The Law Suit After the Secession

The Slovenian parliament's international relations committee asked the government to prepare a platform for negotiations with the consortium of banks and Paris Club members to pay off the former Yugoslav debt. The committee got a report from the Slovenian delegation at the Succession of Former Yugoslavia talks in Geneva and decided that the government had to define a mandate for negotiations with foreign creditors "since this is a vital issue for Slovenia's financial independence". Slovenia's chief succession negotiator Miran Mejak told the committee that the negotiations were deadlocked. "The new Serbian negotiators rejected the conclusions of the Badinter commission before coming to Geneva and declared the FRY the only heir of the former federation, claiming the other republics illegally broke away. That stand cannot be negotiated," Mejak said. Slovenia's negotiators doubt a draft inheritance treaty, which will be prepared by EU experts in the next few months, could recognize "continuity for the Belgrade regime, meaning that the FRY, as the legal heir, would negotiate with creditors on behalf of all the former republics and try to get a moratorium on debt repayments". Creditors would force Slovenia to pay off most of the debt, as the only liquid republic," Mejak said. He warned that the idea was dangerous because "other heir states like it". The negotiators said Slovenia has to complete negotiations with creditors as soon as possible and before the Badinter conclusions expire and the sanctions against the FRY are still in force.

Serbia: The State of Health

The Belgrade health authorities said 24,776 cases of acute infectious diseases had been registered in the city in 1994, or 19% more than 1993. They pointed out the rise in the number of epidemics with the number of cases ranging from five to 138. Most patients had intestinal diseases; 8194 people sought medical help (3778 in 1993), there were 4396 cases of infectious diarrhea. The quality of food is shown by the fact that 1420 people had food poisoning and 756 had salmonella poisoning. Another 1029 had hepatitis. Last year doctors combated 33 epidemics: seven trihinelosa epidemics, four food poisonings, five dysentery, two salmonella, five hepatitis, two cases of wound infections and one epidemic each of butulism, hepatitis B and rubeolas.

Yugoslavia: Civil Service

The Yugoslav Army (VJ) hasn't had any requests for civilian service, the Vojska weekly said. Under the FRY constitution, conscripts can be conscripted into civilian services if their religion or conscience prevents them from bearing arms, but their service is 24 months instead of a year. The VJ law says civilian service can be done in military economic, health, rescue service, invalid rehabilitation and other organizations serving society. The federal defense minister recently earmarked five military production facilities and 30 health facilities which can take in a total of 341 recruits, Vojska said. Those facilities are obliged to secure free accommodation, food, salaries and overseers for the recruits. The recruits doing civilian service have the same rights and obligations as soldiers. Recruits who want to do civilian service have to apply to their local draft board within 15 days of receiving their conscription notice, listing reasons why they won't bear arms. A draft commission makes a decision on the request within 60 days. The decision can be appealed to a higher body whose decision is final.

The Hague: War Crimes Tribunal

The international war crimes tribunal started its plenary session in The Hague on January 16. The tribunal is scheduled to debate changes in court proceedings, spokesman Christian Chartier said. He added that the proposed changes were discussed by a working group of international judges, independent from the tribunal, with non-governmental organizations but did not specify the changes. Chartier said the war crimes trials would be going ahead according to plan. He said the trial of Dusan Tadic will probably start late in March or early in April. Tadic (a Bosnian Serb jailed in Germany on suspicion of war crimes) will be charged in five or six weeks, said Chartier, after the Bundestag changes German law to allow his extradition to The Hague. Chartier said charges would also be raised against a "number of Tadic's associates" but did not specify who or where they were. He said the UN had allocated seven million dollars for the Tribunal in the first three months of this year.