Shorts

Guarantors

Farmers have betrayed the trust of the government: they didn’t sow as much wheat as we need and their harvest is the worst in the past 20 yeas.

Some will say that it’s a good thing the harvest is bad. Last year we had wheat to export but that went bad because the republican prime minister’s was slandered and he had to go to court; others will say the bad harvest could affect supplies of flour and wheat on the market but they’re wrong.

The people who don’t listen to the state media are also wrong. If they had listened to the radio on July 11 they would have known that "the current price of wheat and flour and the new price of bread will secure the successful operating of companies and regular supplies of bread till the next harvest". That’s what Rajko Erakovic, director of the Novi Sad Hleb bakery, said. The statement was directed at the Socialist authorities in his city.

Novi Sad SPS board chairman Dragomir Djukic responded: "The SPS, as a party that first takes care of the working man’s interests, devoted special attention to companies like Hleb and will offer them all possible support to secure supplies for the population".

Pressure

Ljubisa Ristic told at the promotion of his JUL party in Pristina that the party is "proud of its part, however small, in stopping the war".

Vecernje Novosti report wasn’t clear on who Ristic feels is the majority in Kosovo: "Things were hard in Kosovo in the past few years, with great pressure from the majority on the minority, the state on people and people who fear war in Kosovo".

Maybe it isn’t important who the majority is and whom the pressure came from. Ristic saw himself not as the JUL leader but as a member of the Nobel prize committee: he wants to give the population of Kosovo (Serbs, ethnic Albanians and Turks) a collective peace prize.

Assessments

The rich collection of tributes paid to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic includes one by New Democracy (ND) leader Dusan Mihajlovic on radio Belgrade: "The wise and brave policies of President Milosevic and the leadership of FR Yugoslavia, in the form of the Dayton agreement, suspension of the sanctions, achieving peace and efficient solution to problems, deserves every praise".

Mihajlovic also commented the Marjanovic government: "without it, things would be much worse considering the conditions it was formed under".

Guinness Records

Early this month, MP Rufi Osman asked the Macedonian parliament about the criteria to appoint bankruptcy managers. Reporters at Dnevnik daily also showed interest in that occupation and it turned out that six men are handling bankruptcy proceedings in over 700 companies.

That list, worthy of the Guinness book of records, is headed by economic superman Mladen Bozinovski who is handling 325 companies at the moment. Spira Mitrovski ranks second with 166 companies, Dragan Velickovski with 90, Ilija Zakovski with 76, Srboljub Gligorov with 72 and Stojan Kokorovski with just 60.

Mitevski handled 89 bankruptcies from January to April this year which means he spent one day per company. Dnevnik sources said the managers come to work and ask what can be sold to liquidate the company efficiently. The only thing they’re interested in is getting paid for the time they waste and they’re selling off companies for peanuts. State debts are covered first and if anything is left over other creditors get a share.

Why Was Argument Discontinued

The Argument editorial board decided to stop publishing the fortnightly magazine, editor in chief Ratko Dmitrovic said last Tuesday. His statement said the magazine is being discontinued because "pressure on it has increased greatly through the obstruction of sales and collecting money from sales".

Dmitrovic told VREME that Argument’s serious problems with the regime began a year ago when the Krajina fell. He said his journalists predicted the tragic outcome and warned where the abandoning of "a healthy national policy" was leading. Although he was once a regime man on the state TV (RTS), Dmitrovic believes he preserved his moral integrity because he didn’t follow orders and change his views like many others.

Ever since peace became the only alternative, Argument was left hanging, disliked by the authorities, democratic opposition and international community. The result is evident.

Djindjic Trial Continues

After unprecedented state media pressure on the Belgrade district court and judge Goran Carlina because Democratic Party (DS) leader Zoran Djindjic wasn’t sentenced immediately following orders from Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic’s cabinet, district court judge Miroslav Todorovic made public accusations against Marjanovic. "Mirko Marjanovic threatened dismissals if he isn’t happy with the outcome of the trial," he said and added that "no one can be declared guilty prior to a court ruling". Todorovic got the support of almost all of Belgrade’s judges. District court investigating judge Dobrivoje Gerasimovic told Dnevni Telegraf that "there has been huge pressure on judges recently especially from the state media". SPS spokesman Ivica Dacic spoke to Dnevni Telegraf on the topic. He claimed the pressure was coming from Djindjic and added: "Anyone who lies can’t get away with them". And: "The press is free except when it reports falsehoods". People who still listen to Dacic should be concerned after he said: "Political officials in power should be punished if they’re lying".

Holiday Quarrel

The Yugoslav government proposed state holidays on the New Year, FRY statehood day (April 27), Labor Day (May 1), Victory Day (May 9) and November 29. Federal justice minister Vladimir Krivokapic said the government decided to keep November 29 as a holiday as the date the break with the monarchy was made and the start of the republic. SPS MP Goran Percevic proposed July 4 as a holiday and explained that the holiday would stress the continuity of the Serbian and Montenegrin fight for freedom, start of the fight against fascism and symbol of many liberation wars.

The federal parliament’s chamber of citizens stopped its debate on the draft law in mid-session - formally because it lacked a quorum and in fact because of opposition to the draft. MPs opposed November 29 as a holiday. Federal deputy Prime Minister Jovan Zebic asked for a 10 minute break so the government could reconsider its amendment. After the break, MPs from the Nikola Pasic Radical Party didn’t come back to the session along with the Montenegrin Radicals and some SPS MPs and the session ended. It wasn’t attended at all by the SPO, SRS, NSCG and some DS MPs.

The FRY hasn’t had a law on public holidays since 1992 although the deadline to adopt the law expired on December 31 that year. The parliament chamber of republics adopted the law with the government amendment.

Resolution on Kosovo

The congress of European Liberal, Democratic and Reform parties in Vienna asked Slobodan Milosevic to start talks with Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova with third party mediation, Pristina’s Albanian language daily Bujku reported. The Kosovo Liberal Party (LPK), with support from the British Liberal Democrats and Italian Republicans, submitted a resolution on Kosovo which the congress adopted. It called for "the return of human, civic and national rights to the people of Kosovo and the re-opening of schools, health and culture institutions for the majority Albanian people in Kosovo. The resolution also proposed an international conference on Kosovo’s future. It asked for a temporary international protectorate if no progress is achieved in the talks and called for banning Serbia from international institutions until an acceptable solution is found.

SPS spokesman Ivica Dacic commented the frequent calls for a dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders saying "there are no negotiations on Kosovo. The international community has no right to set deadlines for talks and agreements because this is the internal affair of Serbia and Yugoslavia".

Oil Pipeline Starts Operating

After five years, the Yugoslav pipeline linking the Croatian island of Krk with the oil refinery of Pancevo in Serbia resumed operations and the first crude arrived on July 15. The deal on reopening the pipeline was signed by NIS Jugopetrol and Jadranski Naftovod. The last tanker with oil for Yugoslavia landed in Krk in the summer of 1991 but the 186,000 tons of Chinese crude was confiscated by Croatia.