Open News

Will those listening to the RTV of Serbia Evening News learn of the world's anger caused by the shelling of UNPROFOR troops in the heart of Sarajevo ie, how will they interpret the latest threats to bomb Serb positions around Sarajevo amid the Geneva talks?

Serbia failed to learn why the world power-wielders are busily working on plans what to bomb unless Serbs withdraw from their positions round Sarajevo from either the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Evening News (July 26, 27 and 28, Editors N. Dragic, S. Jovic and M. Markovic). The Evening News last week also failed to carry an extremely sharp warning by the UNPROFOR Commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the even sharper reactions voiced by Mitterand, Juppe and the French government's request to UN and NATO headquarters; nor did it even mention the Western allies' agreement, but what it did carry was Karadzic's denial that his troops shelled UNPROFOR Sarajevo headquarters. The denial was the only news item in three days upon which one was able to conclude that UN peace-keepers in Sarajevo had been under attack.

TV Serbia special correspondent from Geneva also made no mention of the incident, although he was obliged to, but he did his best to explain that the Serbo-Croat agreement was the only acceptable one; the only thing he managed to utter about the Bosnia-Herzegovina proposal was that it was "old and unitarian, which the other two sides reject". The man obviously knows what he is talking about. Just as he knows precisely whose statements he should carry - we were able to hear Milosevic, Karadzic, a sentence or two by Owen and Stoltenberg were included, but there were no statements from other participants in the Geneva talks on Bosnia - neither from Bulatovic, Tudjman, Boban, Izetbegovic, Lasic nor Pejanovic.

The new Governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, however, seems not to fear for his job; he pledged he would issue all the needed money (will there be enough paper for it?), he pledged public works (oh, no, not again?), but he also said he was shocked when he first saw a new bill in the hands of a currency dealer although he is the Governor! Most of his first news conference was devoted to qualifying papers and present journalists as fit and unfit, which he did crassly, unreservedly but condescendingly. It will remain unclear why TV Serbia did not carry the whole press conference and we can only wonder whether the editor aimed to protect the newly-appointed Governer or his mechanism.

Neither Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic nor Serbian President Milosevic's ex-advisor Zeljko Simic had the right answer to the question why Milosevic failed to receive Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Klaes? There was also no news about the announced Peace March of 10,000 people from throughout the world to Sarajevo, about the wounding of a Republican Assembly deputy in Novi Sad (it can't be because I. Djukanovic is a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement, can it?), about new tensions between Belgrade and Washington over the CSCE, about the Belgrade metal-workers' demand for 3.7-billion-dinar high salaries in July, about another attempt by Dafiment Bank owner Dafina Milanovic to leave the country....

EIV