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YUGOSLAVIA'S MILOSEVIC RECEIVES GREECE'S PAPOULIAS
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received on Thursday visiting Greek parliament official and former foreign minister Karolos Papoulias.
Papoulias, a proven friend of Yugoslavia, chairs the parliamentary defence and foreign policy committee.
During the ensuing talk it was stressed that Yugoslavia and Greece share the long-term target of developing close bilateral relations and all-round cooperation, firmly rooted in their long friendship.
The strong support given by the Greek people to the Yugoslav people in their resistance to NATO's aggression is a clear confirmation of their shared love for freedom and their aspiration to develop frank and equality-based relations, Milosevic said.
The Greek people deserve respect for their unanimous support, which consolidates the two nation's conviction that freedom and independence can be defended only if people are resolute, and that the policy of force and discrimination cannot win against peace and equality.
Constant pressure that is being exerted against Yugoslavia is a factor of destablisation of the entire region of southeast Europe, it was also noted during the talk.
The pressure should be removed in the best interests of stability and development of the region, and of the affirmation and realisation of the Balkan states' orientation to mutual cooperation, defined at their summit in Crete.
On the subject of the situation in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-administered province of Kosovo-Metohija, Greece urges a consistent implementation of UN Resolution 1244 and condemns the crimes being committed by ethnic Albanian terrorists against Serbs and other non-Albanians in the presence of the international KFOR force and the UN civilian mission (UNMIK).
The meeting was attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and Greek Ambassador to Yugoslavia Panayotis Vlassopoulos.
PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO IRAQI PRESIDENT
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has received the Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Trade Borislav Vukovic who presented him a written message from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The talk focused on current international issues, bilateral relations and their future development and intensifying economic cooperation, the Yugoslav embassy in Baghdad said in a statement presented to Tanjug.
Yugoslavia and Iraq are ready to intensify relations with all states wishing cooperation based on equality, without interference in internal affairs of sovereign states, founded on the respect of the free will of citizens and on the defense of national independence and integrity, the statement says.
Both countries also condemned the policies of aggression and sanctions as unacceptable ways of establishing hegemony and neo-imperialism at the threshold of the 21st century, the statement says.
Iraqi media focused their reports on the Yugoslav delegation's visit to Iraq on President Milosevic's message.
The message concerns the development of bilateral cooperation in all fields, the media noted, and carried a statement by Vukovic that Yugoslavia was endeavouring in international relations to uphold the principle of free choice of state policies and to demonstrate that the idea of sanctions imposed on UN's behalf must be abandoned.
Yugoslavia and Iraq are endeavouring jointly to show the world that aggression is contrary to international norms and values, they said.
President Hussein said that the enemies were using the same excuses for both Yugoslavia and Iraq and that the two countries were rejecting the policy of dual standards and were heading in the same direction, regardless of some minor differences.
Essentially, Belgrade and Baghdad are resisting colonialism and neo-colonialism, the Iraqi media noted.
The media also carried President Hussein's words on the steadfastness of the people of Yugoslavia and their friendly attitude towards Arabs and Muslims.
YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT DEFINES TERMS FOR TAX RELIEF FOR RECONSTRUCTION
The Yugoslav government on Thursday defined terms for granting tax relief for the purchase of the necessary materials for rebuilding facilities destroyed in NATO's aggression from March 24 to June 10, a government statement said.
The decision defines the manner of granting sales tax relief to all firms and individuals for the purchase of building materials machinery, vehicles and other equipment necessary for alleviating the damage inflicted by NATO, the statement said.
Thursday's session was chaired by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic.
LAVROV FULLY AGREES WITH ASSESSMENTS OF YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC
Russian ambassador to the UN Sergei Lavrov has spoken highly of the principled positions of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, above all those on issues concerning the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, in an interview to the Belgrade daily Politika.
"I fully agree with what President Milosevic said. The efforts Russia is making together with other countries in the UN must be intensified, so that all parts of Resolution 1244 will be implemented in full and without any conditioning on political processes in Yugoslavia," ambassador Lavrov said in the interview published in Politika Thursday.
"The President set forth the Yugoslav side's principled assessments and voiced great concern at the lack of respect for the demands for the preservation of sovereignty, the demands for security in Kosovo ad Metohija, so that the province will remain multiethnic, multi-confessional and be far more cultural and all its inhabitants will be able to live peacefully, without fear for their lives. I am concerned over the absence of a political dialogue between the Yugoslav government and the Kosovo and Metohija communities on the province's political status. I am also displeased that the part of the Resolution pertaining to the Military-Technical Agreement on a contingent of the Yugoslav army and police which is to return to Kosovo and Metohija is not being implemented," ambassador Lavrov set out.
Commenting his talk with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic, ambassador Lavrov said, "I agreed with Mr. Minister that a daily control of the implementation of Resolution 1244 is necessary."
The Russian ambassador to the UN singled out as the most important result of his talks in Belgrade that, "We have assessed the situation and our assessments are very concurrent."
He said it was "extremely good that Yugoslav representatives were following the developments and sending reports on them."
Ambassador Lavrov underscored that international representatives in Kosovo and Metohija had not done enough, and "organized violence, aimed at intimidating the non-Albanian population and fully driving it out of Kosovo and Metohija," persisted in their presence.
"The shelling of Serbian villages and other settlements from heavy weapons is practically a regular impermissible occurrence," ambassador Lavrov said and set out that Serbian holy places continued to be vandalized.
"Russia is highly disturbed by such a development of the situation," Lavrov stressed and said it was obviously necessary that the UN Security Council devote greater attention to it.
KFOR WANTS YUGOSLAV ARMY BACK IN KOSMET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, REINHARDT
The KFOR will do everything for Army of Yugoslavia members to return to Kosovo and Metohija as soon as possible, as envisaged under the peace agreement, General Klaus Reinhardt, commander of the international KFOR force in Serbia's southern province said in Tirana Friday.
The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Gen. Reinhardt as saying "conditions do not exist yet in the province for the return of the Yugoslav troops."
As is well known, under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement, the return of a part oft he Yugoslav army and police forces to the province is not to be conditioned in any way.
UNHCR HELPS ETHNIC ALBANIANS TO PURSUE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF SERBS
Chief representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Orahovac, Astrid van Genderen Stort, is abusing her position by drawing lists with the names of those who want to leave the town and by organising convoys to other parts of Serbia and to Montenegro, according to town residents.
Stort is in this way directly helping ethnic Albanian terrorists to complete their ethnic cleansing campaign in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, local radio enthusiasts quoted Friday the town residents as saying.
With the help of her associates, Stort is deceiving the public by stating that only the elderly and the ill decide to leave Orahovac, situated in the southwest of the province, and that about 500 Serbs still live in the town, downplaying the number of people leaving the area, the radio enthusiasts said.
The radio enthusiasts also said that there was a rumour in Orahovac that Stort was of Albanian origin and that she extorted money from frightened Serbs in order to place their names on these lists. They said that this was reflected in the fact that the names of some Serbs had been added to the lists and that these people had soon left the town.
Despite the fact that it is UNHCR's task to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and to assist displaced persons and the ill, the UNHCR office in Kosovo and Metohija only organises and escorts convoys with Serb refugees, without trying to persuade them to remain in the province.
Lists, made for each organised convoy, are thoroughly checked by the UN peacekeeping force KFOR that has a tendency to arrest Serbs on the strength of charges made by anonymous ethnic Albanians.
UN MUST IMPLEMENT ITS DOCUMENTS - KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ANDJELKOVIC
The credibility of the international community and the United Nations will be seriously jeopardised unless they speedily ensure conditions necessary for the normal life of all in U.N.-administered Kosovo-Metohija and for the return of displaced Serbs, according to a local official on Wednesday.
"Unless this happens, the international community faces a bleak future. It must ensure the implementation of its own documents," said Zoran Andjelkovic, president of the Provisional Executive Council of that province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Speaking for Belgrade Radio B92, Andjelkovic pointed out inconsistencies in the implementation of the UN Security Council's Resolution 1244 on Kosovo-Metohija.
He stressed that the only tangible result of UN peacekeepers' presence in Kosovo-Metohija so far was 330,000 displaced non-Albanians, murders, abductions and a humanitarian disaster.
He went on to say that a first step towards changing this state of affairs must be to ensure the safety and freedom of movement of all people.
He said that the state bodies of Serbia and Yugoslavia fully adhered to all provisions of the Resolution, and would continue to make their full contribution to the survival - economic and in all other respects - of the Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.
EVERY SENTENCE OF RESOLUTION ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA HAS BEEN VIOLATED, IGIC
Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS Executive Committee member and head of the SPS Provincial Committee of Kosovo and Metohija Zivorad Igic has said that no document in the history of the United Nations has been as grossly violated as UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Serbia's southern province.
In a statement to the RTS Nis Studio, Igic said that every single sentence of the Resolution had been trampled on. Ethnic-Albanian separatists and terrorists see in the UN security forces their protectors, and the behaviour of the KFOR and the UN civil mission shows that the two are not mere observers but also direct accomplices in the physical and spiritual genocide pursued against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Serbia's southern province, Igic stressed.
A consequence of this cooperation between ethnic Albanians and the NATO aggressors is the expulsion of about 330,000 inhabitants from Kosovo and Metohija, of whom 250,000 Serbs and Montenegrins, as well as the torching and looting of about 50,000 homes, the SPS official said.
Igic underscored that ethnic-Albanian terrorists and UN civil mission head Bernard Kouchner were trying to completely Albanize Kosovo and Metohija and legalize this before the international community.
However, Yugoslavia and Serbia will never recognize any of Kouchner's illegal decisions and will not reconcile to such a situation. Ethnic Albanians must know that their calculations stand no chance and that they will have to pay for their bestial and genocide behaviour, Igic stressed.
AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA WAS CHALLENGE TO RUSSIA, MINISTER SERGEYEV
U.S. and NATO aggression on Yugoslavia was a challenge to Russia, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said Friday.
Speaking to the commanders of the Russian armed forces, Marshal Sergeyev described the military and political situation in the world in 1999 as "extremely unstable."
Sergeyev specified that the unstable situation was due to a new concept of NATO, one which he said was based on the use of force, disregarded for the generally recognized norms of international law, dictate and despotism.
According to the new concept, NATO is to act without the approval of the UN and without heeding the national interests and sovereignty of other countries, Marshal Sergeyev stressed.
He set out that this kind of policy was practically already being applied, and said U.S. and NATO aggression on Yugoslavia was a clear proof it.
Such behaviour is a challenge to Russia, one aimed at weakening Russia's position in the world and driving it out of strategically important regions, the Russian Defense Minister said.