Serbia: Serbs without Coffee

Work on the Serb Encyclopedia is one of the top priorities for the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) which also intends to set up a museum of Serbian literature. It published the third volume of the Illustrated History of the Serbs which has been called the "highest achievement of our publishing" while the Short History of Serb Culture "rights a great injustice". And those are just some examples of projects which are intended to raise Serbia.

A regular session of the SANU assembly (May 25) heard its vice chairman Aleksandar Despic announce the start of work on the encyclopedia because "it is a great work that aims to gather in one place all that represents the history and culture of the entire Serb nation and the territory it has inhabited for ages".

Three years ago when the Serbian government suggested a Law on the Serbian Encyclopedia, academician Cedomir Popovic, vice president of the Serb National Foundation and the man who heads the encyclopedia team, said "the encyclopedia will include general terms but only the one that are directly linked to the historic development of the Serbs. Not to view the world from our small Balkan perspective but to see who we are, what we are and where we are in Europe, in the world. That is an almost imperialist ideology which claims that we are the world and we know we aren't. Because of that the encyclopedia should be dominated with our topics and our links to the world. It will include those foreigners who influenced our history. For example, we won't deal with great geographic discoveries, like the discovery of America since it has no direct bearing on Serb history. Probably we won't include the word coffee since what explanation could we give in a Serbian encyclopedia? But we will cover historic figures like Maria Theresa since she ruled a part of our people for a long time and affected our history."

Slovenia: Trouble With the Neighbors

Until recently it seemed Italy was the only obstacle standing in Slovenia's way to the European Union, now it seems the Slovenes are going to have just as much trouble with Austria.

During the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, Austria wholeheartedly helped Slovenia and relations between the two states were never better. The time seems to have come for Austria to hand its bill to Slovenia but because of public pressure at home and the Italy-Slovenia disputes. Karl Muller, Austria's Charge d'Affaires in Ljubljana asked to see Foreign Minister Zoran Thaler to inform the Slovenes that Austria, under public pressure, will demand recognition for the German minority in Slovenia and the return of all property seized after the end of W.W.II.

Several days later, that same demand was voiced by Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schussel. Austria also asked Slovenia to shut down all the duty frees on its border and close the Krsko nuclear power plant.

Austria's diplomatic service reiterated its stands that Slovenia cannot be the successor of the state treaty between the former Yugoslavia and Austria which ensures protection for the Slovene minority in Austria. The disputes with Italy gave those demands priority. Although all property issues between Italy and Slovenia were resolved in 1992 thanks to a reconfirmation of the 1983 Rome Accord, the new Italian administration managed to raise the issue again. Finally, faced with constant Italian opposition to its treaty on associate membership in the EU, the Drnovsek government offered to return 300 property titles to Italian owners. Once it was clear that Italy's ultimatum's drew no opposition from the rest of the EU, Austria made its demands.

There are rumors that Austria is trying to profit from the fact that its southern neighbor is no longer a state that can endanger it offensively while Austria has offensive capabilities.

Similar warnings were heard in the early 1990s when Slovenia was debating independence, but the public laughed them off. Now even the rightist press is writing about Austrian neo-colonialism, paternalism and profitable support.

Macedonia: Purges in the Government

Corruption and dirty deals within Macedonia's top government and ruling party ranks reached levels where Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski had to declare an uncompromising fight against crime at the initiative and with the support of several high-ranking officials.

The ice was broken and the Prime Minister fired six government officials,

Everyone knew about the crimes among the authorities but it was dangerous to say anything about it until the Prime Minister spoke up.

Pavla Trajanov, former assistant public safety minister, voiced public warning in March last year of the country being taken over by criminals and corruption with the frequent involvement of the authorities and party officials. Home Affairs Minister Ljubomir Frckovski reacted immediately. He fired his assistant for voicing claims he could not substantiate.

The first purges started in the army. Defence Minister Blagoje Hadziski fired four of his associates (undersecretary Aleksa Stamenkovski and three aides: Kiril Ninevski, Bozidar Petrvoski and Tomislav Dimitrievski) without warning early in July for "not showing adequate work results".

The big purge went on to the home affairs ministry where a large number of officials were dismissed and there are indications another 150 could soon follow.

The Prime Minister said he fired six officials: Kire Sonevski director of the public income board, Vencislav Efremov director of the property directorate, Dimitar Belcev undersecretary in the foreign ministry charged with economic relations, Dragan Pacinov undersecretary in the urbanism ministry, Angel Nikolovski chief republican market inspector and Vera Markova chief labor inspector. The explanation was that their work results were not satisfactory. The Prime Minister then immediately added that he wouldn't stop there and announced a special program to prevent crime in all forms with emphasis on corruption, organized crime, money laundering and drug dealing.

Ilijaz Sabriju, Labor and Social Policies Minister, could be next along with Esterfu Aliju, Culture Minister, (both members of the Economic Prosperity Party) who have faced a lot of criticism.

Party affiliation is another problem. Namely, Risto Ivanov and Stevo Crvenkovski are Liberal Party members which is now being linked to the danger of the government coalition breaking if the Prime Minister persists, Many analysts predict that the Prime Minister will have to compromise in the end.