Borba, 07. 05. 1998., str. 7

BORBA IN ENGLISH

BORBA j

Thursday, May 7, 1998.

YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC RECEIVES RUSSIAN OFFICIAL IGOR I

Belgrade, – Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic Tuesday received Russia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The talk focused on questions of a further successful development of Yugoslav-Russian relations and cooperation and also on other topics of common interest. It was also noted that bilateral relations were very good and that all conditions existed for their further promotion. It was jointly noted that international relations should be based on principles of equality, sovereignty and noninterference in other countries internal affairs and also that openness, understanding and mutually benefitial cooperation between states and peoples should be affirmed. it was noted that there were no grounds whatsoever for making Yugoslavia's participation in the activities of thc Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations and other international organizations and institutions conditional on any of its internal issues.

· Taking part in the talk were also Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and Russian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Youri Kotov.

Mutually benefitial cooperation: President Milosevic and Igor Ivanov

O O POO ODAO A MORA RO AG a8-

Photo Tanjug

VANOV | CHINESE ARMY DAILY ABOUT KOSMET

|/asf Encourages Saparalists

Beijing, - The international community must realize that ethnic-Albanian extremists in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija want to draw its attention through the escalation of the conflict and violence and in that way create conditions for separatist activities, the Chinese Army daily said Tuecsday. )

The efforts of the United States and Western European countries to internationalize the Kosovo and Metohija issue will no doubt encourage ethnic-Albanian separatists

in the province, the National

Liberation Army Daily said in a commentary.

*If things take such a turn, the consequences will be unforeseeable”, the daily warneđ and underscored that the international community must adhere to criteria of international law.

Explaining. the causes of the aggravation of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, the daily said that *the U.S., the OSCE, Germany, Albania, Bulgaria and some other countries urge thc internationalization of the issue? and *FRY and Russia insist that the Kosovo and Metohija issuec is an internal affair of Serbia in which no other side has a right to interfere”.

The daily pointed up the *complexity of the Kosovo and Metohija issue? as a result of inherited contradictions and religious disputes and said that *inter-ethnic contradictions have, become the biggest obstacle standing, in the way of the resolution of the problem”.

“The Republic od Serbia, as part of the FRY, wants to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity and does not allow the creation of a

ew that a possible conflict in Kosovo and Metohija would *endanger their own interests in all of the Balkans, the daily stressed.

It said that Russia, which has traditionally friendly relations with Serbia, *certainly does not want to see the U.S. and Western European countries, which are expanding NATO eceastwards, be also in command in the Balkans.”

The Chinse Army daily underscored that the international community must be aware that “ethnic-Albanian extremists have concludđed on the basis of the Bosnian crisis that they can draw the international community”s attention only through the escalation of the conflict and violence and in that way create con-– ditions for their separatist ac-

CHIEF NEGOTIATOR RATKO “The Federal Republic of “state within a state”, the da- tivities.” i MARKOVIC INVITES MINORITIES Yugoslavia is a sovereign sta- ily said in the commentary. “The efforts of the U.S. and te, and Kosovo and Metohija It stressed that the Kosovo Europen countries to interna-

TO TALKS ON MAY 12

Acceptable Solutions

is only part of the Republic

of Serbia within the FRY.

That is why the Kosovo and Metohija issue is an internal affair of the FRY. Nobody must interfere from the outside, except if Yugoslavia should request so,” the Chinese Army daily set out.

and Metohija issue concerned not just Albania but also Macedonia and Greece, *since quite a number of ethnic Albanians who display serious separatist tendencies live in those two countries”.

The U.S. and Western European countries take the vi-

tionalize the Kosovo issuc will no doubt further spur such intentions and the situa-– tion in Kosovo and Metohija will deteriorate, the Chinese Army daily set out and said that the consequences would be unforeseeble.

YUGOSLAV STATE ATTORNEY VUKASIN JOKANOVIC ADVOCATES TRIAL OF

Belgrade, – Serbia's Vice Prime Minister and Chicf Necgatiator Ratko Markovic invited on Tuesday ethnic minorities in the province of Kosovo-Metohija to open talks with the Serbian government on Tuesday, May 12, a government statement said. The proposed agcnda for the talks, to be held in the Scrbian government building in Kosovo-Metohija"s chief city of Pristina, 2 Vidovđanska street, is as follows:

1. Draft provisional statutory decision on the Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija;

3. Bili on local self-rule;

3. The Council of Europe framework convention for the protection of ethnic minorities.

The government reaffirms its determination to seek, in an open and direct dialogue with representatives of the Albanian and other minorities in Kosovo-Metohija, generally acceptable solutions to all concrete queslions concerning the exercise of their human and civic rights and selfrule in line with. existing Europen and world standards, the statement

SERBIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER RATKO MARKOVIC RECEIVED GERMAN AMBASSADOR WILFRIED GRUBER

Out of Crisis through Political Meanams

Belgrade, – Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ratko Markovic received German Ambassador to Yugoslavia Wilfried Gruber on BeiPyada on Tuesday, a statement said.

The talks covered possibilitics and modalities for settling the crisis in Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija using political means and finding solutions through talks bcetween representatives of the Serbian government, Kosovo Albanians and other national communities on the grounds of experience in the world today and through the democratization of life in Kosovo and Metohija, as an integral part of the

Republic of Serbia, said thc state-.

Paris, - The Council of Europe ministerial committee reaffirmed in Strasbourg on Tuesday that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's membership application was valid and that the country should be reintegrated in the international community.

Yugoslavia's application for membership in: the oldest European political organisation, which celebrated its 49th anniversary on Tuesday, was not challenged at the Tuesday session of Its executive body, except by Albania.

However, Albania remained completely isolated in its protest, according to reports from Council of Europe sources.

Yugoslavia officially applied for membership in the 40nation Council of Europe in March.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE MINISTERS DISCUSSED YUGOSLAVIA'S MEMBERSHIP

Application Not Challenged

day”"s session agreed that conditions for Yugoslavia's membership were respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law - applicable to all candidate members – and a satisfactory settlement of the Kosovo-Metohija issue.

The session was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who told Russlan reporters in Strasbourg that Russia advocated dialogue and the settling of the KosovoMetohija issuc within Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia. Primakov specifted that solutions to questions of the status of Kosovo-Metohija could be sought only within the teritorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. SAKIC IN YUGOSLAVIA

Moral and Legal Demand

Belgrade, - Yugoslav State Attorney Vukasin Jokanovic said in an interview published Wednesday by Belgrade đaily Borba that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia did not forgo the prospect of organizing, a trial of World War II criminal Dinko Sakic although Croatia was the first country to demand his extrađition from Argentina.

Unlike Croatia, which intends to try Sakic for war crimes agains civilian population, Yugoslavia charges him with a more serious crime – that of genocide. Jokanovic said he expected Yugoslavia's demand for extrađition to be considered on an equal footing in due timc and added it would be morally right to bring Sakic to trial in Yugoslavia, as the majority of the inmates killed in the Jasenovac death camp under his , command were Serbs.

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said.

SITUATION IN KOSMET

ment.

Terrorists Commit

Pristina, - Police found ·

the body of Serb Nenad Jaredic, 28, a Dobra Voda post office employee, on the road Pristina-Pec near the village of Orlate, at 5:30 hr local time Tuesday morning, the Pristina media centre said.

Jaredi's family reported him missing late Monday after he falled to return home from work.

Investigative organs of the Pristina district court confirmed that Jaredic'"s throat had been slit and that he had been shot in the head from an automa-– tic weapon.. There were torture marks on his body, and his hands had evidently been tied.

The investigatiVe OTrgans estimate that Jaredic had bcen tortured and killed somewhere else and that his bođy was then dumped from an automo-

bile near Orlate, the media centre statement said.

An armed gang of ethnic Albanian terrorists attacked Tuesday the house of the Basot family in the village of Bobovac, municipality of Klina, and killed Nazif Basot, Pristina Media Center said. |

Basot was known in his environment as a loyal citizen of Serbia.

Family members told the police that a dozen armed men opened automa-– tic gunfire on the house.

They are presumed, to be the same terrorsts who have carried out a number of attacks on the police and civilians in surrounding villages.

Police is searching for the perpetrators of the attack. :*

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TO GERMAN RADIO DIRECTOR

Belgrade, - Yugoslav Infor| mation Secretary Goran Matic Monday sent a letter to German Deutsche Welle rađio station Director-General Dieter Weirich and also to the German foreign ministry, protesting over the radio's continued false reporting on the situation in the southern Serbian province of KosovoMetohija. Matic said in the letter that, on April 30, the German state and propaganda short-wave radio station Deutsche Welle broadcast through its "Tirana correspondent that two Serb soldiers had been arrested in northeastem Albania. He said that the news had been strongly denied by both Yugoslav army sources and Albanian defense ministry officials.

As a professional, you must be very well-aware that any published lie has a far more resounding, effect than any of its subsequent and unbiased deni-

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YUGOSLAV INFORMATION SECRETARY GORAN MATIC PROTESTS

man | False Reporting about Kosmet

als and you did not miss yet another opportunity to take advantage of this, Matic said in his letter to Weirich. |

It is obvious that the Deutsche Welle, aspiring to be a protector of free press and to maintain its reputation as a semi-official and impartial radio of the Federal Republic of Germany, continues to wage a media war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said.

What we have here are coldwar methods applied in the post cold-war period, Matic said.

He also said that behing such insinuations, liced world power centres” realistic gcopolitical interests, while exaggerated reports came from some reporters or alleged reporters of the Deutsche Welle as a well-trained team inspired by methods of the past, which al] true democrats in the world should forget as soon as possible.

SUVU _________________ BORBA - TANJUG - RADIO YUGOSLAVIA

SPS OFFICIAL GORAN PERCEVIC RECEIVED LORD HARLECH

Against Unprincipled Pressures

Belgrade, - Member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Executive Committee Goran Percevic received Tuesday Lord Harlech, Member of the House of Commons and Secretary of the British-Yugoslav Parliamentary Group.

Percevic set out that some members of the international community should publicly, in words and dceds, condemn separatism and terrorism in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, demonstrate their commitment to the basic principles of the U.N. Charter and in that way contribute to pcace and stability in thc Balkans, an SPS statement said.

Unprincipled pressures on and thrcats to a state which is safeguarding its sovereignty and integrity and which accepts and in practice applies highest intemational standards in terms of minority rights are only an ccoura– gement to separatist activitics and terrorist operations in Kosovo and Metohija, Pcrcevic stressed.

He said the state authorities were capable of efficaciously combating, terrorism and all other attempts at undermining the legal order and that thcy cnjoyed thc united support of all citizens of Serbia in that,

Percevic stressed in the talk with Lord Harlech that the Serbian government had unequivocally shown its will for all issues in Kosovo and Metohija to be resolved peacefully, through dialoguc. i

The promotion of political relations and development of economic cooperation between Yugoslavia and Great Britain were also discussed in the meeting.