Strike at Nasa Borba

Belgrade daily Nasa Borba was not published on Wednesday, October 4. A day earlier, the daily's independent union declared a strike adding that the daily's staff "are obliged to fight for the autonomy they won and independent editorial policies". The immediate cause of the strike was a decision by the management board (a third from Nasa Borba and two thirds from Dusan Mijic's Fininvest Novi Sad company which owns the daily) to appoint Dusko Bogdanovic, head of the Novi Sad bureau, as acting editor in chief.

Editorial staff headed by editor in chief Gordana Logar submitted a collective resignation on Monday, October 2. They explained that the resignation had been submitted on September 13 originally because Mijic tried to impose his own editor in chief (deputy director Branislav Milosevic) to replace Logar. Staff voted 78-7 for Logar.

The argument stems from the fact that Mijic refuses to give Nasa Borba's editorial board the right to veto decisions, something 90% of the staff insist on. Nasa Borba journalists are also unhappy with bad finances, small and irregular salaries and rumors that aid from abroad ends up in Mijic's hands. Mijic claims that Nasa Borba is beginning to hold its own; he said office space has been found, computers bought and added that the strike only does damage to the daily.

The argument has been ongoing for two years since the time Mijic dismissed editor in chief Manojlo Vukotic.

The current calm came in January this year when both staff and Mijic had a common enemy - the state which grabbed Borba away from them. They compromised and the entire staff were employed by Fininvest. Talks were underway on Thursday, October 5 in the afternoon, to solve the dispute and Nasa Borba was not published that day.

Arrest

The Serb Volunteer Guard recently arrested a man who obviously did not know he shouldn't take pictures of Guard commander Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan's house.

Before the Belgrade resident managed to take the photo, Raznatovic's armed guards grabbed him, took away his camera pushed him into the house and questioned him. They gave back the camera and released him after a lengthy talk but warned that "this country is at war and there's a ban on photographing houses where the Serb Volunteer general staff are meeting".

The police said they didn't know anything about the Guard general staff or the ban on taking pictures of Raznatovic's house. Informed sources said Raznatovic has much greater authority than just plain arrests.

Hitting Back

On Monday, October 2 a line of Krajina refugees formed in front of the Helsinki Watch offices but grew so big the crowd got restless and there might have been an incident if the brave women in the office hadn't shouted: "We're volunteers trying to help you and you want to break the door down". A man with a mustache, recognized as Simo Dubajic, shouted back: "You volunteers? Says who, we're paying you." The Helsinki Watch women attacked fiercely and Dubajic withdrew from the line.

Corporal

The first Monday this month, after a break of several years, RTS Valjevo resumed broadcasts but provided no surprise: its guests were local SPS officials Stanko Jesic as chairman of the board of a modern art gallery and Milorad Ilic as Mayor. Ilic was also there as chairman of the committee to mark 125 years of the Valjevo high school. In that capacity he said Slobodan Jevtic Pulika won't be exhibiting in town for a while "due to the well known situation".

Slobodan Jevtic is a local painter, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Chamalieu. He promised to organize an exhibition of his work in the town which was supposed to open recently. Work on the exhibition was underway and Jevtic, in an effort to save money for his home town, got French patrons to pay the insurance on his pictures. He told Ilic that some 40 people from France would be coming with him at their own expense. But then the Bosnian Serbs came under NATO air strikes and Ilic, nicknamed corporal, sent Jevtic a message saying it would not be convenient for the French to come to Valjevo since the local people might react patriotically.

Collective Spirit

Persistently speaking in plural, Mihajlo Markovic left Novosti readers confused; did he mean FR Yugoslavia, or all Serbs or the establishment (either the academy of science and art or the SPS). "The unfortunate thing is that, even with a maximum of support for our demands, war reparations come to equal amounts between us, the Croats and Moslems. Unfortunately, we would have to pay reparations to the Croats and especially the Moslems. So we should demand the overall realistic amount and be happy if we get even a part."

If he meant the state (FRY), which is most logical, didn't he imply its participation in the war?