Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 5 PM), January 27, 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 3 PM
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    SERBIAN PATRIARCH PAVLE PRAISES DIGNIFIED STUDENT STRUGGLE

    Serbian Patriarch Pavle congratulated the students of the
    University of Belgrade after his St Sava's Day service on Monday.
    The Patriarch stressed that ``students have struggled for truth,
    justice and democracy in a dignified manner,'' and were struglling
    for peace, love and the unity of all humanity, FoNet reported.


    ZAJEDNO CONDEMNS DRIVERS' ATTACKS

    On Monday the opposition coalition Zajedno condemned the
    increasingly frequent and deliberate attacks on protestors by
    motorists. There have been several incidents where cars have
    driven straight into marchers over the past week.

    Zajedno identified a number of such cases, where drivers had even
    left their vehicles to abuse and physically attack protesters.
    Zajedno claim that in most of these cases police were present but
    failed to intervene.


    VUKOBRAT: THE WORLD HAS REALIZED THAT THE PEOPLE AND THE REGIME
    ARE NOT THE SAME THING

    Boris Vukobrat, Chair of the Foundation for Peace and Crisis
    Resolution, gave a statement where he praised the mass protests in
    Serbia and said they had helped the world to realize that Serbia
    and the government were not the same thing.

    In an interview with the Russian newsagency Interfax, Mr Vukobrat
    said that the Serbian Government should establish true democracy
    and that he saw the fact that Serbian people had finally
    understood their own political power as a positive development.
    ``Yugoslav citizens no longer wish to be somebody else's
    objects,'' he said, warning that even the present opposition
    should not expect the citizens to be their ``eternal allies.''


    DINKIC: CHANGE OF SERBIAN GOVERMENT ESSENTIAL FOR ECONOMIC REFORM

    On Monday a group of Yugoslav economic experts presented their
    programme for substantial economic reform and the rapid economic
    recovery of the FR Yugoslavia. Group Co-ordinator Mladjan Dinkic
    stated that a change in the ``ruling political clique in Serbia''
    was essential for the implementation of that programme. But Mr.
    Dinkic added, the authors of the programme did not see the
    Montenegrin Government as an obstacle to its implementation, FoNet
    reported on Monday.

    Mr Dinkic also said the aim of the programme was to open up the FR
    Yugoslav economy to the world and encourage privatization. The
    immediate normalisation of relations with the International
    Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation was seen as
    a pre-condition for urgent needly foreign capital. That foreign
    capital would help to establish initial foreign currency reserves
    and would represent an important step towards the full
    convertibitity of the dinar.

    Mr Dinkic also pointed out that economic relations with former
    Yugoslav republics were of crucial importance. He stressed that
    the programme provided for the full liberalisation of commercials
    relations: the dismantling of all monopolies and the development
    of market competition.

    However, the programme only sets out the basic principles for
    privatization, for, as Mr Dinkic said, the mechanisms for the
    programme's implemention were not as important as the commitment
    to start that process.

    The implementation of the economic programme would imply the
    establishment of a completely new economic system, based on the
    reform of the current banking which would help to restore the
    trust of savings accounts' holders and encourage savings in
    dinars.

    The Yugoslav National Bank would be a fully independent
    institution whose management would be undertaken exclusively by
    financial experts.

    The programme also provides for the reform of public finance, cut-
    backs in public spending, to less than 40% of GNP, and ``the re-
    allocation of public spending.''

    Ljubomir Madzar, a member of the team, said that the total amount
    of foreign and local debt was $14 billion and that annual interest
    rates amounted to $800 billion.

    He warned that the programme offered no easy way out -- its
    implementation would demand massive sacrifice, but would lay a
    path for the future.

    The expert team will send their Programme to all parliamentary
    parties, interest groups and economic associations. A panal
    discussion is to follow.


    DEMAND THAT PURGES IN MEDIA STOP

    Nine prominent Serbian politicians and members of the Serbian
    Academy of Science and Art demanded that the management of
    'Politika' stop purging their staff of those journalists who have
    demanded the resignation of 'Politika' General Manager and Editor-
    in-Chief Hadzi Dragan Antic.

    15 journalists of those who had demanded Mr. Antic's resignation
    in December 1996 have since either been sacked, suspended or put
    on obligatory leave.


    ``ANTENA M'' OBTAINS FREQUENCY FOR TWO YEARS

    The Montenegrin government and the company Montenegropublic signed
    a contract on Monday which granted independent radio 'Antena M' a
    2-year licence for its frequency. But that agreement denied the
    radio the right to extend its broadcast area to two other
    Montenegrin cities. The monthly lease amounts to 10,745 dinars,
    Beta reported.


    PUBLIC PROSECUTOR ASKED TO SUE MUNICIPAL COURT

    Zoran Tomic, a lecturer at Belgrade's Law School, and Mirjana
    Racic, also a lawyer, asked the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme
    Court of Serbia on Monday to start legal proceedings on the basis
    of the 43 decisions taken by the First Municipal Court in Belgrade
    on December 3.

    Those 43 decisions annulled 33 seats won by the Zajedno opposition
    coalition in local Belgrade elections last November.

    The two lawyers stated that the First Municipal Court of Belgrade
    had broken the law by rejecting appeals to repeat its legal
    procedures. The legal basis for those appeals was the obstruction
    of an interested party from participating in the procedure. They
    also stated that the First Municipal Court had not reviewed the
    minutes of the Belgrade Electoral Commission when it refused the
    appeals to repeat the procedure. The court had therefore also
    broken the law by examining evidence after refusing to repeat
    court procedures, Beta reported.


    METAL-WORKERS ANNOUNCE PROTEST

    Workers from 11 firms of the metalurgy complex in Belgrade
    announced that they would stage a massive protest in front of
    Serbian presidency building on February 3 if their salary arrears
    were not paid by the end of January and if the Council of Trade
    Unions of Serbia failed to demand that the Serbian Government
    suspend the Law on Conditions of Employment, 'Dnevni Telegraf'
    reported on Monday.

    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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