Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 97-11-09

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

Last Update: 21:10 GMT+2

SECTIONS

[A] GREECE

[B] BALKANS

NEWS HEADLINES

[A] GREECE

[B] BALKANS

NEWS IN DETAIL

[A] GREECE

[01] GREEK PREMIER KOSTAS SIMITIS TO VISIT LONDON AND PARIS

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Athens, November 9 (MPA)

Mr. Simitis will depart on November 26 for London where he will meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other political leaders. On November 30, the Greek Prime Minister will leave for Paris where he is scheduled to stay until December 3 and during that time he will meet with his French counterpart Lionel Jospen.

A.F.

[02] GOVERNMENT TO FINALIZE FISCAL POLICY NEXT WEDNESDAY

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Athens, November 9 (MPA)

The governmental committee has unanimously approved the budget's main point. According to reports, it has decided on smaller wage increases than those previously announced informally.

According to Mr. Papantoniou, the tight fiscal policy is in line with the European Union's convergence program.

A.F.

[03] EPISODES ERUPT AT HALKIDIKI'S GOLD MINE, LOCALS CLASH WITH POLICE

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Thessaloniki, November 9 (MPA)

The drilling was to be conducted under the watch of a strong police force but the opposing locals formed a ring around the premises in an effort to obstruct the operation. The SWAT team used tear gas against the protesters when they overturned a police vehicle and smaller episodes soon followed.

The project, operated by TVX Gold Hellas, an affiliate of the Canadian mining company TVX Gold Inc., has been in the eye of the storm for a long time now as a select group of local residents is opposed to the mining operation fearing that it will result in environmental pollution and a drop in tourism.

TVX officials issued an announcement this evening where they stated that these episodes threaten the suspension of what is Greece's largest project in the past three decades, that is a whooping 270-billion-dollar investment.

On the other hand, the president of the Olympiada community Stavros Stoitsas told the MPA that the locals were unjustifiably attacked by the police.

"You don't invest with the use of SWAT teams. They (TVX) went ahead with the drilling instead of conducting studies," he said.

Not all locals are opposed to the plant's operation. The local laborers' association is in favor of the gold processing as it will promote the region's much-desired development. Last year, hundreds of local workers and residents took part in a march held in support of the project.

TVX Gold foresees that the Olympiada project will triple the area's gold output to 1.2 million ounces by next year. The company bought the two mines in the peninsula of Halkidiki in December of 1995.

According to the environmental impact study reports published by TVX Gold, the project is environmentally sound as it will employ modern technology to process the gold.

A.F.

[04] THE GREEK PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT IS ON A VISIT TO GERMANY

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Bonn, November 9 (MPA)

Mr. Kaklamanis is in Germany for a five-day visit at the invitation of his counterpart in the German Federal Parliament Rita Suessmuth and presidents of regional Parliaments.

During is stay, Mr.Kaklamanis will conduct successive visits to Munich, Bonn, Stuttgart and Berlin. He is scheduled to have talks with leading politicians both at a federal and a state level on issues of bilateral and wider interest.

A.F.

[B] BALKANS

[05] US PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE IN CYPRUS TOMORROW

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Nicosia, November 9 (MPA)

Mgrs. Clerides and Denktash are to also meet informally together with Mr. Holbrooke.

Meanwhile, US government officials have stated that they do not expect those talks to lead to a quick solution of the Cyprus problem.

A.F.

[06] SERB PARAMILITARY WHO CHILLINGLY CONFESSED TO MURDERS IS IN JAIL

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Belgrade, November 9 (MPA)

The Yugoslav state prosecutor Vukasin Jokanovic has ordered the investigation of the 50-year-old Slobodan Misic, who was arrested on Thursday at the offices of the Vranjske newspaper where he gave his chilling confession.

Jokanovic stated that "all those who committed war crimes will be tried in Yugoslavia."

Since the end of the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, Federal Yugoslavia - comprising Serbia and Montenegro- has failed to arrest suspects wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY).

Most of those publicly indicted by the ICTY are Serbs.

Misic told the newspaper that he was aware of the killing of at least 5,000 Moslems in eastern Bosnia by Serb paramilitary units during the war, and admitted that he himself killed at least 80.

"One morning, during the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, I took two Moslems hostage and turned them over to the operations center in the city of Bratunac. When the officers told me what they were going to do with them I said 'give them to me.' I led them to the Drina river, killed them and shoved them in the water, letting the current carry them away."

This is how he began his description of the 80 murders he committed during the war, to the Serb daily "Vranskje".

In the summer of 1991, Misic, who is from south Serbia's city of Vranje, enlisted as a volunteer with Vukovar's army front, in Craisna. What prompted him to volunteer in the military was, in his own words, "the fact that I could no longer tolerate hearing accounts of how the Croats slaughtered the area's Serbs." He stayed at Croatia's front for 15 months, during which time, as he admitted, he killed an unspecified number of Croats, most of whom were secret service agents. After a brief return to his hometown, he moved on to Bosnia where he fought as a volunteer on the Bosnian-Serb side.

Does he feel regret? " I don't even think about that, I would do the same again if episodes broke out in Kossovo," he responded undauntedly. The only remorse he does feel is for the two Moslem girls he killed by mistake. Misic said that the majority of his victims were simple people, not soldiers.

A.F.

[07] TURKISH BLIND LAWYER ESBER YAGMURDERELI FREED FOR HEALTH REASONS

Web Posted: 21:10 GMT+2

Ankara, November 9 (MPA)

Mr. Yamurdereli, who is blind, has spent 14 years in jail on charges of disseminating pro-Kurdish propaganda.

The Turkish lawyer had been sentenced in 1978 to 36 years in prison. He was released in 1991 on parole and is now facing the possibility of serving the remaining time of his sentence.

Turkey's president Suleiman Demirel had said that he would grant the blind lawyer a pardon, but Yamurdereli has repeatedly refused all offers of amnesty. His son has stated that "my father will not accept a release from prison unless the necessary legislation lifting restrictions on freedom of thought is passed."

A.F.

Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/

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