Left

Some 12,000 "military age" refugees from the Krajina (we saw that the number includes some without eyes) were arrested in Serbia and taken to Manjaca near Banja Luka to form a "guerrilla corps". Since they refused to bear arms, they were left to the mercy of humanitarian organizations on the railway station in Bijeljina. The authorities in the RS "didn't take any steps for them", Serbia has closed its borders to them and they could not go to Croatia which they were ordered out of. From mid-August to late September the number of people living at the station dropped to around 100. Some managed to leave because they had money or connections, a number were forced to join Arkan's forces. The ones who stayed behind felt like dogs without the most basic conditions. The only interest in them was shown by Arkan's company commanders. Today, even the 100 odd men are not at the station. Where are they? A source close to the authorities in Bijeljina told VREME that they had left. To combat units or for Serbia. Since the Drina border was impregnable for them, the assumption is that the prediction of a Kordun man is right: "If we were Ustashi we would be prisoners of war. Now we're just waiting for Arkan's men to come get us."

Debt Collectors

During hyperinflation, smuggling, especially small scale, had two roles to play: the poor survived and the state dampened social tensions. Then the state stabilized the Dinar and small scale smugglers were obliged to prop up the currency, i.e. the budgets. Since the Dinar is increasingly shaky now, the state decided to shake up smugglers to prop up its stability. Now they need more than just work permits, proof of origin for goods, receipts... Little by little, financial and market inspectors are raiding small businesses. First they visited private companies, shops, restaurants and cafes, services and now they have started on open air markets. Last Friday in Valjevo, a team of visiting market inspectors, assisted by the local police who blocked off the streets, spent half an hour filling four trucks with assorted goods, including gasoline, cigarettes, tools and clothing. They never asked for work permits or the origin of the goods; in a great rush they just grabbed and carried it off. The consequences? The Trade Ministry will get some money, a woman suffered a heart attack and gasoline in Valjevo hit a record high of 12 Dinars.

Dusk

A profile of Borisav Jovic in Nezavisna Svetlost ends with the words: "that his star is waning is shown by the example of the Kragujevac press because while Jovic once created several states in one step, now under his political auspices, one magazine is turned into just two (Svetlost and Nezavisna Svetlost) and one entity (Sumadija Days - the organ of the Kragujevac SPS).

Course

Zoran Janackovic, Under-Secretary of the Federal Foreign Ministry, left for London recently to attend a three month English language course.

Janackovic is obviously fated to become an ambassador, and since he probably does not know a single language he received (as they said once when this kind of training for ambassadors was the norm) "three months paid leave" in London.

Janackovic, who entered the diplomatic service (after years in the police) at about the time the former Yugoslavia broke up, was one of the most influential men in the foreign ministry building especially in terms of sensitive personnel issues.

Thoughts: Vladimir Arsenijevic

Vladimir Arsenijevic's life changed last January when his novel "Below Decks" won the NIN literary award. The press started writing about the 30 year old tourist guide whose first novel was acclaimed as the novel of the year; VREME KNJIGE publisher signed a contract with him for another book and immediately published a second edition of the novel.

"My publisher says "Below Decks" is being translated into 12 languages. I'm glad we signed a contract with good, well known publishers. For example in the US that means Knopf Random House, in Sweden WW. They will publish it on October 12 while I'm at the Frankfurt Book Fair. On October 26, a German version is expected to be at the fair in Geteborg, on October 30 I'm going to Copenhagen for the Danish promotion. Now in Frankfurt (this interview was made two days before the book fair opened), we have meetings scheduled with most of the publishers who are translating my novel. It is a pity only VREME KNJIGE is going to Frankfurt, instead of a few others with a joint presentation. I do not understand why that was so hard to do."

Strike At Nasa Borba Ends

The week-long strike at Nasa Borba formally ended on Wednesday, October 11, but it is not clear whether the causes of the strike were cleared up. Disagreements between Nasa Borba staff and owner Dusan Mijic (i.e. his company Fininvest) arose over the right to appoint an editor in chief and a compromise was reached following lengthy negotiations: the staff got the right to veto the choice of editor in chief. The day the strike ended, the Fininvest management board appointed Mirko Klarin, Nasa Borba corespondent in Brussels, as acting editor in chief for two months. The next day staff voted on that decision: 37 of them voted for Klarin, 44 voted against and one abstained. The immediate statutory argument was whether over half the 98 staff had to vote against someone for the vote to be valid or whether just half the staff who voted (82) was enough. That same day they started work on the daily again after a nine day break.

Ownership and management problems in the daily are now being solved through talks and votes, unlike in Kragujevac where representatives of the ruling party introduced the police into their fight against Nezavisna Svetlost weekly. With the help of a few policemen and town hall security officers, bailiffs turned Nezavisna Svetlost staff out of their offices on Tuesday, October 10. Remember that the weekly was set up just over a month ago when the local authorities illegally turned Svetlost weekly into a public company. The entire staff transferred to the new magazine. Now the Kragujevac authorities have taken the offices as well. There were no casualties because the staff did not resist. They moved to new offices and will continue publishing.