Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 10 PM), February 18, 1997

    E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
    WWW:    http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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    All texts are Copyright 1997 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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    NEWS BY 10 PM
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    PROTESTS IN NIS OVER

    The opposition coalition Zajedno in Nis decided on Tuesday to
    terminate their protests at the November electoral fraud after 93
    straight days. After the second session of the Nis City Assembly
    on Tuesday, Zoran Zivkovic, the Mayor of Nis, said that the main
    reason for the protest rallies no longer existed. He invited the
    citizens of Nis to gather on February 21 for a final rally in
    celebration of the opening session of the Belgrade City Assembly,
    FoNet reports.


    CONDEMNATION OF TUESDAY'S INCIDENT

    Student Protest 96/97 condemned in the strictest terms Tuesday's
    incident[ a speeding car run into the student crowd in Kolarceva
    Street] and all similar attacks against peaceful demonstrators
    struggling for their fundamental human rights.

    Student Protest warned that such incidents over the past few weeks
    had been too numerous to be unintentional and urged the Serbian
    Interior Ministry to engage in finding and punishing the
    perpetrators instead of preventing the peaceful protests with
    innumerable cordons, Beta reports.


    YUGOSLAV DELEGATION REFUSES WATTS'S PROPOSAL

    Representatives of FR Yugoslavia at the negotiations for the
    division of the assets of former Yugoslavia in Brussels refused on
    Tuesday the international mediator Sir Arthur Watts's proposal for
    the division of archives.

    Rodoljub Etinski, a member of the Yugoslav delegation, told the
    press after Tuesday's round of negotiations, that the ``seceded
    states are interested in federal archives, while the [FR] Yugoslav
    side is in favour of negotiating all state archives of the former
    Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, indcluding those kept
    in republics, counties and municipalities.''

    Mr. Etinski commented that the interest of the former Yugoslav
    republics in Sir Watts's proposal and especially in the archives
    of the National Bank of Yugoslavia was because they wanted to
    divide parts of state assets without a final discussion and
    agreement.

    Miran Mejak, head of the Slovene delegation, said that Sir Watts's
    proposal was acceptable for Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
    Macedonia. He said that the Yugoslav side had stressed that the
    archives were indivisible and that the other heir states could see
    them only after an agreement on the archive's indivisibility was
    signed. He said such position was inadmissible for Slovenia,
    Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Mr. Mejak therefore thought that
    the whole negotiations over the succession of the former
    Yugoslavia should be placed under some international arbitration,
    according to Beta.


    YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT PREPARING MEETING WITH CROAT FOREIGN MINISTER

    The Yugoslav Government held a session on Tuesday to prepare their
    position before talks between the Yugoslav Foreign Minister and
    his Croatian counterpart in Belgrade on Wednesday. The Yugoslav
    Government concluded that the meeting should develop relations
    with Croatia in accordance with the agreement on the normalization
    of relations between the two states. The Yugoslav side should,
    however, stress the necessity for consistent implementation of the
    Erdut agreement and for the granting of their legitimate rights
    and status to the Serbs in the region of Srem and Baranja, a
    statement by the Yugoslav Information Department said.


    RHEN: FURTHER INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE IN EASTERN SLAVONIA IS
    NECESSARY

    UN Special Envoy for Human Rights Elizabeth Rhen stated on Tuesday
    that an international presence, including military monitors, would
    be necessary after the departure of the international peace forces
    from Eastern Slavonia, AFP reports the Croat state newsagency Hina
    as saying. The mandate of the blue helmets in the region expires
    in the middle of this year, but the UN Security Council has stated
    that the UN presence will be maintained for another 6 months. Ms.
    Rhen stated that the international presence after the withdrawal
    of the blue helmets must include representatives of the European
    Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
    a huge mission of UN military monitors, among others. Ms. Rhen
    said that the cases of Serb families leaving Eastern Slavonia were
    a result of insecurity as to what would happen after the UN forces
    leave the region. According to the Republika Srpska's newsagency
    SRNA, Ms. Rhen said that the population in this region must have a
    sense of security, which was not the case at present. She said
    that the foundations for the respecting of human rights in this
    region must be laid and that the Letter of Intention from the
    Croatian Government was in accordance with European standards, but
    that there had been many cases bringing Croatian good intentions
    into question, FoNet reports.


    ZAGREB REFUSES HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S DEMAND

    The Croatian Government refused on Tuesday a demand by the Hague
    War Crimes Tribunal to hand over evidence relating to the case of
    General Tihomir Blaskic, indicted for war crimes in central
    Bosnia, Reuters reports the Croatian state newsagency as saying.

    The Tribunal informed Croat Defence Minister Gojko Susak on Friday
    that he would be summoned to explain why the Croatian Government
    had failed to turn over the evidence if it failed to do so by
    February 19. A statement by the Croatian Government said that the
    demand was not grounded on the Hague Tribunal statute and rules of
    procedure nor on the requirements of international law. ``As a
    sovereign state, Croatia retains the right to protect the
    interests of its national security in the course of cooperation
    with the Tribunal,'' the statement said.


    ``TA NEA:'' STIFLING OF MEDIA IN SERBIA TO CONTINUE

    Statements by the newly-appointed Serbian Minister of Information
    have provoked a wave of condemnations in the Greek press, FoNet's
    Slobodan Markovic reported on Tuesday.

    The Greek pro-government daily 'Ta Nea', which has the biggest
    circulation in Greece, said on Tuesday that the statements the
    Serbian Minister of Information, Radmila Milentijevic, had made to
    the Serbian state-controlled daily 'Politika' showed that
    disinformation and the repressive state control of the media in
    Serbia would continue. The Greek daily said that the Minister had
    attacked foreign journalists and threatened them with withdrawal
    of their accreditations.

    The opposition daily 'Elefterotipos' commented that Minister
    Milentijevic wanted to turn foreign journalists into a mouthpiece
    of the Serbian Government and threatened to withdraw
    accreditations from those who refused to cooperate. The daily
    concluded that Minister Milentijevic's statements made it obvious
    that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had not taken the
    opposition's ultimatum about introducing democratic changes which
    would guarantee freedom of speech seriously.

    Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic
    Edited by: Mary Anne Wood

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
    WWW:    http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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