BELGRADE, 27 June 2000 FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA YUGOSLAVIA LODGES STRONGEST PROTEST TO U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL EFFORTS TO ISOLATE YUGOSLAVIA ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - DIASPORA DIASPORA COUNCIL FOR FRANCE OPENS PRESS CENTER SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA PRISTINA UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY UNIVERSITY PRESERVED IN SPITE OF GENOCIDE BY ETHNIC ALBANIANS AND KOUCHNER U.N. PEACE MISSION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA REVEALED ITS TRUE INTERESTS KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - TERRORISM KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ALBANIAN TERRORISTS WOUND AND TRY TO ABDUCT SERB KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS PUTIN: YUGOSLAV LEADERS MUST BE INVOLVED IN BALKAN PEACE PROCESS FROM FOREIGN MEDIA UNITED NATIONS IN EVER DARKER DEAD END * * * FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA YUGOSLAVIA LODGES STRONGEST PROTEST TO U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL NEW YORK, June 27 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia has lodged the strongest protest to the United Nations Security Council over its refusal to allow the Yugoslav representative to the United Nations to participate in the meeting of the Security Council on the Balkans on June 23. Yugoslav Ambassador to the U.N. Vladislav Jovanovic said in the protest letter to council President, French Ambassador Jean David Levitte that "the rejection of the request of the FR of Yugoslavia is discriminatory and contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations." "As a country situated in the central part of the Balkans and a signatory party and a guarantor of the Dayton-Paris Agreement, as well as a country with the agreement of which the international civil and military presences have been deployed in part of its territory, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has more right than any other country to participate in the meeting of the Security Council," Jovanovic said. "However, it has had that right denied on the basis of a procedural decision," he said. "While all other United Nations member-states that requested to participate in the meeting were allowed to do so, my country was prevented even though it had an evident and a very strong interest in its debate," the Yugoslav ambassador said. "The request of the FR of Yugoslavia to participate in the work of the Security Council was legitimate and along the lines of the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, i.e. the right of every state to participate in the work of the Security Council dealing with issues of its immediate concern," the letter said. In closing, the Yugoslav ambassador asked that the letter be circulated as a document of the Security Council. EFFORTS TO ISOLATE YUGOSLAVIA ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE BELGRADE, June 26 (Tanjug) - Friday's session of the U.N. Security Council on the Balkans and the subsequent cancellation of a scheduled "informal" meeting in Ohrid, Macedonia, of prime ministers of states neighbouring on Yugoslavia "are typical examples of pointless and politically counterproductive efforts to isolate Yugoslavia and expose it to fresh pressure", a Yugoslav official said on Monday. Assistant foreign minister and foreign ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic told TANJUG that "in a style it has practiced for some time, the United States brought brute pressure to bear on the U.N. Security Council in New York which, however, most members refused to knuckle under. "Everybody who takes an objective and sober view of the current situation in southeast Europe must have realised from the start that a debate on the future on the Balkans without Yugoslavia's participation simply makes no sense. "It must be clear also that absurd moves of this kind boomerang on the Balkans, taking our region away from development projects, stability and neighbourliness. "By its geographic position, economic and other potentials, and also as a symbol of resistance to foreign dictate and aggression, Yugoslavia is simply an indispensable factor of regional stability and cooperation. "Nothing and nobody, including the United States and NATO, can change this with any kind of transparent manoeuvring", Vujovic said. "As for the cancellation of the 'informal' meeting at Ohrid of prime ministers of countries neighbouring on Yugoslavia, a meeting which in itself is politically absurd, this, in our view, was nothing but a logical consequence of the American fiasco at New York. "The problem is that the United States can attain its object in the Balkans only by force and blackmail, paying no heed to the complexity and sensitivity of intra-Balkan relations. "This creates a painful impression in the public in the neighbouring countries, which once again induced the governments of the neighbouring countries to pause and not allow themselves to be manipulated again for others' ends", Vujovic said. F.R. YUGOSLAVIA - DIASPORA DIASPORA COUNCIL FOR FRANCE OPENS PRESS CENTER PARIS, June 27 (Tanjug) - The Diaspora Council for France opened a Press Center in Paris whose main objective is professional collecting and distribution of all information of importance for Yugoslavs who live, work and study in France, and the strengthening of information-media cooperation between the Yugoslav diaspora in France and the native country. Press Center Director Dusan Ostojic, who also chairs the Information Commission of the Diaspora Council, said the center would also provide constant telephone, telefax and InterNet communication between diaspora members and about 30 countries all over the world. The Press Center will devote special attention to the distribution of information from the native country which pertain to new laws and regulations in Yugoslavia and its Republic of Serbia, and which are of importance to its citizens living abroad, possibilities for investments in small-scale businesses and the development of the village, organized trips of children and young people of the diaspora to the native country for strengthening their national, cultural and spiritual identity. The center will have its own web site on the InterNet starting from the autumn, in Serbian and French, so as to contribute to spreading the truth about Serb people and Yugoslavia in France and the world. It is also examining the possibility of acquiring a small prefabricated radio and television studio, Ostojic said. SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA PRISTINA UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, June 26 (Tanjug) - Pristina University Chancellor Jagos Zelenovic conferred 11 doctor of science degrees at the Mining and Metallurgy College in Kosovska Mitrovica in the Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province on Monday. The promotions were part of celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the University of Pristina. At this time last year, ethnic Albanian terrorists drove out 95 percent of the University's faculty, in plain view and with the support of international representatives, Zelenovic said. "Pristina University, 13 of whose 14 colleges have been displaced, has managed to hang on to its students and faculty with the help of the Yugoslav government, the Yugoslav committee liaising with the U.N. mission to Kosovo and Metohija, the Kosovo and Metohija Provisional Executive Council and municipal authorities", he said. Pristina University now has 17,000 students and 13,000 professors and associates. UNIVERSITY PRESERVED IN SPITE OF GENOCIDE BY ETHNIC ALBANIANS AND KOUCHNER KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, June 27 (Tanjug) - University of Pristina Chancellor Jagos Zelenovic said on Tuesday that this institution has survived in spite of the genocidal policy of ethnic Albanian terrorists and U.N. Kosovo and Metohija civilian mission chief Bernard Kouchner which is practiced against Serbs in this southern Serbian province. "With the arrival of international representatives in Kosovo and Metohija, ethnic Albanian terrorists tried to destroy classes at the university and, with Kouchner's direct support, intended to take over our university and thus give their parallel illegal one international recognition," Professor Zelenovic said in an interview to "Tanjug" on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of this university. In this atmosphere of pressures and direct threats to the lives of staff members, the Serbian government decided to dislocate the university and began the struggle for its survival. Six faculties have remained in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and eight have been moved to Serbia proper. The staff and students have remained loyal to the university almost 100 percent, and today, a year after extreme efforts at consolidation, the school year has been completed successfully at all 45 departments and 950 courses on all 14 faculties, Zelenovic said. U.N. PEACE MISSION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA REVEALED ITS TRUE INTERESTS PRISTINA, June 27 (Tanjug) - Kosovo and Metohija Temporary Executive Council member and Democratic Reformist Part of Ethnic Albanians (DRPA) President Sokolj Cuse said in Pristina on Tuesday that the United Nations peace mission, which is a total fiasco and which has inflicted severe damage to non-Albanians and ethnic Albanians who want coexistence in this southern Serbian province, "has no place in that part of the sovereign territory of Serbia and FR of Yugoslavia, because it has shown what its true interests are." After today's talks in Pristina with representatives of the European Union observer mission in Kosovo and Metohija, Cuse said the civilian mission UNMIK was continuing with the old practice of deluding the world public by using statistical figures to fog up the actual security situation in the southern Serbian province and hide those who are responsible for the terrorist attacks, chaos and violence. Not a single UNMIK statement, or that of their policemen, "ever says anything along the lines - who are the perpetrators of armed attacks, who are the murderers, who steals, or who breaks into another person's apartment," Cuse said. "That incomprehensible compassion for terrorists of the UNMIK, but also the KFOR, is starting to irritate even hardened Albanian guardians, and it is increasingly difficult to explain to the public, especially those in the west, what is in fact happening in Kosovo and Metohija," Cuse warned. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - TERRORISM KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ALBANIAN TERRORISTS WOUND AND TRY TO ABDUCT SERB ORAHOVAC, June 26 (Tanjug) - Two ethnic Albanians tried to abduct a Serb outside his home in U.N.-administered Kosovo and Metohija early on Monday, gravely wounding him in the head in the process, according to amateur radio operators' reports. Milorad Soric, whose home is on the line of separation between Serb and ethnic Albanian parts of Orahovac in the southwest of that Serbian province, had come out of his home in response to a loud knocking on the door and windows. Two ethnic Albanians then grabbed him and tried to drag him into the ethnic Albanian part of the town, but Soric got hold of an attacker's legs and a tree for support, which they tried to loosen by beating him on the head with a rock. German U.N. troops at a checkpoint some 20 metres away watched the incident, and only ran to Soric's aid after the ethnic Albanians had let him go and had run off to their part of the town. Failing to drag him off, the attackers threatened Soric they would burn him alive in his home for his stubborn refusal to move out. KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS PUTIN: YUGOSLAV LEADERS MUST BE INVOLVED IN BALKAN PEACE PROCESS MOSCOW, June 26 (Tanjug) - Russia's President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow on Monday it is necessary to involve Yugoslavia's leaders in the Balkan peace process and unconditionally secure Yugoslavia's territorial integrity. Problems can be solved only by a joint effort of all countries interested in resolving the Balkan crisis, and Russia is willing to do its bit in the process, Putin said, speaking after meeting with visiting Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos. "The problems of the Mediterranean should be resolved on the basis of fundamental principles of international law," Putin stressed. He went on to say Russia welcomes "Greece's proposal to consider some disputable matters in international courts". Stressing that the Balkan crisis can be settled only on the basis of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, he said "we have to ensure unconditional demilitarisation of Kosovo and disarmament of the Kosovo-Albanian army". Stephanopoulos, in turn, said they had exchanged views on various aspects of bilateral political and economic relations and on topical international issues. FROM FOREIGN MEDIA UNITED NATIONS IN EVER DARKER DEAD END SKOPJE, June 27 (Tanjug) - Skopje opposition media on Tuesday sharply criticized the United Nations and its Security Council over the developments at the latest council session on the Balkans. The world should have realized already that problems in the Balkans cannot be settled without Yugoslavia, the strongest state in that region, if for no other reason than because all attempts so far to do otherwise have yielded poor results, contrary to those which had been announced or promised, media said. Yugoslavia managed to have control over its entire territory, including Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, and, now, when international forces arrived, chaos and lawlessness reign there. Instead of respecting this fact, the Security Council is making a new, disastrous mistake, refusing to allow Yugoslav Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic, the representative of a sovereign state, to present his country's stands on issues which directly concern that state, media said. The Security Council, which is in the hands of U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, then makes another wrong decision - it allows the session to be attended by Montenegrin Minister Branko Lukovac, even though he had no right to be there, the Skopje daily "Makedonija danas" said. With such proceedings, when a legitimate representative is denied attendance, and an illegitimate one granted it, the United Nations and Security Council are getting into a new dark dead end from which they cannot get out easily, nor can they make just and correct decisions from such a place, the commentary said. __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
