Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

---

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 3 PM), January 28, 1997

    E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
    WWW:    http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    All texts are Copyright 1997 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
    ------------------------------------------------------------------



    NEWS BY 3 PM
    ------------------------------------------------------------------


    ``NASA BORBA:'' PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC HAS SEPARATE MEETINGS WITH
    MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT BULATOVIC AND PRIME MINISTER DJUKANOVIC

    Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had separate meetings with
    Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic and Montenegrin Prime
    Minister Milo Djukanovic, the daily 'Nasa Borba' reported on
    Tuesday, citing ``reliable'' sources. The daily claimed that the
    separate meetings were a result of disagreements at the last
    meeting of the Montenegrin ruling Democratic Socialist Party
    (DPS). It also reported that, according to sources close to the
    Montenegrin leadership, Mr Bulatovic has been the only one openly
    to support Serbian President Milosevic's plans for solving the
    current crisis in Serbia and his view of FR Yugoslavia's future.
    Both Montenegrin Prime Minister Djukanovic and Speaker of the
    Montenegrin Parliament Svetozar Marovic oppose this view.


    MILOSEVIC FOR YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT, BULATOVIC YUGOSLAV PRIME MINSTER

    Top officials of the Serbian and Montenegrin ruling parties agreed
    at Monday's meeting in Belgrade that Serbian President Slobodan
    Milosevic should be elected Yugoslav President and Montenegrin
    President Momir Bulatovic be elected Yugoslav Prime Minister,
    newsagency Beta learned on Tuesday from sources close to the
    Montenegrin ruling party. Mr Milosevic's election as Yugoslav
    President is intended to distance him from the the political
    crisis in Serbia and give the opportunity for a reshuffle in
    Socialist management, the sources claim. The new Serbian President
    would allegedly be Slobodan Vucetic, currently judge of the
    Consitutional Court of Serbia. His election as Serbian President,
    the Serbian and Montenegrin ruling parties hope, would calm
    tensions in Serbia because he has recently been a fervent opponent
    of Milosevic's policy. The two ruling parties are confident that
    the Zajedno leaders would discontinue their protests if their
    victory in Belgrade City Assembly was recognized. Current
    Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic would run for
    Montenegrin President.


    BELGRADE STUDENTS INVITE ECONOMIC TEAM TO PRESENT THEIR PROGRAMME

    The Steering Board of the Student Protest 96/97 sent an invitation
    to the team of economists on Tuesday, asking them to give the
    students the details of their programme for radical economic
    reforms and rapid recovery, FoNet reports.


    DISCUSSIONS ON DEMOCRATIZATION OF MEDIA TO BEGIN TOMORROW

    The University Steering Board for Defence of Democracy will begin
    a series of discussions on democratization of the media in the
    School of Philosophy on Wednesday, FoNet reports. The topic of
    this Wednesday's discussion will be ``Media Systems -- Ownership,
    Organization and Control of Management.''


    BRITISH PRESS

    British newspaper ``The Times'' has stated that Serbian President
    Milosevic is preparing for a long struggle after the First
    Municipal Court of Belgrade has once again rejected the Zajedno
    appeal, thus cancelling its right to take over the Belgrade City
    Assembly. The newspaper commented that sending appeals from court
    to court played into the hands of President Milosevic, the master
    of delay techniques.

    ``The Independent'' stated that by combining reservation, mild
    repression and trivial concessions President Milosevic hoped to
    tire the opposition out in a struggle that could drag on for
    months.

    ``Financal Times'' stressed that although the St Sava's procession
    was the largest gathering of opposition supporters since the
    Orthodox New Year, the Zajedno leaders secretly worry about
    keeping up the demonstrations after ten continuous weeks. The
    F.T.also said that President Milosevic was trying to patch up his
    ruling coalition and control the growing economic crisis by an
    alleged acceptance to initiate privatization.


    GUARDIAN: MILOSEVIC PREPARING TO FLEE TO GREECE

    The British daily Guardian stated on Tuesday that Serbian
    President Slobodan Milosevic was allegedly preparing his escape
    route to Greece in case of necessity. Citing the Greek newspaper
    'Elefterotipia', the Guardian said Mr Milosevic had worked out
    adequate plans, perhaps in agreement with the Greek Goverment,
    several months ago -- he bought a yacht and a luxurious villa in
    Corfu. Guardian also claimed that President Milosevic was
    transfering money abroad through deposits in international banks
    and through off-shore companies.


    DRASKOVIC: REGIME PROVOKING ``ROMANIAN SOLUTION'' TO CRISIS

    The opposition in Serbia does not rule out the possibility of the
    regime provoking a ``Romanian solution'' to the crisis, Vuk
    Draskovic stated in an interview to the Czech daily 'Hospodarske
    Novini', FoNet reports. Mr Draskovic assessed that the
    demonstrators throughout Serbia had reached a point where they
    could only be satisfied by a change of government. He said that he
    could not predict how long the patience of the demonstrators
    towards the increasingly violent police would last. ``I think...
    that Serbia will soon go through a social explosion... The regime
    of Slobodan Milosevic may be provoking the same solution to the
    crisis as the Rumanian dictator Ceausescu. This, however, is
    neither the wish nor the decision of the coalition Zajedno,'' Mr
    Draskovic said. He stated that the opposition must boycott the
    presidential and republic elections if the November local
    elections results are not recognized as it is highly likely that
    the forthcoming elections may be manipulated the same way. He said
    that Zajedno were considering a greater co-operation and formation
    of a shadow cabinet.


    ALL PROTESTS SHOULD BE UNITED IN 'DEMOCRATIC FORUM'

    Miodrag Perisic, vice-president of the Democratic Party [a Zajedno
    member-party] told the daily 'Dnevni Telegraf' on Tuesday that the
    protests of students, the coalition Zajedno, and all citizens with
    similar demands should be united at a 'Democratic Forum'. ``Our
    demonstrations have grown into a rebellion, but not all forces
    have yet had full expression. All dissatisfied with the regime
    should be united in one front,'' Mr Perisic said. The united front
    should include the silent majority of the Socialists, people who
    work in state institutions like the army, police, courts and
    companies.

    He stressed that the distance the Student Protest has kept from
    the Zajedno protests has not been justified, for the demands of
    the two groups are similar, if not identical. The 'Democratic
    Forum' should be established within the Student Protest and co-
    ordinated by Zajedno. Mr Perisic said that no official talks with
    the students have been carried out, but that students seem
    interested in the idea.


    ``BLIC:'' UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR RESIGNS

    The resignation of the UofB Chancellor Dragutin Velickovic and his
    Student Assistant, Vojin Djurdjevic is a matter of time, reported
    the daily 'Blic' on Tuesday citing sources in the UofB Deanery.
    The Chancellor and his Student Assistant were prepared to sign
    their resignation at their meeting with representatives of the
    Student Protest last Thursday, when media were invited to the
    Deanery. Since the student delegation failed to appear, the
    Chancellor and his student counterpart have postponed making their
    intention public, 'Blic' reports.


    US DEMARCHE [DIPLOMATIC PROTEST] TO FR YUGOSLAVIA

    Spokesman for the US State Department Nicholas Burns has called
    latest court decision rejecting a decision by the Belgrade
    Electoral Commission to award Zajedno victory in Belgrade local
    elections ``a step in the wrong direction,'' Slobodan Pavlovic
    reports for FoNet. In reaction to this decision and the now
    systematic use of force against the peaceful demonstrators Richard
    Miles, Charge d'Affairs of the US Embassy in Belgrade, handed an
    official protest from the U.S. to Yugoslav Foreign Minister
    Milutinovic.

    The US protest called on the Serbian government to restrain from
    further use of force against the peaceful demonstrations, warning
    that the Serbian government would be taken responsible for any
    consequences issuing from this violent attempt to quell the
    protests at nullification of the November 17 local elections
    results.


    SCHIEZL AND DJINDJIC TALK TO PRESS

    Opening a joint press conference in Vienna after his Monday's
    meeting with Zoran Djindjic, one of the Zajedno leaders, the
    Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schiezl
    expressed the hope that the political struggle in Serbia would
    remain peaceful.

    Mr Djindjic spoke about the OSCE's offer to mediate between
    Serbian opposition parties and the government. He stressed that
    there would be no negotiations over the November 17 local election
    results. He said, however, that all other issues were open for
    discussion. Mr Djindjic said that Zajedno agreed with the report
    of the Gonzalez mission and would call on the OSCE to insist on
    the findings and recommendations of that report.


    NEWS IN BRIEF

    The New Democracy party (ND) instructed its representative in the
    Belgrade Electoral Commission on Tuesday to launch an initiative
    that an appeal be filed against the First Municipal Court decision
    overruling the commission's decision to recognize the Zajedno
    victory in the Belgrade local elections Beta reports. The ND
    stated that the court had abused material evidence and rules of
    procedure.

    Belgrade students will donate blood on Wednesday after their
    meeting at the Slavia junction. After the donations, the students
    will go to the square in front of the School of Philosophy, Beta
    reports.

    Teachers in 790 primary and secondary schools in Vojvodina went on
    a general strike on Tuesday. They demand that their overdue wages
    be paid and that their future salaries be increased, Beta reports.
    Radio B92 learned on Tuesday that 95 out of 260 schools in
    Belgrade were on strike.


    MISINTERPRETATIONS OF RUSSIAN POSITION ON SERBIAN POST-ELECTORAL
    CRISIS

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, stated in his talks
    with a Student Protest delegation on Tuesday that the OSCE report
    was a good basis for the solution of the crisis in Serbia and the
    beginning of democratization in Serbia, but that all problems
    should be solved within the state, through a democratic dialogue.

    The meeting took place in the Russian Embassy in Belgrade and was
    requested by Mr Ivanov, Beta reports. Cedomir Jovanovic, a member
    of the managing board of the Student Protest 96/97, told press
    after the meeting that Mr Ivanov had said the Russian position
    over the post-electoral crisis in Serbia had been misinterpreted.
    Mr Ivanov told the student delegation that Russia believed
    elections to be an internal affair in any country, but that the
    problem of recognition of the local elections became an
    international affair when the Serbian government invited the OSCE
    delegation. Mr Ivanov said that Russia would try to get the OSCE
    report adopted and Serbia reaccepted by international institutions
    and the international community.

    Aleksandar Djukic, a member of the Student Protest managing board,
    said that Mr Ivanov had agreed that students should continue their
    struggle for recognition of the OSCE findings.


    TWO CONSTITUTIONAL SESSIONS IN SMEDEREVSKA PALANKA

    Two inaugural sessions were held on Tuesday in Smederevska
    Palanka, one inside the City Assembly building, the other in front
    of it. Strong police forces prevented the deputies of the
    opposition coalition Zajedno from entering the building, because
    they demanded that citizens gathered in front of the building
    protesting at nulification of local election results enter with
    them, Beta reports.

    Thus, only the Socialist deputies (25 of them) attended the first
    session inside the building, confirming 20 out of 49 seats.
    Zajedno deputies held their constitutional session in front of the
    building, electing the city government with the 1,000 citizens
    voting as ``the 27th Zajedno deputy.''

    According to the original electoral records, the coalition Zajedno
    had won 26 and the Socialists 23 seats. The Supreme Court of
    Serbia decided on January 21 that the Socialists had won 25 seats.
    Smederevska Palanka is one of the municipalities in which the OSCE
    commission has found an opposition victory.


    BOSNIA IS PRIORITY FOR EUROPEAN UNION

    Bosnia will be a priority for the Netherlands during its 6-month
    chairing of the European Union, stated the Dutch minister for aid
    to foreign countries, Jan Pronk. AFP reports the new conference of
    donor countries, committed to provide $1.4 billion, will be held
    in Brussels on March 4. ``The Dutch government will insist that
    the EU holds the conference on the set date as its postponement
    could result in serious concequences for the rebuilding of
    Bosnia,'' Mr Pronk stated.


    US ON SPECIAL UNIT FOR WAR CRIMINALS

    The US are considering the possibility of forming a special
    command unit whose task would be to detain indicted war criminals
    from Bosnia, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Spokesman for the White
    House Michael McCurry stated on Tuesday that this option was under
    consideration and that such a unit should be within the NATO
    forces. The US Administration officials said that the detained
    would be handed over to the Hague War Crimes Tribunal. NATO
    defence ministers examined the possibility of forming special
    police forces for this task, but did not agree on the composition.

    Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic
    Edited by: Mary Anne Wood

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    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/
    ------------------------------------------------------------------