Arkan's Billion Excites Italy

Giornale daily published what was just a rumor in Italy for days: Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan gave one billion Lira to the president of the Campobasso soccer club Di Stefano to start the Southern League movement at a press conference in Belgrade. The daily said the party (which will be set up in Rome) will have an insignia in four colors; green, white and red (the colors of the Italian flag) and yellow for the southern sun. It will have a portrait of Gaibaldi in the center with 1861, the year Italy united, underneath. Giornale quoted Arkan who said he doesn't want to see Italy go through the same thing as the former Yugoslavia and that the money was his aid to peace, equality and unity. Di Stefano (who the Italian media said had nothing against taking money from the Serb executioner) made a statement: "Our policies run counter to those of the Northern League and unlike them we want the country to stay united. There is a movement against secession in the north, the Garibaldi National Guard made up of southerners who live in the north."

Council of Europe Postpones Croatian Membership

VREME said optimistically that Croatia would soon become a member of the Council of Europe and just needed the formality of support from the Ministerial Council which has refused no one to date. But the Croatian authorities did their best in the meantime to prevent its membership in the council. On May 14, the Ministerial Council postponed indefinitely Croatia's membership because of the undemocratic behavior of the Zagreb authorities.

Ruling party leaders thought membership in the council would allow them to do whatever they want. Their first step was dissolving the Zagreb city assembly unlawfully.

The Croatian constitutional court unexpectedly ruled that Tudjman's decision was unconstitutional. Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa said all the court's decisions have to be obeyed and he seemed to be relieved he didn't have to tell the president how harmful his decision was.

The other reason for the postponement was the charges raised against Feral Tribune editor in chief Viktor Ivancic and his journalist Marinko Culic for daring to offend the ruler. The state prosecutor used new laws which allow the raising of criminal charges for libeling state officials with only the agreement of the libeled person. Interestingly, the two journalists were interrogated by policemen who usually investigate war crimes and terrorism.

Bosnian Moslem-Croat Agreement

Leaders of the Bosnian Moslems and Croats agreed on May 14 in Washington to unite their armed forces and removed the main obstacle to international aid for the training and arming of the Bosnian army. US Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Secretary of Trade Mickey Kantor would head a business delegation to the Balkans soon to continue the mission started by the late Ron Brown.

At the end of the meeting in Washington, Christopher said the Bosnian Moslem and Croat leaders agreed on joint financial institutions such as banking, privatization and tax administration agencies. A ranking US official said no agreement had been reached on the local elections in Mostar which the Moslems want to delay.

Ambassadors

Last week's federal government session announced great personnel changes in the federal foreign ministry: Zoran Janackovic, the powerful secretary general at the ministry transferred to a new post and will be replaced by a man with no diplomatic experience, Radovan Matovic, deputy Serbian minister of science and technology.

Janackovic is going to Skoplje as ambassador in the first embassy the FRY has opened in one of the former Yugoslav republics. It will be one of the FRY's biggest and most numerous missions in the world with a staff of 19 for the embassy and plans to employ four more in a culture and information center.

Gama

VREME started publishing the novel "The Man Who Had to Be Killed" in its previous issue. The first installment was title "Call Gama For Murder" but the following page featured an advertisement for a real company of the same name - Gama Electronics.

Some readers linked the title and ad and swamped Gama Electronics with calls asking for services and costs. Staff at Gama Electronics had a hard time explaining that they sold computers and had nothing do with assassinations.

We apologize to the owners of Gama Electronics.