Issue 138 - May 16, 1994

Who will go to Tirana, Moscow, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw...

The police is on decline when it comes to its professional skills. It used to be among the most efficient in Europe in sense of preserving the public peace and order and curbing crime. Originally the avant-garde of the working class, the police turned into the avant-garde of the ethnic war

World diplomacy can do something in the Yugoslav crisis only by a series of relay activities. At all the turning points, and in spite of negotiations at the Geneva Peace Conference, world powers have taken turns in undertaking special diplomatic activities aimed at lifting sanctions and in searching for new, pragmatic approaches to the crisis.

``Those who acted against the establishing and preserving of the sovereign state of Croatia in 1990 and 1991 will face the court these days,'' Croatian President Franjo Tudjman told the news conference on VE Day. The Ministry of the Interior specified what he meant.

The calling on the right to self-determination, and the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has turned a very large group of people who once enjoyed full citizenship rights into foreigners, without their having been given a chance to decide on anything. Citizens should not be afraid of saying their names out loud. This, however, is not the case

After a lot of nervous anticipation registered by the media, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has come up with the draft Law on Yugoslav citizenship. On looking through the draft, we have concluded that things could have been worse. Luckily, they aren't. We hope that things will get better, if during the period of debate, criticism which I am sure will crop up, is accepted

The long-awaited solution to the problem of old foreign currency savings accounts might be adopted these days, albeit as a temporary, compromise formula: a servicing of the debt in modest monthly installments, for the duration of UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions, while a definite decision would be reached after the lifting of sanctions.

``British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hogg's visit to Kosovo at the end of last week, is a start at unravelling the Gordian knot of Kosovo. Viewed realistically, however, the problem is very complex and the stands and concepts aimed at resolving the crisis are still distant, so that the knot cannot be unravelled at a faster pace,'' said vicepresident of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK) Fehmi Agani, the number two man after DSK leader Ibrahim Rugova.

Spreading fear with threats has become a common and efficient way of forcing the witnesses to remain silent. However, it is certain that the time is yet to come when the criminals will have a free hand to pursue their activities without fearing prosecution