Informazione
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_419_5_eng.txt
German Media Giant Dominates Balkans
Massive investment by a German publisher is revolutionising media in
the Balkans, but opinion is divided over the merits of the
transformation.
By Julie Poucher Harbin in Vienna and Sarajevo, Elena Yoncheva in
Bulgaria, Vera Didanovic in Serbia, and Drago Hedl in Croatia (BCR No
419, 01-04-03)
Germany's WAZ media group is pumping millions of dollars into former
state newspapers in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, giving ailing
titles a new lease of life. Yet there are fears the takeovers could
lead to a suffocating monopoly, concentrating media in the hands of a
few powerful businessmen.
The opening up of media to western investors in the early and mid-
1990s offered a fresh start to many papers in eastern and south-
eastern Europe. Unprecedented levels of investment and exciting new
formats seemed a sure-fire way of making them more competitive and
attracting a new readership. But have these hopes been justified? Or
has western ownership of large sections of the press come at too high
a price?
Many western countries have experienced the downside of having too
few owners in control of too many newspapers. This must be a
particular worry in the Balkans, where an absolute state monopoly
over the press is still very recent. Papers are generally on a weak
commercial footing, and the regulatory environment is still nascent.
The press is an important opinion-former in the Balkans, but
historically it has been very vulnerable to political pressure. As
wealthy foreign media companies move in to buy up leading titles,
many fear that one form of monopoly ownership and political bias
could simply be replaced by another - that of big business.
There are concerns that smaller players will be driven out of the
market, and that with them will go true pluralism of expression.
Editorial freedom may be curbed as much by the demand to "dumb down"
as by overt political pressures.
In this special report, IWPR looks at how one of the major players
now in the Balkans, Germany's WAZ media group, has operated in three
countries. We have taken Bulgaria, Croatia and Yugoslavia (now Serbia
and Montenegro) as our examples, because media development has moved
at a different pace in each country despite many common concerns. Of
the three, Bulgaria has the longest experience of WAZ involvement in
the press, while for Serbia it is still a novelty.
THE RISE OF WAZ
WAZ is a German media giant built on the success of the Essen paper
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, from which it takes its initials.
The media group already published a wide range of daily papers and
magazines across Germany, Austria and Hungary before it went into
south-east Europe in 1996.
Since that time, it has become the unchallenged leader among foreign
media investors. Pumping millions of euro into publishing houses and
printing plants in the region since the mid-90s, WAZ owns an
additional 13 papers and numerous magazines in Bulgaria, Croatia,
Yugoslavia and Romania.
A few figures should suffice to show the scale of WAZ's conquests. In
Bulgaria it controls a third of print publications and nearly half
the print advertising market. In Croatia the group, together with its
local partner, have between one third and one half of the daily paper
and magazine market respectively.
In Serbia it owns half of the major publishing house that puts out
the prominent Belgrade daily Politika. With investments on the cards
in Montenegro and northern Serbia, it is only the beginning of their
expansion plans there.
Add to this the majority stake that WAZ has obtained in two leading
Romanian papers, National and Romania Libera, since 2001, and you
begin to get the picture.
And it is not over yet. In an interview for IWPR, Dr Markus Beermann,
who is in charge of WAZ's operations outside Germany, said his firm
is looking forward to a boom in the print market all across south-
east Europe. "It has been an enormous challenge for us investing in
the Balkans," he said. "But we are sure we are on the right track."
UNSTOPPABLE?
In the tough economic aftermath of communism and civil war in the
Balkans, the group's huge budget gave it virtually a free hand to buy
up major papers and spruce up both their look and their content with
the help of better journalists attracted by higher wages.
Refurbishing obsolete printing presses allows the Germans to slash
production and distribution costs.
Such economic clout has naturally given rise to concerns that across
the region, WAZ is seeking a monopoly over papers, distribution
systems and advertising revenue. A trade union representative of the
group's German workforce put it bluntly:
"WAZ is almost unstoppable," Horst Leroi warned a trade union seminar
held in Zagreb in 2001. "Wherever it goes, it buys more and more,
taking over newspapers, printing firms and distribution networks,
destroying the competition or merging with it. Then it rationalises
and creates publishing and marketing pools. And wherever possible the
number of employees is reduced. Everything is directed towards one
single goal: maximum profits."
There's some evidence to support this harsh view. Take Bulgaria,
where the group has had more time to establish itself as dominant
player than in Croatia or Serbia.
BULGARIA: AGGRESSIVE BUSINESS, TIMID REGULATION
WAZ first entered the Bulgarian market in 1996. Two years later, it
owned the country's biggest dailies and controlled three-quarters of
the print media market, with shares valued at 50 million euro. Its
subsidiary, WAZ Media Group Bulgaria, owned the Media Holding
company, which publishes the biggest circulation daily, Trud, as well
as another publishing group, Press Group 168 Hours, that prints the
popular daily 24 Chasa and the weekly 168 Chasa.
This sweeping success did not go unnoticed by the authorities. In
1999, Bulgaria's anti-monopoly agency, the Committee for the
Protection of Competition, CPC, decided that WAZ had breached
legislation prohibiting ownership of more than 35 per cent of the
country's media by any one firm. As a result, the group was forced to
divest itself of most of its shares in Media Holding. It sold 65 per
cent to Bulgarian, Austrian and Swiss investors, and held on to 35
per cent.
The redistribution apparently brought the Germans back within the
law. That's certainly the way the CPC sees it. Its chairman, Nikolay
Pavlov, told IWPR in an interview that WAZ no longer has an ownership
monopoly. Its share of the market is now somewhere between 30 and 37
per cent, he said. He also said the group no longer has an
advertising monopoly - a view which contrasts sharply with his
commission's 1999 ruling that WAZ controlled 70 per cent of the print
advertising market.
Dr Beermann, too, rejects any talk of a monopoly. "The WAZ Group
holds an important share in the print media market, but is far away
from keeping a dominant position," he said. "Over and above that, the
print titles of our subsidiary company in Bulgaria are in keen
competition with each other."
This view is not shared by all Bulgarians. There is still a
perception that the biggest papers are in German hands, that WAZ
continues to monopolise print and advertising, and that, as a result,
independents cannot compete. This is borne out by the fact that WAZ
Media Group Bulgaria still fully owns Press Group 168 Hours and the
Exprint printing house, which prints all WAZ publications, including
24 Chasa and Trud.
Even if it does not technically have a monopoly, WAZ is still accused
by its critics of trying to squeeze rival publications out of the
market. In Bulgaria it distributes its papers on a sale-or-return
basis. Distributors thus tend to order more papers from the German
publisher and less from its competitors, who do not have a sale-or-
return policy and charge retailers the full amount however many they
sell. Add to that the fact that WAZ papers cost less, and it is easy
to see why Georgy Gotev of the low circulation Sega daily thinks the
group's sales policy could spell disaster for publications like his.
"They could destroy us very soon. We will disappear," Gotev told
IWPR.
But not all the blame is directed at WAZ itself. Some say that after
its initial tough stance, the CPC went soft on tackling WAZ's hold
over print media.
"We do not accuse WAZ, which is just doing its business," says Vesela
Vaceva, who heads BAREM, an association of local papers. "We accuse
the CPC, which allows this monopoly in the press."
This view is echoed by Radostina Konstantinova, deputy editor of
Monitor, one of the major competitors of leading WAZ titles.
"It is true that the WAZ monopoly is killing the Bulgarian press,"
she told IWPR. "We can't do anything in this situation, because the
only institution which could stop this monopoly, the CPC, is not
reliable."
CROATIA: CONTACTS OVER COMPETITION
As in Bulgaria, so also in Croatia WAZ appears to have come close to
an effective monopoly over the national press. The group's joint
venture with Croatia's Europa Press Holding, EPH, is today the
leading newspaper and magazine publisher.
Croatia was a natural target for WAZ investment, with a relatively
advanced economy already closely tied into German markets. In 1998,
WAZ spent 16 million euros acquiring 50 per cent ownership in EPH. At
the time, EPH already owned and published the daily Jutarnji List,
the weeklies Globus, Glorija, Arena, Mila and Auto Klub, and the
profitable Croatian editions of Cosmopolitan, Playboy and OK.
Analysts say that despite this impressive portfolio, EPH needed the
merger to obtain an injection of cash to support the ailing Jutarnji
List. That investment seems to have worked; today, Jutarnji List is
the country's second highest selling daily (after Vecernji List,
which is owned by Austria's Styria media group rather than WAZ).
And that is only one paper; across the entire Croatian market,
EPH/WAZ is a powerhouse, holding a 35 per cent share of the daily
newspaper market and 46 per cent of the magazine market, according to
WAZ officials.
Although the limit for market share is set at 30 per cent in Croatia,
the government body charged with safeguarding fair competition, the
Agency for Protection of Market Competition, has not stepped in thus
far.
Mladen Cerovac, the agency's deputy chief, told IWPR that though
EPH/WAZ controls more than 30 per cent of the print market, they are
not breaking the law, because they have not "abused their dominant
position".
The agency's powers are limited, and it can act only to prevent abuse
of monopolies, rather than the monopoly itself. It says it has not
seen evidence that EPH/WAZ is acting unfairly towards the
competition.
SERBIA: POLITICIANS AND PUBLISHERS
WAZ's entry into the Serbian market was fairly dramatic: it bought 50
per cent of the Politika publishing house, which owned Politika, a
leading paper - and one-time mouthpiece of Slobodan Milosevic - as
well as two other dailies, 14 magazines and printing and distribution
systems. The deal, concluded in March 2002, cost WAZ 12.5 million
euro.
But there were immediate questions in the press about why it had
risked so much money investing in a set of low-circulation
publications from which short-term profits were unlikely given the
depressed state of the economy. According to one estimate (cited in
Der Spiegel in August 2002) the new venture, called Politika
Newspapers and Magazines, has debts of 100 million euro.
Darko Ribnikar, editor-in-chief of Politika Newspapers and Magazines,
acknowledges that the company was not in great shape at the time of
the deal.
"During the Milosevic regime, we lost a lot of our reputation, so
they took a certain risk in taking on a company which had lots of
employees, was technologically backward, used old machinery, and had
a tarnished reputation."
It is widely believed that the late Serbian prime minister, Zoran
Djindjic, was instrumental in brokering the deal.
Djindjic had been on good terms with WAZ's managing director, Bodo
Hombach, dating back to the days when he was in the Serbian
opposition, and Hombach was co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for
South Eastern Europe.
There was widespread speculation in the Serbian press that once it
was no longer under Milosevic's grip, Politika was seen as a
potential political vehicle by the new Serbian premier - and that he
encouraged his friends at WAZ to help him get control of it.
Supporters of this view point to the rather timely appointment of
Nenad Stefanovic, formerly PR chief for Djindic's Democratic Party,
to a senior position at Politika shortly before the deal was
concluded.
The Germans categorically rejected these allegations. Hombach and
another WAZ director, Erich Schumann, put out a press statement in
June 2002 saying, "We deny the rumours alleging secret negotiations
with top Serbian officials." The decision was "not influenced by any
interest group whatsoever," the statement said.
"The claims against Mr Hombach, the director of WAZ, are also untrue
and fabricated, and this can be easily proved. We reiterate that WAZ
is an independent, non-partisan media company whose decisions are
guided exclusively by economic and publishing criteria."
Hombach turned down IWPR's offer of an interview, but Politika's
Darko Ribnikar defended him vigorously when IWPR raised these charges
with him.
"There's nothing wrong with Mr Djindjic and Mr Hombach being friends,
but that has nothing to do with it," Ribnikar said. "Djindjic's role
was simply that he brought all the chief editors to a meeting with
the German businessmen, and it turned out that we found common ground
with WAZ."
WAZ has yet to turn the business round and make money on its Serbian
acquisitions. It is early days yet, and unusually, the new management
at Politika Newspapers and Magazines has not tried to improve the
bottom line by slashing jobs, even though they recognise that the
firm is overstaffed. Nor have they axed Politika's weaker stable-
mates, opting instead to resuscitate some ailing titles.
Despite its problems, Politika itself remains the most important
Serbian daily. By October 2003, its circulation had recovered to
about 150,000, a significant increase on the end of the Milosevic
era, when it had sunk to 100,000, but still well down on the 250,000
enjoyed in earlier years.
"We have got back the respect and confidence of the readers,"
Ribnikar told IWPR. "People trust us again."
Without waiting for Politika to turn a profit, WAZ is moving ahead
with expansion plans, especially outside the capital. The group is
close to tying up deals with the publishers of the Montenegrin daily
Vijesti and the Novi Sad paper Dnevnik.
REGIONAL COVERAGE
All this suggests a repetition of the pattern in Bulgaria, which has
seen rapid growth of WAZ's influence in the regions.
"WAZ is making the media market more competitive, but they represent
a real danger for the local press," said Milen Valkov, who heads the
Union of Journalists in Bulgaria.
New regional editions of Trud and 24 Chasa in Bulgaria are selling at
prices that match or undercut their rivals, and are capturing most of
the regional advertising revenue. Editors of rival papers claim this
amounts to a death sentence.
Tzvetan Todorov, editor of the Lovech paper Naroden Glas,
explained, "It is impossible to edit a normal newspaper in an
abnormal market environment. WAZ's dumping prices are killing our
chance to get advertisements."
In January 2003, WAZ Media Group Bulgaria completed a new print house
in Varna, which will print local editions of its main papers. Spas
Spasov, in charge of advertising at the Varna daily Narodno Delo,
doesn't know how his paper will compete.
"We can barely survive because of WAZ's print monopoly," Spasov
says, "but the biggest threat to us is the monopoly over the
advertising market."
Hary Kasabov, the chief editor of Cherno More, is not so pessimistic,
but is still wary of WAZ's cost-cutting tactics.
"I am not afraid of WAZ competition here in Varna because we are
still the news leaders," he says, "but this month we had to drop the
price of our newspaper by 25 per cent."
Meanwhile, 30 local papers have formed an association called BAREM to
combat the trend. Its head, Vesela Vaceva, said, "Our goal is not
just to withstand the WAZ monopoly, but to withstand all possible
future monopolies in the media."
COMMERCE AND CONTENT
Public opposition to the relentless advance of WAZ is muted by the
fact that it has injected so much money into the cash-strapped
Bulgarian media sector. Between 1996 and 2000, WAZ investments in
Bulgaria totalled around 50 million euro, and it expects to invest
another 30 million in new technology, new magazines and better
working conditions for staff.
Journalists working for the group's papers have no complaints either.
They are paid up to 30 per cent more than elsewhere.
WAZ journalists also say the new management, and the economic
stability it brings, make for less intrusion into editorial
independence. As Violeta Simeonova, political analyst for 24 Chasa,
told IWPR, "I think the chief editors are less tempted to make up
their own private policies. There are fewer political directives."
Speaking about WAZ's operations in the Balkans as a whole, Dr
Beermann told IWPR that the firm is confident editorial content is of
a "good standard" and that its staff are fully aware of "serious
journalistic principles based on journalistic freedom".
An expert on media in the Balkans, Oliver Money-Kyrle, who is Project
Director for the International Federation of Journalists, agrees-up
to a point.
"In the past, one always talked about interference, censorship,
either through the government or by local press barons, who had
strong political interests or strong business interests that would
heavily influence the editorial policy of their media for their own
political or business ends," he told IWPR. "Clearly if you have
foreign media ownership, that pressure is relieved from the
journalists."
But Money-Kyrle says journalists in Bulgaria do face hidden
pressures, "Because of the weaker civil society and because of the
weaker journalist organizations, there's less pressure on the media
owners to maintain the quality of the journalism. It becomes a purely
commercial venture."
Some readers and parts of the media in the Balkans believe WAZ is
guilty of "dumbing down". It is one thing to give somewhat tired
publications a more colourful and modern look, say these critics, but
quite another to lower journalistic standards and introduce a staple
diet of sensationalism and sleaze, all in the name of profit.
One journalist from 24 Chasa, who asked IWPR not to use his name,
said, "We're prepared to print anything that attracts attention.
First, we started with naked women, although we're supposed to be a
serious newspaper. Then, we started to print sensationalist stories,
many of which are not proven.
"We are publishing too many crime stories and human interest stories,
but not serious analysis. We are told nobody wants to read them."
So what do the readers think? Architect Georgi Hadjinikolov buys both
Trud and 24 Chasa because he follows politics. But he's critical of
both of them.
"Most of the information they carry is totally superficial," he
said, "and there is a shortage of serious analysis."
Judging from the people IWPR spoke to in Serbia, the overall verdict
seems more positive. After all, almost anything would be an
improvement on the Milosevic years. With the end of overt political
control, Politika's writers have greater editorial freedom. Add to
that the improved look of the paper, and you have a winning formula.
Nikola Cubrilo is a loyal supporter of Politika, and never stopped
buying it in the Milosevic years, but "since the German money came,
it looks much better - I like it."
"No other daily in Serbia compares with Politika," she says. "It's
serious and professional."
Unlike Cubrilo, Marija Zivancevic did abandon the paper when the
propaganda got too much for her, but she started buying it again
after Milosevic fell.
"Since then it's been looking better every day," she said.
POWER IN A VACUUM
Whatever its critics say, it is clear that WAZ has been a breath of
fresh air for its Serbian press partners. But it is likely that rival
newspapers - which are just as keen to develop as vigorous
independent media - will find their very existence threatened by
WAZ's economic might and its hard-nosed sales policies, as seems to
be happening in Bulgaria.
These countries don't have the luxuries of healthy economies and
tough legislation, which in western Europe help offset the worst
excesses of anti-competitive business practice.
People in the region are sensitive to issues of media control and
ownership. Some fear that the press revolution that has allowed so
many independent voices to be heard may also bring monopolies, which
curb this diversity.
Julie Poucher Harbin is a freelance journalist in Sarajevo. Elena
Yoncheva is a prominent television journalist in Bulgaria. Vera
Didanovic is a journalist with the Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme.
Drago Hedl is a journalist for the weekly Feral Tribune in Split,
Croatia.
[Note: IWPR is an anti-Yugoslav report service financed by Western
fundations and institutions. CNJ]
German Media Giant Dominates Balkans
Massive investment by a German publisher is revolutionising media in
the Balkans, but opinion is divided over the merits of the
transformation.
By Julie Poucher Harbin in Vienna and Sarajevo, Elena Yoncheva in
Bulgaria, Vera Didanovic in Serbia, and Drago Hedl in Croatia (BCR No
419, 01-04-03)
Germany's WAZ media group is pumping millions of dollars into former
state newspapers in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, giving ailing
titles a new lease of life. Yet there are fears the takeovers could
lead to a suffocating monopoly, concentrating media in the hands of a
few powerful businessmen.
The opening up of media to western investors in the early and mid-
1990s offered a fresh start to many papers in eastern and south-
eastern Europe. Unprecedented levels of investment and exciting new
formats seemed a sure-fire way of making them more competitive and
attracting a new readership. But have these hopes been justified? Or
has western ownership of large sections of the press come at too high
a price?
Many western countries have experienced the downside of having too
few owners in control of too many newspapers. This must be a
particular worry in the Balkans, where an absolute state monopoly
over the press is still very recent. Papers are generally on a weak
commercial footing, and the regulatory environment is still nascent.
The press is an important opinion-former in the Balkans, but
historically it has been very vulnerable to political pressure. As
wealthy foreign media companies move in to buy up leading titles,
many fear that one form of monopoly ownership and political bias
could simply be replaced by another - that of big business.
There are concerns that smaller players will be driven out of the
market, and that with them will go true pluralism of expression.
Editorial freedom may be curbed as much by the demand to "dumb down"
as by overt political pressures.
In this special report, IWPR looks at how one of the major players
now in the Balkans, Germany's WAZ media group, has operated in three
countries. We have taken Bulgaria, Croatia and Yugoslavia (now Serbia
and Montenegro) as our examples, because media development has moved
at a different pace in each country despite many common concerns. Of
the three, Bulgaria has the longest experience of WAZ involvement in
the press, while for Serbia it is still a novelty.
THE RISE OF WAZ
WAZ is a German media giant built on the success of the Essen paper
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, from which it takes its initials.
The media group already published a wide range of daily papers and
magazines across Germany, Austria and Hungary before it went into
south-east Europe in 1996.
Since that time, it has become the unchallenged leader among foreign
media investors. Pumping millions of euro into publishing houses and
printing plants in the region since the mid-90s, WAZ owns an
additional 13 papers and numerous magazines in Bulgaria, Croatia,
Yugoslavia and Romania.
A few figures should suffice to show the scale of WAZ's conquests. In
Bulgaria it controls a third of print publications and nearly half
the print advertising market. In Croatia the group, together with its
local partner, have between one third and one half of the daily paper
and magazine market respectively.
In Serbia it owns half of the major publishing house that puts out
the prominent Belgrade daily Politika. With investments on the cards
in Montenegro and northern Serbia, it is only the beginning of their
expansion plans there.
Add to this the majority stake that WAZ has obtained in two leading
Romanian papers, National and Romania Libera, since 2001, and you
begin to get the picture.
And it is not over yet. In an interview for IWPR, Dr Markus Beermann,
who is in charge of WAZ's operations outside Germany, said his firm
is looking forward to a boom in the print market all across south-
east Europe. "It has been an enormous challenge for us investing in
the Balkans," he said. "But we are sure we are on the right track."
UNSTOPPABLE?
In the tough economic aftermath of communism and civil war in the
Balkans, the group's huge budget gave it virtually a free hand to buy
up major papers and spruce up both their look and their content with
the help of better journalists attracted by higher wages.
Refurbishing obsolete printing presses allows the Germans to slash
production and distribution costs.
Such economic clout has naturally given rise to concerns that across
the region, WAZ is seeking a monopoly over papers, distribution
systems and advertising revenue. A trade union representative of the
group's German workforce put it bluntly:
"WAZ is almost unstoppable," Horst Leroi warned a trade union seminar
held in Zagreb in 2001. "Wherever it goes, it buys more and more,
taking over newspapers, printing firms and distribution networks,
destroying the competition or merging with it. Then it rationalises
and creates publishing and marketing pools. And wherever possible the
number of employees is reduced. Everything is directed towards one
single goal: maximum profits."
There's some evidence to support this harsh view. Take Bulgaria,
where the group has had more time to establish itself as dominant
player than in Croatia or Serbia.
BULGARIA: AGGRESSIVE BUSINESS, TIMID REGULATION
WAZ first entered the Bulgarian market in 1996. Two years later, it
owned the country's biggest dailies and controlled three-quarters of
the print media market, with shares valued at 50 million euro. Its
subsidiary, WAZ Media Group Bulgaria, owned the Media Holding
company, which publishes the biggest circulation daily, Trud, as well
as another publishing group, Press Group 168 Hours, that prints the
popular daily 24 Chasa and the weekly 168 Chasa.
This sweeping success did not go unnoticed by the authorities. In
1999, Bulgaria's anti-monopoly agency, the Committee for the
Protection of Competition, CPC, decided that WAZ had breached
legislation prohibiting ownership of more than 35 per cent of the
country's media by any one firm. As a result, the group was forced to
divest itself of most of its shares in Media Holding. It sold 65 per
cent to Bulgarian, Austrian and Swiss investors, and held on to 35
per cent.
The redistribution apparently brought the Germans back within the
law. That's certainly the way the CPC sees it. Its chairman, Nikolay
Pavlov, told IWPR in an interview that WAZ no longer has an ownership
monopoly. Its share of the market is now somewhere between 30 and 37
per cent, he said. He also said the group no longer has an
advertising monopoly - a view which contrasts sharply with his
commission's 1999 ruling that WAZ controlled 70 per cent of the print
advertising market.
Dr Beermann, too, rejects any talk of a monopoly. "The WAZ Group
holds an important share in the print media market, but is far away
from keeping a dominant position," he said. "Over and above that, the
print titles of our subsidiary company in Bulgaria are in keen
competition with each other."
This view is not shared by all Bulgarians. There is still a
perception that the biggest papers are in German hands, that WAZ
continues to monopolise print and advertising, and that, as a result,
independents cannot compete. This is borne out by the fact that WAZ
Media Group Bulgaria still fully owns Press Group 168 Hours and the
Exprint printing house, which prints all WAZ publications, including
24 Chasa and Trud.
Even if it does not technically have a monopoly, WAZ is still accused
by its critics of trying to squeeze rival publications out of the
market. In Bulgaria it distributes its papers on a sale-or-return
basis. Distributors thus tend to order more papers from the German
publisher and less from its competitors, who do not have a sale-or-
return policy and charge retailers the full amount however many they
sell. Add to that the fact that WAZ papers cost less, and it is easy
to see why Georgy Gotev of the low circulation Sega daily thinks the
group's sales policy could spell disaster for publications like his.
"They could destroy us very soon. We will disappear," Gotev told
IWPR.
But not all the blame is directed at WAZ itself. Some say that after
its initial tough stance, the CPC went soft on tackling WAZ's hold
over print media.
"We do not accuse WAZ, which is just doing its business," says Vesela
Vaceva, who heads BAREM, an association of local papers. "We accuse
the CPC, which allows this monopoly in the press."
This view is echoed by Radostina Konstantinova, deputy editor of
Monitor, one of the major competitors of leading WAZ titles.
"It is true that the WAZ monopoly is killing the Bulgarian press,"
she told IWPR. "We can't do anything in this situation, because the
only institution which could stop this monopoly, the CPC, is not
reliable."
CROATIA: CONTACTS OVER COMPETITION
As in Bulgaria, so also in Croatia WAZ appears to have come close to
an effective monopoly over the national press. The group's joint
venture with Croatia's Europa Press Holding, EPH, is today the
leading newspaper and magazine publisher.
Croatia was a natural target for WAZ investment, with a relatively
advanced economy already closely tied into German markets. In 1998,
WAZ spent 16 million euros acquiring 50 per cent ownership in EPH. At
the time, EPH already owned and published the daily Jutarnji List,
the weeklies Globus, Glorija, Arena, Mila and Auto Klub, and the
profitable Croatian editions of Cosmopolitan, Playboy and OK.
Analysts say that despite this impressive portfolio, EPH needed the
merger to obtain an injection of cash to support the ailing Jutarnji
List. That investment seems to have worked; today, Jutarnji List is
the country's second highest selling daily (after Vecernji List,
which is owned by Austria's Styria media group rather than WAZ).
And that is only one paper; across the entire Croatian market,
EPH/WAZ is a powerhouse, holding a 35 per cent share of the daily
newspaper market and 46 per cent of the magazine market, according to
WAZ officials.
Although the limit for market share is set at 30 per cent in Croatia,
the government body charged with safeguarding fair competition, the
Agency for Protection of Market Competition, has not stepped in thus
far.
Mladen Cerovac, the agency's deputy chief, told IWPR that though
EPH/WAZ controls more than 30 per cent of the print market, they are
not breaking the law, because they have not "abused their dominant
position".
The agency's powers are limited, and it can act only to prevent abuse
of monopolies, rather than the monopoly itself. It says it has not
seen evidence that EPH/WAZ is acting unfairly towards the
competition.
SERBIA: POLITICIANS AND PUBLISHERS
WAZ's entry into the Serbian market was fairly dramatic: it bought 50
per cent of the Politika publishing house, which owned Politika, a
leading paper - and one-time mouthpiece of Slobodan Milosevic - as
well as two other dailies, 14 magazines and printing and distribution
systems. The deal, concluded in March 2002, cost WAZ 12.5 million
euro.
But there were immediate questions in the press about why it had
risked so much money investing in a set of low-circulation
publications from which short-term profits were unlikely given the
depressed state of the economy. According to one estimate (cited in
Der Spiegel in August 2002) the new venture, called Politika
Newspapers and Magazines, has debts of 100 million euro.
Darko Ribnikar, editor-in-chief of Politika Newspapers and Magazines,
acknowledges that the company was not in great shape at the time of
the deal.
"During the Milosevic regime, we lost a lot of our reputation, so
they took a certain risk in taking on a company which had lots of
employees, was technologically backward, used old machinery, and had
a tarnished reputation."
It is widely believed that the late Serbian prime minister, Zoran
Djindjic, was instrumental in brokering the deal.
Djindjic had been on good terms with WAZ's managing director, Bodo
Hombach, dating back to the days when he was in the Serbian
opposition, and Hombach was co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for
South Eastern Europe.
There was widespread speculation in the Serbian press that once it
was no longer under Milosevic's grip, Politika was seen as a
potential political vehicle by the new Serbian premier - and that he
encouraged his friends at WAZ to help him get control of it.
Supporters of this view point to the rather timely appointment of
Nenad Stefanovic, formerly PR chief for Djindic's Democratic Party,
to a senior position at Politika shortly before the deal was
concluded.
The Germans categorically rejected these allegations. Hombach and
another WAZ director, Erich Schumann, put out a press statement in
June 2002 saying, "We deny the rumours alleging secret negotiations
with top Serbian officials." The decision was "not influenced by any
interest group whatsoever," the statement said.
"The claims against Mr Hombach, the director of WAZ, are also untrue
and fabricated, and this can be easily proved. We reiterate that WAZ
is an independent, non-partisan media company whose decisions are
guided exclusively by economic and publishing criteria."
Hombach turned down IWPR's offer of an interview, but Politika's
Darko Ribnikar defended him vigorously when IWPR raised these charges
with him.
"There's nothing wrong with Mr Djindjic and Mr Hombach being friends,
but that has nothing to do with it," Ribnikar said. "Djindjic's role
was simply that he brought all the chief editors to a meeting with
the German businessmen, and it turned out that we found common ground
with WAZ."
WAZ has yet to turn the business round and make money on its Serbian
acquisitions. It is early days yet, and unusually, the new management
at Politika Newspapers and Magazines has not tried to improve the
bottom line by slashing jobs, even though they recognise that the
firm is overstaffed. Nor have they axed Politika's weaker stable-
mates, opting instead to resuscitate some ailing titles.
Despite its problems, Politika itself remains the most important
Serbian daily. By October 2003, its circulation had recovered to
about 150,000, a significant increase on the end of the Milosevic
era, when it had sunk to 100,000, but still well down on the 250,000
enjoyed in earlier years.
"We have got back the respect and confidence of the readers,"
Ribnikar told IWPR. "People trust us again."
Without waiting for Politika to turn a profit, WAZ is moving ahead
with expansion plans, especially outside the capital. The group is
close to tying up deals with the publishers of the Montenegrin daily
Vijesti and the Novi Sad paper Dnevnik.
REGIONAL COVERAGE
All this suggests a repetition of the pattern in Bulgaria, which has
seen rapid growth of WAZ's influence in the regions.
"WAZ is making the media market more competitive, but they represent
a real danger for the local press," said Milen Valkov, who heads the
Union of Journalists in Bulgaria.
New regional editions of Trud and 24 Chasa in Bulgaria are selling at
prices that match or undercut their rivals, and are capturing most of
the regional advertising revenue. Editors of rival papers claim this
amounts to a death sentence.
Tzvetan Todorov, editor of the Lovech paper Naroden Glas,
explained, "It is impossible to edit a normal newspaper in an
abnormal market environment. WAZ's dumping prices are killing our
chance to get advertisements."
In January 2003, WAZ Media Group Bulgaria completed a new print house
in Varna, which will print local editions of its main papers. Spas
Spasov, in charge of advertising at the Varna daily Narodno Delo,
doesn't know how his paper will compete.
"We can barely survive because of WAZ's print monopoly," Spasov
says, "but the biggest threat to us is the monopoly over the
advertising market."
Hary Kasabov, the chief editor of Cherno More, is not so pessimistic,
but is still wary of WAZ's cost-cutting tactics.
"I am not afraid of WAZ competition here in Varna because we are
still the news leaders," he says, "but this month we had to drop the
price of our newspaper by 25 per cent."
Meanwhile, 30 local papers have formed an association called BAREM to
combat the trend. Its head, Vesela Vaceva, said, "Our goal is not
just to withstand the WAZ monopoly, but to withstand all possible
future monopolies in the media."
COMMERCE AND CONTENT
Public opposition to the relentless advance of WAZ is muted by the
fact that it has injected so much money into the cash-strapped
Bulgarian media sector. Between 1996 and 2000, WAZ investments in
Bulgaria totalled around 50 million euro, and it expects to invest
another 30 million in new technology, new magazines and better
working conditions for staff.
Journalists working for the group's papers have no complaints either.
They are paid up to 30 per cent more than elsewhere.
WAZ journalists also say the new management, and the economic
stability it brings, make for less intrusion into editorial
independence. As Violeta Simeonova, political analyst for 24 Chasa,
told IWPR, "I think the chief editors are less tempted to make up
their own private policies. There are fewer political directives."
Speaking about WAZ's operations in the Balkans as a whole, Dr
Beermann told IWPR that the firm is confident editorial content is of
a "good standard" and that its staff are fully aware of "serious
journalistic principles based on journalistic freedom".
An expert on media in the Balkans, Oliver Money-Kyrle, who is Project
Director for the International Federation of Journalists, agrees-up
to a point.
"In the past, one always talked about interference, censorship,
either through the government or by local press barons, who had
strong political interests or strong business interests that would
heavily influence the editorial policy of their media for their own
political or business ends," he told IWPR. "Clearly if you have
foreign media ownership, that pressure is relieved from the
journalists."
But Money-Kyrle says journalists in Bulgaria do face hidden
pressures, "Because of the weaker civil society and because of the
weaker journalist organizations, there's less pressure on the media
owners to maintain the quality of the journalism. It becomes a purely
commercial venture."
Some readers and parts of the media in the Balkans believe WAZ is
guilty of "dumbing down". It is one thing to give somewhat tired
publications a more colourful and modern look, say these critics, but
quite another to lower journalistic standards and introduce a staple
diet of sensationalism and sleaze, all in the name of profit.
One journalist from 24 Chasa, who asked IWPR not to use his name,
said, "We're prepared to print anything that attracts attention.
First, we started with naked women, although we're supposed to be a
serious newspaper. Then, we started to print sensationalist stories,
many of which are not proven.
"We are publishing too many crime stories and human interest stories,
but not serious analysis. We are told nobody wants to read them."
So what do the readers think? Architect Georgi Hadjinikolov buys both
Trud and 24 Chasa because he follows politics. But he's critical of
both of them.
"Most of the information they carry is totally superficial," he
said, "and there is a shortage of serious analysis."
Judging from the people IWPR spoke to in Serbia, the overall verdict
seems more positive. After all, almost anything would be an
improvement on the Milosevic years. With the end of overt political
control, Politika's writers have greater editorial freedom. Add to
that the improved look of the paper, and you have a winning formula.
Nikola Cubrilo is a loyal supporter of Politika, and never stopped
buying it in the Milosevic years, but "since the German money came,
it looks much better - I like it."
"No other daily in Serbia compares with Politika," she says. "It's
serious and professional."
Unlike Cubrilo, Marija Zivancevic did abandon the paper when the
propaganda got too much for her, but she started buying it again
after Milosevic fell.
"Since then it's been looking better every day," she said.
POWER IN A VACUUM
Whatever its critics say, it is clear that WAZ has been a breath of
fresh air for its Serbian press partners. But it is likely that rival
newspapers - which are just as keen to develop as vigorous
independent media - will find their very existence threatened by
WAZ's economic might and its hard-nosed sales policies, as seems to
be happening in Bulgaria.
These countries don't have the luxuries of healthy economies and
tough legislation, which in western Europe help offset the worst
excesses of anti-competitive business practice.
People in the region are sensitive to issues of media control and
ownership. Some fear that the press revolution that has allowed so
many independent voices to be heard may also bring monopolies, which
curb this diversity.
Julie Poucher Harbin is a freelance journalist in Sarajevo. Elena
Yoncheva is a prominent television journalist in Bulgaria. Vera
Didanovic is a journalist with the Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme.
Drago Hedl is a journalist for the weekly Feral Tribune in Split,
Croatia.
[Note: IWPR is an anti-Yugoslav report service financed by Western
fundations and institutions. CNJ]
Subject: Delegate della Zastava a Trieste e a Brescia
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:19:06 +0200
From: Gilberto Vlaic
Carissime tutte, carissimi tutti,
Vi comunico che due delegate dell'ufficio internazionale adozioni del
sindacato della Zastava di Kragujevac saranno in Italia questa
settimana e precisamente a Brescia e a Trieste.
A Trieste si terra' un'assemblea pubblica a poi una cena di
solidarieta' il giorno 12 aprile (sabato prossimo) alle ore 16.
Per quelle/i di voi che gravitano nell'area milanese invece
l'appuntamento e' a Brescia il giovedi' 10 aprile alle ore 17.
=== BRESCIA 10 APRILE ===
A S S O C I A Z I O N E Z A S T A V A
P E R L A S O L I D A R I E T A'
I N T E R N A Z I O N A L E - B R E S C I A
O N L U S -
c/o Camera del Lavoro Territoriale, via Folonari nr. 20
25100 BRESCIA
INFO 030.2584282 / 030.2703114
www.zastavabrescia.cjb.net - zastavabrescia@...
A TUTTI GLI ADERENTI AL PROGRAMMA DI ADOZIONI A DISTANZA DEI
BAMBINI FIGLI DEI LAVORATORI DELLA ZASTAVA DI KRAGUJEVAC.
A TUTTI I SOSTENITORI DELLA SOLIDARIETA' TRA I POPOLI.
Carissimi,
nonostante il grande impegno di decine di milioni di
uomini di tutte le parti della Terra che hanno elevato il loro grido
di " NO ALLA GUERRA " e che continuano a rivendicare un mondo di
" PACE ", i grandi interessi di chi vuole imporre su tutto il pianeta
il proprio dominio, hanno per il momento prevalso.
Ma noi non ci dobbiamo sentire sconfitti. Adesso più di
prima dobbiamo gridare forte per dire " BASTA GUERRA " e per portare
immediatamente aiuto alle centinaia di migliaia di esseri umani che
devono sopravvivere alle distruzioni, alla fame e alle malattie
causate dalla guerra, dobbiamo gridare forte per pretendere il
ripristino della legalità internazionale sconvolta dalla barbarie e
dalla violenza di chi ha voluto a tutti i costi questa aggressione.
La nostra Associazione, che da sempre si trova
impegnata sul fronte della opposizione alla guerra, per un mondo di
pace e giustizia, vuole dare un contributo concreto a questa lotta,
organizzando, insieme con la Camera del Lavoro di Brescia, un
incontro pubblico al quale parteciperanno due militanti del sindacato
Zastava di Kragujevac, due donne coraggiose che fin dall' aggressione
Nato di quattro anni fa alla Jugoslavia, si trovano in prima fila
nella lotta contro la liquidazione della fabbrica e nella
organizzazione delle attività di solidarietà, fungendo da connessione
essenziale tra le famiglie dei lavoratori più bisognosi e tutti i
gruppi e le associazioni italiane e internazionali che hanno in atto
programmi di solidarietà. L' assemblea, aperta a tutti, vedrà la
partecipazione di sindacalisti e delegati di tutte le categorie e
aziende che si sono attivate per andare in aiuto ai lavoratori
jugoslavi. Essa si svolgerà:
GIOVEDI 10 APRILE 2003 ORE
17
SALONE BUOZZI DELLA CAMERA DEL LAVORO DI BRESCIA
VIA F.LLI FOLONARI, NR. 20
PARTECIPERANNO ALL' INCONTRO
RAJKA VELJOVIC e MILIJA SAKOVIC
Rappresentanti dell' Ufficio Internazionale
del Sindacato Zastava di Kragujevac
=== TRIESTE 12 APRILE ===
Oggi cascano bombe preventive e liberatorie,
ieri erano umanitarie?
Sulle macerie del muro di Berlino si parlava di pace e di progresso.
Invece in tutti questi anni abbiamo visto solamente un crescendo di
guerre e di miserie: dall'Iraq all'Afghanistan alla Palestina per
tornare all'Iraq ... passando sempre per la Jugoslavia?
Testimonianze da un popolo bombardato
Incontro con:
Rajka Veljovic e Milijanka Sakovic
del Sindacato
JEDINSTVENA SINDIKALNA ORGANIZACIJA
della fabbrica Zastava di Kragujevac, Jugoslavia
bombardata dalla NATO nell'aprile 1999
sabato 12 aprile 2003 ore 16
Trieste Via Tarabochia 3
A seguire, alle ore 20.30
Cena di solidarieta'
Alla casa del popolo di Sottolongera, Via Masaccio 12, TS
Per la cena (15 euro) prenotare al numero 040572114
Organizzano:
Gruppo ZASTAVA Triestre - zastavatrieste@...
PRC Federazione di Trieste
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:19:06 +0200
From: Gilberto Vlaic
Carissime tutte, carissimi tutti,
Vi comunico che due delegate dell'ufficio internazionale adozioni del
sindacato della Zastava di Kragujevac saranno in Italia questa
settimana e precisamente a Brescia e a Trieste.
A Trieste si terra' un'assemblea pubblica a poi una cena di
solidarieta' il giorno 12 aprile (sabato prossimo) alle ore 16.
Per quelle/i di voi che gravitano nell'area milanese invece
l'appuntamento e' a Brescia il giovedi' 10 aprile alle ore 17.
=== BRESCIA 10 APRILE ===
A S S O C I A Z I O N E Z A S T A V A
P E R L A S O L I D A R I E T A'
I N T E R N A Z I O N A L E - B R E S C I A
O N L U S -
c/o Camera del Lavoro Territoriale, via Folonari nr. 20
25100 BRESCIA
INFO 030.2584282 / 030.2703114
www.zastavabrescia.cjb.net - zastavabrescia@...
A TUTTI GLI ADERENTI AL PROGRAMMA DI ADOZIONI A DISTANZA DEI
BAMBINI FIGLI DEI LAVORATORI DELLA ZASTAVA DI KRAGUJEVAC.
A TUTTI I SOSTENITORI DELLA SOLIDARIETA' TRA I POPOLI.
Carissimi,
nonostante il grande impegno di decine di milioni di
uomini di tutte le parti della Terra che hanno elevato il loro grido
di " NO ALLA GUERRA " e che continuano a rivendicare un mondo di
" PACE ", i grandi interessi di chi vuole imporre su tutto il pianeta
il proprio dominio, hanno per il momento prevalso.
Ma noi non ci dobbiamo sentire sconfitti. Adesso più di
prima dobbiamo gridare forte per dire " BASTA GUERRA " e per portare
immediatamente aiuto alle centinaia di migliaia di esseri umani che
devono sopravvivere alle distruzioni, alla fame e alle malattie
causate dalla guerra, dobbiamo gridare forte per pretendere il
ripristino della legalità internazionale sconvolta dalla barbarie e
dalla violenza di chi ha voluto a tutti i costi questa aggressione.
La nostra Associazione, che da sempre si trova
impegnata sul fronte della opposizione alla guerra, per un mondo di
pace e giustizia, vuole dare un contributo concreto a questa lotta,
organizzando, insieme con la Camera del Lavoro di Brescia, un
incontro pubblico al quale parteciperanno due militanti del sindacato
Zastava di Kragujevac, due donne coraggiose che fin dall' aggressione
Nato di quattro anni fa alla Jugoslavia, si trovano in prima fila
nella lotta contro la liquidazione della fabbrica e nella
organizzazione delle attività di solidarietà, fungendo da connessione
essenziale tra le famiglie dei lavoratori più bisognosi e tutti i
gruppi e le associazioni italiane e internazionali che hanno in atto
programmi di solidarietà. L' assemblea, aperta a tutti, vedrà la
partecipazione di sindacalisti e delegati di tutte le categorie e
aziende che si sono attivate per andare in aiuto ai lavoratori
jugoslavi. Essa si svolgerà:
GIOVEDI 10 APRILE 2003 ORE
17
SALONE BUOZZI DELLA CAMERA DEL LAVORO DI BRESCIA
VIA F.LLI FOLONARI, NR. 20
PARTECIPERANNO ALL' INCONTRO
RAJKA VELJOVIC e MILIJA SAKOVIC
Rappresentanti dell' Ufficio Internazionale
del Sindacato Zastava di Kragujevac
=== TRIESTE 12 APRILE ===
Oggi cascano bombe preventive e liberatorie,
ieri erano umanitarie?
Sulle macerie del muro di Berlino si parlava di pace e di progresso.
Invece in tutti questi anni abbiamo visto solamente un crescendo di
guerre e di miserie: dall'Iraq all'Afghanistan alla Palestina per
tornare all'Iraq ... passando sempre per la Jugoslavia?
Testimonianze da un popolo bombardato
Incontro con:
Rajka Veljovic e Milijanka Sakovic
del Sindacato
JEDINSTVENA SINDIKALNA ORGANIZACIJA
della fabbrica Zastava di Kragujevac, Jugoslavia
bombardata dalla NATO nell'aprile 1999
sabato 12 aprile 2003 ore 16
Trieste Via Tarabochia 3
A seguire, alle ore 20.30
Cena di solidarieta'
Alla casa del popolo di Sottolongera, Via Masaccio 12, TS
Per la cena (15 euro) prenotare al numero 040572114
Organizzano:
Gruppo ZASTAVA Triestre - zastavatrieste@...
PRC Federazione di Trieste
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "GORA2" ha scritto:
Il piano inclinato del capitale
Crisi, competizione globale e guerre
Roma, 12-13 aprile, ore 9,30
Hotel Universo
(Via Principe Amedeo, staz. Termini)
Forum Internazionale
Prima sessione: Crisi di accumulazione e imperialismo
Relazioni di:
Alan Freeman (università di Greenwich/Londra)
Guglielmo Carchedi (università di Amsterdam)
Seconda sessione: Dalla globalizzazione alla competizione globale
Relazioni di:
Enrike Galarza (università di Irunea - Pamplona)
Marcos Costa Lima (università di Recife)
Terza sessione: La guerra preventiva. Il "Mein Kampf" di Bush
Relazioni di:
Vladimiro Giacché (economista)
Joseph Halevi (università di Sidney)
Interventi :
Andrea Catone, Maurizio Galvani, Giorgio Gattei, Domenico Losurdo,
Alessandro Mazzone, Marco Melotti, Enzo Modugno, Luciano Vasapollo
Comunicazioni:
Georgy Cipras, Maurizio Donato, Sergio Manes,Vincenzo Miliucci,
Gianfranco Pala, Osvaldo Pesce, James Petras, Hugo Ramos, Roberto
Sidoli, Fausto Sorini, Sven Tarp.
I lavori del pomeriggio di sabato verranno probabilmente sospesi per
consentire la partecipazione alla manifestazione nazionale contro la
guerra
RETE DEI COMUNISTI
Per informazioni e adesioni: cpiano@...
Tel. 06/4394750 Fax. 06/4394768
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
Il piano inclinato del capitale
Crisi, competizione globale e guerre
Roma, 12-13 aprile, ore 9,30
Hotel Universo
(Via Principe Amedeo, staz. Termini)
Forum Internazionale
Prima sessione: Crisi di accumulazione e imperialismo
Relazioni di:
Alan Freeman (università di Greenwich/Londra)
Guglielmo Carchedi (università di Amsterdam)
Seconda sessione: Dalla globalizzazione alla competizione globale
Relazioni di:
Enrike Galarza (università di Irunea - Pamplona)
Marcos Costa Lima (università di Recife)
Terza sessione: La guerra preventiva. Il "Mein Kampf" di Bush
Relazioni di:
Vladimiro Giacché (economista)
Joseph Halevi (università di Sidney)
Interventi :
Andrea Catone, Maurizio Galvani, Giorgio Gattei, Domenico Losurdo,
Alessandro Mazzone, Marco Melotti, Enzo Modugno, Luciano Vasapollo
Comunicazioni:
Georgy Cipras, Maurizio Donato, Sergio Manes,Vincenzo Miliucci,
Gianfranco Pala, Osvaldo Pesce, James Petras, Hugo Ramos, Roberto
Sidoli, Fausto Sorini, Sven Tarp.
I lavori del pomeriggio di sabato verranno probabilmente sospesi per
consentire la partecipazione alla manifestazione nazionale contro la
guerra
RETE DEI COMUNISTI
Per informazioni e adesioni: cpiano@...
Tel. 06/4394750 Fax. 06/4394768
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
KOSOVO: MODELLO ONU BUONO ANCHE PER IRAQ?
CHIEDIAMOLO AI GIOVANI SUICIDI.
Dalla "liberazione" (giugno 1999) fino ad oggi, il tasso dei suicidi
in Kosmet e' aumentato del 300 per cento. E le vittime di solito non
sono anziani, ne' serbi ne' rom (questi vengono piuttosto assassinati
o scacciati dal territorio), bensi' giovani di lingua albanese,
spesso abitanti delle zone dove maggiore e' l'influenza del
neonazismo dell'UCK.
---
http://www.balkantimes.com/default3.asp?
lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=19044
Suicide Rate Up in Kosovo Since War
By Natan Dotan for Southeast European Times in Pristina -- 02/04/03
According to a recent survey by American psychologist Majd Kamalmaz,
there has been a 300 per cent increase in the suicide rate in
Kosovo's Drenica district over the past three years.
Kamalmaz's research revealed that, in the 40 years before the war,
there had been only one case of suicide in the Drenica district. The
three years since the end of the war, however, have seen over 30 such
cases.
The suicides in Drenica were all of Albanian nationality and were for
the most part males between the ages of 17 and 28. While there were
two cases of older suicides -- one a 56-year-old man, the other a 70-
year-old woman -- the trend is overwhelmingly affecting the younger
generation.
According to the Diagnostic Systems Manual (DSM IV), written in the
United States by a group of psychologists, the number of registered
suicide attempts in Western countries is usually three times greater
than the number of actual suicides. This proves significantly
applicable in Kosovo, as there are several obstacles to an accurate
measurement of the number of suicides.
UNMIK police say it is difficult to register the number of suicides
because, legally, these are not considered crimes. Furthermore,
suicide attempts often go unreported; they are kept secret within
families, said police spokesman Barry Fletcher. This leads the police
to suspect that the actual number of suicides is much greater than
the number of registered cases.
Kamalmaz suggests that the increase in the suicide rate may be a
result of the post-traumatic stress that followed the war.
Exacerbated by the loss of close relatives and the material damage
and consequent decline in social and economic conditions, such stress
leads to depression and feelings of hopelessness.
"Social conditions alone do not explain a suicide," explains the
American Association of Suicidology (AAS), an American non-profit
organisation. Underlying mental problems -- likely post-traumatic
stress caused by the war in the case of Kosovo -- are the fundamental
causes.
In the past, suicide has also been kept in check by the close family
structure that is one of the unique elements of Kosovo society.
But the problem in Kosovo is that people have nowhere to go for
appropriate professional help, Kamalmaz said. He is concerned that
there has been an insufficient allocation of funds for the treatment
of mental health in Kosovo, resulting in a lack of professional staff
to deal with the issue of suicide.
According to both the AAS and DSM IV, the immediate causes of suicide
are usually depression and substance abuse. The link to substance
abuse is extremely relevant in Kosovo, as a recent WHO/UNICEF survey
revealed extremely high levels of heroin use, especially in Pristina.
The situation in Drenica calls for immediate intervention, Kamalmaz
said. One suggestion, which has seen extensive implementation in
other parts of the world, is the establishment of a phone support
line available 24 hours a day, through which people would be able to
relate problems and receive advice. Kamalmaz also suggested the
establishment of a special group of leaders, donors and experts to
target this situation.
© 2002 Southeast European Times. All Rights Reserved.
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "Coordinamento Nazionale per
la Jugoslavia ha scritto:
KOSOVO: PER STEINER MODELLO ONU BUONO ANCHE PER IRAQ (ANSA)
Secondo l'attuale responsabile della missione Onu (Unmik) in Kosovo
Michael Steiner, il modello adottato per la pacificazione nella
regione balcanica a maggioranza albanese e' un modello esportabile in
altre zone di crisi: eventualmente, con i dovuti aggiustamenti, anche
in Iraq a guerra finita.
Steiner si e' espresso in questo senso in un incontro con la stampa
estera svoltosi il 31/3/2003 a Berlino.
Steiner prende dunque a modello la situazione determinatasi in Kosovo
in seguito ai bombardamenti sulle industrie chimiche e sui convogli
di profughi nella primavera 1999. L'uso umanitario dell'uranio
impoverito ha effettivamente consentito una diffusa contaminazione di
tutta la regione kosovara, liberata da circa 250mila suoi abitanti
(serbi, ebrei, turchi, ed altre razze impure) a partire dal giugno
1999. Nei mesi successivi alla fine dei bombardamenti e' stata anche
iniziata la demolizione di tutte quelle vestigia storiche, religiose
e culturali che davano alla regione una impronta inopportunamente
multietnica (proprio come l'Iraq di Saddam).
Il Kosovo finalmente liberato ospita oggi alcune decine di migliaia
di amici stranieri che generosamente impiegano tempo e danaro a
garantire che nell'area ci sia la democrazia. Monumentali strutture,
come la immensa base di Camp Bondsteel, danno lavoro a tanti giovani,
che altrimenti sarebbero stati costretti a lavorare fianco a fianco
con persone di etnia non albanese, dunque complici di Milosevic.
All'uopo, Unmik e KFOR hanno provveduto a bloccare la produzione e ad
espropriare i principali complessi industriali e minerari della
regione, come quello di Trepca, in attesa di cederli gratis a
benefattori stranieri.
La odierna leadership politica del Kosovo libero ruota attorno ai
nonviolenti di Ibrahim Rugova (che a meta' febbraio si e' detto
favorevole alla aggressione USA contro il popolo iracheno) e dai
violenti dell'ex-UCK, a loro volta legati ai fiorenti traffici di
droga, armi e prostituzione, grazie ai quali prospera l'economia di
tutta la regione, un tempo vittima del comunismo. L'Occidente fa
particolare affidamento proprio su questi leader democratici, gia'
protagonisti dei pogrom contro la razza slava: Ceku, Thaci, Ahmeti,
sono alcuni di loro... E' su questi nomi che l'Occidente fa
affidamento per costruire una Grande Albania libera e democratica dai
Milosevic di turno; e' su personalita' analoghe che l'Occidente
scommettera' per regalare alla popolazione irachena un futuro di
miseria, divisione su basi razziali, occupazione militare, violenza
e, soprattutto, democrazia.
Fonte: ANSA Balcani
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/fattidelgiorno/
200303312043103611/200303312043103611.shtml
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
CHIEDIAMOLO AI GIOVANI SUICIDI.
Dalla "liberazione" (giugno 1999) fino ad oggi, il tasso dei suicidi
in Kosmet e' aumentato del 300 per cento. E le vittime di solito non
sono anziani, ne' serbi ne' rom (questi vengono piuttosto assassinati
o scacciati dal territorio), bensi' giovani di lingua albanese,
spesso abitanti delle zone dove maggiore e' l'influenza del
neonazismo dell'UCK.
---
http://www.balkantimes.com/default3.asp?
lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=19044
Suicide Rate Up in Kosovo Since War
By Natan Dotan for Southeast European Times in Pristina -- 02/04/03
According to a recent survey by American psychologist Majd Kamalmaz,
there has been a 300 per cent increase in the suicide rate in
Kosovo's Drenica district over the past three years.
Kamalmaz's research revealed that, in the 40 years before the war,
there had been only one case of suicide in the Drenica district. The
three years since the end of the war, however, have seen over 30 such
cases.
The suicides in Drenica were all of Albanian nationality and were for
the most part males between the ages of 17 and 28. While there were
two cases of older suicides -- one a 56-year-old man, the other a 70-
year-old woman -- the trend is overwhelmingly affecting the younger
generation.
According to the Diagnostic Systems Manual (DSM IV), written in the
United States by a group of psychologists, the number of registered
suicide attempts in Western countries is usually three times greater
than the number of actual suicides. This proves significantly
applicable in Kosovo, as there are several obstacles to an accurate
measurement of the number of suicides.
UNMIK police say it is difficult to register the number of suicides
because, legally, these are not considered crimes. Furthermore,
suicide attempts often go unreported; they are kept secret within
families, said police spokesman Barry Fletcher. This leads the police
to suspect that the actual number of suicides is much greater than
the number of registered cases.
Kamalmaz suggests that the increase in the suicide rate may be a
result of the post-traumatic stress that followed the war.
Exacerbated by the loss of close relatives and the material damage
and consequent decline in social and economic conditions, such stress
leads to depression and feelings of hopelessness.
"Social conditions alone do not explain a suicide," explains the
American Association of Suicidology (AAS), an American non-profit
organisation. Underlying mental problems -- likely post-traumatic
stress caused by the war in the case of Kosovo -- are the fundamental
causes.
In the past, suicide has also been kept in check by the close family
structure that is one of the unique elements of Kosovo society.
But the problem in Kosovo is that people have nowhere to go for
appropriate professional help, Kamalmaz said. He is concerned that
there has been an insufficient allocation of funds for the treatment
of mental health in Kosovo, resulting in a lack of professional staff
to deal with the issue of suicide.
According to both the AAS and DSM IV, the immediate causes of suicide
are usually depression and substance abuse. The link to substance
abuse is extremely relevant in Kosovo, as a recent WHO/UNICEF survey
revealed extremely high levels of heroin use, especially in Pristina.
The situation in Drenica calls for immediate intervention, Kamalmaz
said. One suggestion, which has seen extensive implementation in
other parts of the world, is the establishment of a phone support
line available 24 hours a day, through which people would be able to
relate problems and receive advice. Kamalmaz also suggested the
establishment of a special group of leaders, donors and experts to
target this situation.
© 2002 Southeast European Times. All Rights Reserved.
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., "Coordinamento Nazionale per
la Jugoslavia ha scritto:
KOSOVO: PER STEINER MODELLO ONU BUONO ANCHE PER IRAQ (ANSA)
Secondo l'attuale responsabile della missione Onu (Unmik) in Kosovo
Michael Steiner, il modello adottato per la pacificazione nella
regione balcanica a maggioranza albanese e' un modello esportabile in
altre zone di crisi: eventualmente, con i dovuti aggiustamenti, anche
in Iraq a guerra finita.
Steiner si e' espresso in questo senso in un incontro con la stampa
estera svoltosi il 31/3/2003 a Berlino.
Steiner prende dunque a modello la situazione determinatasi in Kosovo
in seguito ai bombardamenti sulle industrie chimiche e sui convogli
di profughi nella primavera 1999. L'uso umanitario dell'uranio
impoverito ha effettivamente consentito una diffusa contaminazione di
tutta la regione kosovara, liberata da circa 250mila suoi abitanti
(serbi, ebrei, turchi, ed altre razze impure) a partire dal giugno
1999. Nei mesi successivi alla fine dei bombardamenti e' stata anche
iniziata la demolizione di tutte quelle vestigia storiche, religiose
e culturali che davano alla regione una impronta inopportunamente
multietnica (proprio come l'Iraq di Saddam).
Il Kosovo finalmente liberato ospita oggi alcune decine di migliaia
di amici stranieri che generosamente impiegano tempo e danaro a
garantire che nell'area ci sia la democrazia. Monumentali strutture,
come la immensa base di Camp Bondsteel, danno lavoro a tanti giovani,
che altrimenti sarebbero stati costretti a lavorare fianco a fianco
con persone di etnia non albanese, dunque complici di Milosevic.
All'uopo, Unmik e KFOR hanno provveduto a bloccare la produzione e ad
espropriare i principali complessi industriali e minerari della
regione, come quello di Trepca, in attesa di cederli gratis a
benefattori stranieri.
La odierna leadership politica del Kosovo libero ruota attorno ai
nonviolenti di Ibrahim Rugova (che a meta' febbraio si e' detto
favorevole alla aggressione USA contro il popolo iracheno) e dai
violenti dell'ex-UCK, a loro volta legati ai fiorenti traffici di
droga, armi e prostituzione, grazie ai quali prospera l'economia di
tutta la regione, un tempo vittima del comunismo. L'Occidente fa
particolare affidamento proprio su questi leader democratici, gia'
protagonisti dei pogrom contro la razza slava: Ceku, Thaci, Ahmeti,
sono alcuni di loro... E' su questi nomi che l'Occidente fa
affidamento per costruire una Grande Albania libera e democratica dai
Milosevic di turno; e' su personalita' analoghe che l'Occidente
scommettera' per regalare alla popolazione irachena un futuro di
miseria, divisione su basi razziali, occupazione militare, violenza
e, soprattutto, democrazia.
Fonte: ANSA Balcani
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/fattidelgiorno/
200303312043103611/200303312043103611.shtml
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
MUJAHEDDIN DA EST AD OVEST, E RITORNO
Il presidente della Commissione Difesa della Duma russa dice di avere
informazioni affidabili in base alle quali mercenari originari della
Bosnia sarebbero attivi in Cecenia per contribuire alla comune lotta
contro l'"oppressore" slavo-ortodosso.
Nel frattempo, i capi della "guerriglia" cecena hanno espresso il
loro appoggio alla aggressione statunitense contro l'Iraq; viceversa,
in Bosnia i settori islamisti sono un po' confusi, oscillando ancora
tra l'influenza di Bin Laden e quella di Adriano Sofri. (I.S.)
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2003/04/1-RUS/rus-020403.asp
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 2, 2003
ARE BOSNIAN 'MERCENARIES' FIGHTING IN CHECHNYA?
Speaking at a Moscow briefing for military attaches on
1 April, Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrei
Nikolaev (People's Deputy) said Moscow has "reliable
information" that "mercenaries" from Bosnia are now
fighting against federal forces in Chechnya, Interfax
reported. He did not say how many people are allegedly
involved. Experts note that the unemployment rate in
Bosnia is over 30 percent, and that many of the
unemployed are young men with no marketable skills,
but that Bosnian Muslims are more likely to fight as
volunteers for the Chechen cause on religious grounds
than as mercenaries. LF
(segnalazione: R. Rozoff)
Il presidente della Commissione Difesa della Duma russa dice di avere
informazioni affidabili in base alle quali mercenari originari della
Bosnia sarebbero attivi in Cecenia per contribuire alla comune lotta
contro l'"oppressore" slavo-ortodosso.
Nel frattempo, i capi della "guerriglia" cecena hanno espresso il
loro appoggio alla aggressione statunitense contro l'Iraq; viceversa,
in Bosnia i settori islamisti sono un po' confusi, oscillando ancora
tra l'influenza di Bin Laden e quella di Adriano Sofri. (I.S.)
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2003/04/1-RUS/rus-020403.asp
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 2, 2003
ARE BOSNIAN 'MERCENARIES' FIGHTING IN CHECHNYA?
Speaking at a Moscow briefing for military attaches on
1 April, Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrei
Nikolaev (People's Deputy) said Moscow has "reliable
information" that "mercenaries" from Bosnia are now
fighting against federal forces in Chechnya, Interfax
reported. He did not say how many people are allegedly
involved. Experts note that the unemployment rate in
Bosnia is over 30 percent, and that many of the
unemployed are young men with no marketable skills,
but that Bosnian Muslims are more likely to fight as
volunteers for the Chechen cause on religious grounds
than as mercenaries. LF
(segnalazione: R. Rozoff)
Colin Powell: "Finalmente in Serbia si rispettano i diritti umani"
1. NUOVI CLAMOROSI ARRESTI POLITICI:
IN MANETTE L'EX CAPO DI STATO MAGGIORE DELL'ESERCITO E L'EX DIRETTORE
DELLA TELEVISIONE NAZIONALE
2. PIENO APPOGGIO DAGLI USA:
COLIN POWELL IN VISITA A BELGRADO
3. PIENO APPOGGIO DALL'EUROPA: SERBIA E MONTENEGRO ENTRANO NEL
CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA (COME STATO UNICO O COME DUE STATI SEPARATI?)
=== 1 ===
NUOVI CLAMOROSI ARRESTI
POLICE TAKE IN FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF NEBOJSA PAVKOVIC
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - On April 1, the police took in for
questioning the former Yugoslav army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa
Pavkovic, and, for the second time, Yugoslav Left party senior
official Ivan Markovic, as part of the investigation into the March
12 murder of Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, BETA has learned from
sources in the police.
Pavkovic was the Yugoslav army chief of staff during the Slobodan
Milosevic era, and for several months after Milosevic's regime was
toppled, on Oct. 5, 2000. He was also a presidential candidate at the
elections in Serbia last year. Ivan Markovic has already been brought
in once on March 29, but was released immediately after the
questioning.
FORMER NATIONAL TELEVISION DIRECTOR ARRESTED
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - On April 2, the police arrested the former
general manager of Serbian Radio and Television (RTS), Dragoljub
Milanovic, who is responsible for the death of 16 television workers
in the NATO bombing in 1999 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After failing to report to prison officials Milanovic ran away and
was hiding in a weekend house in Montenegro, 12 kilometers from the
Albanian border.
Quoting police sources, RTS said that "a comprehensive
investigation into Premier Djindjic's assassination has shown that
Milanovic was guarded by the Zemun clan," suspected of organizing
Djindjic's assassination in Belgrade, March 12 and a number of other
crimes over the previous years. The government said that Milanovic
was taken to Montenegro by members of the Zemun clan, who also
revealed his hideout.
The Belgrade District Court sentenced Dragoljub Milanovic to 10
years in prison, holding him responsible for the death of 16
television workers killed in the bombing on April 23 1999. The trial
chamber, however, released Milanovic until his verdict took effect,
despite the severity of his crime.
=== 2 ===
PIENO APPOGGIO DAGLI USA:
COLIN POWELL IN VISITA A BELGRADO
US AMBASSADOR: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SUPPORTS SERBIA
BELGRADE, April 1 (Tanjug) - US Ambassador to Serbia
and Montenegro William Montgomery said Tuesday that the
international community supports the Serbian government's fight
against organized crime, indicating that it will meet with a
resounding response in the world, improving in that way the image of
Serbia. Speaking to participants in the summit on competitiveness,
Montgomery said that the United States supports the Serbian
government in its efforts to stabilize the situation in the state
following the murder of Premier Zoran Djindjic.
He said October 5 (2000) was in their hearts. Serbia
has succeeded to make large strides since October 5 and Serbia will
be lauded for its efforts in the fight against organized
crime, Montgomery said. Montgomery said that Serbia has sufficient
qualified human resources to become a leader in the region, in which
a free market will be created with some 60 million consumers.
However, he warned, that potential does not mean capital and a lot of
work still needs to be done in that respect.
Serbia has strong companies that are competitive and the
United States will support that, Montgomery promised and added that
Serbia has to make a concept of competitiveness in order to
attract investments and encourage exports. The United States and
the international community support Serbia every step of the way and
wish it success, Montgomery said.
Serbia-Montenegro president confers with US secretary of state
BELGRADE, Apr 2 (Tanjug) - Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar
Marovic said Wednesday evening he sees the visit by US Secretary of
State Colin Powell as a gesture of support to the reforms underway.
During his meeting with Powell, Marovic expressed his
optimism regarding the success of reforms in SCG, especially
concerning fostering of cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the reform of the SCG Army as
a pre-condition for accelerating accession to Partnership for Peace.
He expressed hope that trade relations between the US and SCG will
soon be fully normalized.
Marovic underlined the SCG economic interest in taking part in
Iraq's reconstruction after the conflict ends, in order to help the
Iraqi people.
According to a statement issued by Marovic's office, Powell
said his visit to Belgrade constitutes an expression of US support to
its reform program and its determination to fight crime and
corruption.
Powell also supported the endeavors for normalizing bilateral
trade relations and underlined that the Pentagon and NATO would
support the SCG Army transformation.
POWELL: U.S. TO DO EVERYTHING TO ASSIST SERBIA&MONTENEGRO
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
said in Belgrade on April 2, that his country would do everything to
assist Serbia and Montenegro to become an integral part of Europe.
Powell said he hoped that the country's leadership would intensify
cooperation with The Hague based tribunal next month.
"I came to Belgrade tonight to extend strong U.S. support to
Serbia and Montenegro following the assassination of Premier
Djindjic, who was my friend, and whom I admired as a leader who
wishing only the best for his people," Powell said at a press
conference after meeting with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic.
Powell also said that he is "delighted" with what he had heard
from his counterparts in Belgrade, primarily regarding the commitment
to proceed with reforms.
"The successful suppression of organized crime and the reforms of the
army will improve cooperation with The Hague based tribunal, which is
an important element of the country's international obligations.
After fulfilling these obligations, the community of Serbia and
Montenegro can expect to join the Partnership for Peace Program and
the EU," stressed the U.S. secretary of state.
Powell added he hoped the country would make considerable progress
in its cooperation with the tribunal in the next few months, which
primarily refers to the arrest and extradition of indictees.
In his words, General Ratko Mladic and the "Vukovar Troika," the
former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officers, Veselin Sljivancanin
and Miroslav Radic, were discussed during the meetings. Powell
stressed that he was leaving Belgrade with a very good impression
that the country's officials were committed to bringing these people
to justice.
Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic said that during the meeting he had
expressed his determination to proceed with the reforms and announced
a more intense fight against crime. He also said the Serbian
authorities would step up cooperation with the tribunal, adding that
he hoped cooperation would "end in a short period of time."
Zivkovic thanked Powell on his personal contribution to the U.S.
assistance to Serbia, saying: "I can assure the State Secretary that
Serbia will be a reliable partner of the U.S."
Status of human rights in SCG satisfactory
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Tanjug) - On the overall, the status
of human rights in Serbia is satisfactory, it is underlined in
the regular annual report by the U.S. Department of State, which
also concludes that some problems inherited from the rule of Slobodan
Milosevic remain unsolved, but that they are on the way to be
resolved.
The regular report on human rights in the world was presented
to the public by Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday.
The part referring to Serbia and Montenegro says that there
are still cases of maltreatment and beating of citizens by
police, although the situation has improved since the adoption of the
Law on criminal procedure.
As for the co-operation with the Hague Tribunal, the
Department of State underlines in its report that a certain progress
had been made, but that the Tribunal is still dissatisfied with
the co-operation level. Powell underlined that certain progress had
been made in Kosovo as well, but that some of the serious issues
remain outstanding. This, primarily, applies to freedom of movement
of the minority population, mostly Serbs.
A certain progress was recorded in some parts of Kosovo late
2002, the report says, adding that the overall situation remains
unsatisfactory. It is also pointed out that an insignificant number
of refugees and displaced persons had returned to their homes, which,
according to the report, is due to the concern of refugees for their
safety and freedom of movement, as well as their inability to find
employment.
In the part of the report that refers to Montenegro, it is
underlined that Montenegro's government had mostly respected human
rights over the past year, but that some problems, primarily in
the administration of justice, are still present.
New US fund for aid to Balkans will be based in Belgrade
WASHINGTON, Apr 2 (Tanjug) - USAID, the German Marshall Fund
and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation announced Wednesday the
creation of a Balkan fund for democracy development, through which
about 25 million dollars will be provided as support to governments
in southeastern Europe.
The fund will be based in Belgrade and will start operating
in the summer. Its beneficiaries will be Albania, Bosnia,
Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro.
About two million dollars will be allocated annually to local and
regional non-governmental organizations, educational institutions and
media, to help foster relations between citizens and local
authorities, and the fund will also support cross-border cooperation
in the region in order to secure lasting stability.
USAID and GMF will allocate 10 million dollars each to the
fund and Mott Foundation 5 million, and contributions from other
donors are expected when the fund becomes operational.
USAID to earmark 150 million dollars to Serbia-Montenegro
BELGRADE, April 2 (Tanjug) - The United States development
agency USAID will in 2003 aid Serbia-Montenegro with about 150
million dollars intended for the development of the economic policy,
democracy, a civic society and local self-rule, USAID Belgrade office
head James Stevenson said on Wednesday.
Of this sum, Serbia will get 110 million dollars and Montenegro
40 million, Stevenson told the press. Underscoring that
the Competitiveness Summit in Belgrade's Sava Congressional Centre
is part of this aid, he announced new USAID projects for
Serbia-Montenegro over the next few years worth several hundreds
million dollars.
So far, USAID has targeted on the producers of raspberries and
furniture in Serbia within the support for stepping up the level of
competitiveness of the domestic economy, Stevenson said.
=== 3 ===
PIENO APPOGGIO DALL'EUROPA:
SERBIA E MONTENEGRO ENTRANO NEL CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA (COME STATO UNICO
O COME DUE STATI SEPARATI?)
Serbia-Montenegro admitted into Council of Europe
STRASBOURG, April 3 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro on Wednesday
became a 45th member of the Council of Europe, and its flag flew
outside the Strasbourg headquarters of this oldest European
institution.
In scope of the admission ceremony, Serbia-Montenegro
President Svetozar Marovic handed over corresponding documentation
on acceptance of the CE Statute, while Foreign Minister Goran
Svilanovic signed a statement on acceptance of the European
convention on human rights.
After that, while the national anthem was played, the Serbia-
Montenegro flag was raised outside the headquarters in Strasbourg.
Serbia-Montenegro parliament speaker Dragoljub Micunovic,
who is at the head of the country's delegation, will address the
CE parliamentary assembly.
Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said at
the beginning of the ceremony that up to now, a link had been missing
in South East Europe, but that that was not the case any more. He
promised that the CE would help Serbia and Montenegro go on, and
added that he wished to see a live society which would be capable of
coming into grips with the past, so as to be able to look into the
future. Schwimmer ended his speech in Serbian language by
saying "Serbia and Montenegro, welcome home." Serbia-Montenegro
President Svetozar Marovic said that it had been confirmed that
Serbia and Montenegro would become a full-fledged member of the
European union, and pointed out that Serbia and Montenegro
wanted peace, democracy and integration into Europe.
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said that the admission into the CE
was not any easy one, and that all who had been working on it should
be remembered.
Referring to the murder of Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, chairman
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CE, Peter Schieder, said
that the remains of the Slobodan Milosevic's regime would not succeed
in destroying what the democratic authorities of Serbia and
Montenegro had done.
ADMISSION INTO CE SIGN WE ARE ON RIGHT TRACK, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
FOREIGN MINISTER
STRASBOURG, April 3 (Tanjug) - For the people of Serbia and
Montenegro the admission into the Council of Europe is an important
sign that their country is on the right track, Serbia-Montenegro
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Thursday, and added that
that was a first major step of Serbia and Montenegro on its road
towards a full integration into European structures.
During a speech at the ceremony of the admission of Serbia and
Montenegro as a 45th member of the CE, Svilanovic expressed his
certainty that a membership in that, most eminent European
organisation, would make the foundations of democracy in Serbia and
Montenegro stronger.
Reminding of the fact that Serbia and Montenegro had been waiting
for a long time to take its seat in the CE, Svilanovic said that the
admission had not come easily, and that it was a "result of the hard
struggle for liberty, human rights and the rule of law."
"We should remember and pay respect to all those individuals in
Serbia and Montenegro who invested everything, including their lives,
in that struggle," the Serbia-Montenegro foreign minister said, and
added that "this struggle for freedom is not over, is never over,
although perhaps we have overcome the greatest obstacles."
Svilanovic promised that Serbia and Montenegro would "fully comply
with its membership obligations and commitments," and pointed out
that "a lot has been achieved in strengthening democracy, respect for
human rights and the rule of law in Serbia and Montenegro," but also
that "still, a lot has to be done."
"Thus, we are grateful for the assistance to be provided by the
Council of Europe in the post-accession monitoring programme," Goran
Svilanovic said. Svilanovic also pointed out that "we, Europeans,
share the same values and the same destiny," and reminded of the fact
that when the Council of Europe had been first set up, memories and
horrors of the Second World War had been still fresh, as well as that
a "willingness to protect and realize the European values helped
overcome these wounds."
"Today, for the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, memories and
horrors of war are still fresh and not healed," Svilanovic said, and
stressed that "only by fully embracing European values we may
overcome these wounds," as well as that " only by facing the past we
may realise our future dreams."
"Thus, it is the responsibility and duty of all governments to
bring war criminals to justice, before the International Criminal
Tribunal and before the national courts," the Serbia-Montenegro
foreign minister said, and reminded of the words of Sir Winston
Churchill, one of the founding fathers of the CE, i.e. "Let there be
justice, mercy and freedom. The peoples have only to will it, and all
will achieve their hearts' desire." The "people of Serbia and
Montenegro, like everyone else, wish to leave in peace and
prosperity, in security and freedom. The glorious expression of this
desire was October 2000, when a regime of war and poverty was
overthrown," Svilanovic pointed out, and stessed that the "membership
in the Council of Europe comes as a recognition of the common
European destiny for Serbia and Montenegro."
1. NUOVI CLAMOROSI ARRESTI POLITICI:
IN MANETTE L'EX CAPO DI STATO MAGGIORE DELL'ESERCITO E L'EX DIRETTORE
DELLA TELEVISIONE NAZIONALE
2. PIENO APPOGGIO DAGLI USA:
COLIN POWELL IN VISITA A BELGRADO
3. PIENO APPOGGIO DALL'EUROPA: SERBIA E MONTENEGRO ENTRANO NEL
CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA (COME STATO UNICO O COME DUE STATI SEPARATI?)
=== 1 ===
NUOVI CLAMOROSI ARRESTI
POLICE TAKE IN FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF NEBOJSA PAVKOVIC
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - On April 1, the police took in for
questioning the former Yugoslav army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa
Pavkovic, and, for the second time, Yugoslav Left party senior
official Ivan Markovic, as part of the investigation into the March
12 murder of Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, BETA has learned from
sources in the police.
Pavkovic was the Yugoslav army chief of staff during the Slobodan
Milosevic era, and for several months after Milosevic's regime was
toppled, on Oct. 5, 2000. He was also a presidential candidate at the
elections in Serbia last year. Ivan Markovic has already been brought
in once on March 29, but was released immediately after the
questioning.
FORMER NATIONAL TELEVISION DIRECTOR ARRESTED
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - On April 2, the police arrested the former
general manager of Serbian Radio and Television (RTS), Dragoljub
Milanovic, who is responsible for the death of 16 television workers
in the NATO bombing in 1999 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After failing to report to prison officials Milanovic ran away and
was hiding in a weekend house in Montenegro, 12 kilometers from the
Albanian border.
Quoting police sources, RTS said that "a comprehensive
investigation into Premier Djindjic's assassination has shown that
Milanovic was guarded by the Zemun clan," suspected of organizing
Djindjic's assassination in Belgrade, March 12 and a number of other
crimes over the previous years. The government said that Milanovic
was taken to Montenegro by members of the Zemun clan, who also
revealed his hideout.
The Belgrade District Court sentenced Dragoljub Milanovic to 10
years in prison, holding him responsible for the death of 16
television workers killed in the bombing on April 23 1999. The trial
chamber, however, released Milanovic until his verdict took effect,
despite the severity of his crime.
=== 2 ===
PIENO APPOGGIO DAGLI USA:
COLIN POWELL IN VISITA A BELGRADO
US AMBASSADOR: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SUPPORTS SERBIA
BELGRADE, April 1 (Tanjug) - US Ambassador to Serbia
and Montenegro William Montgomery said Tuesday that the
international community supports the Serbian government's fight
against organized crime, indicating that it will meet with a
resounding response in the world, improving in that way the image of
Serbia. Speaking to participants in the summit on competitiveness,
Montgomery said that the United States supports the Serbian
government in its efforts to stabilize the situation in the state
following the murder of Premier Zoran Djindjic.
He said October 5 (2000) was in their hearts. Serbia
has succeeded to make large strides since October 5 and Serbia will
be lauded for its efforts in the fight against organized
crime, Montgomery said. Montgomery said that Serbia has sufficient
qualified human resources to become a leader in the region, in which
a free market will be created with some 60 million consumers.
However, he warned, that potential does not mean capital and a lot of
work still needs to be done in that respect.
Serbia has strong companies that are competitive and the
United States will support that, Montgomery promised and added that
Serbia has to make a concept of competitiveness in order to
attract investments and encourage exports. The United States and
the international community support Serbia every step of the way and
wish it success, Montgomery said.
Serbia-Montenegro president confers with US secretary of state
BELGRADE, Apr 2 (Tanjug) - Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar
Marovic said Wednesday evening he sees the visit by US Secretary of
State Colin Powell as a gesture of support to the reforms underway.
During his meeting with Powell, Marovic expressed his
optimism regarding the success of reforms in SCG, especially
concerning fostering of cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the reform of the SCG Army as
a pre-condition for accelerating accession to Partnership for Peace.
He expressed hope that trade relations between the US and SCG will
soon be fully normalized.
Marovic underlined the SCG economic interest in taking part in
Iraq's reconstruction after the conflict ends, in order to help the
Iraqi people.
According to a statement issued by Marovic's office, Powell
said his visit to Belgrade constitutes an expression of US support to
its reform program and its determination to fight crime and
corruption.
Powell also supported the endeavors for normalizing bilateral
trade relations and underlined that the Pentagon and NATO would
support the SCG Army transformation.
POWELL: U.S. TO DO EVERYTHING TO ASSIST SERBIA&MONTENEGRO
BELGRADE, April 2 (Beta) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
said in Belgrade on April 2, that his country would do everything to
assist Serbia and Montenegro to become an integral part of Europe.
Powell said he hoped that the country's leadership would intensify
cooperation with The Hague based tribunal next month.
"I came to Belgrade tonight to extend strong U.S. support to
Serbia and Montenegro following the assassination of Premier
Djindjic, who was my friend, and whom I admired as a leader who
wishing only the best for his people," Powell said at a press
conference after meeting with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic.
Powell also said that he is "delighted" with what he had heard
from his counterparts in Belgrade, primarily regarding the commitment
to proceed with reforms.
"The successful suppression of organized crime and the reforms of the
army will improve cooperation with The Hague based tribunal, which is
an important element of the country's international obligations.
After fulfilling these obligations, the community of Serbia and
Montenegro can expect to join the Partnership for Peace Program and
the EU," stressed the U.S. secretary of state.
Powell added he hoped the country would make considerable progress
in its cooperation with the tribunal in the next few months, which
primarily refers to the arrest and extradition of indictees.
In his words, General Ratko Mladic and the "Vukovar Troika," the
former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officers, Veselin Sljivancanin
and Miroslav Radic, were discussed during the meetings. Powell
stressed that he was leaving Belgrade with a very good impression
that the country's officials were committed to bringing these people
to justice.
Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic said that during the meeting he had
expressed his determination to proceed with the reforms and announced
a more intense fight against crime. He also said the Serbian
authorities would step up cooperation with the tribunal, adding that
he hoped cooperation would "end in a short period of time."
Zivkovic thanked Powell on his personal contribution to the U.S.
assistance to Serbia, saying: "I can assure the State Secretary that
Serbia will be a reliable partner of the U.S."
Status of human rights in SCG satisfactory
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Tanjug) - On the overall, the status
of human rights in Serbia is satisfactory, it is underlined in
the regular annual report by the U.S. Department of State, which
also concludes that some problems inherited from the rule of Slobodan
Milosevic remain unsolved, but that they are on the way to be
resolved.
The regular report on human rights in the world was presented
to the public by Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday.
The part referring to Serbia and Montenegro says that there
are still cases of maltreatment and beating of citizens by
police, although the situation has improved since the adoption of the
Law on criminal procedure.
As for the co-operation with the Hague Tribunal, the
Department of State underlines in its report that a certain progress
had been made, but that the Tribunal is still dissatisfied with
the co-operation level. Powell underlined that certain progress had
been made in Kosovo as well, but that some of the serious issues
remain outstanding. This, primarily, applies to freedom of movement
of the minority population, mostly Serbs.
A certain progress was recorded in some parts of Kosovo late
2002, the report says, adding that the overall situation remains
unsatisfactory. It is also pointed out that an insignificant number
of refugees and displaced persons had returned to their homes, which,
according to the report, is due to the concern of refugees for their
safety and freedom of movement, as well as their inability to find
employment.
In the part of the report that refers to Montenegro, it is
underlined that Montenegro's government had mostly respected human
rights over the past year, but that some problems, primarily in
the administration of justice, are still present.
New US fund for aid to Balkans will be based in Belgrade
WASHINGTON, Apr 2 (Tanjug) - USAID, the German Marshall Fund
and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation announced Wednesday the
creation of a Balkan fund for democracy development, through which
about 25 million dollars will be provided as support to governments
in southeastern Europe.
The fund will be based in Belgrade and will start operating
in the summer. Its beneficiaries will be Albania, Bosnia,
Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro.
About two million dollars will be allocated annually to local and
regional non-governmental organizations, educational institutions and
media, to help foster relations between citizens and local
authorities, and the fund will also support cross-border cooperation
in the region in order to secure lasting stability.
USAID and GMF will allocate 10 million dollars each to the
fund and Mott Foundation 5 million, and contributions from other
donors are expected when the fund becomes operational.
USAID to earmark 150 million dollars to Serbia-Montenegro
BELGRADE, April 2 (Tanjug) - The United States development
agency USAID will in 2003 aid Serbia-Montenegro with about 150
million dollars intended for the development of the economic policy,
democracy, a civic society and local self-rule, USAID Belgrade office
head James Stevenson said on Wednesday.
Of this sum, Serbia will get 110 million dollars and Montenegro
40 million, Stevenson told the press. Underscoring that
the Competitiveness Summit in Belgrade's Sava Congressional Centre
is part of this aid, he announced new USAID projects for
Serbia-Montenegro over the next few years worth several hundreds
million dollars.
So far, USAID has targeted on the producers of raspberries and
furniture in Serbia within the support for stepping up the level of
competitiveness of the domestic economy, Stevenson said.
=== 3 ===
PIENO APPOGGIO DALL'EUROPA:
SERBIA E MONTENEGRO ENTRANO NEL CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA (COME STATO UNICO
O COME DUE STATI SEPARATI?)
Serbia-Montenegro admitted into Council of Europe
STRASBOURG, April 3 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro on Wednesday
became a 45th member of the Council of Europe, and its flag flew
outside the Strasbourg headquarters of this oldest European
institution.
In scope of the admission ceremony, Serbia-Montenegro
President Svetozar Marovic handed over corresponding documentation
on acceptance of the CE Statute, while Foreign Minister Goran
Svilanovic signed a statement on acceptance of the European
convention on human rights.
After that, while the national anthem was played, the Serbia-
Montenegro flag was raised outside the headquarters in Strasbourg.
Serbia-Montenegro parliament speaker Dragoljub Micunovic,
who is at the head of the country's delegation, will address the
CE parliamentary assembly.
Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said at
the beginning of the ceremony that up to now, a link had been missing
in South East Europe, but that that was not the case any more. He
promised that the CE would help Serbia and Montenegro go on, and
added that he wished to see a live society which would be capable of
coming into grips with the past, so as to be able to look into the
future. Schwimmer ended his speech in Serbian language by
saying "Serbia and Montenegro, welcome home." Serbia-Montenegro
President Svetozar Marovic said that it had been confirmed that
Serbia and Montenegro would become a full-fledged member of the
European union, and pointed out that Serbia and Montenegro
wanted peace, democracy and integration into Europe.
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said that the admission into the CE
was not any easy one, and that all who had been working on it should
be remembered.
Referring to the murder of Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, chairman
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CE, Peter Schieder, said
that the remains of the Slobodan Milosevic's regime would not succeed
in destroying what the democratic authorities of Serbia and
Montenegro had done.
ADMISSION INTO CE SIGN WE ARE ON RIGHT TRACK, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
FOREIGN MINISTER
STRASBOURG, April 3 (Tanjug) - For the people of Serbia and
Montenegro the admission into the Council of Europe is an important
sign that their country is on the right track, Serbia-Montenegro
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Thursday, and added that
that was a first major step of Serbia and Montenegro on its road
towards a full integration into European structures.
During a speech at the ceremony of the admission of Serbia and
Montenegro as a 45th member of the CE, Svilanovic expressed his
certainty that a membership in that, most eminent European
organisation, would make the foundations of democracy in Serbia and
Montenegro stronger.
Reminding of the fact that Serbia and Montenegro had been waiting
for a long time to take its seat in the CE, Svilanovic said that the
admission had not come easily, and that it was a "result of the hard
struggle for liberty, human rights and the rule of law."
"We should remember and pay respect to all those individuals in
Serbia and Montenegro who invested everything, including their lives,
in that struggle," the Serbia-Montenegro foreign minister said, and
added that "this struggle for freedom is not over, is never over,
although perhaps we have overcome the greatest obstacles."
Svilanovic promised that Serbia and Montenegro would "fully comply
with its membership obligations and commitments," and pointed out
that "a lot has been achieved in strengthening democracy, respect for
human rights and the rule of law in Serbia and Montenegro," but also
that "still, a lot has to be done."
"Thus, we are grateful for the assistance to be provided by the
Council of Europe in the post-accession monitoring programme," Goran
Svilanovic said. Svilanovic also pointed out that "we, Europeans,
share the same values and the same destiny," and reminded of the fact
that when the Council of Europe had been first set up, memories and
horrors of the Second World War had been still fresh, as well as that
a "willingness to protect and realize the European values helped
overcome these wounds."
"Today, for the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, memories and
horrors of war are still fresh and not healed," Svilanovic said, and
stressed that "only by fully embracing European values we may
overcome these wounds," as well as that " only by facing the past we
may realise our future dreams."
"Thus, it is the responsibility and duty of all governments to
bring war criminals to justice, before the International Criminal
Tribunal and before the national courts," the Serbia-Montenegro
foreign minister said, and reminded of the words of Sir Winston
Churchill, one of the founding fathers of the CE, i.e. "Let there be
justice, mercy and freedom. The peoples have only to will it, and all
will achieve their hearts' desire." The "people of Serbia and
Montenegro, like everyone else, wish to leave in peace and
prosperity, in security and freedom. The glorious expression of this
desire was October 2000, when a regime of war and poverty was
overthrown," Svilanovic pointed out, and stessed that the "membership
in the Council of Europe comes as a recognition of the common
European destiny for Serbia and Montenegro."
Da "Vesti", quotidiano della diaspora serba,
Francoforte, 2 aprile 2003.
Le avventure amorose del capo dell'UNMIK, tema principale della
cronaca rosa nel Kosovo.
(piu' sotto in lingua italiana)
Ljubavne avanture sefa UNMIK glavan tema kosovskih kuloara.
BUKURIJIN ZAGRLJAJ KOBAN ZA SRBE
Gotovo svi kosovski krugovi tvrde da veza Michaela Steinera sa
Albankom Bukurijom Djonbalaj moze da preraste i u brak. Nisam sigurna
koliko je Steiner u stanju da u Bukurijinom zagrljaju razmislja o
srpskim interesima, kaze poslanik "Povratka" Rada Trajkovic.
Propaganda
Bukurija je poznata po organizovanju propagandnih konvoja u kojima je
okupljala diplomate nevladine organizacije i novinare, i zajedno sa
njima obilazila navodno ugrozene Albance, afirmisuci pritom "borbu
OVK i vecitu teznju kosovskih Albanaca za nezavisnost".
Kumovi Dzejmija Seja
Porodica Djonbalaj poznata je lokalnom auditorijumu, a i sire po
veoma jakim politickim vezama sirom sveta, sto pokazuje cinjenica da
je Bukurijin brat Afrim kum sa Dejmijem Sejom, portparolom NATO u
vreme bombardovanja Jugoslavije. Bukurija je, navodno, zahvaljujuci
tim vezama posle kratkog rada u pristinskom "Koha ditore" presla u
RTV Kosovo, gde se munjevitom
brzinom nasla u bordu direktora.
L'ABBRACCIO DI BUKURIJA FATALE PER I SERBI
Quasi tutti nel giro albanese kosovaro affermano che la relazione di
Michael Steiner con la albanese Bukurija Djonbaliaj può finire
col matrimonio. Non sono sicura di quanto Steiner nell'abbraccio di
Bukurija possa pensare agli interessi serbi, dice la deputata
di "Povratak" (Ritorno), Rada Trajkovic.
Propaganda
Bukurija Djonbaliaj è conosciuta per aver organizzato convogli di
propaganda. Invitando rappresentanti di ONG e giornalisti, visitava i
cosiddetti oppressi albanesi kosovari, promuovendo così "la lotta
dell'UCK e l'insistente richiesta degli albanesi kosovari per
l'indipendenza".
Padrini di Jamie Shea
La famiglia Djonbaliaj è conosciuta all'auditorio locale, ma anche
altrove, per aver forti legami politici nel mondo, il che viene
confermato dal fatto che il fratello di Bukurija, Afrim Djonbaliaj è
padrino di Jamie Shea, il portavoce della NATO durante i
bombardamenti contro la Jugoslavia. Bukurija, sicuramente anche per
questa ragione, dopo un breve periodo di lavoro passato al
quotidiano "Koha ditore" è passata alla RTV Kosovo, e poi,
con una velocità strepitosa, si è trovata nel ruolo di direttrice.
(Traduzione a cura del CNJ)
Francoforte, 2 aprile 2003.
Le avventure amorose del capo dell'UNMIK, tema principale della
cronaca rosa nel Kosovo.
(piu' sotto in lingua italiana)
Ljubavne avanture sefa UNMIK glavan tema kosovskih kuloara.
BUKURIJIN ZAGRLJAJ KOBAN ZA SRBE
Gotovo svi kosovski krugovi tvrde da veza Michaela Steinera sa
Albankom Bukurijom Djonbalaj moze da preraste i u brak. Nisam sigurna
koliko je Steiner u stanju da u Bukurijinom zagrljaju razmislja o
srpskim interesima, kaze poslanik "Povratka" Rada Trajkovic.
Propaganda
Bukurija je poznata po organizovanju propagandnih konvoja u kojima je
okupljala diplomate nevladine organizacije i novinare, i zajedno sa
njima obilazila navodno ugrozene Albance, afirmisuci pritom "borbu
OVK i vecitu teznju kosovskih Albanaca za nezavisnost".
Kumovi Dzejmija Seja
Porodica Djonbalaj poznata je lokalnom auditorijumu, a i sire po
veoma jakim politickim vezama sirom sveta, sto pokazuje cinjenica da
je Bukurijin brat Afrim kum sa Dejmijem Sejom, portparolom NATO u
vreme bombardovanja Jugoslavije. Bukurija je, navodno, zahvaljujuci
tim vezama posle kratkog rada u pristinskom "Koha ditore" presla u
RTV Kosovo, gde se munjevitom
brzinom nasla u bordu direktora.
L'ABBRACCIO DI BUKURIJA FATALE PER I SERBI
Quasi tutti nel giro albanese kosovaro affermano che la relazione di
Michael Steiner con la albanese Bukurija Djonbaliaj può finire
col matrimonio. Non sono sicura di quanto Steiner nell'abbraccio di
Bukurija possa pensare agli interessi serbi, dice la deputata
di "Povratak" (Ritorno), Rada Trajkovic.
Propaganda
Bukurija Djonbaliaj è conosciuta per aver organizzato convogli di
propaganda. Invitando rappresentanti di ONG e giornalisti, visitava i
cosiddetti oppressi albanesi kosovari, promuovendo così "la lotta
dell'UCK e l'insistente richiesta degli albanesi kosovari per
l'indipendenza".
Padrini di Jamie Shea
La famiglia Djonbaliaj è conosciuta all'auditorio locale, ma anche
altrove, per aver forti legami politici nel mondo, il che viene
confermato dal fatto che il fratello di Bukurija, Afrim Djonbaliaj è
padrino di Jamie Shea, il portavoce della NATO durante i
bombardamenti contro la Jugoslavia. Bukurija, sicuramente anche per
questa ragione, dopo un breve periodo di lavoro passato al
quotidiano "Koha ditore" è passata alla RTV Kosovo, e poi,
con una velocità strepitosa, si è trovata nel ruolo di direttrice.
(Traduzione a cura del CNJ)
"La violenza e' l'arma delle persone deboli ed immorali"
Faccio seguito alle accuse non veritiere e disgustose rivolte contro
di me, nell'ambito delle ritorsioni in atto contro gli avversari
politici.
Naturalmente non ho niente a che fare con i crimini commessi in
Jugoslavia. Ne' tantomeno ho a che fare con alcuna attività criminale
in assoluto. Non sono mai stata in conflitto con le leggi del mio
paese, e questo quelli che mi accusano lo sanno perfettamente. Le
accuse contro di me sono motivate solamente dal desiderio di colpire
mio marito all'Aia e di mettere in ombra la sua brillante autodifesa.
Le accuse contro di me sono una ritorsione, una punizione per
l'atteggiamento di Slobodan Milosevic, bello, dignitoso, intelligente
e forte dinanzi alla corte dell'Aia. E' lui che vogliono uccidere,
proprio perche' si comporta cosi'.
Loro tentano di esaurirlo fisicamente e psichicamente a tal punto che
egli non possa comparire dinanzi alla Corte o muoia dallo stress.
Contro di lui stanno commettendo un crimine dinanzi agli occhi del
mondo intero. A questo proposito io scrivo e scrivo e scrivo e parlo,
ovunque posso.
L'altro modo per combattere contro di lui sono io. Le pressioni su di
me mirano a colpire lui, così che il dolore a causa dell'ingiustizia
nei miei confronti gli leghi le mani.
Chi ha avuto una simile idea e chi l'ha messa in pratica è qualcuno
che non ha alcuna dignità ne' alcuna morale, è un bastardo nel seno
del popolo serbo e di tutta la specie umana.
Gli attacchi contro di me e l'intenzione di liquidarmi sono motivati
da un fine ulteriore, basso e misero: qualcuno nel governo di destra
mi vede come una avversaria politica piuttosto capace, e perciò
pericolosa. Siccome non possono controbattermi politicamente, a loro
sembra più facile bollarmi come criminale e rimuovermi in questa
maniera dalla scena pubblica.
Chi non possiede parole, chi ha una mente scarsa ed un cuore piccolo,
adotta la violenza. La violenza è l'arma delle persone deboli ed
immorali.
Ho lasciato Belgrado per ragioni personali e di famiglia.
Professoressa Mira Markovic
Dichiarazione letta alla conferenza stampa della JUL, a Belgrado il
31 marzo 2003
Faccio seguito alle accuse non veritiere e disgustose rivolte contro
di me, nell'ambito delle ritorsioni in atto contro gli avversari
politici.
Naturalmente non ho niente a che fare con i crimini commessi in
Jugoslavia. Ne' tantomeno ho a che fare con alcuna attività criminale
in assoluto. Non sono mai stata in conflitto con le leggi del mio
paese, e questo quelli che mi accusano lo sanno perfettamente. Le
accuse contro di me sono motivate solamente dal desiderio di colpire
mio marito all'Aia e di mettere in ombra la sua brillante autodifesa.
Le accuse contro di me sono una ritorsione, una punizione per
l'atteggiamento di Slobodan Milosevic, bello, dignitoso, intelligente
e forte dinanzi alla corte dell'Aia. E' lui che vogliono uccidere,
proprio perche' si comporta cosi'.
Loro tentano di esaurirlo fisicamente e psichicamente a tal punto che
egli non possa comparire dinanzi alla Corte o muoia dallo stress.
Contro di lui stanno commettendo un crimine dinanzi agli occhi del
mondo intero. A questo proposito io scrivo e scrivo e scrivo e parlo,
ovunque posso.
L'altro modo per combattere contro di lui sono io. Le pressioni su di
me mirano a colpire lui, così che il dolore a causa dell'ingiustizia
nei miei confronti gli leghi le mani.
Chi ha avuto una simile idea e chi l'ha messa in pratica è qualcuno
che non ha alcuna dignità ne' alcuna morale, è un bastardo nel seno
del popolo serbo e di tutta la specie umana.
Gli attacchi contro di me e l'intenzione di liquidarmi sono motivati
da un fine ulteriore, basso e misero: qualcuno nel governo di destra
mi vede come una avversaria politica piuttosto capace, e perciò
pericolosa. Siccome non possono controbattermi politicamente, a loro
sembra più facile bollarmi come criminale e rimuovermi in questa
maniera dalla scena pubblica.
Chi non possiede parole, chi ha una mente scarsa ed un cuore piccolo,
adotta la violenza. La violenza è l'arma delle persone deboli ed
immorali.
Ho lasciato Belgrado per ragioni personali e di famiglia.
Professoressa Mira Markovic
Dichiarazione letta alla conferenza stampa della JUL, a Belgrado il
31 marzo 2003
From: Vladimir Krsljanin (01/04/2003 23:22)
HAGUE PROSECUTION DETERMINES THE DESTINY OF SERBIA
Below we give the transcript of the additional remarks President
Milosevic made yesterday at The Hague. Except of stressing the destiny
of his associates arrested in Belgrade, he also spoke about his
health, exposing some more manipulations of ICTY. But in the first
place, he underlined the connection between the prosecution and the
events in Belgrade. To that, one can add a couple of points. The big
actual "Red Berets" story started about a month ago when the Hague
prosecution (while questioning Captain Dragan) had shown a video about
the visit of President Milosevic to their base in the town of Kula.
Somebody perhaps wanted to create a picture in which they feel as a
Hague target. Two other curious facts appeared immediately after the
campaign against President Milosevic's family and arrests of his
associates started: The Presidency of DOS (Serbian ruling coalition)
decided to propose changes to the Law on cooperation with the ICTY
which would annul all restrictions for the extradition of the
indictees. The very next day, a spokeswoman of the prosecution told
the press about a plan to make 35 new indictments, mostly against
prominent Serb politicians and generals. But how can all of them be
convicted if Milosevic is so successful?
Richard May
Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
President Slobodan Milosevic
Since we are again at the open session and the new witness has not
come yet, can I get the floor in relation to my requests?
Richard May
Yes.
President Slobodan Milosevic
So, first of all I repeat my request to allow my questioning and to
make it possible to be in public, since it is related to the media
campaign that is going on publicly. The retaliation against one's wife
and children is something we remember from the darkest days of the
last century, from the darkest years of the last century! I also
demand an investigation about the involvement of this illegal
prosecution in the fabrication of untruths that are being launched.
Besides that...
Richard May
Mr. Milosevic, I have stopped you already once. The events in Belgrade
are not something that this court deals with. If that would have any
direct influence to this trial, than we would take it into
consideration, but nothing you have said up to now shows that it has
any influence. You wanted to say something about your health. That's
what we would like to hear.
President Slobodan Milosevic
I will tell you about the health, but direct influence is in their aim
to prevent my wife to give me her assistance and support. And above
that, I want to inform you that they have arrested several members of
the National Committee for my defense "SLOBODA" ("Freedom"), in spite
they have no ground for that. Accordingly, we deal here with an
orchestrated attempt to put pressure on me and my family since this
false Prosecution suffers a fiasco here every day. I consider as your
duty to establish the degree of their involvement.
Richard May
That is only your comment. There is absolutely no evidence to support
what you are saying. Maybe there are good reasons for some people to
be arrested. However, in this moment we will not deal with such
allegations. Do you want to say something about your health?
President Slobodan Milosevic
Regarding my health - I have got these papers you've discussed last
Tuesday in my absence. My first objection is that discussion about me
in my absence. Second, it is written here, I will read it to you:
"Having in mind that the accused has refused to take the increased
dose of the medications recommended by the cardiologist...". So you
have created in the discussion here the impression that I refuse to
take medications and that by that I deliberately have worsen my health
condition, which is a notorious lie. I have discussed, in presence of
the director of the prison, with the only medical employee here the
fact that I have never refused to take medications. Every medication
that has been prescribed to me, I had taken. And the fact that I have
drawn the doctors attention to the negative side effects of the
medication I've been receiving and requested it to be replaced by some
more adequate - that was a normal conversation between the doctor and
patient - which belongs to duties of a doctor and I guess also to the
rights of a patient. I've got also the references proving that the
medication that has been given to me to lower the blood pressure
causes, among other things, two very serious consequences, the
symptoms which I had all the time. One consequence is dazedness and
another is insomnia.
You would have to admit, gentlemen, that dazedness requires from me
additional efforts, additional engagement, additional exhaustion in
order to fulfill the job I have to fulfill here. On the other hand,
insomnia prevents me to get even a minimum of rest. So I stressed that
and I also got references, which I am submitting to you here. The
references of the international experts' institutions underlying these
negative side effects. But you have been holding your discussion here
as I refuse to receive the medication. And on that very day when you
were discussing and expressing the totally untruth allegations, on
that very day doctor Vandajham (?), having all this in mind, decided
to change my therapy.
Two days after the change of the therapy was the first night when I've
been able to sleep. That shows that the doctor was right to change the
therapy and that your whole discussion here on my alleged refusal to
take medications was completely groundless and even in a very evil way
interpreted by Mr. Nice. I also have here a signed letter from my
doctor, in which he says: vertigo, insomnia, dazedness and gives
references. In addition to that he told me - we can even send it to
Houston and they will confirm that it is correct. And I think that one
needs no better confirmation than the fact that since last Tuesday
when you had your discussion here and my therapy was changed - my
blood pressure has been settled after two days. And also after two
days I have been able to sleep normally.
For tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2nd, the ICTY has scheduled another
session on "administrative issues". Again, one of them will be the
health of President Milosevic. Another two we know will be discussions
on the insistence of the prosecution that witnesses according to the
so-called Rule 92bis (those who testify in written) should not appear
in the court room for cross-examination and on the demand from the
prosecution to significantly prolong the time for its case. One can
suppose that President Milosevic would insist on the link between the
political repression in Belgrade and The Hague prosecution - the
question the judges yesterday avoided to accept as legitimate.
---
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
HAGUE PROSECUTION DETERMINES THE DESTINY OF SERBIA
Below we give the transcript of the additional remarks President
Milosevic made yesterday at The Hague. Except of stressing the destiny
of his associates arrested in Belgrade, he also spoke about his
health, exposing some more manipulations of ICTY. But in the first
place, he underlined the connection between the prosecution and the
events in Belgrade. To that, one can add a couple of points. The big
actual "Red Berets" story started about a month ago when the Hague
prosecution (while questioning Captain Dragan) had shown a video about
the visit of President Milosevic to their base in the town of Kula.
Somebody perhaps wanted to create a picture in which they feel as a
Hague target. Two other curious facts appeared immediately after the
campaign against President Milosevic's family and arrests of his
associates started: The Presidency of DOS (Serbian ruling coalition)
decided to propose changes to the Law on cooperation with the ICTY
which would annul all restrictions for the extradition of the
indictees. The very next day, a spokeswoman of the prosecution told
the press about a plan to make 35 new indictments, mostly against
prominent Serb politicians and generals. But how can all of them be
convicted if Milosevic is so successful?
Richard May
Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
President Slobodan Milosevic
Since we are again at the open session and the new witness has not
come yet, can I get the floor in relation to my requests?
Richard May
Yes.
President Slobodan Milosevic
So, first of all I repeat my request to allow my questioning and to
make it possible to be in public, since it is related to the media
campaign that is going on publicly. The retaliation against one's wife
and children is something we remember from the darkest days of the
last century, from the darkest years of the last century! I also
demand an investigation about the involvement of this illegal
prosecution in the fabrication of untruths that are being launched.
Besides that...
Richard May
Mr. Milosevic, I have stopped you already once. The events in Belgrade
are not something that this court deals with. If that would have any
direct influence to this trial, than we would take it into
consideration, but nothing you have said up to now shows that it has
any influence. You wanted to say something about your health. That's
what we would like to hear.
President Slobodan Milosevic
I will tell you about the health, but direct influence is in their aim
to prevent my wife to give me her assistance and support. And above
that, I want to inform you that they have arrested several members of
the National Committee for my defense "SLOBODA" ("Freedom"), in spite
they have no ground for that. Accordingly, we deal here with an
orchestrated attempt to put pressure on me and my family since this
false Prosecution suffers a fiasco here every day. I consider as your
duty to establish the degree of their involvement.
Richard May
That is only your comment. There is absolutely no evidence to support
what you are saying. Maybe there are good reasons for some people to
be arrested. However, in this moment we will not deal with such
allegations. Do you want to say something about your health?
President Slobodan Milosevic
Regarding my health - I have got these papers you've discussed last
Tuesday in my absence. My first objection is that discussion about me
in my absence. Second, it is written here, I will read it to you:
"Having in mind that the accused has refused to take the increased
dose of the medications recommended by the cardiologist...". So you
have created in the discussion here the impression that I refuse to
take medications and that by that I deliberately have worsen my health
condition, which is a notorious lie. I have discussed, in presence of
the director of the prison, with the only medical employee here the
fact that I have never refused to take medications. Every medication
that has been prescribed to me, I had taken. And the fact that I have
drawn the doctors attention to the negative side effects of the
medication I've been receiving and requested it to be replaced by some
more adequate - that was a normal conversation between the doctor and
patient - which belongs to duties of a doctor and I guess also to the
rights of a patient. I've got also the references proving that the
medication that has been given to me to lower the blood pressure
causes, among other things, two very serious consequences, the
symptoms which I had all the time. One consequence is dazedness and
another is insomnia.
You would have to admit, gentlemen, that dazedness requires from me
additional efforts, additional engagement, additional exhaustion in
order to fulfill the job I have to fulfill here. On the other hand,
insomnia prevents me to get even a minimum of rest. So I stressed that
and I also got references, which I am submitting to you here. The
references of the international experts' institutions underlying these
negative side effects. But you have been holding your discussion here
as I refuse to receive the medication. And on that very day when you
were discussing and expressing the totally untruth allegations, on
that very day doctor Vandajham (?), having all this in mind, decided
to change my therapy.
Two days after the change of the therapy was the first night when I've
been able to sleep. That shows that the doctor was right to change the
therapy and that your whole discussion here on my alleged refusal to
take medications was completely groundless and even in a very evil way
interpreted by Mr. Nice. I also have here a signed letter from my
doctor, in which he says: vertigo, insomnia, dazedness and gives
references. In addition to that he told me - we can even send it to
Houston and they will confirm that it is correct. And I think that one
needs no better confirmation than the fact that since last Tuesday
when you had your discussion here and my therapy was changed - my
blood pressure has been settled after two days. And also after two
days I have been able to sleep normally.
For tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2nd, the ICTY has scheduled another
session on "administrative issues". Again, one of them will be the
health of President Milosevic. Another two we know will be discussions
on the insistence of the prosecution that witnesses according to the
so-called Rule 92bis (those who testify in written) should not appear
in the court room for cross-examination and on the demand from the
prosecution to significantly prolong the time for its case. One can
suppose that President Milosevic would insist on the link between the
political repression in Belgrade and The Hague prosecution - the
question the judges yesterday avoided to accept as legitimate.
---
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m032703.html
[NOTA: A causa del suo carattere volontario, anzi volontaristico - e
probabilmente anche velleitario, visto il silenzio d'intorno nel quale
regolarmente cade e si perde - il nostro sforzo di controinformazione
non riesce spesso ad essere sufficiente e non ci consente di
riprodurre questi testi in lingua italiana. Chi fosse in grado di
farci avere rapidamente la traduzione di questo come anche degli altri
articoli non ancora tradotti sara' il benvenuto. (Per il CNJ: Andrea)]
---
Serbia Under Martial Law
by Nebojsa Malic
March 27, 2003
Two weeks ago, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was shot and
killed by a sniper bullet. His successors immediately declared a
"state of emergency" - in effect, martial law - of undetermined
duration, and launched a massive police operation to crack down on
alleged crime syndicates suspected of Djindjic's murder. Djindjic was
given a full state funeral and numerous eulogies in the Western press,
before news of His Most Democratic Majesty's invasion of Iraq pushed
Serbia out of the limelight.
As Imperial forces, confident after terror-bombing Serbia into
submission in 1999, fought against unexpectedly stiff Iraqi
resistance, Djindjic's successors reaffirmed Serbia's vassal status by
expelling Iraqi diplomats. Meanwhile, at home, they reveled in power
over their citizens even the Emperor would envy.
A different war
Under the leadership of Djindjic's party comrade Zoran Zivkovic, who
was appointed Prime Minister on March 17, the new government launched
a "war on organized crime."
With uncanny speed, they blamed Djindjic's death on the "Zemun clan,"
allegedly a crime syndicate based near Belgrade. Suddenly, the police
that could not solve any capital murder cases in the past two years
knew everything, and everyone responsible. On March 18, the government
said it had arrested 750 people. Two days later, the number rose to
over 1000, and by the 23rd, stood at 2700! By March 17, Belgrade
prisons were full, and the arrested had to be sent elsewhere.
While Serbia is certainly ridden with organized crime, as are all
post-Communist countries, there are valid concerns that the government
crackdown is not really aimed at destroying the mafia altogether. For
example, though the little-known 'Zemun clan' is a target, the much
better-known 'Surcin clan,' whose boss let Djindjic travel in his
private jets, has not been mentioned at all.
One of the alleged 'Zemun clan' kingpins, known as "Legija," used to
command a Special Operations Unit of the Interior Ministry. Djindjic
enlisted Legija's help in 2000 to seize power, and in 2001 to seize
Milosevic. There are indications he was about to deliver Legija's head
to the Hague Inquisition, just before he was killed.
The following facts need mention as well. Zivkovic was minister of
police in the Yugoslav government until it was dissolved last month.
Djindjic was killed on his watch - yet he got promoted! Dusan
Mihajlovic, Serbia's minister of police (and thus even more
responsible than Zivkovic) remained in his post. Legija's former unit,
the "Red Berets," has been directly subordinated to Mihajlovic since
early 2002. (It was disbanded two days ago, just as some pro-Imperial
elements advised.)
There are numerous indications that the state of emergency and the
'war on crime' are actually aimed at the government's political
opponents and dissenters in general. "War is the health of the state,"
Randolph Bourne famously said. State-launched 'wars' on social
problems serve that purpose just as well.
Let the purges begin
Thanks to the emergency, the police do not need search or arrest
warrants, but simply to barge into houses and offices of suspects.
Property of the suspects can be confiscated or destroyed, as was the
case with an office building owned by the alleged leader of the "Zemun
clan." Under emergency powers, suspects can be held for 30 days
without charges.
And since Serbia kept the Communist system of criminal justice, all
suspects are pretty much presumed guilty until proven innocent.
Djindjic's murder has been blamed on "remnants of the Milosevic
regime", both by the Serbian government and the Imperial press. It is
hard to say exactly who claimed it first, though the accusations
seemed to appear in American papers sooner than in official Serbian
statements. It wouldn't be the first time that Serbia takes its cue
from the Empire. As early as March 16, a friend of Djindjic's wrote a
commentary for the Washington Post, openly blaming Slobodan Milosevic
for the hit.
Prime Minister Zivkovic also blamed "politically affiliate groups,"
and pledged he would "clean Serbia with an iron broom." A prominent
member of the Djindjic regime opined that the PM's tragic death could
be used as an "inspiration" to make Serbia into a democracy.
If so, Serbia's leaders have a mighty odd definition of "democracy."
Does it mean censorship? Yes. Emergency powers provided for a full
media crackdown, limiting the news to official statements only. This
supposedly extends only to the causes of the emergency, but since the
government interprets what does and what does not apply, in practice
this means censorship of everything. Several publications and TV
stations have already been banned. A Serbian government consultant,
posing as an independent journalist, tried to excuse the censorship by
claiming that 'those targeted are mainly low-quality tabloids,
notorious for their unverified reports, invasions of privacy and
reliance on rumour and even lies.' But that describes most of the
media in the Balkans! Besides, any persecution first targets the
unpopular, so by the time it gets around to others, they have no way
to resist.
Last week, the government purged the judiciary, creating the
opportunity to 'pack' the courts with its supporters. Nenad Canak, a
lunatic fringe politician who figures prominently in the DOS
coalition, advocated a ban on certain political parties. There was
even a hint of 'culture wars' as the authorities arrested Ceca
Raznatovic, neo-folk singer and widow of militia leader Arkan.
Allegedly connected to the 'Zemun clan,' Raznatovic and her music are
considered a "vulgar celebration of Serbia's criminal class," as Time
magazine famously put it last summer. Also, head of the military
counter-intelligence was recently sacked by the pro-Djindjic
government of the Serbia-Montenegro union, suggesting that a purge in
the military is going on as well.
The alleged hitman himself was arrested on Monday, but the police
haven't said how they "know" he was the shooter. In today's Serbia,
their word cannot be questioned.
Faking a martyr
Though the people in Serbia in general have been conditioned to, if
not trust, then at least obey the government unconditionally, many see
the state of emergency for what it is: a naked power grab, using
Djindjic's body as the proverbial 'bloody shirt'.
The Empire is certainly treating Djindjic like "a martyr to the cause
of a liberal, democratic Serbia" (Tod Lindberg, The Washington Times).
In the weeks following his demise, The Toronto Star called him 'a true
patriot,' London's noxious IWPR lamented Serbia's interrupted road to
"full Euro-Atlantic integration," and the New York Times editorialized
that though the Empire was absolutely right in all its demands, and
Djindjic did right by obeying them, he should have received more
support to deal with the opposition.
A rare voice of dissent came from Neil Clark in the London Guardian,
who called Djindjic "The quisling of Belgrade." Said Clark, "When a
man has sold his country's assets, its ex-president and his main
political rivals, what else is there to sell? Only the country
itself."
And Steven Erlanger of the New York Times noted, in a March 16 piece,
that Djindjic had links with the criminal syndicates that supposedly
killed him, even as he again claimed Djindjic was hated for obeying
the fully justified Western demands.
IWPR, a loathsome purveyor of transnational statism, deemed the
martial law as an "opportunity" to rid Serbia of organized crime, with
a perfunctory caution that it could lead to a dictatorship. The
government crackdown was also supported unequivocally by the
enthusiastically Imperial ICG. The Christian Science Monitor quoted
ICG's Belgrade bureau chief, James Lyon, as saying, "If they can keep
this up for another two weeks, I am optimistic that Djindjic's death
will be seen as the spark that gave Serbia a democratic future."
Meanwhile, ICG panicked over the possibility that the future Serbia
won't be as obedient and pliant as Djindjic made it, and demanded of
the Empire not to relax any of its pressure on Belgrade. The people of
Serbia, of course, knew nothing of it.
Under the emergency powers, mention of this report would result in a
ban...
Nebojsa Malic
[NOTA: A causa del suo carattere volontario, anzi volontaristico - e
probabilmente anche velleitario, visto il silenzio d'intorno nel quale
regolarmente cade e si perde - il nostro sforzo di controinformazione
non riesce spesso ad essere sufficiente e non ci consente di
riprodurre questi testi in lingua italiana. Chi fosse in grado di
farci avere rapidamente la traduzione di questo come anche degli altri
articoli non ancora tradotti sara' il benvenuto. (Per il CNJ: Andrea)]
---
Serbia Under Martial Law
by Nebojsa Malic
March 27, 2003
Two weeks ago, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was shot and
killed by a sniper bullet. His successors immediately declared a
"state of emergency" - in effect, martial law - of undetermined
duration, and launched a massive police operation to crack down on
alleged crime syndicates suspected of Djindjic's murder. Djindjic was
given a full state funeral and numerous eulogies in the Western press,
before news of His Most Democratic Majesty's invasion of Iraq pushed
Serbia out of the limelight.
As Imperial forces, confident after terror-bombing Serbia into
submission in 1999, fought against unexpectedly stiff Iraqi
resistance, Djindjic's successors reaffirmed Serbia's vassal status by
expelling Iraqi diplomats. Meanwhile, at home, they reveled in power
over their citizens even the Emperor would envy.
A different war
Under the leadership of Djindjic's party comrade Zoran Zivkovic, who
was appointed Prime Minister on March 17, the new government launched
a "war on organized crime."
With uncanny speed, they blamed Djindjic's death on the "Zemun clan,"
allegedly a crime syndicate based near Belgrade. Suddenly, the police
that could not solve any capital murder cases in the past two years
knew everything, and everyone responsible. On March 18, the government
said it had arrested 750 people. Two days later, the number rose to
over 1000, and by the 23rd, stood at 2700! By March 17, Belgrade
prisons were full, and the arrested had to be sent elsewhere.
While Serbia is certainly ridden with organized crime, as are all
post-Communist countries, there are valid concerns that the government
crackdown is not really aimed at destroying the mafia altogether. For
example, though the little-known 'Zemun clan' is a target, the much
better-known 'Surcin clan,' whose boss let Djindjic travel in his
private jets, has not been mentioned at all.
One of the alleged 'Zemun clan' kingpins, known as "Legija," used to
command a Special Operations Unit of the Interior Ministry. Djindjic
enlisted Legija's help in 2000 to seize power, and in 2001 to seize
Milosevic. There are indications he was about to deliver Legija's head
to the Hague Inquisition, just before he was killed.
The following facts need mention as well. Zivkovic was minister of
police in the Yugoslav government until it was dissolved last month.
Djindjic was killed on his watch - yet he got promoted! Dusan
Mihajlovic, Serbia's minister of police (and thus even more
responsible than Zivkovic) remained in his post. Legija's former unit,
the "Red Berets," has been directly subordinated to Mihajlovic since
early 2002. (It was disbanded two days ago, just as some pro-Imperial
elements advised.)
There are numerous indications that the state of emergency and the
'war on crime' are actually aimed at the government's political
opponents and dissenters in general. "War is the health of the state,"
Randolph Bourne famously said. State-launched 'wars' on social
problems serve that purpose just as well.
Let the purges begin
Thanks to the emergency, the police do not need search or arrest
warrants, but simply to barge into houses and offices of suspects.
Property of the suspects can be confiscated or destroyed, as was the
case with an office building owned by the alleged leader of the "Zemun
clan." Under emergency powers, suspects can be held for 30 days
without charges.
And since Serbia kept the Communist system of criminal justice, all
suspects are pretty much presumed guilty until proven innocent.
Djindjic's murder has been blamed on "remnants of the Milosevic
regime", both by the Serbian government and the Imperial press. It is
hard to say exactly who claimed it first, though the accusations
seemed to appear in American papers sooner than in official Serbian
statements. It wouldn't be the first time that Serbia takes its cue
from the Empire. As early as March 16, a friend of Djindjic's wrote a
commentary for the Washington Post, openly blaming Slobodan Milosevic
for the hit.
Prime Minister Zivkovic also blamed "politically affiliate groups,"
and pledged he would "clean Serbia with an iron broom." A prominent
member of the Djindjic regime opined that the PM's tragic death could
be used as an "inspiration" to make Serbia into a democracy.
If so, Serbia's leaders have a mighty odd definition of "democracy."
Does it mean censorship? Yes. Emergency powers provided for a full
media crackdown, limiting the news to official statements only. This
supposedly extends only to the causes of the emergency, but since the
government interprets what does and what does not apply, in practice
this means censorship of everything. Several publications and TV
stations have already been banned. A Serbian government consultant,
posing as an independent journalist, tried to excuse the censorship by
claiming that 'those targeted are mainly low-quality tabloids,
notorious for their unverified reports, invasions of privacy and
reliance on rumour and even lies.' But that describes most of the
media in the Balkans! Besides, any persecution first targets the
unpopular, so by the time it gets around to others, they have no way
to resist.
Last week, the government purged the judiciary, creating the
opportunity to 'pack' the courts with its supporters. Nenad Canak, a
lunatic fringe politician who figures prominently in the DOS
coalition, advocated a ban on certain political parties. There was
even a hint of 'culture wars' as the authorities arrested Ceca
Raznatovic, neo-folk singer and widow of militia leader Arkan.
Allegedly connected to the 'Zemun clan,' Raznatovic and her music are
considered a "vulgar celebration of Serbia's criminal class," as Time
magazine famously put it last summer. Also, head of the military
counter-intelligence was recently sacked by the pro-Djindjic
government of the Serbia-Montenegro union, suggesting that a purge in
the military is going on as well.
The alleged hitman himself was arrested on Monday, but the police
haven't said how they "know" he was the shooter. In today's Serbia,
their word cannot be questioned.
Faking a martyr
Though the people in Serbia in general have been conditioned to, if
not trust, then at least obey the government unconditionally, many see
the state of emergency for what it is: a naked power grab, using
Djindjic's body as the proverbial 'bloody shirt'.
The Empire is certainly treating Djindjic like "a martyr to the cause
of a liberal, democratic Serbia" (Tod Lindberg, The Washington Times).
In the weeks following his demise, The Toronto Star called him 'a true
patriot,' London's noxious IWPR lamented Serbia's interrupted road to
"full Euro-Atlantic integration," and the New York Times editorialized
that though the Empire was absolutely right in all its demands, and
Djindjic did right by obeying them, he should have received more
support to deal with the opposition.
A rare voice of dissent came from Neil Clark in the London Guardian,
who called Djindjic "The quisling of Belgrade." Said Clark, "When a
man has sold his country's assets, its ex-president and his main
political rivals, what else is there to sell? Only the country
itself."
And Steven Erlanger of the New York Times noted, in a March 16 piece,
that Djindjic had links with the criminal syndicates that supposedly
killed him, even as he again claimed Djindjic was hated for obeying
the fully justified Western demands.
IWPR, a loathsome purveyor of transnational statism, deemed the
martial law as an "opportunity" to rid Serbia of organized crime, with
a perfunctory caution that it could lead to a dictatorship. The
government crackdown was also supported unequivocally by the
enthusiastically Imperial ICG. The Christian Science Monitor quoted
ICG's Belgrade bureau chief, James Lyon, as saying, "If they can keep
this up for another two weeks, I am optimistic that Djindjic's death
will be seen as the spark that gave Serbia a democratic future."
Meanwhile, ICG panicked over the possibility that the future Serbia
won't be as obedient and pliant as Djindjic made it, and demanded of
the Empire not to relax any of its pressure on Belgrade. The people of
Serbia, of course, knew nothing of it.
Under the emergency powers, mention of this report would result in a
ban...
Nebojsa Malic
From: Vladimir Krsljanin
1. LAWLESSNES AND TERROR IN SERBIA! Statements by S. Milosevic and M.
Markovic (31/3/2003)
2. Zyuganov: Stop the repression in Serbia! (31/3/2003)
=== 1 ===
MILOSEVIC:
LAWLESSNES AND TERROR IN SERBIA
After couple of days of the unprecedented media campaign in Serbia,
spreading the fabricated allegations against President Milosevic and
in the first place against his wife Professor Mira Markovic, about
the possible involvement in the disappearance and murder of Ivan
Stambolic, this morning President Milosevic expressed his position
at the beginning of the morning session of the Hague tribunal.
Let us recall some facts: After he defeated politically his
bureaucratic rival and earlier close party colleague Stambolic in
late 1980s, Slobodan Milosevic provided him with a fine post of the
director of YUBMES (Yugoslav Bank for International Economic
Cooperation) bank, where he stayed around 10 years, until retired.
As a pensioner in late 1990s, until his disappearance, he continued
with private business, including oil. He never again played any role
in active politics, nor was, as ex-communist, ever truly accepted by
that time opposition. In 2000, he was advocating that Goran
Svilanovic (today Foreign Minister) should be chosen as common
presidential candidate of DOS. On August 10, DOS formally elected
Kostunica as a candidate. Stambolic disappeared on August 25, too
late to appear even as individual candidate at the presidential
elections scheduled for September 24. Since DOS immediately started
blaming "Milosevic regime" his disappearance produced only political
harm for Milosevic.
Victims of the present campaign are until now, three innocent
comrades, who are arrested on purely political ground, to serve as
hostages, in order to increase pressure on Milosevic and to weaken
his position at The Hague, Bogoljub Bjelica, chairman of
SLOBODA/Freedom Association-Yugoslav Committee for the Defense of
Slobodan Milosevic, as well as Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic, who
are depicted by DOS propaganda as "closest political associates" of
Mira Markovic.
Here is what President Slobodan Milosevic said this morning at The
Hague:
Richard May:
The interpreters haven't heard what you have said.
President Slobodan Milosevic
I said that I want to express some requests before the witness
starts. First of all, I request from you to allow that I'll be
questioned in connection with an unprecedented media campaign, which
is being held in Belgrade. This campaign started just before the last
weekend, in the conditions of total lawlessness and terror created by
the regime...
Richard May:
The only things we deal here with, are those linked to this trial.
In this moment I don't see that what you are saying has anything to do
with this trial. If you are concerned that... that thing can affect
this trial, or that the Chamber in this trial could be biased because
of that, you shouldn't worry. This Chamber does not take into account,
and even does not follow very much what's printed in the press. So we
are here to try on the basis of the facts. If this, what are you
telling us, has anything to do with this trial, than you can speak. If
not, you know that we can't listen to that.
President Slobodan Milosevic
It has to do with this trial, Mr. May and therefore I think that you
are obliged to listen to me. I find and I will insist on that, that
there is a link between this so-called prosecution and the media
campaign and the accusations present in that media campaign these
days. They are being conducted against my wife and myself in a way
that we are through media accused, tried and sentenced. There is no
judicial but a media process. The best proof for that is the fact that
they haven't even came to question me, although they loudly announced
that and your spokesman confirmed, I saw that on TV, that they can
come here and question me. They know very well that it was I who had
power and not my wife, but they haven't approached me, but they attack
my wife, which is the best proof that they are not interested in any
truth, but that they conduct...
Richard May:
Wait, the things we can deal with here are only the things related
to this trial. The things regarding your wife are not the matter of
this trial.
I will consult my colleagues to see if we have to listen to you
further about that subject. What is the relation, according to you,
between the Prosecution and those others? If on that you can say
anything coherent, we will listen to you, but you are expressing now
only some wild allegations.
President Slobodan Milosevic
Mr. May, I consider and I will prove it that the retaliation against
my wife and my children is being performed only because of myself and
because of the struggle I conduct here. So I claim that this
retaliation is orchestrated with this illegal prosecution.
Richard May:
Just a moment, just a moment. Mr. Milosevic, we are not going to
listen to you any more. What you are talking now is a speech about the
Belgrade. It has nothing to do with this trial. We are going now to a
closed session in order to examine the following witness.
President Milosevic has not been allowed to finish. He then used the
first following opportunity to condemn the illegal arrest of Bogoljub
Bjelica and his other associates, as a part of the same pressure,
aimed to undermine his struggle for the truth about his nation.
Later today, at the press conference of YUL in Belgrade, the
following written message of his wife Professor Mira Markovic, sent
from Russia, has been presented:
I follow the untruth, disgusting and with a retaliation against the
political opponents motivated accusations against me.
Of course that I am in no relation to any of the crimes in
Yugoslavia. Nor I have any relation with any criminal activity at all.
I have never been in conflict with the laws of my country. All those
who accuse me know that perfectly well. The accusations against me are
motivated only by a wish to destabilize my husband at The Hague, to
put shadow on his brilliant defense. The accusations against me are a
retaliation, a punishment for the beautiful, dignified, clever and
remarkable personality of Slobodan Milosevic before the court in The
Hague. Him - since he is like that, they want to kill.
They attempt to exhaust him physically and psychically that much, so
that he could not appear before the court or die from exhaustion. They
commit a crime against him in front of the whole World. About that I
write and write and write and speak whereever I can.
The other form of fight against him is myself. The pressures on me
are aimed to destabilize him, so that the pain because of the
injustice towards me binds his hands.
The one who came to such idea and who accomplishes that is someone
without any honor, any moral, he is a bastard in the Serbian people
and in the human race.
The attacks on me and the intention to liquidate me are motivated
with an additional low and inferior motive - some in the rightist
government see me as a pretty smart and for that reason dangerous
political opponent. Since they can not overspeak me politically, it
seems to them easier to pronounce me as a criminal personality and to
remove me that way from the public scene.
One who is not in possession of the words, one whose mind is
moderate and whose heart is small, turns towards the violence. The
violence is a weapon of weak and immoral persons.
I left Belgrade near the end of February for personal and family
reasons.
Professor Mira Markovic
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
=== 2 ===
PEOPLES'-PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE OF RUSSIA
ALL-RUSSIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Moscow, 31st March, 2003
STOP THE REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
After the assassination of the Prime Minister Djindjic a state of
emergency has been imposed in Serbia. Of course, it's upon the
authorities of every country, to decide how they will react to each
concrete situation. However, several facts show that the state of
emergency is used, first of all, for political purposes. One can
observe that in Serbia there is neither chaos nor civic disobedience.
The Law and order are respected. There is no outside threat. The
investigation of the murder goes without any obstacles. Then what
sense at all the imposition of the state of emergency can have?
On the other hand, the freedom of the press is drastically limited.
Meetings, rallies and strikes are forbidden. The behavior of the
authorities far away exceeds the frames of the murder investigation
and of the fight against crime. The police obtained the right to
perform arbitrary arrests and searches, to monitor the phone talks, to
violate the secrecy of the correspondence. More than two thousand
people have been arrested. With a severe violation of Law 35 judges
have been dismissed. There is a broad purge in the judiciary. So what
kind of connection all these purely repressive measures can have with
the search for the assassins? An impression is being created that
under cover of the search for the organizers of Djindjic's
assassination, the actual Serbian regime attempts to trounce its
personal and political rivals and to suppress every opposition.
Leading organizers of the activities in Slobodan Milosevic's defense
Bogoljub Bjelica, Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic have been arrested.
Members of Slobodan Milosevic's family are under pressure and threats.
It is obvious that the "witch hunt" and arrests of the persons who
directly assist to President Milosevic in his defense against the
false accusations are aimed to save the judicial farce at The Hague,
which faces total fiasco.
The Western countries, which allegedly care about "democracy",
completely ignore the fact that the fundamental citizens' freedoms in
Serbia are under most serious threat.
The Peoples'-Patriotic Alliance of Russia condemns the use of the
state of emergency in Serbia for terrorizing the political opponents
of the present regime and calls upon the Government of Serbia to
restore as soon as possible the generally recognized citizens'
freedoms.
We intend to raise the issue of the political repression in Serbia
at the forthcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe.
President of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the
Russian Federation, President of the Peoples'-Patriotic Alliance of
Russia
Gennady Zyuganov
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
1. LAWLESSNES AND TERROR IN SERBIA! Statements by S. Milosevic and M.
Markovic (31/3/2003)
2. Zyuganov: Stop the repression in Serbia! (31/3/2003)
=== 1 ===
MILOSEVIC:
LAWLESSNES AND TERROR IN SERBIA
After couple of days of the unprecedented media campaign in Serbia,
spreading the fabricated allegations against President Milosevic and
in the first place against his wife Professor Mira Markovic, about
the possible involvement in the disappearance and murder of Ivan
Stambolic, this morning President Milosevic expressed his position
at the beginning of the morning session of the Hague tribunal.
Let us recall some facts: After he defeated politically his
bureaucratic rival and earlier close party colleague Stambolic in
late 1980s, Slobodan Milosevic provided him with a fine post of the
director of YUBMES (Yugoslav Bank for International Economic
Cooperation) bank, where he stayed around 10 years, until retired.
As a pensioner in late 1990s, until his disappearance, he continued
with private business, including oil. He never again played any role
in active politics, nor was, as ex-communist, ever truly accepted by
that time opposition. In 2000, he was advocating that Goran
Svilanovic (today Foreign Minister) should be chosen as common
presidential candidate of DOS. On August 10, DOS formally elected
Kostunica as a candidate. Stambolic disappeared on August 25, too
late to appear even as individual candidate at the presidential
elections scheduled for September 24. Since DOS immediately started
blaming "Milosevic regime" his disappearance produced only political
harm for Milosevic.
Victims of the present campaign are until now, three innocent
comrades, who are arrested on purely political ground, to serve as
hostages, in order to increase pressure on Milosevic and to weaken
his position at The Hague, Bogoljub Bjelica, chairman of
SLOBODA/Freedom Association-Yugoslav Committee for the Defense of
Slobodan Milosevic, as well as Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic, who
are depicted by DOS propaganda as "closest political associates" of
Mira Markovic.
Here is what President Slobodan Milosevic said this morning at The
Hague:
Richard May:
The interpreters haven't heard what you have said.
President Slobodan Milosevic
I said that I want to express some requests before the witness
starts. First of all, I request from you to allow that I'll be
questioned in connection with an unprecedented media campaign, which
is being held in Belgrade. This campaign started just before the last
weekend, in the conditions of total lawlessness and terror created by
the regime...
Richard May:
The only things we deal here with, are those linked to this trial.
In this moment I don't see that what you are saying has anything to do
with this trial. If you are concerned that... that thing can affect
this trial, or that the Chamber in this trial could be biased because
of that, you shouldn't worry. This Chamber does not take into account,
and even does not follow very much what's printed in the press. So we
are here to try on the basis of the facts. If this, what are you
telling us, has anything to do with this trial, than you can speak. If
not, you know that we can't listen to that.
President Slobodan Milosevic
It has to do with this trial, Mr. May and therefore I think that you
are obliged to listen to me. I find and I will insist on that, that
there is a link between this so-called prosecution and the media
campaign and the accusations present in that media campaign these
days. They are being conducted against my wife and myself in a way
that we are through media accused, tried and sentenced. There is no
judicial but a media process. The best proof for that is the fact that
they haven't even came to question me, although they loudly announced
that and your spokesman confirmed, I saw that on TV, that they can
come here and question me. They know very well that it was I who had
power and not my wife, but they haven't approached me, but they attack
my wife, which is the best proof that they are not interested in any
truth, but that they conduct...
Richard May:
Wait, the things we can deal with here are only the things related
to this trial. The things regarding your wife are not the matter of
this trial.
I will consult my colleagues to see if we have to listen to you
further about that subject. What is the relation, according to you,
between the Prosecution and those others? If on that you can say
anything coherent, we will listen to you, but you are expressing now
only some wild allegations.
President Slobodan Milosevic
Mr. May, I consider and I will prove it that the retaliation against
my wife and my children is being performed only because of myself and
because of the struggle I conduct here. So I claim that this
retaliation is orchestrated with this illegal prosecution.
Richard May:
Just a moment, just a moment. Mr. Milosevic, we are not going to
listen to you any more. What you are talking now is a speech about the
Belgrade. It has nothing to do with this trial. We are going now to a
closed session in order to examine the following witness.
President Milosevic has not been allowed to finish. He then used the
first following opportunity to condemn the illegal arrest of Bogoljub
Bjelica and his other associates, as a part of the same pressure,
aimed to undermine his struggle for the truth about his nation.
Later today, at the press conference of YUL in Belgrade, the
following written message of his wife Professor Mira Markovic, sent
from Russia, has been presented:
I follow the untruth, disgusting and with a retaliation against the
political opponents motivated accusations against me.
Of course that I am in no relation to any of the crimes in
Yugoslavia. Nor I have any relation with any criminal activity at all.
I have never been in conflict with the laws of my country. All those
who accuse me know that perfectly well. The accusations against me are
motivated only by a wish to destabilize my husband at The Hague, to
put shadow on his brilliant defense. The accusations against me are a
retaliation, a punishment for the beautiful, dignified, clever and
remarkable personality of Slobodan Milosevic before the court in The
Hague. Him - since he is like that, they want to kill.
They attempt to exhaust him physically and psychically that much, so
that he could not appear before the court or die from exhaustion. They
commit a crime against him in front of the whole World. About that I
write and write and write and speak whereever I can.
The other form of fight against him is myself. The pressures on me
are aimed to destabilize him, so that the pain because of the
injustice towards me binds his hands.
The one who came to such idea and who accomplishes that is someone
without any honor, any moral, he is a bastard in the Serbian people
and in the human race.
The attacks on me and the intention to liquidate me are motivated
with an additional low and inferior motive - some in the rightist
government see me as a pretty smart and for that reason dangerous
political opponent. Since they can not overspeak me politically, it
seems to them easier to pronounce me as a criminal personality and to
remove me that way from the public scene.
One who is not in possession of the words, one whose mind is
moderate and whose heart is small, turns towards the violence. The
violence is a weapon of weak and immoral persons.
I left Belgrade near the end of February for personal and family
reasons.
Professor Mira Markovic
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
=== 2 ===
PEOPLES'-PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE OF RUSSIA
ALL-RUSSIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Moscow, 31st March, 2003
STOP THE REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
After the assassination of the Prime Minister Djindjic a state of
emergency has been imposed in Serbia. Of course, it's upon the
authorities of every country, to decide how they will react to each
concrete situation. However, several facts show that the state of
emergency is used, first of all, for political purposes. One can
observe that in Serbia there is neither chaos nor civic disobedience.
The Law and order are respected. There is no outside threat. The
investigation of the murder goes without any obstacles. Then what
sense at all the imposition of the state of emergency can have?
On the other hand, the freedom of the press is drastically limited.
Meetings, rallies and strikes are forbidden. The behavior of the
authorities far away exceeds the frames of the murder investigation
and of the fight against crime. The police obtained the right to
perform arbitrary arrests and searches, to monitor the phone talks, to
violate the secrecy of the correspondence. More than two thousand
people have been arrested. With a severe violation of Law 35 judges
have been dismissed. There is a broad purge in the judiciary. So what
kind of connection all these purely repressive measures can have with
the search for the assassins? An impression is being created that
under cover of the search for the organizers of Djindjic's
assassination, the actual Serbian regime attempts to trounce its
personal and political rivals and to suppress every opposition.
Leading organizers of the activities in Slobodan Milosevic's defense
Bogoljub Bjelica, Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic have been arrested.
Members of Slobodan Milosevic's family are under pressure and threats.
It is obvious that the "witch hunt" and arrests of the persons who
directly assist to President Milosevic in his defense against the
false accusations are aimed to save the judicial farce at The Hague,
which faces total fiasco.
The Western countries, which allegedly care about "democracy",
completely ignore the fact that the fundamental citizens' freedoms in
Serbia are under most serious threat.
The Peoples'-Patriotic Alliance of Russia condemns the use of the
state of emergency in Serbia for terrorizing the political opponents
of the present regime and calls upon the Government of Serbia to
restore as soon as possible the generally recognized citizens'
freedoms.
We intend to raise the issue of the political repression in Serbia
at the forthcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe.
President of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the
Russian Federation, President of the Peoples'-Patriotic Alliance of
Russia
Gennady Zyuganov
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND
ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their
addresses at
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
--- In Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli., chinino@... ha scritto:
Vi invio in allegato un documento che può essere utilizzato anche
frammentandolo, se lo riterrete opportuno, sulla proiezione dibattito
avvenuta a Padova il 25 marzo del film "I dannati del Kosovo":
partecipazione di numeroso pubblico (circa 150 persone), buono il
dibattito, molte cassette acquisite. La Stojikovic e Collon bravissimi
controinformatori.
Curzio di Soccorso Popolare di Padova
Il documento si puo' scaricare alla URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/
CollonPadova.doc
Vi invio in allegato un documento che può essere utilizzato anche
frammentandolo, se lo riterrete opportuno, sulla proiezione dibattito
avvenuta a Padova il 25 marzo del film "I dannati del Kosovo":
partecipazione di numeroso pubblico (circa 150 persone), buono il
dibattito, molte cassette acquisite. La Stojikovic e Collon bravissimi
controinformatori.
Curzio di Soccorso Popolare di Padova
Il documento si puo' scaricare alla URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/
CollonPadova.doc
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