Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    Odraz B92 vesti (by 3 PM), January 6, 1997

    e-mail: beograd@siicom.com      URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
            odrazb92@b92.opennet.org     http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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    All texts are Copyright 1997 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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    NEWS BY 3 PM
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    YUGOSLAV ARMY CHIEF-OF-STAFF TALKS TO STUDENTS

    The information service of the Yugoslav Army Headquarters has
    issued a statement on the meeting its Chief of Staff, colonel
    general Momcilo Perisic, had with a 4-member delegation of the
    Student Protest 96/97 at the request of the students: ``The
    students presented general Perisic with an overview of the goals
    and means of their peaceful protest and with the demands they had
    put forward [to the government].

    General Perisic stressed the army's role in upholding the
    constitution of FR Yugoslavia. He also emphasized the army's
    strong interest in the attempts to overcome the present problems,
    as soon as possible, through the legal institutions of the
    Yugoslav system and in a manner practiced in democratic countries,
    so that FR Yugoslavia can be promptly returned to the
    international community as an equal member in good standing.''


    STUDENTS TO VISIT CLINTON

    Dusan Vasiljevic, spokesman of the Student Protest 96/97 will
    visit US President Bill Clinton on January 20. The Belgrade press
    reports that the invitation to a representative of the Student
    Protest 96/97 came from the White House and that it has already
    been accepted, as announced at the press conference held by the
    students' Steering Board yesterday.

    Coalition Zajedno's press office reports that President Clinton
    has issued a similar invitation to its leaders Vesna Pesic, Zoran
    Djindjic and Vuk Draskovic as well.


    DJINDJIC: LAST CHANCE FOR THE REGIME TO STEP DOWN PEACEFULLY

    Zoran Djindjic, one of Zajedno's leaders and head of the DS, told
    the German radio station ARD that the opposition in Serbia aims to
    overthrow President Milosevic's government without any use of
    violence, and that this is ``perhaps the last chance to do this
    peacefully.''  Djindjic stressed that the opposition's top
    priorities are freedom of the media, faster privatization of
    industry, and the abolishment of monopolies in the economic
    sphere, reports AFP. Djindjic underlined that, contrary to
    estimates by the foreign observers, Milosevic's hold on power has
    been rocky for quite a while.

    He said the Serbian president can count on the support of the
    state media and some police squads, but that he can no longer rely
    on the support of the army. ``We are, however, worried that
    Milosevic is intent on resorting to violence and provoking a civil
    war,'' said Djindjic.


    ZORAN LILIC'S CHRISTMAS GREETING TO HIS HOLINESS PAVLE

    Today's letter by Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic to Serbian
    Patriarch Pavle reads: ``I wish you, and the clergy of the Serbian
    Orthodox Church and all Orthodox believers, a merry Christmas. May
    this magnificent Christian festivity pass in the spirit of peace
    and prosperity, understanding and mutual respect by all in the
    interests of preserving the spiritual values and unity of the
    Serbian people.''


    SESELJ: MITIGATE CONSEQUENCES OF NATIONAL TRAGEDY

    In his Christmas message, leader of the Serbian Radical Party,
    Vojislav Seselj, said that ``in the forthcoming year we must do
    our best to mitigate the consequences of the national tragedy.''
    He urged that all warring among the Serbs themselves must cease
    once and for all, that all problems must be resolved peacefully,
    without foreign interference, and within the institutions of
    Yugoslavia. His Christmas message stressed that the Serbs living
    west of the river Drina should be assisted in forming a Serbian
    state and ``the exodus of our people form the Eastern part of the
    Serb Krajina'' prevented. ``We, Serbs, should sort out our
    disagreements and critical political issues ourselves, without any
    foreign interference, especially by those [countries] who proved
    their hostility towards the Serbian people by their air-raids on
    the towns and villages, schools and hospitals throughout the
    Republic of Srpska, as well as by the economic sanctions imposed
    on our country,'' warned Seselj. ``We must not let a Serb strike
    against another Serb,'' he underlined in his message, reports
    FoNet.


    NARODNA SLOGA'S BEST WISHES

    Slavko Perovic and Novak Kilibarda, leaders of the Montenegrin
    opposition coalition Narodna Sloga, wished a merry Christmas and a
    happy Orthodox New Year to all Orthodox Montenegrins. Their
    message expressed their hope that the new year will bring to all
    Montenegrins ``God's peace, neighborly love and spiritual bliss,
    so that our noble nation can overcome all temptations and follow
    the path of Christ the Savior in freedom.''


    ARCHBISHOP AMFILOHIJE: MEDIA GUILTY OF TOXIC VULGARITY

    Montenegrin archbishop Amfilohije Radovic stressed in his message
    to the believers that Christmas calls for ``incessant struggle
    against the dark and evil within and around us, and for spiritual
    and moral renewal as a precondition for all other development and
    renewal, for repentance and purity, for faith, honesty and
    dignity, for sacrifices in the name of truth and one's neighbors,
    for the love of God and for altruism that issues from it.''
    ``Today, especially, the spiritual radiance of Christ's birth
    reminds us of the care we should take of ourselves and our
    children against the commercialism rampant in the modern world,
    which threatens to swallow and use up not only things but also
    people,'' the archbishop urged. He especially stressed the need to
    protect oneself from ``the vicious spirit of vulgarity that is
    poisoning the utmost sanctities and the roots of human beings and
    communities over the modern mass media,'' reports Montena Fax.


    NIS ELECTORAL COMMISSION

    The Nis Electoral Commission sent a reply today to the Nis
    Municipal Court regarding the complaints by the SPS and Zajedno. A
    Zajedno representative on the commission told Radio B92 that the
    letter confirms the Commission's intent to call fresh elections
    for 17 deputy seats. According to her, a majority vote in the
    Commission carried the statement announcing that the complaints
    against yet another repeat of the elections are groundless. She
    added that the term for the court to make its decision known
    expires at 5 p.m. tomorrow.


    CZECH DAILY: MILOSEVIC MIGHT EVEN JOIN THE PROTESTS

    Serbian President Milosevic has so far discarded so many
    ideologies that it would not come as a surprise if he used the
    right moment to join the anti-government protests in Serbia, said
    today's editorial in the most influential Czech daily Mlada
    Fronta-Dnes, reports FoNet. The daily believes Milosevic could be
    overthrown any moment, but warns that ``this master of delay
    tactics, pragmatism and political survival'' could be prepared to
    take even the most unlikely steps if the demonstrations fail to
    peter out in the near future, steps such as the instigation of new
    clashes in Kosovo, or even a renewal of conflicts in Bosnia.


    LABUS: DINAR LOST 25 PER CENT OF ITS VALUE

    Vice-president of the Democratic Party, Miroljub Labus, told the
    daily Demokratija today that the Deutsche Mark would be worth 5.5
    dinars today if the dinar's rate of exchange had followed the
    increase in prices since its last devaluation. He claims that the
    dinar has lost 25 per cent its value since the last devaluation,
    and that the same period saw a 60% inflation rate. FR Yugoslavia's
    trade deficit now amounts to over 2 billion dollars.


    SPECTACLE ON WHEELS

    Dnevni Telegraf reports on yesterday's mobile protest: ``This bit
    of spectacle on wheels took place yesterday at a central Belgrade
    junction around 4 p.m., when the opposition supporters stage-
    managed a car crash and the traffic police tried to regulate the
    traffic. The pedestrians stubbornly stood in the middle of the
    junction, blew on their whistles and chanted calls for the police
    to investigate the 'traffic accident.'  The pedestrian crowd let a
    few vehicles of the public transport pass through only after a
    mock altercation that lasted a full 30 minutes. A police major,
    who had been the most agile in his efforts to regulate the
    traffic, finally gave up, got into his car and drove away.''
    According to Radio B92's reporters, numerous similar scenes of
    ``car crashes'' were repeated at another near-by junction, the
    largest in downtown Belgrade.

    Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic
    Edited by: Vaska Andjelkovic (Tumir)

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