Correction

On Saturday, March 5, Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug issued a report saying billionaire George Soros was about to buy the Free Europe radio station, owned by the U.S. government. Talks with the Clinton administration are underway, said the report and quoted Soros as saying that his losses, estimated at USD 600 million were only five percent of his wealth. Tanjug's report ended with a background information that the station, founded during the cold-war era, broadcasts its program mostly to eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Six hours later, Tanjug repeated the report with an inserted sentence, saying: "Free Europe recently introduced a program in Serbian, with a strong anti-Serb and anti-Yugoslav orientation."

Meanwhile, Free Europe officials denied rumours about Soros's purchase of the station. But Tanjug never bothered to carry the denial.

Pirates

A group of armed men on March 3 hijacked the Bulgarian-flag barge Han Kubrat. They forced the crew to sail upstream, towards Prahovo, and thretened to blow up the vessel if anyone tried to prevent them. Bulgarian customs officers in the port of Vidin helplessly watched 6,000 tons of oil sailing to Serbia. Helpless were also their colleagues from the WEU police monitors, stationed in Kalafat to enforce the trade embargo on the Danube.

Two months ago, patrol boats of the Western European Union halted Han Kubran under suspicion of violating the embargo. This time, they feared their action could imperil the lives of the crew - held at gun point by the hijackers - and provoke the pirates to carry out their threat and cause an ecological incident.

News agencies worlwide reported that the oil was delivered to Serbia. Bulgarian authorities promised to seek the extradition of the hijackers and do everything in their power to prevent similar incidents. As for Serbia, no official statement was ever released and the incident was given minimum publicity.

Montenegrins

The opening session of the congress of Montenegro's ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was attended by guests from Serbia: top SPS official Milomir Minic, federal parliament speaker Radoman Bozovic and RTV Serbia Director Milorad Vucelic.

The presence of Bozovic astonished many DPS members who remebered his statement: "The Montenegrins are scumbags." Not a few believed he came to Montenegro to repeat the statement loud and plain. Some others felt Bozovic's first attendance at an official gathering in Montenegro was to show that all disagreements between the two republics have been overcome. In support to this, the opening of the congress coincided with the Serbian government's suspension of a regulation, limiting trade with Montenegro. The regulation, signed by Bozovic himself, was cancelled on March 1.

The idyll was almost spoiled by Vojin Djukanovic - the president of Montenegro's Chamber of Commerce and director of the Niksic steel plant - who said the plant had stopped operation due to the shortage of raw material. He said Serbia was exporting the needed iron to Macedonia, but later begged the reporters not to publish his statement.

The Podgorica daily Pobjeda also let slip a secret that USD 1.7 million of export revenues of Montenegro's power company accounted for 15% of Yugoslavia's total export of electricity in 1993. Meanwhile, power rationing in Serbia this winter left people in the dark much too often.