of stability of peace and development in the entire region, Ristic said. We have made it clear that the European community and the entire world should treat any kind of terrorism in the same way, be it in Ireland, the Basque country, Kosovo or elsewhere, Ristic said. He said that both sponsors and supporters of terrorism must be disclosed and that the policy of double standards must not be applied to terrorism. Ristic said that the Yugoslav delegation had presented a number of stands and that the Yugoslav public was familiar with most of them. He said that these stands concerned Yugoslavia's territorial integrity, requests that its sovereignty be respected, and most of all, its total, absolute and unreserved readiness to cooperate with the international community and its individual institutions and bodies. Yugoslavia will cooperate with the international community on condition that it is treated as an equal partner in the talks on such matters and all other matters and that its right to discuss issues of vital importance for the country is respected, he said. Ristic said that this had so far not been the case, but after the Wednesday's talks there were grounds to expect an improvement as far as the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly are concerned. [09] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION MEETS WITH LENI FISCHERTanjug, 1998-01-28A Yugoslav Parliament delegation, which was invited to the Wednesday session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, met with Parliamentary Assembly President Leni Fischer before the session. The sides agreed on the ways in which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would enter the regular procedure for a full-fledged membership in the Council of Europe through the status of a special guest. No special conditions were mentioned, Tanjug was told by the head of the Yugoslav delegation Ljubisa Ristic, MP, and added that it had been agreed that Yugoslavia be present on all occasions when it is discussed at the Parliamentary Assembly. After the meeting with Leni Fischer, the Yugoslav delegation participated in the Wednesday session. [10] PRESIDENTS MILOSEVIC AND LUKASHENKO HOLD TALKSTanjug, 1998-01-28Presidents Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus held talks in Belgrade on Wednesday afternoon to discuss topical questions of developing bilateral relations and cooperation. Presidents Milosevic and Lukashenko firstly exchanges views on important matters of mutual interest, and were then joined by members of their delegations. The two presidents said Yugoslavia and Belarus were bound together by strong ties of historical friendship, a high level of understanding and trust between their peoples and a shared interest in promoting all-round bilateral relations, especially economic. Top-level official meetings stimulate a successful development of inter- state relations and bilateral cooperation and provide a good opportunity for exhaustive exchanges of views on numerous subjects of common interest, it was noted. They especially stressed the importance of encouraging free regional cooperation in the economic and other fields, noting that modern integration processes should not call in question respect for the sovereignty and independence of states. Based on this principle, Yugoslavia and Belarus, as European countries, are committed to playing an active part in European integration processes, it was noted. In this context, they believe that the example of their equality-based cooperation, openness and commitment to peace can help these processes to be successful, it was further said. Milosevic and Lukashenko stressed that Europe is the common home of all European countries, whose democratic development can rest only on their equality and full mutual respect. An expectation was expressed that the businessmen accompanying Lukashenko on the visit will reach new deals with their Yugoslav partners, and that the two governments' officials will negotiate a number of inter-state accords. Later on Wednesday evening, President Milosevic gave a formal dinner in honour of his guest, which was attended by the delegation members and prominent Yugoslav political and public figures. [11] YUGOSLAVIA AND BELARUS EXPECT TO INTENSIFY ECONOMIC COOPERATIONTanjug, 1998-01-28Yugoslav businessmen and the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce expect much from their meeting on Thursday with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and his trade delegation, President of the Chamber Mihailo Milojevic told Tanjug on Wednesday. The visit will provide a great impetus to the all- round bilateral economic cooperation, Milojevic said. The two countries have a great untapped potential for economic cooperation thanks to the complementarity of some of their industrial branches and traditional ties between business partners, he said. The trade between Yugoslavia and Belarus which was worth 12.7 million dollars last year can be greatly increased, as the businessmen from both countries have expressed interest in developing cooperation in many fields, such as metal and wood processing industries, chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries, investment projects and tourism, Milojevic said. Technology transfer, joint ventures at third markets and various other forms of long-term cooperation also provide good opportunities for cooperation with Belarus, Milojevic said. [12] BELARUS PRESIDENT LUKASHENKO ARRIVED IN BELGRADETanjug, 1998-01-28Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko arrived on a three-day visit to Yugoslavia on Wednesday. President Lukashenko told the press at Belgrade airport that he would have a broad exchange of views with his host, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on matters of interest to the two countries. President Lukashenko said in the brief statement that he had arrived "with the best of feelings among people close to me in terms of ideas, faith and kinship." He said the talks the Belarus state and economic delegation would have in Belgrade would be focused on possibilities for a further development of trade and economic relations between the two countries. Belarus President Lukashenko said he believed trade between the two countries could be increased several fold in a foreseeable future. Answering reporters' questions, President Lukashenko said that Kosovo and Metohija was Yugoslavia's internal affair. President Lukashenko was welcomed at Belgrade airport by Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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