Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 11 PM), February 25, 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 11 PM
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    TEACHERS DEFY INDEPENDENT STATE TRADE UNION DECISION TO CANCEL
    STRIKE

    The Republic Council of the Independent State Trade Union of
    Education, Science, Culture and the Arts decided at a closed
    session on Tuesday to call a halt to a month-long strike by
    teachers throughout Serbia. The session was held in spite of
    Council Chairman Jagos Bulatovic's absence, along with other
    members of the teachers' negotiating team.

    However representatives of other trade unions in the teachers'
    negotiating team rejected that decision, saying that the Council
    had no authority to make it. The teachers voted to continue their
    strike in front of the Serbian Government building on Wednesday.


    STRIKING TEACHERS SACKED

    Two striking secondary school teachers in Novi Sad were sacked on
    Tuesday, BETA reported. Independent and state teacher trade unions
    in Vojvodina responded by calling a general strike throughout the
    region.

    Crowds of primary and secondary-school pupils turned out on the
    streets of Novi Sad on Tuesday in a show of support for the
    striking teachers. Of 51 schools in Novi Sad, 40 were on strike.
    Both independent and state trade unions stated that they had
    suffered ``unprecedented and unscrupulous pressure to end the
    strike by February 26.''


    TEXTILE AND LEATHER INDUSTRY WORKERS PROTEST

    Officials of the state trade union for Leather and Textile
    Footwear protested on Tuesday in Belgrade's Trade Union Hall
    against the non-payment of long-overdue wages. The workers claim
    that some payments are up to a year overdue, BETA reported on
    Tuesday.

    Nedeljko Sipovac, Vice-President of the Serbian Government,
    attended the protest and promised to solve the problem in the near
    future.


    SERBIAN GOVERNMENT RENEIGE ON PROMISE TO PAY FARMERS

    Representatives of the farming community met with the Yugoslav,
    Serbian and Vojvodina Ministers of Agriculture on Tuesday in Novi
    Sad, BETA reported. The farmers complained that the Serbian
    Government had paid as little as 360 of a total 800 million dinars
    owed to the farmers for produce received since early 1996.
    Nedeljko Sipovac, Vice-President of the=

    Serbian Governement, who had pledged that farmers would receive 20
    million dinars by February 21, was not present at the meeting.


    MAYOR OF BELGRADE TO MEET HIS LONDON COUNTERPART

    Belgrade Mayor Zoran Djindjic is to meet his counterpart London
    Lord Mayor Roger Cook on Wednesday, the Belgrade City Assembly
    information service announced on Tuesday.

    The two mayors are expected to open discussions on possible
    assistance from London for Belgrade, the statement said.


    ZAJEDNO LEADERS IN SPAIN

    The Zajedno triumvirate Vuk Draskovic, Vesna Pesic and Zoran
    Djindjic met Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes, former Prime
    Minister Felipe Gonzalez, and United Left leader Julio Angiti in
    Madrid on Tuesday, FoNet reported.

    The Zajedno leaders stressed the necessity of further political
    support and economic aid in their struggle to democratize Serbia.
    Minister Matutes said that Spain would offer help to Serbia and
    praised the peaceful three-month long Belgrade protest.

    Opposition leader Zoran Djindjic stated that the reassertion of
    opposition wins in last November's local elections was a
    significant if small step in light of what lay ahead of Serbia.
    Mr. Djindjic confirmed that Zajedno coalition member the Serbian
    Renewal Movement would propose Zajedno's candidate for the
    presidential elections.

    Zajedno leader Vuk Draskovic denied allegations of disunity within
    the coalition, stressing that they would run in the autumn
    presidential and parliamentary elections as one party. Mr.
    Draskovic said that the priorities for Serbia were economic
    reform, the establishment of a parliamentary system and an
    independent judiciary, freedom of the media and to provide better
    protection for the countries 660,000 refugees.

    Mr. Draskovic added that citizens should be the ones to decide
    which political system Serbia should have and that the opposition
    would call a referendum on that question if they win the next
    elections.

    Zajedno leader Vesna Pesic stated that she was in favour of a
    republic, but that Serbia would become a monarchy if its citizens
    so voted in a referendum.


    UNION OF COMMUNISTS: ZAJEDNO IS UNPATRIOTIC

    Goran Latinovic, chair of the Serbian Council of the Union of
    Communist-Movements for Yugoslavia, accused the Zajedno opposition
    coalition on Tuesday of being ``unpatriotic'' because it
    ``encouraged foreign supporters to destabilise the political and
    economic situation in Serbia,'' BETA reported. Mr. Latinoivc also
    accused the coalition of collaborating with Montenegrin Prime
    Minister Milo Djukanovic to destroy the FR Yugoslavia, adding that
    Zajedno were neo-fascists masquerading as democrats.


    SOCIALIST VICE-PRESIDENT: DESTRUCTION OF MONUMENTS A SHAME TO
    CITIZENS

    Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Vice-President of the Socialist Party of
    Serbia, said in Kragujevac on Tuesday that the removal of the
    communist five-pointed star from the dome of the Belgrade City
    Assemby earlier this week, and the ``destruction'' of the
    Kragujevac monument in Sumarice Park, ``cast shame on all those
    who are committed to dignity, tradition and patriotism.''

    Mrs. Djukic-Dejanovic said that ``the citizens and Socialists of
    Kragujevac cannot accept the actions of the new government who
    have overnight replaced the entire management of public companies
    which were founded by the City Assembly.''


    OSTOJIC: OBJECTIVE, PROFESSIONAL AND UNBIASED STUDIO B

    Zoran Ostojic, the newly-appointed acting Director of Belgrade
    Radio Television Studio B told FoNet on Tuesday that the chief
    goal of the new board was to reinstate the objective,
    professional, unbiased and independent station that Studio B had
    been in 1990.

    The second goal, according to Mr. Ostojic, was to return Studio B
    to its original share-holders. He said he believed the new
    Belgrade city government fully supported those goals.


    KOSOVO MEDIA UNDER YOKE OF SERBIAN GOVERNMENT

    On Tuesday, the Presidency of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo
    (PPK), led by Adem Demaci, accused Serbian authorities of
    occupying media in Kosovo. The PPK added that it was the duty of
    all Kosovar Albanians to liberate the institutions of Kosovo and
    stressed that all forces, especialy employees of the media, should
    join in the struggle to liberate Kosovo's media.


    WASHINGTON ENCOURAGED BY STEPS TO FREE MEDIA

    Washington saluted the change in management of Belgrade Radio
    Television Studio B as an encouraging step towards the
    democratiozation of Serbia, Slobodan Pavlovic reported for FoNet
    on Tuesday.

    The State Department also welcomed Monday's announcement by the
    Serbian Minister of Information that the state media would give
    greater access to the opposition, but stressed that only full
    implementation of such declarations would make a real difference.

    The State Department stressed that at present the Serbian
    Government still directly, or indirectly, controlled the broadcast
    and print media in Serbia and that media reform was one of the
    preconditions for lifting the outer wall of the sanctions.


    EU COOPERATION WITH THE FR YUGOSLAVIA

    The Council of Ministers of the European Union defined on Monday
    conditions for possible future cooperation with the FR Yugoslavia.
    These conditions are to be examined by the Committee of the
    permanent members of the ``fifteen'' in Brussels and framed in a
    final text of the conclusions of next Monday's Council session,
    Mirko Klarin reported for FoNet.

    The first condition is the full implementation of the Gonzalez
    report -- dialogue between the government and the opposition, free
    media and revamped electoral laws. The second condition is that
    the Yugoslav Government cooperate in the preparation and
    realizaton of the new Organization for Security and Cooperation in
    Europe mission to Kosovo.


    NEWS FROM CROATIA AND BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA
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    REUTERS: CROAT POLICEMEN RESPONSIBILE FOR ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS

    A team of investigators from the International Police Force (IPTF)
    in Mostar has established that members of the Croat police in
    Bosnia opened fire on unarmed Muslims on February 10 thereby
    committing a criminal offence, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

    The IPTF investigators reported that two Croat policemen were
    observed shooting at a large group of Muslims who were retreating
    after a failed attempt to visit a cemetary in the Western (Croat-
    controlled) part of the town.

    The IPTF statement also said that one of the policemen was the
    Deputy Chief of Police for Western Mostar. Deputy High
    Representative for Bosnia Michael Steiner met with the leaders of
    the Muslim-Croat Federation on Tuesday to examine the IPTF report.

    However S-FOR cancelled a news conference set for February 25
    which was to make public the IPTF report on the grounds that the
    date was inconvenient for both the Muslim and Croat sides.


    POLICEMEN SUSPENDED

    Kresimir Zubak, member of the Bosnian Presidency, stated on
    Tuesday that following the February 10 incident in Mostar a number
    of policemen had been suspended and that investigations were under
    way in the Western part of the town to locate those responsible
    for frequent incidents of violence in that town, Beta reported.
    Mr. Zubak added that the authorities in that part of Mostar had
    taken ``efficient measures'' to prevent the expulsion of Muslims.


    FROWICK: UNCERTAIN ELECTONS IN BRCKO AND MOSTAR

    Chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
    (OSCE) mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina Robert Frowick told the
    Sarajevo newspaper 'Dnevni Avaz' on Tuesday that it had not yet
    been decided whether local elections, set for July 12 an 13, would
    be held in Brcko and Mostar. According to Mr. Frowick, the main
    problem in Brcko was the relation between the international
    administrator, who has not yet been appointed, and the authorities
    in that town, Dragan Golubovic reported for FoNet.


    REHN: SERB EXODUS FROM EASTERN SLAVONIA UNLIKELY

    UN Special Envoy for Human Rights in the former Yugoslavia
    Elizabeth Rehn stated in Geneva on Tuesday that although there
    were fear was running high among Serbs in Eastern Slavonia, she
    did not believe there would be an exodus following the local
    elections.

    Ms. Rehn stated however that progress was still slow on the
    issuing of Croat papers to the Serb population, BETA reported on
    Tuesday. The Special Envoy confirmed that foreign troops would
    leave the region in July as planned, but that International Police
    forces would remain there. She stressed that the police mandate
    should be extended after December 31.


    KOFFI ANAN CALLS ON SERBS TO PARTICIPATE APRIL ELECTIONS

    UN Secretary General Koffi Anan called on Serbs in Eastern
    Slavonia to participate in the April 13 local elections. In a
    report filed to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Mr. Anan
    demanded that the Croatian Government publicly confirm its
    commitment to the safety of Serbs in the region. This would be in
    line with Croatia's Letter of Intent on measures to strengthen
    mutual trust and the protection of the human, political, ethnic
    and economic rights of Serbs in Eastern Slavonia.


    CROATIA FILES LIST OF WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS TO UN

    Ivica Kostovic, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister, stated on Tuesday
    that Croatia had filed a list of Serbs suspected of war crimes in
    Eastern Slavonia in 1991 to the UN, AFP reported. Mr. Kostovic
    specified that the list contained about 170 names and was an
    appendix to the 811 to whom the general amnesty law did not apply.

    Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic
    Edited by: Julia Glyn-Pickett

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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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