This Week September 24 - September 30, 1998

Thursday, September 24
Belgrade - Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic invokes his post of SPS president to chair the SPS main board session. A draft platform on Kosovo proposed by Mirko Marjanovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, was adopted after a 90-minute debate. The Serbian government held another session rallying the deputies of the parties represented in the assembly - the Socialist Party, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and the Left Wing Alliance (JUL). All parties approved the government's position on Kosovo.
Podgorica - The district attorney said he pressed charges against federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic on September 17 for abuse of power (Bulatovic paroled 17 prisoners).
Valimura - The NATO council adopted an "Act of Warning" as the organization's "significant political instrument reflecting its readiness to apply force if necessary".
Pristina - Sabri Hamiti, one of Ibrahim Rugova's close aides, is wounded outside his flat in Pristina's suburb Dardanija.

Friday, September 25
Banjaluka, Sarajevo - The CSCE announces final results of the Bosnian elections. Nikola Poplasen becomes the new president of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Zivko Radisic, Alija Izetbegovic and Ante Jelavic are the new members of the Bosnia-Herzegovina presidency.

Saturday, September 26
Skopje - The defense ministers of Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Italy, Macedonia and Albania sign a treaty on forming an Eastern European peace keeping force.
Bonn - Klaus Kinkel, the German foreign minister, calls for an urgent UN conference on providing humanitarian aid to refugees in Kosovo.

Sunday, September 27
Sarajevo - The SFOR arrests Stevan Todorovic, a Bosnian Serb indicted by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes committed in the town of Bosanski Samac from June 13 to July 29, 1992.

Monday, September 28
Belgrade - The Serbian parliament's special session ends with the adoption of the government report and declaration on Kosovo. Zoran Andjelkovic is elected head of the Transitional Executive Council for running Kosovo until the crisis ends. Mirko Marjanovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, said the "quest against terrorism in Kosovo had been completed" and added that Serb troops would be withdrawn from the southern province.
Podgorica - The Montenegrin government says the republic's Constitution is in "full accord" with the federal Constitution.
Tirana - Fatos Nano, the Albanian Prime Minister, resigns.

Tuesday, September 29
Belgrade - An earthquake measuring 8 degrees on the Mercury scale (5.4 on the Richter scale) hits Serbia. The center was on Mount Maljen, but even Belgrade's citizens felt the quake at 5 degrees on the Mercure scale. The earthquake caused a lot of panic but no casualties have been reported.
More than 62,000 people have complied with the interior minister's instructions to re-register vehicles bought in Montenegro, says the Serbian interior ministry.
 
Wednesday, September 30
Brussels - The NATO command says it has worked a military intervention in Kosovo. NATO's commanders say they are awaiting the go ahead from the organization's headquarters.