News of the Day

Thursday, November 19th: The Federal Ministry of Labour said that National Independence Day, November 29th, will be marked by a holiday from November 29th through December 1st.

Friday: November 20th: Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian President, had separate talks with the presidents of all parties represented in parliament - the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Serbian Radical Party, the Serbian Renewal Movement, the Yugoslav Left Wing Alliance, the New Democracy and the Vojvodina Hungarians' League.

Saturday, November 21st: The Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti has been fined with 380,000 dinars for what judge Miomir Zugic qualified as a violation of the new media law, after the SRS president Vojislav Seselj pressed charges against the daily.

Sunday, November 22nd: A two-day international conference called "Self-Determination in International Law - Applications to the Kosovo Case" ends at Belgrade's Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Monday, November 23rd: The Serbian authorities are to triple some taxes and increase others five-fold as of November 26th.

Tuesday, November 24th: Adem Demaqi, the political representative of the illegal Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), sent a letter to Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, commending his decision to invite him to Wednesday's peace talks on Kosovo and qualifying it as a "significant step forward". Demaqi said he wouldn't attend the talks because he had been invited as a "private person", adding that the talks should be held at the federal rather than republican level.

Wednesday, November 25th: Talks between Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and the representatives of nine ethnic communities in Kosovo, not including ethnic Albanians, end with a declaration of support to the draft agreement on political self-authority in Kosovo.

Quotations

Statement of the Week:
By Biljana Jeftic, a Serbian folk singer who said she would press charges against Slobodan Stojicevic, a.k.a Caramel, for "bringing sacrilege to her name and career".
"He never answers his mobile phone, although I know for sure that he is there".

Aleksandar Cotric, a member of the SPO presidency: The Serbs' patience can't be abused indefinitely. No one should be surprised if Kosovo's Serbs decide to form guerrilla units operating on an "eye for an eye" principle. (carried by the daily Glas Javnosti)

Zarko Gavrilovic, a retired priest and the founder of the St. Sava party: "The Serbs have stopped paying attention to everything. The Patriarch is trying to save electricity by turning off all the lights, maybe that's why he can't see that various sects have taken into their hands a whole lot of children right under our noses. The church dares not question his authority. We don't know who he's negotiating with, nor about what, but we have accepted the "Agreement" unreservedly. (carried by the weekly Argument)

Ratko Dmitrovic, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Argument, says he saw the draft project of a solution to the Kosovo crisis, also known as the Hill document. "I saw that piece of paper and I was of two minds about whether to publish it or not in the weekly Argument. It looks so bad for the Serbs that I decided not to".

Rada Trajkovic, a doctor and a former minister, on Vojislav Seselj: He is suing and shutting down Serb media only, why doesn't he do the same with the dailies Bujku and Koha Ditore, published in Albanian. I would be very proud of him if he did". (carried by the weekly Svedok)