Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-10-13

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Tuesday, 13-Oct-98 21:36:25

CONTENTS

[01] Kosovo

[02] Balcans Summit

[03] NATO-"Dynamic Mix 1998"

[04] Papantoniou-Ecifin-Inflation

[05] Elections-Second round

[01] Kosovo

Milosevic has agreed to pull his forces out of the province, to allow international monitors to keep tabs on the situation in Kosovo, and start negotiations witht the Albanian Kosovars.

It was a misty day in the Kosovo capital of Pristina Tuesday.

But there was hope in the air.

Velgo Danovic, the Serb governor of Kosovo, told Antenna's Nicholas Vafiades that the arrangements worked out for the Serbian province of Voyvodina could serve as a blueprint for Kosovo.

In Voyvodina, there is a strong Hungarian community, and many other minorities.

Danovic believes that in Kosovo, too, everyone can live side by side, in peace.

A parliament and other local political institutions could give even hardline ethnic- Albanian separatists a way to express themselves without turning to guns and violence.

What everyone's waiting to see is how the people of Kosovo will react to the Holbrooke-Milosevic deal.

Many ethnic-Albanians have met it with scepticism.

The moderates disagree with details; hardliners are unhappy with the whole thing.

Adem Demaci, the man considered to be the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army, said Tuesday that the hostilities will stop if the Serbs live up to their end of the agreement.

"I think we are going in a new way, a new situation...I don't think it will be very easy... but I believe problems will not be as difficult as in the past, until today".

The Serb residents of the village of Priusik, on the frontline of KLA attacks over the past several months, ardently pray for peace.

They hope Monday night was the last night they'll have to spend manning the barricades against Albanian attacks.

In the Kostic household family members and friends listened to Milosevic's TV announcement of the agreement with relief.

Says Anja Kostic: "We respect the Albanians; God will help make everything go well".

Adds Todor Jovanovic: "I'm happy about what we heard on the news, that they've agreed and things will settle down and we'll have peace at last. We have gunfire here every night and I can't sleep".

The next four days are the grace period that Nato has given Milosevic to show he means to implement the agreement. In Priusik and elsewhere in Kosovo, people hope the agrement will stick.

[02] Balcans Summit

The absence of the Yugoslav and Albanian leaders from their meeting in Atalya, Turkey highlighted the difficulties of advancing regional initiatives against a backdrop of international involvement in the area.

It was obvious before the conference in Atalya began that its main purpose - to foster closer cooperation between Balkan nations - would be

overshadowed by the Kosovo crisis.

Neither Yugoslavia nor Albania was represented by a head of state.

The Yugoslav premier warned that Nato airstrikes would make the Dayton agreement on Bosnia "null and void" and jeopardise peace throughout the region.

The conference managed to issue a final statement that included satisfaction with the diplomatic settlement reached in Kosovo. But, making the case for Nato bombing, the Albanian foreign minister called it a compromise and therefore insincere and dishonest.

Meeting on the sidelines of the conference in Antalya, the Greek and Turkish prime ministers agreed to disagree about relations between their countries.

After their talk, Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis acknowledged that relations between their two countries aren't as good as they should be.

Turkish prime minister Mesout Yilmaz had repeated Ankara's view that Greece and Turkey should engage in an across-the-board dialogue on all issues separating them.

And Simitis had repeated his country's view that such dialogue, tried in the past, gets nowhere.

Simitis said what's needed is a step-by- step approach, based on Turkish acceptance of the jursidiction of the international court to arbitrate over Greek-Turkish differences.

Simitis told Yilmaz that if Turkey is serious about wanting to move closer to the European Union, then it has an interest in accepting the court's jurisdiction, like the rest of the EU states do.

In his press conference after the meeting, Yilmaz appeared moderate. He said Turkey believes that all differences should be settled on the basis of international law, even through the offices of the

international court.

Simitis believes the first issue that should go to the court is that of who has control over the continental shelf in the Aegean.

That issue is the only negotiable one Greece feels exists between it and Turkey. In opposing across-the-board dialogue, Athens is essentially rebuffing Ankara's attempt to slip its numerous claims on Greek soil in the Aegean onto a negotiating agenda.

The one thing both leaders agreed on was that Nato confidence-building meausures in the Aegean should continue, even if they couldn't agree on exactly how.

As Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos pointed out, Athens believes the points confidence- building measures Greece and Turkey are both comfortable with can be implemented now. But Ankara, he adds, wants full agreement on all points before any implementation.

Simitis and Yilmaz also discussed Ankara's dispute with Damascus. Turkey accuses Syria of harbouring Kurdish rebels from Turkey. Syria denies it. But in Antalya, Yilmaz told Simitis Turkey may consider some kind of intervention if Syria doesn't do something to allay Turkey's concerns soon.

Simitis told Yilmaz that military action has to be approved by the United Nations.

[03] NATO-"Dynamic Mix 1998"

The plan of the exercise was to defend refugee camps. Konstantinos Panagiotakis, commander of the First Army, said, "Today's Nato exercise aim was to keep and impose peace in a certain region, to support peacekeeping efforts".

It is noteworthy that Nato's commander of Alliance troops in southeastern Europe did not want to make any comments on the exercise especially in vue of the expected outcome of negotiations between Milosevich and Holbrooke in Kosovo.

[04] Papantoniou-Ecifin-Inflation

As the European Union approved Greece's convergence programme for economic and monetary union, the Greek finance minister was optimistic that his country will meet not just the inflation target, but all the fiscal targets for the single currency.

Finance minister Iannos Papantoniou says the Pasok government will do whatever it takes to achieve an inflation rate of 2.5 per cent by the end of 1999.

Papantoniou acknowledges that cutting inflation in half will be difficult; but the government, he promises, will do everything in its power to get there.

"Everything in the government's power" includes what amounts to a public sector wage cut and reductions in indirect taxes.

The government is aiming at giving civil servants a one per cent raise on January first, and a further 1.5 per cent increase on July first.

Papantoniou warns that any loosening of the tight economic belt is unthinkable.

"Any increase in the deficit has an immediate negative impact on the drachma and interest rates", he argues. "It has a negative impact on the course of the economy. It would be particularly irresponsible of the government to change its policies".

Papantoniou is confident that Greece will continue to approach its EU convergence targets. Inter- bank lending rates are currently 13 per cent in Greece; in the rest of the EU they're around 3.5 per cent. Papantoniou says the huge gap will be covered within 27 monhths, when Greece enters the single currency.

The stated goal of all the convergence targets, abstract to many people, is very concrete: economic growth.

Greece's convergence programme forecasts an annual growth rate of between 3.7 and 4.5 per cent.

[05] Elections-Second round

While the current in New Democracy remained high, pleased with the fact that most Greek's supported their choices, supporters of Pasok stood by their policy, amid comments that the message from voters was received.

Pasok MP Theodoros Tsoukatos defended the government's austere economic policy despite last weekend's election results. He said, "Pasok will not change its policy and will continue steadily on its course".

Democratic Movement and Left Coalition urged their

supporters to vote in the upcoming municipal and county elections with their conscience.

In the county of Piraeus, Adonis Dedithakis announced he will support Pasok's Christos Fotiou in the mayorship's second round elections.

Democratic Movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas called his supporters to vote by conscience. He said, "We should vote under the criteria of the candidate's reliability and of whether their programmes are progressive or not".

Left coalition leader Nikos Konstantopoulos also called his supporters to vote by conscience.

Maria Damanaki, who was supported by Pasok, in her candidacy for Athens mayorship called her supporters to vote for a candidate supported by Left Coalition or Pasok in the second round.

Athens mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos met with candidate for governor of Athens and supported by New Democracy Theodoros Katrivanos Tuesday. After the meeting Katrivanos said, 'This meeting was a great opportunity for us to discuss future cooperation between the two administrations'.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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