News of the Day

Thursday, 3 December
The Federal Parliament adopts the 1999 budget at 15.848 billion dinars, which is 9.09 percent of next year's average gross national product amounting to 174.263 billion dinars.

Friday, 4 December
The Yugoslav Parliament adopts a law on compensating foreign currency savings. The banks will start repaying citizens who had foreign currency savings on 1 July 1999.

Saturday, 5 December
US President Bill Clinton informed the Congress that he has extended the outer wall of sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia for another six months.
Clinton said that autonomy for Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and democratization in Yugoslavia were required to lift the sanctions.

Monday, 7 December
The Serbian Parliament adopts the 1999 budget at 21.458 billion dinars. The parliament also adopts a law on special rights for elected republican deputies.

Tuesday, 8 December
The Swiss Glenkor Corporation dealing with raw materials assumes a five-year governing term over the almost bankrupt Podgorica aluminum enterprise (KAP). The Swiss corporation thus gained control over a half of Montenegro's overall economy, says the daily Financial Times.

Wednesday, 9 December
The Serbian team rejects the Hill plan for Kosovo shortly after the ethnic Albanian team did the same, following Serbian President Milan Milutinovic's meeting with the representatives of parliamentary parties.

Quotes

MILAN BOZIC, representative of SPO (the Serbian Renewal Movement): "It is the people which are supposed to choose whether they want their state officials to live on salaries or on corruption!?"

TOMISLAV NIKOLIC, vice-president of the Serbian Government: "The referendum was necessary and it was a good move, it tested the will of the citizens. We did not come out before of the citizens of Serbia with a pre-conceived package of solutions in order to check whether they are good or bad. We only asked them if they agreed that we were responsible for such an important question as Kosovo and Metohija. Of course, we did not dare show all the cards to the world. By including in the referendum question, the regulation which stands against foreign interference - we meant foreign military intervention." (...) The vice-president evokes memories of Richard Holbrooke, whose work days seemed to last twenty-eight hours: "President Milosevic had long and demanding negotiations with Richard Holbrooke, we were informed about the progress and took part in creating the texts which, during those seven or eight days of negotiations, were approaching the moment of signing. Those conversations with Holbrooke were exhausting and had a note of blackmail about them, and that is because Holbrooke is a representative of an enormous power before which all countries in the world tremble, one which cannot grasp that a small country like ours, which has undergone so much during the last seven years (from being exposed to wars and starvation, to living to see her factories disappearing, and her children having no secured future), still does not want to give up her sovereignty, and does not acknowledge anybody's right to decide her future within her boundaries. It sometimes happened that these conversations lasted 15 hours a day, and that Holbrooke spent about 13 hours on the phone. The agreement does not, in any possible way, imperil
Serbia or SRJ, and we could not trace any deficiency to it, except, of course, that in some way it suggests a solution to certain problems, which, to be honest, never crossed our minds. We did not actually consider that the Albanians could have their own judges, their own police, their own schools where they would be able to teach their children according to their own programs... (...) We shall not allow that anyone talk to the president of Yugoslavia or Serbia again. Now we shall determine a new level (‘Svedok’).

NENAD CANAK, one of the three degraded representatives of the Serbian Parliament: "Veselinov and Seselj together, initiated this falsified conspiracy. They had to cancel our mandates because we prepared a detailed discussion about the republic budget, which gives opportunity for the government to operate with 1.000.000.000. DM through the Minister of Finance, whereas the public has no way of knowing it."('Danas')

DRAGAN VESELINOV, leader of the Coalition Vojvodina: "Let them learn what our law looks like and how they should maintain the stability of the coalition. Certain political differences also emerged: Canak recently put on his military camouflage uniform for a meeting with OSCE representatives, which deviates from the peaceful policy we had initiated. Perhaps he wanted to emphasize the possibility of war between Serbia and Vojvodina in the future." ('Danas')

THE STATEMENT OF THE WEEK: "I think it is in accordance with all the movements predicted in economics." (DRAGAN TOMIC, President of the Serbian Parliament; regarding the Law on Rights and Obligations of chosen individuals. ('Danas')