Shorts

Karadzic Leaves in Writing

Expectations are rising in Belgrade that reports in the regime press will come true: Radovan Karadzic will leave as president of the RS. Belgrade news agencies reported on Tuesday that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic spent several hours with the RS leaders. The meeting was attended by Biljana Plavsic and Momcilo Krajisnik who were seen entering the Serbian presidency and allegedly by Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Unofficial reports said Milosevic is pressuring Karadzic into confirming his departure in writing. Milosevic is under pressure from the international community to remove Karadzic and open the way for the Bosnian elections in September. The Dayton agreement bans any election candidate or holder of an official post from office if they have been indicted by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal. Last week's efforts by Milosevic to reach agreement with the US and leave Karadzic in place formally but out of the public eye failed. It seems that Milosevic is trying to formulate a better offer prior to the Geneva meeting on June 2 and Kornblum's arrival in Belgrade. The prevailing opinion in the rest of the world is that there can be no elections in Bosnia if Karadzic is in power. The US administration is insisting on respect for all Dayton agreement deadlines and Alija Izetbegovic said recently that Karadzic's removal is the "condition of all conditions" for the elections. There's no word on what Milosevic has promised or not to Karadzic to get him to leave voluntarily. Last week The New York Times reported negotiations with Karadzic and all relevant members of the international community hurried to say that there can be no deal.

Zastava in Macedonia

Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov received Zastava management board chairman Srboljub Vasovic. Nasa Borba reported that Vasovic asked for unlimited exports of Zastava cars to Macedonia since it has deals with 36 producers in the former Yugoslav republic and wants to renew cooperation with them. Macedonian economic chamber president Dusan Petreski said his delegation will soon visit Kragujevac to discuss the issue.

Trial Return

The Helsinki Human Rights Committee in Serbia informed refugees from Croatia in the FRY that the Croatian government and international institutions including UNTAES are preparing pilot projects for their return home. The trial return will cover Kusinje, Okucani, Toranj, Obrezje and Batinanje in Western Slavonia.

Serbian Church Assembly Ends

The regular annual session of the Serbian Orthodox Church assembly ended in the Patriarch's seat in Belgrade last week. The new Holy Synod which runs church affairs between assemblies includes Patriarch Pavle, Bosnian Metropolitan Nikolaj, Sumadija Episcope Sava, Episcope Stefan and Nis Episcope Irinej. Slavonia Episcope Lukijan was appointed administrator of the Timisoara parish.

In a comment on The Hague Tribunal, the assembly said in a statement that "this is the first time in history that the leaders and representatives of a civil war are on trial from one, the Serb, side, and in fact an entire nation is on trial".

The statement said "the black shadow of the Dayton dictate is blacking out the sight of many in our people creating new divisions and rifts."

It also expressed concern over the re-emergence of old totalitarian methods in society and the suppressing of development and progress of democracy and freedom. It also condemned the new rich class: "Former advocates of violent nationalization are now grabbing national property that never belonged to them. From great communists they are becoming great capitalists."

Challenge

A Belgrade number 7 tram and the tram stop at Cvetko market were painted a bright purple with the message "Family of the Brave". This is about last year's May 31 challenge day when Belgrade competed with Hong Kong and won in recreative and mass sports. A lamp post near the stop (and many others in town) features a poster by the city transport drivers union which shows that every Belgrade resident who gets on a bus or tram is brave and goes through a challenge every day. The union said the city transport company does not have a single vehicle in good condition because the management is hiring inexperienced drivers and refugees who drive broken down vehicles.

But back to challenge day because that is topical again. The city SPS board said it would spend five million dinars and Petar Stakic, the main man of recreational sports in the city, said everything would be done for just 150,000.

If that's the way things are, wouldn't it be wiser to spend the money on transport?

Inquisition

The SIM public information company in Bijeljina is a media house with a radio and monthly magazine. In June they plan to start a TV in which the municipality of Semberija and Majevica and sponsors invested 1.5 million marks. The Bijeljina media house headed by Pero Simic has broken away from Pale recently by democratically allowing different views of the future. In practice that means regionalization was affirmed, that Banja Luka mayor Predrag Radic, former BS prime minister Rajko Kasagic and BS vice-president Nikola Koljevic were seen as winners against the Pale leaders.

That editorial concept did no go unnoticed and early in April Pale adopted a law giving the government the right to appoint editors in chief in all the media. That means there can be no different views. The people in Bijeljina disregarded the warning and the cover of the latest issue of the SIM magazine featured Kasagic who was allowed on SIM radio to explain his misunderstandings with Pale. On Monday, May 27, inspectors from Pale came in (deputy prime minister Velibor Ostojic, information minister Dragan Bozanic and Ilija Guzina as Karadzic's mandator for all editorial posts). They didn't come empty handed, they brought in a contract which would make SIM Pale's property. Ostojic spent four hours pushing the contract under everyone's nose, threatening to arrest Simic as a traitor. Guzina had an original question: "Why was the deposed Kasagic allowed to address the public when we know that Governor Avramovic was not given that opportunity in Serbia?" He was told that the station editors see nothing wrong in the fact that they allowed SDS member Kasagic on the air. The inspectors insisted on the contract, Simic and his associates refused saying their management board has to decide as well as the local council as founder and the people. Ostojic's efforts failed, he got angry, slammed his fist on the table, threatened to fire them all and left for Pale. Simic told VREME that he is a thorn in Pale's side because of editorial policies that have popular support and that the people won't give up their media. He said: "This is an inquisition by people who want to screw everything up."