Issue 130 - March 21, 1994

The Serb offensive on Bihac has been under way since February 6, when a break-though was made between three-five kilometers on the Grabez heights and three kilometers on the Golubic heights.

The Washington agreement on the creation of a Muslim-Croatian federation, i.e., a Croatian-Bosnian confederation, has met with more skepticism than optimism. We talked with Aleksa Djilas, a professor at Harvard University, USA, who teaches Yugoslav history and the reasons for its disintegration.

Even if we were to believe in the honest intentions of the new Government to turn over a new leaf in the field of information, it is hard to believe that anyone will be capable of stopping or re-directing an enormous propaganda machine which has been turned in the wrong direction for years

According to an anecdote about Bogoljub Karic, the head of Serbia's major private company Braca Karic, he entered the media business by asking how high is the Politika building. After he was told that the building has 18 storeys, Karic said: "My publishing house will have 19."

Ministers from the United Left (rallying several Communist-oriented parties) were met joyously - who is putting together a government - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic or his wife?

Readers will probably find it unusual that VREME asked bankers what they thought of claims made by the three governments (Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro) of the existence of a bankers' lobby which is not interested in the survival of a stable dinar. VREME's editorial staff do, however, believe in the responsibility of words spoken publicly by responsible persons, and for this reason we are bringing the views of four commercial bank presidents.

Zvonimir Markovic, the head of the Republic of Croatia Bureau in Belgrade comes from Dalmatia.

The issue was opened in the Serbian Parliament, when Milisav Petkovic, a Democratic Party deputy, mentioned a man "who has been a citizen of Serbia for ten years. He was forced to sign a volunteer-for-the-front statement after passing a seven-day training course in a school in Derventa (B-H)."