The Director

Dragi Jovanovic, one of the key figures of the SPS in Leskovac (executive board member, local councilor and chairman of the veterans of the latest war) was fired as director of the 1 Maj Slavujevce farmers cooperative. A letter from the cooperative to the local authorities accused Jovanovic of selling off property, grabbing a large apartment and added that criminal charges would be raised. The cooperative staff proposed their former director for the October award last year for business achievements. Now they said he's semi-literate and threatened to demolish his home. Jovanovic responded in Nasa Rec weekly saying he was fired illegally; informally he said the group that toppled him are all Serbian Radical Party members.

In the meantime, Dragoljub Kostic, the new director, is selling off goods from the cooperative's stores for a fraction of the price in an effort to raise money for salaries that are a year late. Four supermarkets have been closed and he'll sell the equipment from a new fast food factory that cost 1.5 million DEM to build.

Hunger

When they imposed the unjust and undeserved sanctions, we responded with dignity that Serbia would never go hungry. God confirmed that truth with a record breaking wheat harvest. But something always spoils our pleasure; when it isn't someone else we help ourselves.

Two year old Svetislav Brankovic died in Lopatanj village in western Serbia. The doctor who examined him said he died of malnutrition; i.e. hunger. The Red Cross worker who visited the family (father, mother and three children) concluded that none of the children had been vaccinated, that their living conditions were highly unsatisfactory and blamed the parents for the boys death in a statement to Radio Valjevo. It turned out that the outcome was inevitable since the parents are irresponsible. Nothing was said about the state and its institutions. We only know that the area, rich in raspberries, saw feverish activity by SPS politicians, inspectors who made sure the raspberries (a source of foreign currency) did not end up in private hands. Social workers who were warned about the conditions the family lived in were not seen in the village.

Darkness

Power cuts are continuing in Banja Luka. The original five hour daily cuts have been turned into 18 hour cuts "because of insufficient savings and irregular payments by consumers" the local electricity board said.

Boilers, freezers and stoves have been hit again and now people have a problem with preparing food not just storage.

A 10 liter container of butane gas costs 50 DEM a cubic meter of wood 20 DEM.

Many Banja Luka residents would have chosen wood but that's virtually impossible since average salaries stand at just 70 Dinars a month and the latest pensions were in November.

Only poverty is clearly visible in the darkness that has engulfed the city.