YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

BELGRADE, 23 April 1999 No. 2265
 
C O N T E N T S:
 
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - NATO AGGRESSION
- YUGOSLAVIA PROMULGATES LAW ON COLLECTING EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES
- MATIC: ATTEMPTED MURDER OF YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT IS A TERRORIST ACT
- KOMNENIC: NATO KNOWS THAT YUGOSLAVIA WILL NOT SURRENDER
- AMBASSADOR JOVANOVIC: NATO'S BRUTAL AGGRESSION DIRECTED AT CIVILIAN TARGETS
- YUGOSLAV REPRESENTATIVE TO UNESCO WRITES TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL
- HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS JOBLESS IN YUGOSLAVIA DUE TO NATO STRIKES

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
- DELEGATION OF THE ITALIAN LEAGUE FOR THE NORTH VISITS YUGOSLAVIA
- SERBIAN SOCIALIST OFFICIAL RECEIVED GREEK COMMUNIST LEADER
- STAMBUK RECEIVED FLORAKIS

NATO AGGRESSION - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS
- YELTSIN AND BLAIR DISCUSSED YUGOSLAVIA
- SELEZNYOV: RUSSIA SHOULD ANNOUNCE ITS INTENTIONS
- RUSSIAN FM ADVOCATES RESOLVING CONFLICT IN YUGOSLAVIA THROUGH TALKS
- UKRAINIAN MINISTER OPPOSES NATO GROUND INVASION OF YUGOSLAVIA
- DINI EXCLUDES GROUND OPERATION
- ITALIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS WANT PEACE
- COLONNA: GROUND TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO YUGOSLAVIA NOT ON THE AGENDA
- FIVE FRENCH ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSE NATO AGGRESSION
- TRAJANOV SEES THREAT FROM ETHNIC ALBANIAN KLA TERRORISTS
- BULGARIAN ANTI-NATO LEAGUE PROTESTS AGAINST NATO AGGRESSION
- COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR ENDING NATO RAIDS ON YUGOSLAVIA
 
F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - NATO AGGRESSION

YUGOSLAVIA PROMULGATES LAW ON COLLECTING EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES
The Yugoslav Government promulgated on Thursday its law on collecting and submitting evidence of crimes against humanity and international law in times of war.
The law regulates that persons who collect or have information or physical evidence that a crime against humanity or international law has been committed during NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia must submit them to the relevant Committee.
The regulation promulgating the law in line with the Yugoslav Constitution  was signed by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

MATIC: ATTEMPTED MURDER OF YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT IS A TERRORIST ACT

Yugoslavia does not possess any war machinery for ethnic cleansing or for anything of the sort, because it is a multi-ethnic state in which over one third are non-Serbs, Yugoslav Minister without portfolio Goran Matic said.
"NATO possesses a war machinery, and the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and ethnic Albanians and all other residents of Kosovo and Metohija is conducted by that machinery," Matic said at a press conference for Yugoslav and foreign journalists in the Press Center of the Yugoslav Army, also addressed by Foreign Ministry spokesman and Assistant Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic.
The reporting of the vast majority of foreign journalists was assessed positively by Matic who pointed out that they knew well the situation in Kosovo and Metohija even before NATO started the wave of terror in that southern Serbian province.
"Your assessments were mostly objective and balanced, so that is why the pictures you are sending are not to the liking of your governments, members of the aggressor alliance ," Matic said, adding that pressure was mounting lately in countries that take pride in the freedom of the press that "reports coming from FR Yugoslavia are made to suit domestic instructions."
Besides the unprecedented aggression we have also had so far unprecedented pressure on the freedom of the press so that in the countries initiators of the terror can be justified the intervention on Yugoslavia.
At the same time there is in those countries a systematic cover up of all public protests and anti-war activities.
The criminal NATO attack of the residence of the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is attempted murder of the head of state of a sovereign state and represents an organized criminal terrorist act, the Yugoslav minister said and specified that three laser-guided bombs hit the building of which one exploded in the bedroom.
The height of cynicism of NATO officials Matic called their statements that the Wednesday night attack was exclusively an attack on the building and not on the President personally.
"Where is the President of Yugoslavia supposed to live if not in his residence," Matic asked and said that the attack was the continuation of the campaign of striking at civilian targets.
Matic also pointed out that NATO was trying to interfere in the telecommunications system of FR Yugoslavia and said that there have been attempts on some frequencies, used until yesterday by the radio and television stations in the destroyed Business Center "Usce", to broadcast a "program of united NATO for citizens of Yugoslavia."
Assistant Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic said that the attack on the presidential residence was at the same time an attack on millions of citizens of our country: and the continuation of the intimidation campaign against our people.
He also said that all countries of the aggressor alliance had trampled their own legal acts that clearly define the protection of the person and property of heads of state.
Vujovic denied the assertions of NATO officials that the residence of the Yugoslav President was a "command center," specifying that he personally inspected the burned down site where there was nothing to confirm that.
The Assistant Foreign Minister indicated that our country supported the constructive efforts of Russia because that country, according to him, supports the territorial integrity of the FRY, demands the cessation of the NATO aggression and a political solution to problems. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

KOMNENIC: NATO KNOWS THAT YUGOSLAVIA WILL NOT SURRENDER

"Yugoslavia will not surrender. NATO knows this and this is why it has decided to raze everything in sight," Federal Information Minister Milan Komnenic said on Thursday.
Komnenic told a press conference, also attended by Predrag Simic who is the advisor for international relations to the Federal Vice-Prime Minister, that our country which is accused of being inflexible, has not in fact been given a choice. "We have been left with only one possibility: to defend our country," Komnenic said.
According to him, we are being forced to accept as an alleged reward and solution what every other country in the world would view as an insult and humiliation.
"Our country is willing to agree to what would be acceptable to both small and large countries, such as the United States, France and Britain or other NATO members. Of course, only if they had the same problems. We will never accept what others would never agree to," Komnenic set out.
He stated that the four weeks of destruction have shown that targeted are mainly civilian facilities adding that more than 7,200 air strikes have destroyed hundreds of civilian facilities which have no connection with the Yugoslav Army.
Our entire country is a target, as are innocent people. Three million children are threatened. Since the start of the conflict and the aggression on our country, long refugee columns have appeared, hundreds of thousands of citizens have been left without drinking water, 500,000 people are out of work because their factories have been destroyed, thus leaving two million citizens without the means to earn their livelihood," Komnenic said.
Komnenic set out that a considerable part of the population had changed their place of residence and that material damages are huge. Destroyed have been 13 bridges, 12 railway stations and kilometres of rail lines, six major roads cut off, several thousand economic and housing facilities razed.
Also have been hit cultural monuments and monasteries, destroyed about 200 schools, scores of antennas, television and radio stations and, most threatening, bombed are being chemical and oil refineries and depots containing chemicals. We are threatened by an international ecologic catastrophe. Targeted are also residential buildings in our cities which are of historic importance and absolutely of a civilian character, Komnenic said.
Predrag Simic wondered if NATO aims to bring peace in Kosmet, as its strategists claim, how does it explain that the most brutal NATO attacks during the past month were aimed at the city of Novi Sad - the capital of multinational, multicultural and multireligious Vojvodina where 26 national groups live peacefully and in harmony.
Simic set out that NATO bombed Vojvodina with the aim of causing in this multinational milieu interethnic conflicts and thus obtaining another excuse for expanding and prolonging attacks on Yugoslavia. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

AMBASSADOR JOVANOVIC: NATO'S BRUTAL AGGRESSION DIRECTED AT CIVILIAN TARGETS

Head of Yugoslavia's U.N. mission Vladislav Jovanovic said late on Thursday that Yugoslavia was the target of an unscrupulous propaganda war and brutal aggression directed at civilian facilities.
Jovanovic told the U.S. NBC TV-network that NATO's unilateral and illegal action must be immediately halted in order to create room and potential, both in and outside Yugoslavia, to find a political settlement.
Jovanovic said Yugoslavia's basic position was well known, saying the country was open to international civilian presence in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province within a political settlement of the issue.
We were open to the concept even before the aggression, he said explaining that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Verification Mission to Kosovo and Metohija had decided to withdraw from the province at NATO's request. He said the alliance had been preparing an aggression on Yugoslavia at the time.
Yugoslavia is a sovereign state and we are resolute to defend its sovereignty, he said.
Referring to NATO's criminal raid on and destruction of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's private residence, Jovanovic refuted the NATO aggressors' allegations that the residence had been used for military purposes.
These false claims are nothing but the aggressors' attempt to hide the monstrosity of their action that was an attempted assassination of Milosevic and his family, he said.
This is a crime, a crime against humanity and peace, and someone will have to answer for it one day, he stressed.
The NBC anchor referred to the U.S. law banning assassinations of foreign heads of state. The law is without a precedent in the world. In every sovereign country where law and order rule, the de jure legal system implies that nothing can justify the assassination of a head of state.
It appears that the United States had to adopt such a law because CIA and FBI were in the past directly responsible for assassinations of prominent figures in the world, heads of state included.
Asked to comment on whether the NATO raid on Milosevic's residence was in violation of the law, Jovanovic said facts spoke for themselves, explaining that the residence had been hit by several missiles and that the criminal action had revealed NATO's true intentions.
Commenting on the return of refugees, Jovanovic said that NATO aggression had interrupted the peace process causing tragedy for all Yugoslav citizens, ethnic Albanians included. We have repeatedly invited ethnic Albanians not to leave Kosovo and Metohija calling on those who have left their homes under threats by the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), to return, he said.
About 100,000 ethnic Albanians, who have temporarily sought shelter in Macedonia and other countries, have already returned to their homes, and they are absolutely safe, he said.
He said refugees who had found shelter in Macedonia had been instructed to wait for NATO to occupy Kosovo and Metohija and only then to return to the province. This proves that the alleged expulsion of ethnic Albanians was in fact an exodus aimed at creating a pretext for operations that would lead to the occupation of the province, he said.
Rejecting allegations of the expulsion of ethnic Albanians, Jovanovic said those who had returned to the province had confirmed that they had been instructed not to return and that they had been told horrible lies that their lives would be jeopardised if they did so. The safe return of a large number of ethnic Albanians proves that quite the opposite is the case, he said. (Tanjug, New York, April 23)

YUGOSLAV REPRESENTATIVE TO UNESCO WRITES TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL

Yugoslav Ambassador to the UNESCO Nada Popovic-Perisic has written again to Director-General Federico Mayor asking him to use his personal influence to halt the devastation of Yugoslavia and its cultural heritage.
Popovic-Perisic pointed to the terrible effects of the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia's civilian population, economy, infrastructure and cultural heritage.
In addition to human losses, the NATO airstrikes have caused tremendous damage to outstanding cultural monuments such as the Gracanica monastery, the Pec Patriarchate and the historical central areas of Belgrade and Pristina, she said.
Popovic-Perisic said she had asked Mayor that Yugoslav cultural heritage be placed under special UNESCO protection from armed conflict and that he had promised to do so, but nothing has been done. (Tanjug, Paris, April 22)

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS JOBLESS IN YUGOSLAVIA DUE TO NATO STRIKES

Hundreds of thousands of people in Yugoslavia have been made jobless by the NATO strikes on industrial plants and business facilities, President of the Yugoslav Labour Union Federation Tomislav Banovic said on Thursday at a protest rally in Belgrade.
On behalf of the 2 million members of the Federation, Banovic urged labour unions worldwide and all well-meaning people to demand the halting of the brutal aggression on Yugoslavia and the genocide of its people.
By raising their voice against the aggression, international labour organizations will also defend themselves, labour and civil rights, freedom and the future, Banovic said. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA DELEGATION OF THE ITALIAN LEAGUE FOR THE NORTH VISITS YUGOSLAVIA

Speaker of the Yugoslav Parliament Chamber of Citizens (lower house) Milomir Minic and President of its Foreign Policy Committee Ljubisa Ristic received on Thursday a delegation of the Italian parliamentary party League for the North headed by its President Umberto Bossi.
Bossi strongly condemned the undeclared NATO and US war against Yugoslavia as an illegal act without precedent in international relations, and expressed solidarity with the people of Yugoslavia who are using their legitimate right to self-defense.
The aggression on independent and sovereign Yugoslavia is endangering peace and stability, not only in the Balkans but throughout Europe, Bossi said adding that the people of Italy demanded the halting of the bombing.
Minic informed the Italian parliamentarians of the devastating effects of the NATO airstrikes, in which many civilians were killed and civilian facilities were destroyed.
Serbia and Yugoslavia are doing everything to resume the political process through a direct dialogue among representatives of ethnic communities to find a political settlement for Kosovo and Metohija, which would pave the way for establishing lasting and just peace, Minic said. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

SERBIAN SOCIALIST OFFICIAL RECEIVED GREEK COMMUNIST LEADER

Secretary General of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Gorica Gajevic received on Thursday the President of the Communist Party of Greece, Charilaos Florakis, who is heading his party's delegation on a visit to Yugoslavia, an SPS statement said.
Florakis said that, with its brutal assault on Yugoslavia, NATO has exposed its true face, adding that the heroic resistance of the Yugoslav people has a wider significance, being on the front line of defence of international law and global peace and stability.
The policy of the Communist Party of Greece is fully in line with the position of the Greek people who are united and outspoken in their opposition to the bombing of Yugoslavia and support for and solidarity with the Yugoslav country and people, he said.
Gajevic, for her part, said that there is no war machine that can defeat the free spirit of the Yugoslav people, who are more united and resolute today than ever before in the defence of their independence, freedom and integrity. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

STAMBUK RECEIVED FLORAKIS

Yugoslav Left (JUL) Directorate Secretary for international cooperation Vladimir Stambuk has received a delegation of the Communist Party of Greece, headed by its honourary President Harilaos Florakis, JUL Committee for international cooperation said.
Florakis conveyed the indignation of members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Greece at the criminal bombing of FR Yugoslavia and expressed deep respect for the achieved degree of unity of the people and leadership of Yugoslavia and Serbia in the defense of Kosovo and Metohija.
The Communist Party of Greece supports the efforts of Yugoslavia for a peaceful and fair solution of problems in Kosovo and Metohija.
Mutually stressed in the talks was the need for cooperation of progressive political parties and movements in the Balkans, which could form the basis for the unity of Balkan states and peoples, and of stable and lasting peace in the region, the statement said. (Tanjug, Belgrade, April 22)

NATO AGGRESSION - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS YELTSIN AND BLAIR DISCUSSED YUGOSLAVIA

Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to abandon the use of force against Yugoslavia and to activate efforts for a political settlement, a statement from Yeltsin's cabinet said.
In a telephone conversation initiated by Blair, Yeltsin said that NATO's continued military operation against a sovereign state cannot settle the problem, and is moreover a serious threat to international peace.
According to the statement, Blair asked and Yeltsin explained the measures and initiatives being taken by Russia with a view to a speedy peaceful settlement of the crisis.
Yeltsin also informed Blair about his personal envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin's talks in Belgrade on Thursday, stressing he expects NATO to send constructive signals, too, the statement said.
It added that Blair put forth the well-known positions in justification of the aggression on Yugoslavia, while assessing as positive Russia's efforts to find a way out of the crisis and expressing a willingness to cooperate with Russia in this direction. (Tanjug, Moscow, April 22)

SELEZNYOV: RUSSIA SHOULD ANNOUNCE ITS INTENTIONS

Russia should announce now that it would provide serious military-technical aid to Yugoslavia if NATO decides on a ground invasion, Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said on Thursday.
NATO is already preparing for such an invasion aimed at splitting Yugoslavia in two, Seleznyov said.
They are no longer even talking about ethnic Albanians but about Kosovo as an independent state, Seleznyov said.
NATO's special services are already working in Montenegro, instigating some kind of "Montenegrin separatism", as the US wants to use this war to pull Montenegro out of Yugoslavia, Seleznyov said.
The US and NATO have already humiliated Russia, showing it its place in the world and rejecting all its demands for halting the bombing of Yugoslavia and all its peace initiatives. They have tested Russia and Russia has failed the test, Seleznyov said. (Tanjug, Moscow, April 22)

RUSSIAN FM ADVOCATES RESOLVING CONFLICT IN YUGOSLAVIA THROUGH TALKS

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Thursday in Jerusalem that sending ground troops to Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province would only escalate the conflict in Yugoslavia.
At a joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, Ivanov reiterated Moscow's stance that the Kosovo and Metohija problem must be resolved through negotiations.
Answering a question how Russia would react to NATO sending ground troops to Kosovo and Metohija, Ivanov said it would do everything to end the conflict by diplomatic means. (Tanjug, Tel Aviv, April 22)

UKRAINIAN MINISTER OPPOSES NATO GROUND INVASION OF YUGOSLAVIA

Ukrainian Justice Minister Suzana Stanik said in Nicosia on Thursday that NATO's ground invasion of Yugoslavia should not be allowed. Ukraine believes that problems of this kind must be dealt with by peaceful and diplomatic methods, and was among the first to urge a peaceful settlement for the Balkans, according to Stanik. (Tanjug, Nicosia, April 22)

DINI EXCLUDES GROUND OPERATION

The NATO command is dominated and dictated by the Washington-London axis, the latest reports from Rome have said.
The Ansa news agency said that British Prime Minister Tony Blair intends during his stay in Washington, ahead of Friday's NATO summit, to convince President Bill Clinton to deploy ground troops in the aggression on Yugoslavia.
At the same time, Italian Foreign Minister Alberto Dini claimed on Thursday that a ground operation was out of the question except in the case of the implementation of a peace agreement.
In an interview to "La Stampa" daily Dini said that the Washington NATO summit would not discuss a ground intervention.
Dini said he based his claims on talks with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain held two days ago in Paris.
Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema said, before his departure to New York, that at this evening's talks with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan he would insist that the world organization takes over the leadership in the search for a political solution to the Kosmet crisis.
The war is having increasingly graver consequences on our country, including all spheres of life and this is why Italy is primarily for a peaceful solution, D'Alema said. (Tanjug, Rome, April 22)

ITALIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS WANT PEACE

Italy's 160 parliamentarians signed a petition on Thursday demanding that NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia stop immediately and diplomacy be given a chance.
It is time to give a chance to a true political solution, emplace a total ceasefire, so as to resume talks to find a way out of the conflict and restore peace, the parliamentarians said.
They declared themselves expressly against ground troop deployment, as it would constitute occupation of a sovereign country, or a part of it, producing dramatic consequences.
Also, they said, this would signal the political end of an autonomous Europe. (Tanjug, Rome, April 22)

COLONNA: GROUND TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO YUGOSLAVIA NOT ON THE AGENDA

A French presidential spokesman said on Thursday that ground troop deployment to Kosovo and Metohija is not on the agenda of NATO's summit that opens in Washington on Friday to mark the organisation's 50th anniversary.
Speaking at a news briefing, Elysee Palace spokesman Catherine Colonna said that President Jacques Chirac had not spoken about the possibility of a land invasion in his address to the nation late on Wednesday.
Chirac urged an intensification of the airstrikes on Yugoslavia, with the explanation, echoed by Colonna, that this was NATO's chosen strategy and that NATO should stick to it.
The Elysee Palace statement that a ground invasion is not on the agenda is at odds with Thursday's agreement between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair that NATO should start drafting contingency plans for a ground strike.
Colonna repeated the French position that ground deployment is being considered in France only in the context of a political settlement for Kosovo and Metohija and within the United Nations. (Tanjug, Paris, April 22)

FIVE FRENCH ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSE NATO AGGRESSION

Five French organizations opposed on Thursday the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and urged French citizens to sign a petition demanding an end to war against Yugoslavia and an immediate resumption of negotiations.
The organizations are "Appeal of Hundreds for Peace", "Teachers for Peace", "International Women's League for Peace and Freedom", "Movement for Peace" and "Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples".
The organizations requested that French President Jacques Chirac receive their representatives who will convey to him their protest against the bombing of Yugoslavia. (Tanjug, Paris, April 22)

TRAJANOV SEES THREAT FROM ETHNIC ALBANIAN KLA TERRORISTS

Macedonian Minister of Police said on Thursday that ethnic Albanian terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija plan to carry the war to Macedonia if they achieve independence for that southern province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Speaking for the Agence France Presse (AFP), Minister Pavle Trajanov said that ethnic Albanian terrorists are stock-piling arms and military equipment in secret depots throughout Macedonia preparatory to war operations planned for September.
The idea of the terrorists, according to Trajanov, is to start operations in Macedonia as soon as they finish the job in Kosovo and Metohija, and then go on to annexe the part of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro populated by ethnic Albanians.
This should round off their Greater Albanian state, he added, quoting facts to illustrate the delicate position of Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians make up 25 percent of the population.
He said that the ethnic Albanian terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has already recruited local ethnic Albanians for dismembering Macedonia for the purpose of creating a Greater Albania.
He further said that the KLA feels encouraged now that NATO is supporting its effort to detach Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia and Yugoslavia. (Tanjug, Skopje, April 22)

BULGARIAN ANTI-NATO LEAGUE PROTESTS AGAINST NATO AGGRESSION

The NATO military operations in Yugoslavia constitute an unprecedented aggression and a brutal, illegal and inhuman interference of world powers in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, the Bulgarian Anti-NATO League said on Thursday.
In a statement handed to the Yugoslav Embassy, the League said that the International Tribunal should indict separatists of the self-styled "Kosovo Liberation Army" who wanted to transform Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province into their own state by force.
The League urged all Bulgarians to oppose the NATO attempts to involve Bulgaria in war against the brotherly Serb people. (Tanjug, Sofia, April 22)
 
COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR ENDING NATO RAIDS ON YUGOSLAVIA

The Communist International condemned on Thursday NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia and urged a political settlement of the crisis in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province. The representatives of 17 parties of the Communist International from 12 European countries, meeting in the Cyprus capital Nicosia, agreed to mobilise their members for protests and other drives to awaken the conscience of Europe and stop the NATO aggression. The delegates to the two-day conference adopted a resolution demanding an immediate end of airstrikes on Yugoslavia, an end of fighting in Kosovo and Metohija and the opening of a political dialogue under U.N. auspices.
The resolution warns that continued airstrikes and a possible ground invasion of Yugoslav territory would further destabilise the Balkans and place Europe and the world at risk of a much broader conflict. A political settlement for Kosovo and Metohija should include respect for the human and political rights of all people, as well as respect for the territorial integrity and borders of Yugoslavia, the resolution says.
(Tanjug, Nicosia, April 22)