Macedonia: The Guns Come Later

The surprise couldn't have been greater when Blagoje Handziski, an electrotechnical engineer, was appointed Macedonian Defence Minister. Until then, Handziski was secretary general of the ruling Social Democrat Alliance.

In an interview for VREME he spoke, among other things, about cooperation with neighbors and other countries in the region and the problems he faces:

"We had numerous contacts with Albania and drafted some important documents which will be signed soon. Our chief of staff visited the Albanian general staff and we expect a return visit soon, as well as a visit by the Albanian Defence Minister to ratify some documents.

We've also had contacts with the Bulgarian Defence Ministry. There haven't been any since June last year, mainly because of our elections and now there have been changes over there. We expect the contacts to be renewed soon.

Of the other countries in the region, we've signed a cooperation program with Slovenia.

Our cooperation has gone farthest with Turkey. Most agreements have been signed and some are being implemented. Cooperation with these countries is mainly in training, exchanges of views, our teams at their war games, joint appearances at seminars, symposiums and conferences, educating our military medical personnel and similar. I think those activities are developing well and that they will be intensified in the future.

Unfortunately, we have no cooperation with Serbia and FR Yugoslavia due to two reasons. The first is that our states have not recognized each other yet and the other reason are the borders. We want to achieve mutual recognition as soon as possible and establish all forms of cooperation but that process is getting nowhere. During Mitsotakis' last visit, President Milosevic repeated his stand that recognition will come only when we solve our problems with Greece which is also upsetting our relations. The second problem is the undefined border. We insisted on forming a government commission to resolve the issue and we have done that but the other side hasn't.

We also have no cooperation with Greece because of our disrupted political relations and the unilateral embargo on their side which is inflicting catastrophic losses on our economy and further complicating political relations. I can't understand Greece's stubbornness, the more so since the embargo is inflicting damage to them as well."

 

Bosnia: Rifts in The SDA

The possible epilogue of the recent clash between Bosnian Muslim Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic and acting state TV director Amila Omersoftic, could be the removal of both of the fighters in the latest SDA internal conflict, from their respective posts.

Namely, the Prime Minister's hasty and fairly unreasonable decision to ban state TV camera crews from government press conferences because they obstruct the government was revoked just days later. TV B-H crews were back in the government chambers and Haris Silajdzic appeared on prime time TV. Amila Omersoftic is seen as the first loser in their duel.

On the other hand, Silajdzic left Sarajevo with the intention of staying away at least 20 days. The many stops for diplomatic talks on his trip around the world show that the other rumor (about his removal from his post and return to the foreign ministry) comes from sources close to his Muslim SDA party.

Naturally, there is speculation that his successor could come from the Croat HDZ party (the most frequently mentioned name is Jadranko Prlic) and they are gaining weight especially since a Croat Prime Minister could help end the crisis of the Muslim-Croat federation which started with Muslim demands for Ejup Ganic to replace Kresimir Zubak as president.

Alija Izetbegovic still does not want to get rid of Silajdzic and he is consciously leading his party towards a tough rightist position. His explanation that "party affairs have been conducted almost independently by Edhem Bicakic, government affairs by Silajdzic and many presidency affairs by Ejup Ganic" shows that Izetbegovic doesn't think he could easily be replaced as supreme leader by just one person but that at least three prominent figures will be needed to replace "the father of the nation".

 

Slovenia: Officials' Salaries

Under a new formula, the lowest paid Slovenian parliament deputy (of the 93 deputies and officials in parliament) will earn around 3,300 DEM while the average salary for most will stand at around 4,000 DEM.

The highest salaries will stand even higher. For example, Izidor Rejc, the highest paid deputy, has a January salary of 5,500 DEM. Those figures are the same in the Drnovsek government. Slovenian ministers earn an average salary of 5,000 DEM and the Prime Minister gets 6,000 a month.

The ministers and deputies get other perks in the form of travel and other expenses (sometimes more than their salaries), government cars and, as in the case of Defence Minister Jelko Kacin, a government credit card!

That isn't all, a deputy who is also a party parliament group chief also gets additional earnings as chairman of a commission. That additional pay alone could stand at 10,000 DEM a month.

To an ordinary worker who takes home just 600 DEM a month and a university educated teacher who earns no more than 1,000 DEM those figures sound heavenly. Unfortunately, all other mortals, excluding Slovenian parliament members, can't decide on their own salaries. The next elections will show whether the deputies have got their salaries right.

 

Montenegro: General Sailing

The many fairy tale rumors of spoils of war taken from the Dubrovnik theater of war, often mention the names of top civilian and military leaders. Only after General Pavle Strugar was retired was there any mention of crimes committed by Second Army officers. Army prosecutor Colonel Vojislav Zecevic had a hard time whitewashing the whole thing. At the time, some of the press mentioned General Strugar's Mercedes, "bought" on the front, which was later stolen. A certain Dusan Menicanin spoke up from Belgrade. He owned a yacht which was in the Komolac marina near Dubrovnik when the war broke out. Menicanin said the 200,000 DEM yacht was bought at an auction (customary at the time) for a tenth of its value by Strugar. Another 50 or so yachts were bought at similar auctions; their total value is over 15 million DEM. Most of the owners are generals or their sons. The remaining 170 less valuable boats in Komolac were destroyed.

There are also numerous examples of sales of huge amounts of technical goods taken from duty free shops, 40 luxury cars, several buses and around 50 kilograms of gold and 100,000 DEM taken from posts and state banks.

The list of booty includes a crystal chandelier from Tito's villa in Kupari (worth around 700,000 DEM), paintings by Picasso, Paja Jovanovic and others.

The ways those valuables disappeared can only be revealed through documents held by the naval authorities in Boka Kotorska but most of the valuables are known to have gone to Trebinje. Part of the treasure from Dubrovnik went to Cetinje where it was handed over by the Yugoslav Army and returned to the rightful owners in Dubrovnik last year. Those were just part of the valuables taken out of the combat zone most of which will never be returned and can't even be traced, especially the huge amounts of building materials, machines, telephone equipment whose takeover was documented by the army units in Herceg Novi.

The army also released confidential orders by then Boka naval sector commander Admiral Miodrag Jokic who ordered the Vinogradi hotel in Sutorina converted into a collection center for valuables taken from the Dubrovnik area.

Some of the valuables were declared. Modern laundry equipment, Croatia's Slobodna Dalmacija said last year, worth around three million DEM was initially intended for the military hospital in Boka but ended up in the army hospital in Belgrade. The manufacturer was called several time to service the machinery which serial numbers revealed was delivered to Dubrovnik.