Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-04-08

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV, SERBIAN, MONTENEGRIN PREMIERS DISCUSS MACROECONOMIC ISSUES

[02] YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE'S CHAIRMAN * STATEMENT 1996. CHIRAC TALKS WITH MEMBERS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA PRESIDENCY

[03] RUSSIAN, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS * STATEMENTS

[04] CONFERENCE OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

[05] SERBIAN PREMIER ON REFERENDUM ON FOREIGN MEDIATION IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA

[06] U.S. CONGRESSMEN IN PRISTINA

[07] REJECTION OF TALKS IN THE FIRST PLACE DETRIMENTAL FOR ALBANIANS

[08] SERBIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER ON REFERENDUM

[09] REFERENDUM ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA SCHEDULED FOR APRIL 23 IN SERBIA

[10] ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVES FAIL TO TURN UP AGAIN

[01] YUGOSLAV, SERBIAN, MONTENEGRIN PREMIERS DISCUSS MACROECONOMIC ISSUES

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic met here late on Tuesday with the Premiers of the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro to discuss, among others, operative measures for macroeconomic equilibrium and stability.

The discussion of the most important questions of implementing the programme for stability and macroeconomic equilibrium was attended by the Serbian and Montenegrin Premiers, Mirko Marjanovic and Filip Vujanovic, respectively, a Government statement said.

Also present were Federal Vice Premiers Vojin Djukanovic, Danko Djunic and Nikola Sainovic, National Bank of Yugoslavia (Central Bank) Governor Dusan Vlatkovic and Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce President Mihailo Milojevic.

Competent federal and republican ministers also attended. Although the time since the adoption of the programme has been relatively short, the federal and republican Governments and the National Bank have taken a number of important concrete measures for its implementation.

Public spending at federal level has been consolidated at 48.3 percent of the GDP, and agreement has been reached about establishing a single taxation system.

[02] YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE'S CHAIRMAN * STATEMENT 1996. CHIRAC TALKS WITH MEMBERS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA PRESIDENCY

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Chairman of a Yugoslav Government Committee for collecting information on crimes against humanity and international law Zoran Stojanovic said on Tuesday that the Yugoslav side was dissatisfied with the way the war crimes Tribunal based in The Hague treated its reports and with the Tribunal's being very slow when it came to bringing indictments against those who committed crimes against Serbs.

Referring to the Committee's ninth report recently adopted by the Yugoslav Government and communicated to the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, Stojanovic told a news conference in Belgrade that the cooperation with the Tribunal was satisfactory in terms of formal contacts, but the situation was quite the opposite as for the treatment of its reports.

He said a Yugoslav delegation, which had recently been in The Hague, had conveyed to the Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour the Yugoslav Government's dissatisfaction with the attitude of the Tribunal, because the Committee had sent 35 different materials to its office in Belgrade since its setting up in late

French President Jacques Chirac, who arrived in Sarajevo on Monday evening, held on Tuesday talks with the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, Kresimir Zubak and Momcilo Krajisnik.

French President appealed to Bosnia-Herzegovina leaders and young people in Sarajevo to extend a hand in reconciliation and turn their backs on war and ethnic hatred.

Chirac said the process of reconciliation would take Bosnia into Europe where it belongs, as do all the peoples of former Yugoslavia. He underscored that the goal of Europe and its historical task was to build up peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, so that that country could cease being a place where East and West clash, and become a place where the large family of Europe is reconciled.

[03] RUSSIAN, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS * STATEMENTS

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeni Primakov said on Tuesday that "an attempt to break off Kosovo from Serbia is absolutely unacceptable" for Russia. "This would not improve talks and might lead to bloodshed," Primakov told a press conference after meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini.

"The idea to send foreign troops to Kosovo, regardless of the flag under which these troops are engaged, is completely unacceptable" for Russia, Primakov said but did not explain whether someone had already proposed this "solution" to him.

Primakov said that he and his Italian counterpart had agreed on the necessity that a "dialogue on Kosovo start as soon as possible."

Speaking about principles on which a dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija may be based, Primakov said that this was a "denial of the possibility of keeping a status quo in Kosovo" as well as a "necessity to count on the fact that Kosovo cannot secede from Serbia." The Russian minister also said that Kosovo should be granted the right to self-rule.

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said that his talks with his Russian counterpart Yevgeny Primakov had demonstrated that the two countries shared practically identical views on outstanding international issues, including the situation in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija.

[04] CONFERENCE OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Yugoslavia's delegation to the 99th conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) strongly opposed adding to the agenda the situation in the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija.

The motion to put the question up for debate as urgent was tabled by the German delegation to the conference that is being held in the Namibian capital Windhoek from April 6 to 11, according to a statement forwarded by the Yugoslav delegation to TANJUG.

Yugoslav Delegation Head Ljubisa Ristic, who chairs the Parliament Chamber of Citizens (lower house) foreign political committee, said that to add the question to the agenda would be contrary to the IPU statute.

The IPU statute envisages that only a problem of special international interest that emerged no more than 30 days before an IPU conference could be discussed in an emergency procedure, Ristic said.

Whereas, he added, the political processes in Kosovo-Metohija had been going on for some considerable time now. He stressed that the matter of Kosovo-Metohija was an internal affair of Serbia as a constituent unit of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

He explained that the Serbian Government had given an initiative for an unconditional dialogue to be opened with officials of political parties in Kosovo-Metohija in order to deal with all open questions by political means.

The dialogue could have opened after ethnic Albanian political parties nominated their delegation last week. However, the ethnic Albanian delegation never showed up for the talks, probably needing more time for preparation, Ristic said.

He added that the Yugoslav delegation was sure that the problems of Kosovo- Metohija were similar to those encountered by many other countries, and concerned terrorism, human rights, separatism, secessionism, minority rights, drug and arms trafficking.

Despite the firm position of the Yugoslav delegation, the conference upheld the German initiative and the matter will be discussed in the competent political affairs committee.

[05] SERBIAN PREMIER ON REFERENDUM ON FOREIGN MEDIATION IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic said on Tuesday that a referendum on whether international mediators were necessary for deciding on problems in Kosovo and Metohija was a "legal and, at the same time, the most legitimate way to determine the citizens' will."

Explaining a draft decision on the calling of a referendum at the Serbian Parliament, Marjanovic said that the referendum was also an expression of the fact that only all people, rather than just those who live in Kosovo and Metohija, could reach a legitimate decision on Kosovo and Metohija.

"A republican referendum should also be a confirmation of our state sovereignty and our efforts aimed at observing the basic principles of international order," Marjanovic said and added that, while they existed, even the vassal states had enjoyed internal autonomy.

The premier said that 19th century Serbia, as a vassal of Turkey, had adopted its Constitutions autonomously and that after one century and two decades of independence, Serbia could not "let its Constitutional issues be decided on with an international mediator, especially when he should be the side that really makes decisions."

Marjanovic said that Parliament should now decide to propose a referendum on the most vital state and national issue - whether only the people should decide on Kosovo and Metohija or whether foreign mediators should participate in it too.

The Serbian Premier said that the question of foreign mediation had been increasingly mentioned of late and that pressure had also increased on Serbia and Yugoslavia to accept this.

He said that the most powerful international factors were engaged in this, trying to impose their will through threats and force, regardless of the principles of international relations and consequences, not only to our people, all citizens of this country, but also to peace and stability in the region.

"Kosovo and Metohija is Serbia's internal affair and all related solutions are in the sole jurisdiction of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens. All attempts at imposing international mediators in the resolution of internal affairs of a state against its will clashes with the principle of sovereign equality of the states, basic principles of the U.N. Charter, the OSCE and international law," Marjanovic said.

He said that no international organisations or institutions had the right or were authorised to participate in the resolution of these issues or to propose or impose solutions.

The thesis is unfounded that the gravity of the Kosovo problem is the reason to divert from this important international principle, because these issues are of internal character, there are no conflicts there, the state fully controls the situation and has an active and responsible stand that all questions should be resolved through political means and direct dialogue, protecting the Constitutional order and observing European standards, Marjanovic said.

Some international factors are trying to internationalise the issue in Kosovo and Metohija out of so many disputes based only on the national issue in other states, Marjanovic said and wondered why "for example, the Kurd, Irish, Corsican or Basque issue would not be internationalised, rather than the Kosovo one." "These are obviously double standards and the policy of force. Its goal are nobody's rights, not even the rights of the Albanian minority, its goals are to produce a crisis and instability in order to demonstrate power in managing the crisis, spreading vassalage and justifying the presence of a foreign factor in the region," Marjanovic said.

Marjanovic said that it was not true that the international community, personified in the "contact group," urged the linking of the participants in the dialogue with different views on the resolution of the problem.

"It is the one that is practically trying to dictate the final results of the dialogue - the results that are already set out in different projects and according to which a technology is being developed. Foreign mediation and mediator have the key role in this procedure," the premier said.

They say that they are allegedly interested onlly in a dialogue, regardless of its outcome, while at the same time their statements say the opposite: "'An increased status of Kosovo within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia', 'greater level of autonomy', 'important self-rule' and 'special status' are explicitly called for," Marjanovic said.

"The scenario of a mediator's actions has already been seen: firstof all an international body or organisation sends a mediator and then it submits a so-called proposal for the resolution of the problem through him. If this is not accepted, it is followed by demands and sanctions, accompanied with a general anathema," he explained.

Marjanovic said that the stand towards calls for foreign mediation was the key issue and that the course and results of a dialogue depended on it. He said that "those who assist separatists every day, while adopting statements and resolutions against Serbia and Yugoslavia, are calling for a mediator."

Marjanovic said that some of the offered foreign projects for the resolution of the Kosovo-Metohija problems implied a "further crushing of the Serb national being and secession of the nationally most recognisable part of the Serbian territory from its mother country," and that Kosovo and Metohija was one of the most powerful national symbols of the Serbian people.

"This is why all citizens of Serbia and only the citizens of Serbia must be asked about the fate of this national symbol. The Serbian people are facing the danger of losing their biggest national sacred thing," Marjanovic said.

He said that a mediator was unnecessary in such questions of a nation and a state. "The entire people concerned with the issue should decide on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija as their own issue. This decision is so difficult and at the same time so holy that simply, nobody but the people can reach it," Marjanovic said.

He said that he was convinced that all problems that really exist and burden the life in Kosovo and Metohija could be resolved through an open, honest and well-intentioned dialogue and that he hoped that "this dialogue will be successful and in the interest of all those who live in Kosovo and Metohija."

[06] U.S. CONGRESSMEN IN PRISTINA

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

A delegation of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate for Europe conferred in Pristina on Tuesday with Kosovo District Deputy Chief Veljko Odalovic and Bosko Drobnjak, the information secretary of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija.

The Information Secretariat of Kosovo and Metohija said Committee members Michael Havel and Elisabeth Wilson had been especially interested in today's arrival in Pristina of Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, a Government delegation, and Special Envoy of the Yugoslav President Vladan Kutlesic.

In the talks, Odalovic pointed out that the international community should have a positive influence on political representatives of Kosovo and Metohija Albanians, so that they accept the dialogue wich has been proposed by the Serbian Government without any conditions.

The U.S. Congressmen were accompanied by the Political and Economic Adviser of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Robert Norman.

[07] REJECTION OF TALKS IN THE FIRST PLACE DETRIMENTAL FOR ALBANIANS

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic said in Pristina on Tuesday that the rejection of Albanian national minority representatives to come for talks ran contrary to the interests of all those living in Kosmet, in the first place of ethnic Albanians. Milutinovic, in talks with representatives of the Turkish, Muslim and Romany national minorities and some citizens of Albanian nationality, said that the rejection of dialogue was an ineffectual political move of ethnic Albanians representatives.

"This obstruction is wearing out everyone and creating a situation where everyone is a hostage of the situation," Milutionovic said.

The Serbian President said that the stubborn rejection of dialogue by the Albanian leaders from Kosovo and Metohija had only one goal - to turn the region into a testing ground for big power rivalry.

Milutinovic warned against the double standards and cinicism of the international community, underlining that the people will have final say at the referendum about the mediation of foreign representatives in the talks.

All participants in the talks on Tuesday strongly condemned the latest terrorist actions of Albanian separatists, who are killing members of their own people.

[08] SERBIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER ON REFERENDUM

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Serbian Parliament Speaker Dragan Tomic said on Tuesday that there was no procedure more democratic than a referendum to check the public stand towards an issue.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate on a draft decision on calling a referendum, Tomic said that this was the only way to confirm the correctness of our policy and get the true mandate to continue with our national course.

"I have no dilemma and I am convinced that the citizens of Serbia will choose the wisest solution," Tomic said and added that he believed in the wisdom of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija and that our peoples would not allow others to experiment with our lives and future.

"We cannot be the only country in the world deprived of the right to self- defence and defence from terrorism. We do not accept it and I am convinced that no state would accept it. But I also believe that at a moment like this, my stand or the stand of any other ranking state or party official must undergo the citizens' check," Tomic said.

He said that in a letter to top Serbian officials, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic spoke about pressure in the name of democracy and said that the pressure on our country was always justified in this cynical way.

"This excuse is all the more cynical if one bears in mind the fact that the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, along with other crises that are being used to pressure small peoples, is in fact an artificially created crisis," Tomic said.

"No national, democratic, human or religious right of any Serbian citizen has been jeopardised by the state in any way. If these rights were jeopardised by anything, they were jeopardised by ethnic Albanian terrorism, aided by foreign pressure in the name of democracy," Tomic said.

He said that one could hardly believe that the wealthiest and technically best equipped countries in the world, with big teams of analysts, had incorrect information and did not know the truth about the situation in Kosovo and Metohija.

"If they know, and they must know because they know everything, why do they have such an attitude towards Serbia? Why are all Serbia's efforts aimed at peacefully resolving everything condemned and obstructed in advance? Because someone obviously needs a hot spot here," Tomic said.

He said that the spearheads of the new world order looked for crises to demonstrate their power on them, to manage them and keep other states and peoples under submission.

"When there are no crises, they do not hesitate from making them. Kosovo and Metohija was conceived as a hot spot in the Balkans in these power- wielders' plans. A reserve hot spot is being prepared parallel (with this one) somewhere in the neighbourhood, and the next one after that," Tomic said and added "This will go on until we are all in the same line, in the same 'democratic recipes' with the same boss."

"Therefore, should we, whose memories of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia are so fresh, who know the order of moves by heart, to let ourselves have a repetition of the past," Tomic wondered and said, "I believe that we should not."

[09] REFERENDUM ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA SCHEDULED FOR APRIL 23 IN SERBIA

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

The Serbian Parliament adopted on Tuesday evening, at the second meeting of its spring session, a decision to hold on April 23 a referendum in which Serbia's citizens will vote on the participation of foreign representatives in resolving the problems in the southern province of Kosovo-Metohija.

The decision was passed with 193 votes in favor, four against, and one abstention. One member did not vote.

The referendum will take place on April 23 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The voters will have the choice of answering "yes" or "no" to the question whether they accept the participation of foreign representatives in resolving problems in Kosovo-Metohija.

[10] ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVES FAIL TO TURN UP AGAIN

Tanjug, 1998-04-07

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and a governmental delegation headed by Deputy Premier Ratko Markovic arrived before 11:00 in Pristina for talks with representatives of the Albanian national minority who have not arrived for the talks as scheduled. The delegation also comprises a special envoy of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Vladan Kutlesic, Serbian Ministers Ratomir Vico, Ivan Sedlak, Andreja Milosavljevic and representatives of parliamentary party groupings in the Serbian Parliament.

At the talks, just as on previous occasions, have arrived representatives of the Turkish, Romany and Muslim national minorities.

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