Issue 242 - May 28, 1996

The latest political solution has proved that Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic has no power in Pale. If Slobodan Milosevic had been asked, Nikola Koljevic would have been the "acting president." Three years of Milosevic's efforts to remove Karadzic in Pale, or to find him a credible alternative in Banja Luka, have yielded no results

The fate of the Bosnian Serbs depends on one man - Radovan Karadzic. With him the future is hunger, isolation, refugees. Without him everything they spilled their blood for topples. Karadzic's fate will be decided by Slobodan Milosevic who is being threatened with sanctions again. Without Milosevic there would be no dilemma

Karadzic is in a comfortable position now: he has less duties, a wall of people around him and he still orders a lot of things but isn't responsible for anything

The authorities are controlling social unrest like a forest fire - putting it out in one spot and shutting it up in another

The era of National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic will be recorded in our economic history as a period of the relatively solid dinar which appeared after a total economic disaster. This dinar did not save us from misery and poverty, just as Avramovic did not manage to change the nature of this "non-monetary economy," but old Avram and his dinar did teach us to tell the difference between a horn and a candle

We had modern hospitals, modern equipment and decent salaries. They have led us to the point where we have nothing to work with and they are not paying us. They keep handing out instructions to ration the medical supplies and to limit the number of patients

Developments have broken Albanian illusions that a solution is coming from outside and now they're looking for ways to adapt to the new reality in resignation or with anger