News of the Day

Thursday, November 12th: The Executive Board of the SPS Main Board unanimously relieved Milorad Vucelic of his duties as member of the main board and a deputy in the Serbian parliament for "unruly behavior and idleness".

Friday, November 13th: The National Bank of Yugoslavia suspends money circulation with the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) after the RS government decision to set the official exchange rate at 7.5 dinars for one German mark.

Saturday, November 14th: Goran Paskaljevic's "Powder Keg" wins the European film of the year award in Salonika.

Sunday, November 15: Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian President, calls Kosovo's ethnic Albanian officials to restore dialogue on November 18th to resolve the conflict in Serbia's southern province. Milutinovic invited the ambassadors of Russia, the United States, Austria and China to attend the talks as guests.

Monday, November 16th: The Hague Tribunal for War Crimes convicts three Bosnian Federation soldiers for atrocities against Serbs in the Celebic concentration camp in 1992. Zejnil Delalic, the first one on the list, was acquitted.

Tuesday, November 17th: The Serbian Assembly adopts a fresh set of tax laws. The new laws envisage a larger section of the population subject to tax and a 2.3 billion dinar increase in the annual budget.

Wednesday, November 18th: Talks between Serbs and ethnic Albanian representatives did not get underway in Pristina. The ethnic Albanian party and the foreign diplomats invited turned down Serbian President Milan Milutinovic's invitation. Milutinovic, on the other hand, rejected Christopher Hill's document as the basis for a solution to the Kosovo conflict, having qualified it as a document in discord with the Serbian and the Yugoslav Constitution.
 

QUOTES:

Milovan Bojic, the Serbian vice-premier and a voluntary refugee from Banja Luka: " I had the opportunity to learn about the democracy of gun barrels and armored vehicles. I was ordered to leave a hotel when a legitimate RS official, who was also an RS vice-premier and the president of a party whose candidate became the RS president, was kicked out of the hotel. Naturally, I showed solidarity with my compatriot and left for Yugoslavia with him, while lots of low-flying aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles escorted us all the way to the border (carried by the daily Borba).

Aleksandra Joksimovic, a JUL member and a student of the Medical faculty: "The JUL's Belgrade University Committee is a constructive spark, an ignition that has set ablaze the fighting spirit in all Yugoslavia's universities". Having said this in the presence of Mrs. Mira Markovic, the JUL president, Ms. Joksimovic demonstrated that she is just as good as the party's more prominent members when it comes to rhetoric. "Those who leave the country when they graduate are afraid to enjoy life here, under our southern sky. They become prey, they allow foreign raindrops to wet their skins, they are the reason why our mothers give birth to foreign mercenaries at the eve of the 21st century", she added. (carried by the daily Borba)
 
Gorica Gajevic, the SPS secretary general: "I had certain talent in literature and I attained the highest grades in this field. I even took part in a few competitions, but it all came to an end when I went to law school. My rational and analytical abilities enabled me to switch from lyrics to law very quickly. The language of law at times looks boring and tedious, yet it can be a real challenge."
"I am one of those people who don't plan the days ahead. I stick to the principle "we will see what happens". I like daydreaming, but dreams wouldn't be what they are if I turned them into reality. We all need a lot of strength to get through all the things that life brings".

STATEMENT OF THE WEEK:
"I haven't had the time to open all the renovated and newly constructed facilities since I became the Minister of Justice".  (by Dragoljub Jankovic, the new Serbian Minister of Justice, to the daily Glas).