Issue 54 - October 5, 1992

At last the West has decided to assist Milan Panic and the Yugoslav Federal Government with something everybody can understand: clearance for the import of fuel for heating and field planting "for humanitarian reasons". It is a matter of the authorized Security Council committee approving the import of fuel to the amount of around 850,000 tons of petrol. As Panic's Minister of Industry Nikola Sainovic explained, it still has to be decided which form of petrol product will be approved for import.

The Federal Secretary for Defense at the time, Admiral Mamula, in his many tirades, repeated the pathetic question: "How many more Kellmendis are there in our units?" Probably no-one then could have offered an answer to the sensitive vanity and interests of the military establishment of Slobodan Milosevic. He masterfully rode the wave of "attacks on the Army"

One day, which, for the moment, seems pretty far away, Vesna Pesic, Nebojsa Popov and others rallied around the Citizens' Alliance will receive recognition at home as well for often playing the role of ice breakers on the Serbian political scene and for never using strong or week solutions of nationalism to dilute their basic stand that the sovereignty of citizens has priority, and that only then come all other sovereignties, national or state

Belgrade Mayoress Slobodanka Gruden is in Bucharest attending a meeting. This news item is pregnant with meaning for Belgraders as everything points to the fact that the coming winter will resemble those endured by the citizens of the Romanian capital, with all the characteristics that the adjective "Romanian" has taken on

Slobodan Milosevic used to resort to "Swiss voting" whenever he would start muddling: in 1990, a referendum "first the Constitution, than the election" was held in order to postpone parliamentary election; in May 1992, voting about the hymn and the flag was planted as a bite for federal election; when pressed by requests for his resignation, Milosevic said in July that he issue would be "put on a referendum", what he is now doing