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YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT DECLARES BELGRADE-NIS MOTORWAY OPEN AGAIN
VELIKA PLANA - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic declared Monday after visiting the reconstructed bridge across the River Jasenica and the flyover at Veliko Orasje near Velika Plana, about 65 km southeast of Belgrade, that the E-75 motorway linking Yugoslavia's capital with Nis and Leskovac was open to traffic again.
Addressing citizens rallied at the Jasenica bridge, Milosevic said that the builders had made a major success by completing the reconstruction of the route two weeks before the deadline.
In addition to one of the bridge's two lanes, the builders have also reconstructed the bridge across the Velika Morava at Mijatovac, the junction and railway flyover at Trupalske Woods near Nis and the bridge across the Nisava at Popovac.
SERBIA IS A WIDE BRIDGE BETWEEN PEOPLES, STATES
VELIKA PLANA - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic opened Monday for traffic the highway from Belgrade to Nis, and further on to Leskovac, that was interrupted by the brutal, destructive NATO aggression on our country.
Talking to a large number of citizens on the bridge over the river Jasenica, President Milosevic said;
"I am very pleased that we all have the opportunity to share in the joy because of this huge worker success, the opening of the highway till Leskovac.
One hundred twenty days have passed from the end of the war till the opening for traffic of five bridges."
Milosevic said that the bridge over Jasenica was the first bridge and overpass among the ones reconstructed on that route. The following ones are those near Veliko Orasje, on Mijatovac, near Cuprija and two near Nis - one over Nisava river and one near Trupalske sume.
The Yugoslav president said that the opening of the highway marked the cessation of all regimes of limitation, all roundabouts, temporary solutions and pontoon bridges on that traffic artery and voiced hope that such temporary solutions will never be needed again.
"We started our reconstuction with bridges. Serbia itself is one wide bridge between peoples, between states. Every bridge in Serbia means a lot, not only for Serbia, not only for Yugoslavia, but also for all of the Balkans," President Milosevic said.
"We are one civilizational bridge integrating this region and it is certain that this reconstruction and rebuilding will help the promotion of relations in the entire region, on the Balkan peninsula and the promotion of our development, the development of our economy, and the raising of the standard of living of our citizens," the Yugoslav president said.
President Milosevic underlined that "reconstruction is proceeding quickly because of the high degree of unity in the realization of tasks."
He recalled that the directorate for the reconstruction of the country was found on the tenth day of the war, April 4 this year, 67 days before the end of the war. "They worked all the time and made possible that with the end of the war works proceed more quickly," President Milosevic said giving credit to the members of the directorate.
President Milosevic said that the task of reconstruction of bridges on the Belgrade-Nis highway was scheduled to be completed on October 24.
"We are opening the highway today, two weeks ahead of schedule," Milosevic said and added - "I congratulate all the construction workers and all citizens this important worker success."
MILOSEVIC EXTOLLS RECONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS AS SOURCE OF PRIDE
LESKOVAC - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said in Leskovac, southeast Serbia, on Monday that in the months since the end of the war everyone has witnessed the huge successful efforts being made to rebuild as much as possible of what has been destroyed.
Speaking at the celebrations marking the liberation of Leskovac and the opening of a new rail station, Milosevic said that "the majority of the destroyed bridges, electric power installations, apartment buildings and economic facilities have either been reconstructed or rebuilt.
"These truely gigantic endevours and successes in the reconstruction of the country, represent for all people living here and for future generations, a soure of pride elevating the people to the pinnacles of the history of civilization.
"Apart from this impressive reconstruction, we of the year 1999 are leaving to the future generations yet another cornerstone for the huge historical achievements about which I am speaking. We are proud to leave them the example of the heroic resistence to the monstrous destruction of a country and its people carried out jointly by 19 industrialized countries in the second half of the 20th century.
"These countries used both the most sophisticated weapons at their disposal, but also weapons seemingly employed for the very first time. During that war, whose aim was the occupation of Serbia, they dropped untested missiles on sleeping people at night. Serbia was awake, the people spent the nights on bridges, in the streets, squares and on roofs singing and waving their country's flags. The anti-aircraft defence of tiny Yugoslavia downed the most sophisticated planes and missiles which aimed to destroy all life in this country - people, plants and animals.
"The enormity of our resistence was equally made up of a gigantic battle against weapons whose characteristics were unknown to us and of the determination that the killers are met with wide open eyes, hand in hand, upright and singing.
"It is not the first time that our people faced murderers upright and died singing, and that the victors are those who die. However, this time the belief that the unarmed people would conquer the powerful armada of the world's most heavily armed killers who did not even know whom they are murdering and for what reason, prevailed among the masses and fascinated the entire world.
"All images of our resistence went around the world, at least those countries who were unafraid to reveal them. In countries in whih they were not published, this was done out of fear, so that the people out of whose ranks recruited were the murderers of a country which they barely knew existed, would not demand their responsibiility. The same is taking place with the images of the reconstruction which are being censored, just like the resistence was censored.
"The majority of the world knows that small and wounded Serbia is being rebuilt as fast as the missiles which destroyed it were able to fly, but the owners of these missiles are silent about our reconstruction in order not to threaten their superiority with which they want to intimidate the world. Although I mention superiority, I am not saying that the world is surprised by this, because violence never causes wonder, just condemnation, fear and the need for rebellion.
"The defence and reconstruction of Serbia are a dangerous inspiration and an almost contageous example for all who value their freedom, national dignity, who have their place in the history of civilization and who know that the world has a chance only of it is populated by equal peoples and the international community made up of all states.
"Acceptance of the peace plan last June put a stop to the bombing of Serbia, and we received guarantees from the United Nations that it would protect normal life in peace in Kosovo. We received guarantees of the country's sovereignty and integrity, and the war stopped on those terms.
"However, it very soon transpired that the U.N. mission is incapable of honouring the U.N. guarantees and that its forces are largely dominated by representatives of NATO countries which now, with the help of ethnic Albanian criminals, terrorists and drug dealers and under the U.N. wing are committing the genocide of Serbs and all other non-Albanians in Kosovo which they could not achieve with bombs.
"By deciding to put its trust in the United Nations, our country has made its contribution to the cause of peace, a future without war, a new world which will be based on mutual cooperation, equality and prosperity for all. We want the United Nations always to bear in mind that the accord signed in June is binding on both signatory parties. Respect of the accord by one party binds the other to do the same. And everybody should be prepared to shoulder the burden of responsibility for their actions.
"Just now on one of the bridges we counted how many days it has taken since the end of the war to build the lasting facilities on the highway through our country all the way to Leskovac. We counted that it has taken 120 days. I cannot tell you how many days we shall count before our authorities and our people return to Kosovo, but I guarantee that the number is finite.
"Fellow countrymen, life is not easy in our country today. Life is difficult for many, indeed for most of the people. It does not take CNN or Deutsche Welle to tell us that, I, your president, can tell you that.
"But, I shall tell you also something that the western media are keeping silent about. Our country, Serbia in particular, has over the past ten years undergone every possible social and natural calamity that can befall a society, that can befall mankind. We have not been spared a single evil ever recorded in the history of man.
"This decade has brought huge problems to many countries. For some it was war, for others refugees, some were exposed to sanctions, others to floods, earthquakes, some countries disintegrated, others changed their political systems.
"Each of those countries took long to heal and recover from its particular affliction, and its people knew that this was because of the floods or because of the war.
"With us, all the social and natural disasters happened at once, all in the same decade, between the years '91 and '99 - wars, refugees, sanctions, earthquakes, floods and incessant political and media pressure.
"Despite all this, we are still standing and have shown the world what it means to love and defend one's homeland, how a country should be built and restored.
"Furthermore, I wish to stress that we are getting no outside help for this great, successful and swift reconstruction. And hence the question - if all this is being done so successfully and so fast by relying on our own forces, how then can living standards be high, how can people live well in financial prosperity and without stress, and is there another country in the world and in the history of mankind that has gone through these same ordeals simultaneously, and is going through others still, without this reflecting on the quality of life of each individual.
"However, we can say very clearly that our economic recovery, despite blockades is proceeding at an accelerated pace, and that the rise in the standard of living, which is our primary objective, will be as high as our economic results. Everything else is unrealistic and false illusions. The standard of living will rise at the same pace as economic results are achieved.
"Our institutions of power, parliaments and governments are doing, I can ascertain that, everything they can so that citizens, despite the traums they lived through, live well, live better and they certainly do live better than the citizens of some neighbouring European countries who have not endured any of those blows which we have, or have endured only one.
"I know that there are also many omissions which are not the consequence of sanctions, or wars, or floods, or the presence of a large number of refugees. We know about some of those omissions and we endeavor to remove them, and some are well concealed by those who commit them, and the citizens are right when they point them out and for uch accounts should be opened the doors of every deputy, every minisyter, every official everywhere.
"And if citizens consider that despite all those misfortunes that we have lived through and which we are living through, there are representatives of the people who could assure a better life for the people then they should be elected at the next elections to enable such a life for them. That is all that I have to say on that subject.
"Our country is looking at another important reconstruction, besides the one concerning destroyed bridges, houses, hospitals, roads and economic facilities. We are facing the reconstruction of all dimensions of our life - economic, political, cultural, moral. It must be thorough, integral and very organized.
"It is a necessity for our country that went through the nightmare of social and all other misfortunes for almost ten years. For that reconstruction we have to make quick decisions and preparations. At the same time, the reconstruction must proceed just as reforms.
"More specifically, the state and the society must recover, by building a new social, modern system of the economy, of political institutions, education, information.
"I must say that citizens should not be deceived that the reconstruction of the country and its development can be conducted by those who, allegedly, in the name of progress walk the streets in the evening hours in our cities. They are mostly cowards, blackmailers and lackies.
"They were not in uniform during the bombing, they did not hold guns in their hands. Many of them have fled the country and waited for the bombing to stop and then to return there. They do not take part in the reconstruction, they were not on bridges to defend them during the bombing. They are not now on the birdges that are being rebuilt.
"But, with stones in their hands and a vocabulary which they learned in the offices of our murderers, they threaten to destroy what we have defended from NATO and what we have rebuilt after NATO's destruction.
"The only thing that they press for is that through violence this country plunges into civil war where, with outside support, would come representatives with Serbian names, or they could have German or Anglo-Saxon names. Why not.
"Colonization does not have many considerations even today. When one country becomes a colony it is not, really, very important whether it its ruled by a domestic janizary or the colonizer himself.
"Fellow countrymen, dear friends, you who love freedom and justice so much and are the inhabitants of one of the most industrious regions, I wish you to preserve all these traits, never to give them up and to bring up your children in this spirit. On behalf of all the people of this country, I congratulate you on all the successes in the reconstruction and on your contribution in the mass and corageous activites which your partook as members of the Yugoslav Army and police during the aggression on our country.
"May all from this region who lost their lives during the NATO aggression rest in peace, and their families and all should know that they have joined the great army of patriots who have for centuries died in the defence of their country.
"I wish peace to all the citizens of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro. To all the citizens of Serbia, I wish a successful and speedy reconstruction which should end before the start of the winter. To the people of Montenegro, may they decide about their fate by themselves without casting even the shred of a doubt on the continuity of the Slav perception of goodness, Montenegrin chivalry and European feeling for civilization.
"From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of all of us, I want the entire world to know that our contry is a part of the world community. Here I have seen a slogan saying- 'The world is not made up of NATO, but also of Russia, China, India and others'. We also make up the world, just like all freedom-loving countries. The whole world should know that our country is a part of the world community, ready to cooperate on an equal basis both with the developed and underdeveloped peoples and countries, to respect everyone's contribution to world progress, and to everything that is humane and progressive in every nation, every society and every individual.
"However, I wish that the world never accepts violence and slavery. Such people have always lived here, and they are living here now. My felicitations for the Day of the Liberation of Leskovac to all fighters, builders and all citizens. Long live Serbia. Long live Yugoslavia," Milosevic said.
SERBIAN MINISTER ON YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE'S COOPERATION WITH UNMIK
KRAGUJEVAC - The activity by the Yugoslav committee on cooperation with the U.N. civilian mission to Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) through 11 different sub-committees has given certain results, Serbian Minister Slobodan Tomovic has said.
In an interview with the Kragujevac daily Lid, Tomovic said that textbooks and other necessary items had been distributed among primary school pupils in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, saying that a similar action would be launched in the province's secondary schools by mid-October.
He said that pensioners in Kosovo and Metohija received their pensions and that other citizens received money they were entitled to, saying that the health care system covered all living in the province.
He said that residents of Orahovac, Gracanica and Kosovo Polje had received relief aid, saying that relief aid would be delivered also to other localities in the province in the next few days.
Tomovic, one of the committee's three vice-chairmen, listed as the committee's two top priorities the direct resolution of problems the population had been faced with following the pullout of Yugoslav army troops and Serbian police from the province, and activities within the strict implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, specifically its section guaranteeing Serbia's and Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity in Kosovo and Metohija.