Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 6 PM), February 21, 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 6 PM
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    DJINDJIC MAYOR

    Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party was elected Mayor
    of Belgrade at Friday's opening session of the Belgrade City
    Assembly. In a one and a half hour debate on his candidacy,
    Radical deputies were most prominent, describing Mr Djindjic as a
    thief and a German mercenary. SPO deputies Spasoje Krunic and
    Milan Bozic were elected Chair of the Executive Council and
    Assembly VicePresident respectively.


    NEW MAYOR FOR EFFICIENCY AND DISCIPLINE

    The newly-appointed Mayor of Belgrade, Zoran Djindjic, said on
    Friday that the primary task of the new city government would be
    the modernization of the city management. He said that the city
    government must make up in discipline and efficiency what it lacks
    in money.

    Mayor Djindjic also said that a review of the finance structure
    and clear solutions for the normal functioning and development of
    Belgrade were urgent. He said that the work of the City Assembly
    should be made public, as the citizens must know what is
    happening.

    Mr. Djindjic also said that it was a great challenge working with
    the little money available to Belgrade at present.


    STUDENTS SEEK CHANCELLOR

    A group of students continued their search for Belgrade Unicersity
    Chancellor, who is wanted for resignation, on Friday. Not having
    found him in the Belgrade Zoo, nor in the rivers where they had
    fished for him, the students went to the Belgrade observatory, to
    see if they could find him on Mars, as he was obviously not with
    the Belgrade students. Concluding that the Chancellor was not on
    any other planet of the Solar System, the students announced they
    would look for him underground on Saturday.


    FOREIGN TRADE

    Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic attended a meeting at the
    Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce on Friday. Mr. Kontic stated at
    the meeting that developments in Yugoslav foreign trade were
    ``frightening'' and that a critical increase of the deficit must
    be averted for it would primarily hit the production sector, FoNet
    reports. Mr. Kontic specified that Yugoslav exports since the
    beginning of 1997 was $20m less than last year's aveage and that
    the worst difficulty was the huge deficit of the foreign-trade
    balance, amounting to $200m in January 1997 which would make $2.5b
    for the whole year. Mr. Kontic stressed that Yugoslavia's
    essential task must be the normalisation of relations with the
    international finance organisations, the World Trade Organization
    and the European Union.


    TEACHERS CONTINUE STRIKE

    Staff of primary and secondary shools in Belgrade have decided to
    continue their strike until their main demand, salary increases,
    has been met. A new protest rally of striking teachers has been
    announced for February 24.


    ZAJEDNO TO LONDON

    Leaders of the Zajedno coalition will visit London on Wednesday
    and Thursday, the British Foreign Office announced on Friday.
    Zoran Djindjic, Vuk Draskovic and Vesna Pesic will meet British
    Foreign Minister, Malcolm Rifkind.


    MILOSEVIC MOURNS

    Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic on Friday signed the book of
    condolences in the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, paying tribute to
    Deng Xiaoping who died on Thursday, Belgrade media report.


    RADICALS: MEDIA BIASED

    General Secretary of Serbian Radical Party, Aleksandar Vucic, said
    at a news conference on Friday in Nis that state media were
    following the changes in Serbia, and were opening, while the
    independent media had become even more biased than before. ``State
    television and 'Politika' are opening, while Radio B92, BK
    Television, Nasa Borba, Blic and Demokratija are doing their best
    to satisfy their American mentors. We have warned the current
    Minister for Information, Mrs. Radmila Milentijevic, that she
    would have a difficult job with independent media which had become
    even more biased and are under the influence of the USA and other
    foreign countries. Nasa Borba is the dirtiest paper. The owner of
    Dnevni Telegraf, Slavko Curuvija, is the filthiest journalist in
    Serbia. I do not think that they are under the control of the
    Zajedno coalition, but they do support Zajedno,'' said Mr. Vucic
    and added that the Serbian Radical Party would enter no coalition
    for the forthcoming Republic elections, and that they would
    propose their own candidate for Serbian President.

    Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic and Goran Dimitrijevic
    Edited by: Steve Agnew

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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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