Issue 173 - January 23, 1995

The scandalous shortage of newsprint has resulted in smaller circulations and the dailies being late. Some weeklies were several days late, including VREME, which hasn't come out on time in the last two weeks. VREME has exhausted its newsprint reserves, while the printing works could not ensure sufficient quantities of paper. Some explanation for this can be found in the following article

Five-six years ago, when the first opposition parties were being founded and world communism started falling apart, Russia withdrew from Eastern Europe and the question of Kosovo and Yugoslavia were being opened, there were debates in Belgrade on what was more important: democracy or national goals? This was the time of the greatest homogenization, so that the dilemma was a rhetorical one as far as the Serbian elite was concerned. All threw themselves into great national affairs, convinced that there was always time for democracy and that it wouldn't slip by.

Nationalism in the East today is reflected in the fires raging in Chechnya, just as they did in the former Yugoslavia yesterday. This inferno threatens to engulf Dagestan and Ingushetia, while Tatarstan in central Russia is showing its anger and demanding greater autonomy. For the first time after 1991 diplomats are whispering about Russia being a "Yugoslavia with nuclear heads!" In post-socialism democracy cannot be achieved through the establishing of national states, but, on the contrary, only once this concept has been abandoned

If UNPROFOR really withdraws from Croatia the Krajina and Bosnian Serbs really could unite. Krajina Serb leaders see that as the only way to save their self-made state and the Bosnian Serbs see a union as another weapon against the Serbian president

FRY president Zoran Lilic abolished criminal proceedings against former Novi Sad corps commander Major General Bora Ivanovic whom military prosecutors charged with a number of crimes. Then came an unprecedentedly embarrassing moment for the army: Ivanovic was promoted on December 25 and to make things worse, he was appointed to the Belgrade Military School Center where they'll think up a job for him

According to the latest stories making the rounds in Belgrade, the present Minister of Religion in the Serbian Government Dragan Dragojlovic could be appointed the new Yugoslav Ambassador to the Vatican

A monthly consumer basket for a four member Montenegrin family costs 760 dinars, the Alliance of Independent Unions said in Podgorica. The figure is based on their own research. Just before the New Year a family of four could meet their basic needs with 656 dinars, Montena-Fax said. Minimum monthly salaries in Montenegro stand at 90 dinars since wages have been frozen for three months. A Montenegrin family of four needs 16 of those salaries to meet its basic needs.

The brutal harassment of the local priest has caused a greater uproar among the inhabitants of Semberija (in Republic of Srpska), more than the expulsion of over 10,000 Muslims from nearby Janja