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Belgrade's district court and prosecutor are establishing how Belgrade resident Branko Cvetkovic (20) and Lazarevac resident Zeljko Knezevic (22) died. Sources in the Belgrade police quoted by Politika Ekspres (May 1, 1996) said the police blocked off an apartment in central Belgrade's Kralja Milutina 11. The two alleged robbers were there along with Goran Gvozdenovic (21) an escapee from a correctional institution. There were also three girls in the apartment whose identities the police did not disclose. The police said a SWAT team went into the corridor of the building and spent hours persuading the three young men to surrender but they threatened to shoot at anyone who came close. The three men allegedly fired several shots at the police who fired back. The police went into the apartment once things calmed down. Cvetkovic and Knezevic were dead and Gvozdenovic was unscathed: "Investigators at the scene determined that Cvetkovic shot at the police, at Knezevic and then killed himself," the police told Politika Ekspres.

Perhaps that is true but it would sound more convincing if the police said they killed them in a gunfight, because now it seems the SWAT team did an autopsy and ballistics tests immediately.

To make things seem more convincing, Ekspres reporters were told unofficially that the two young men were under the influence of drugs but didn't say when blood tests were done. The daily also reported what Cvetkovic (who was never convicted) had done earlier. Allegedly he and his companion stole a car at gunpoint, kidnapped someone who they later tortured. The police went after Cvetkovic, shot him and turned him over to the courts.

The daily added: "Unofficially we were told that he was released from detention after just 45 minutes of talks with a judge and deputy prosecutor."

That is an indisputable fact. Cvetkovic was released not because the judge liked him but because the police did not provide a single bit of solid evidence to convict him and there were no witnesses.

Soccer Players in the Theater

The National Theater in Belgrade was the venue for a formal ceremony to mark 100 years of football in Serbia. After a speech by Serbian football association president Nemanja Stankovic, the gathering was addressed by the Serbian prime minister, Progres company director and chairman of the anniversary celebration organization committee, Mirko Marjanovic.

His speech culminated with the fact that every week over 1,000 senior games are played in Serbia and at least as many other games and that 500-750,000 people come to see those games.

US Information Center Opened in Pristina

John Kornblum opened the US information center in Pristina under an agreement between Milosevic and Christopher. The opening ceremony was attended by Anne Sigmund, director of USIA Eastern Europe and the CIS, and Rudolph Perina, head of the US mission in Belgrade. Guests included some prominent members of the local authorities, politicians, university professors, reporters and Americans living in Kosovo.

The Pristina center is temporarily housed until a more suitable venue is found. It has two employees, one American and one local.

Requiem for Radio Smederevo

Independent Radio Smederevo has become a state company again. Station director Milan Petrovic said employees owned 83% of the station as of 10 days ago and the remaining 17% was controlled by the local council.

As with Studio B, the state property assessment agency was used to establish that earlier assessments were made at the expense of the state. The new ruling said employees own 37% and the council 63%. The new majority owner appointed Vasa Bojicic to head the station from his post as director of the socialist Radio S.

The new owner also changed the station statute, appointed a management board and registered with the court in Pozarevac.

All opposition parties in Smederevo and professional journalist organizations condemned the takeover. The new republican information minister received Radio Smederevo staff and told them the dispute was not within his jurisdiction.

Independent TV For Elections

Five local TVs in Bosnia signed an agreement to set up an independent radio and TV net prior to the September elections, Carl Bildt's office said in a statement. Duncan Bulivant, Bildt's spokesman, specified that the agreement was signed over the weekend in the EU seat in Mostar as that first stage in setting up the net. He added that independent and pluralist media are of vital importance to the elections.

All the signatories to the agreement are from the Moslem-Croat Federation - Zetel Zenica, TV Tuzla, Hajat and 99 Sarajevo and TV Mostar. Financing still hasn't been resolved but the Soros Foundation has joined the international community to provide at least 10 million USD.

Book Trade

Assistant Serbian National Library manager Djura Radanovic told Beta that negotiations are underway to renew links with the national libraries in Macedonia and Slovenia. "We have contacts with Macedonia and Slovenia but none with the Zagreb library or the one in Sarajevo," he said. Direct contacts with the Macedonian library are expected in June to prepare a cooperation agreement. Contacts with the Slovenian library have been only in writing to date but both sides expressed readiness to cooperate.

Refugee Census

Serbia's refugee commissioner Bratislava Morina said the refugee census in the FRY "succeeded above expectations" and added that 525,000 refugees were covered by Saturday. Her commissariat extended the deadline to June 9.