Antenna: News in English, 99-03-26

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From: Antenna <www.antenna.gr/> - email: webmaster@antenna.gr

CONTENTS

[01] Kosovo

[02] American embassies

[03] Agenda 2000

[04] Sports

[01] Kosovo

But so far, Yugsolavia is showing no signs of bending. And Greece says the best thing would be to get back to negotiations.

After briefing the nation's president on the situation in the Balkans, Greek defence minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos renewed Greece' call for an end to the fighting.

The battles in Kosovo must stop, he said, so the bombings can stop and negotiations must restart. And he repeated that Greece will not get involved in the Nato military campaign.

Tsochatzopoulos was also asked about the American president's remarks earlier this week to the effect that one of the reasons for the intervention in Yugoslavia has been to ward off a possible spillover of minority strife that could drag Greece and Turkey into a Balkan war.

The White House has said those remarks were misinterpreted. Alternate Greek foreign minister Yiannos Kranidiotis brought the issue up again with the American ambassador to Greece when they met Friday. He got the same reply: the comment, said Kranidiotis, was unfortunate, and has created unease among the Greek people.

Greeks have also been shocked and incensed by American news network CNN's repetition of the Balkan domino theory.

According to the incoherent CNN theory, Greece could get involved in a Balkan conflagration after Albania joined in on the side of the Albanian Kosovars and Fyrom was dragged in by its restive ethnic-Albanian population.

Stretching to make the links, CNN then reports that Greece might attack Fyrom because Fyrom has claims on Greek soil.

This is a grave distortion of the situation. Greece has disputed Fyrom's attempt to use "Macedonia" as its permanent name; but the issue - which was big in the early nineties, is rarely even reported in the press anymore. For several years, the two countries have been negotiating under UN auspices to find a compromise solution.

After its illogical claim about Greece joining in the fray, CNN adds that Turkey would join in too, since it has many long outstanding differences with Greece.

Not only does the CNN report rely on fantastic scenarios, it omits to mention that foreign ministers from Greece, Turkey, and a number of other Balkan nations meeting last week agreed that there should be a peaceful solution to the Kosovo problem. No one in the Balkans wants this war, because no one in the Balkans has anything to gain from it. On the contrary, every Balkan nation has much to lose.

Subsequently, Balkan nations are pushing as hard as they can for an end to the bombings and a return to dialogue.

The Greek foreign ministry was a hive of activity Friday, as not only the American ambassador but also top-ranking diplomats from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, and Romania arrived for consultations with Kranidiotis.

Balkan leaders are now confronted with managing a dangerous situation not of their making, and very much out of their control.

[02] American embassies

Concern and anger spilled over onto the streets of Athens Friday night. Thousands of noisy demonstrators carried their anti-war message throught the streets of Athens to Nato-country embassies, among them the British, German and American embassies.

[03] Agenda 2000

After a marathon meeting Thursday night, the 15 EU heads of state emerged with a budget agreement for the next seven years.

Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis found something to smile about in Berlin Friday morning.

An all-night round of negotiations had resulted in Greece getting more than it had expected from the 2000-2006 EU solidarity fund.

The negotiations were tough for Europe's smaller economies. With Germany and Britain itching for freezes in their contributions to the budget, most of which goes to funding agriculture subsidies and development projects in the weaker nations, and the EU needing more money to fund development in prospective member states in eastern Europe, Athens feared lean times were ahead.

But Simitis told journalists after his 20-hour negotiating session Friday morning, "We not only staved off a decrease in the money we'll be getting, we managed to negotiate a significant increase. Greece is going to get 24.9 billion Euros in the next seven-year budget. That's up from the 21.9 billion Greece got in the 1993-99 EU support package.

Calling the increase in funding significant, Greek finance minister Giannos Papantoniou said Greece is the only country that achieved a significant increase in development funds.

What it will mean is dozens of new infrastructure and other development projects in Greece over the next decade.

[04] Sports

The Pireaus club, which won the cup two years ago, will have another crack at the title in April.

And it's all thanks to its sweep of France's Villerban in their best-of- three quarterfinal series. Olympiakos gets 23 points from Arian Komazec and 15 more from Anthony Goldwire in a road effort that puts Villerban out of its misery, 81-77.

(c) Antenna 1999

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