YU Marry-Go-Round

Dr. VOJISLAV SESELJ, leader of the Serbian Chetnic Movement ( extreme right wing party), stated recently: "After we are finally separated from the Croatians and the Slovenians, I think it would be best to officially make a decision not to have any trade or other relations with them for the next 100 years".

VELIMIR BATA ZIVOJINOVIC, an actor and a SPS (Serbian Socialist Party) MP, has recently announced to the public: "Even the arrival of the Crown Prince Alexander to Serbia was planned to provoke severe conflicts. Almost every public political demonstration we had in the past months was meant to serve as a pretext for conflicts between the Serbs. It was all planned by the old, cunning CIA (...) It seems that other confessions want to eradicate the orthodoxy completely and make us, the Serbs, disappear from the face of the Earth. This is why this war is being allhartedly supported by the Vatican".

About Slobodan Milosevic Mr. Zivojinovic holds the following opinion: "All he has done so far is more than just politics, more than diplomacy. Some criticize him. I wonder, if there is a competent person to answer, what would have happened to us Serbs and the Serbian being itself, if he had not pursued such politics".

He comments on the economic embargo: "Of course, we do not intend to go back to the nineteenth century, but Serbs are known to have gone without petrol and gas in the past. This brought out all their strength!"

Bringing the interview to a climax, Mr. Zivojinovic addressed the Austrian Foreign Minister Mock: "Sir, if you bomb Belgrade, we shall bomb Vienna!"

NENAD CANAK, the leader of the Social-Democratic League of Vojvodina, who has been arrested two weeks ago after an anti-war rally, phoned VREME last week "somewhere from the front". He has indirectly confirmed the news published in the daily press, which stated that he was transferred to a volunteer unit, but he added that he felt "more secure there than at home". The explanation: "The people around me are kind and benevolent, seduced by the present Serbian authorities. The militant stronghold of Serbia can expect, as early as tomorrow, a backfire from the former volunteers".

The Pick of the Week

"The economic sanctions by the European Community represent a challenge for the entrepreneurs and enterprises in Serbia"

Mr. Nikola Stanic, one of the vice-presidents of the Serbian Government.