Meetings

This reporter, the owner of an East European produced car, managed to exceed the speed limit despite bad gasoline and the age of the car, and was promptly stopped by the traffic police:

"This is radar control. You were driving 73 kmh in a 50 kmh zone."

"I believe you, I didn't notice."

"Where do you work?"

My first instinct was to lie, to avoid adding to my problem but my answer was truthful: "In VREME."

"VREME..."

The patrol chief asked: "Do you have the money to pay the fine?"

"How much is it?"

"Fifty dinars but since you work for VREME, we'll make it 20."

So be it. Even if we never find out if VREME is known for low salaries or the patrolman likes it.

I had an even 20 dinars on me.

Power Cuts

With no pomp, under the cover of the biggest Christian holiday, power-cuts were announced. The population, caught up in the Easter festivities were caught unaware the first day. A lot of food was left half-cooked, many shirts were left semi-ironed, many articles were caught in blacked-out computers and we'd better not even think about dialysis.

What went through people's minds? Power-cuts started for debtors. The main fuse blew, the Obrenovac power plant broke-down?

It gets easier once you realize your neighbors and friends have the same problem and you're all part of the planned light show.

Softening Up

Eggs finally became the center of attention for Easter but they also served for a different purpose. In Valjevo, fans at the Buducnost-Badnjevac soccer match were given eggs by the stadium management to shell referees. In Mokrin, the world champion egg cracker managed to break 25 other eggs before his finally broke.

Petar Stojanovic, an assistant legal affairs director in the Serbian Health Department, didn't have any ambition to win. He bragged to friends and relatives that he decided to lose his egg cracking bout with his boss Dragisa Lukic, and to make sure of that he hit his egg several times to soften it up before the bout.

Personality

Politika daily devoted a whole page of its Saturday issue to refugee problems.

Sandra Gucijan's article "Stay or Go Back" included a statement by psychologist Jelena Vlajkovic who offered therapy for refugees to reach a decision on staying or going home. She feels the refugees should be informed of the political situation "through true information", and some institution or personality with a high moral reputation should be found to guarantee their safety. The example she quoted was the catastrophic earthquake in Skoplje where "people got active only after Tito toured the destruction of the city".

Another article on that page offered a personality in Borislav Mikelic (personality) chairman of the committee (institution) for the protection of rights of displaced persons and their return home.

Locotractor

Our inventors do best under the worst conditions but the latest achievement by experts in the Lajkovac vehicle maintenance department and Smederevo Zelvoz rail company is a gem.

They combined a locomotive and a tractor and came up with the Locotractor which will be used to move railroad cars in the Smederevo maintenance yard.

Does this mean the shifting locomotive will be retired or perhaps adapted for use in the spring sowing?

Galeb Sold to an American

The good ship Galeb, used by Josip Broz Tito to travel the world, was sold to an American of Hungarian origin. Montena-Fax news agency quoted reliable sources who said the ship was sold for three million DEM after two failed auctions. The new, anonymous, owner lives in France and plans to open a ship construction planning office on Galeb.

The Price of Karadzic and Mladic

The absence of the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) at the donors conference in Brussels was seen in Washington as proof that people on the wanted posters of The Hague war crimes tribunal are still running the RS. VREME sources in Washington said the preparations for the speedy arrest of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are in their final stage and added that legal experts met in the State Department last week at the administration's request to look into legal aspects of the arrests. The four hour meeting ended with a pleasing outcome to the State Department which has been pressuring the military to agree to do it. VREME learned that the only thing left is a political decision by the head of state. There are assessments that the arrest of those two suspected war criminals couldn't happen without IFOR casualties, and there are fears of the changes that could bring in the satisfactory situation with the safety of IFOR troops.

Agreement For Schrembgens

Kinkel's spokesmen in Bonn assured reporters on April 17 that they expect Belgrade won't refuse agreement for the new German Ambassador to Belgrade, Gerhard Schrembgens, the current Charges D'affaires. They said the accusations against him in the state media campaign over his meeting with Vuk Draskovic on March 9 are completely absurd.

A statement by Kinkel said Germany recognizes the FRY as one of the successors of the former Yugoslavia and expects Belgrade to take back fake asylum seekers and resolve the Kosovo issue on the basis of "a high level of autonomy within the FRY".