[yugoslaviainfo] AIM Evening News, 1/29/2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit ============================================================ ===== AIM NEWS for Sunday, January 28, 2001 ===== ============================================================ ================================================== YUGOSLAVIA WANTS UN SESSION OVER GUERRILLA CLASHES ================================================== BELGRADE, January 28, 2001 (Reuters) Yugoslavia has called for an urgent UN Security Council session to halt ethnic Albanian guerrilla attacks following the death of a soldier in southern Serbia, Beta news agency reported on Sunday. It was believed to be the first military death in clashes with the guerrillas who emerged about a year ago to fight what they say is Serbian repression in the volatile area of Serbia adjoining U.N.-ruled Kosovo. The remote region, inhabited predominantly by ethnic Albanians, has seen an upsurge in fighting over the past week. The soldier died from injuries sustained in a clash on Friday. On Sunday, the Yugoslav army said a group of about 20 terrorists attacked one of its positions with bazookas, artillery and grenades on Saturday, damaging one of its armored vehicles, but said it suffered no new casualties. Beta said Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic called for an urgent U.N. Security Council session in a letter on Saturday sent also to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. He demanded that those behind the attack leading to the soldier's death be found and punished, and called for urgent international action to stop the attacks and stabilize the situation in the volatile area. Svilanovic noted that there had been an increase in the number of attacks and provocations in and outside a five km (three mile) wide buffer zone inside Serbia by the Kosovo provincial boundary. "In the letter to the Security Council it is requested that an urgent session is held and demanded that this terrorist attack on the Yugoslav Army soldiers is condemned," Beta quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying. Four Serbian police were killed in November, and the guerrillas say about eight of their fighters have died over the last year. ============================================= SOUTHERN SERBIA CLASHES TO END WITHIN A MONTH ============================================= BELGRADE, January 28, 2001 (AFP) Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said Saturday that all legal means, including deployment of the army, would be considered to end the attacks of ethnic Albanian guerillas in southern Serbia "within a month". "Within a month, by way of diplomacy or by using other legal means" the trouble caused by ethnic Albanian separatists would be solved, Zivkovic said, cited by the Beta news agency. "Another legal way would be to use the police and the army against illegal armed movements," Zivkovic said. "That would not be a violation of human rights. The forces of order would be doing their job seeking to protect the civil population," he said. But Zivkovic called for intensified political activity to bring a halt to the attacks by the Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB), an ethnic Albanian guerilla group that wants to attach the border region around the towns of that name to UN-administered Kosovo. "We will not wait for spring to pursue the talks, because we are convinced that the terrorists want to move forward before then," he said. "That would bring us dangerously close to a conflict with a lot of victims." Zivkovic said he would not negotiate with "terrorists", only with local leaders of the ethnic Albanian community, notably Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo. He added that he would not object to a "demilitarization of the region under the auspices of the international community." "Yugoslavia is open to all forms of monitoring for those who want to come and see what happens" in the conflict zone between Kosovo and Serbia proper, he said. ==================================================== POLITICAL STANCE DECISIVE FOR THE HAGUE EXTRADITIONS ==================================================== BELGRADE, January 28, 2001 (Blic) Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said yesterday that Carla del Ponte had not given to him any proofs about people indited for war crimes. She gave to Yugoslav Minister of Justice Momcilo Grubac two secret inditements. Zivkovic said del Ponte had not requested from him extradition of people endited for war crimes that live in the territory of Yugoslavia. "Yugoslav Home Ministry is competent for extradition of the citizens that federal Ministry of Justice decides that should be delivered. The political aspect of extradition is also very important. That is the reason why the federal Minister of Justice cannot decide alone. The most important is that all competent authorities in Serbia and Yugoslavia make final stances about extradition based on our and international law and political decision that would bear in mind the stance of the public opinion. The stance of public opinion , however, should not prevent us from fulfilment of our international obligations or to make us hide war criminals, Zivkovic concluded. =========================================== SOLANA: ELECTIONS WITHIN UN RESOLUTION 1244 =========================================== PRISTINA, January 28, 2001 (I-Net) EU Chief for security and foreign policy Havier Solana said yesterday in discussion with Momcilo Trajkovic, president of the Commission for Kosovo and Metohija that the "situation in Kosovo is improving" and that forthcoming elections have to be held within frames of UN Resolution 1244 with participation of the Serbs and other non-Albanian communities. ================================ MILOSEVIC SAVED DIRECTORS OF RTS ================================ DAVOS, Switzerland, January 28, 2001 (Blic) Chief Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal Carla del Ponte said yesterday in Davos that she would submit to Yugoslav officials documents proving that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic knew that NATO would bomb the building of the Radio and Television of Serbia, but had not warned the workers accordingly. Milosevic did not want the technicians to leave the building since their death could have provide for him "a kind of manipulation against NATO", del Ponte said. Secretary General of "Amnesty International" objected to del Ponte because she had not initiated investigation whether "NATO by bombing RTS building had committed a war crime". He believes that would assure Serbian people in the just of the Hague Tribunal. Del Ponte said her office carried out preliminary investigation of that case and concluded "there are no sufficient elements for opening of investigation". ================================================== MONTENEGRO WANTS EU TO TAKE PART IN YUGOSLAV TALKS ================================================== PODGORICA, January 28, 2001 (Reuters) Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has proposed that the European Union take part in talks with Serbia on the future of the Yugoslav federation, a Montenegrin news agency reported on Saturday. Djukanovic told Britain's ambassador to Yugoslavia in a meeting on Friday that his coastal republic wanted a settlement on future relations with its bigger sister republic to be democratic, transparent and in line with EU standards. "President Djukanovic... expressed readiness and expectation that experts of the Council of Europe and the EU would join the process as they could extend decisive help for the standards to be respected," Montena-fax news agency quoted a statement from Djukanovic's office as saying. He also said he wanted the process to help strengthen peace in the region, seeking to reassure the West which fears that further fragmentation of Yugoslavia could again destabilize the volatile Balkans. EU foreign ministers on Monday gave Montenegro a clear signal it should drop its demand for independence, urging the tiny republic to agree to a new constitutional arrangement with Serbia "within an overall federal framework". ========================================== DECREE SUSPENSION NOT DIRECTED AGAINST FRY ========================================== BELGRADE, January 28, 2001 (Blic) Suspension of presidential decrees in USA for reconsideration by new President George Bush is a usual practice when new administration takes the authority. Therefore, it does not refer "specially" to decisions concerning suspension of outer wall of sanctions against Yugoslavia but to all presidential decrees passed by Clinton's administration, USA Embassy in Belgrade explained yesterday. ===================================== ISRAEL AND PALESTINE END NEGOTIATIONS ===================================== TABA, Egypt, January 28, 2001 (Deutsche Welle) Israel and the Palestinians have ended five days of talks in Egypt without a peace deal, almost ending hopes of a breakthrough before an election which is expected to oust Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Negotiators issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they were closer than ever to an agreement after the talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba. They said they hoped the remaining gaps would be bridged after the election on February 6. In an effort to push the peace process ahead, Palestinian officials said President Yasser Arafat would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Sweden on Tuesday or Wednesday. ========================================== ANTI GLOBALISATION PROTESTS IN SWITZERLAND ========================================== DAVOS, Switzerland, January 28, 2001 (Deutsche Welle) Police beat back a protest against the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in the ski resort of Davos on Saturday but anti-globalization protests spread to other Swiss cities. Four cars were set on fire during protests in Zurich by up to 1,000 demonstrators after many were prevented by police from travelling to Davos. Earlier, several hundred demonstrators defied a ban on protests in Davos and a strict police crackdown to travel to the resort where the forum holds its annual meetings for 3,000 of the world's top business and political leaders. ============================================ SOUTH AFRICA'S MBEKI TO VISIT CONGO'S KABILA ============================================ KINSHASA, Congo, January 28, 2001 (Deutsche Welle) Congo's new president Joseph Kabila is reportedly to be visited next Tuesday by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki, who's due to speak at the Economic Forum in Davos later today, Sunday, is seen as a key figure in the bid to restore peace in Congo. Joseph Kabila was installed as president on Friday, replacing his slain father. His inaugural speech, calling for reconciliation, was criticized by rebels. According to the news agency AFP, a spokesman for the rebel RCD movement said it as "disquieting" because it lacked mention of disarming militias or an "inner-Congolese" dialogue beyond the six nations drawn into Congo's conflict. ================================== INDIA AID EFFORT STRUGGLES TO COPE ================================== BHUJ, India, January 28, 2001 (BBC) Foreign rescue teams have joined the search for survivors in the rubble of western India's worst hit towns and cities - but time is running out for anyone left alive after Friday's giant earthquake. India launched an unprecedented rescue and relief effort on Sunday as big new tremors, hunger and thirst added to the anguish of tens of thousands of dazed and homeless survivors in the state of Gujarat. But with more than 6,000 confirmed dead and authorities saying the figure could reach 20,000, rescue workers are mostly finding bodies under the piles of concrete and masonry. Five people, however, were rescued in Bhuj - near the epicenter of the quake - and another was found alive in the city of Ahmedabad. Five thousand Indian soldiers, 40 military aircraft and several naval ships are being brought in and authorities are rallying extra personnel from civilians to border guards. Two of the ships - capable of taking 200 patients each - are being used as floating hospitals, and the third is being used to carry the injured to hospitals in Bombay. =========================== KASHMIR TRUCE 'A MERE PLOY' =========================== NEW DELHI, India, January 28, 2001 (BBC) The main separatist alliance in Indian-administered Kashmir, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has attacked the Indian Government's unilateral ceasefire as a mere ploy to influence international opinion. The group had earlier called it a positive change in the Indian approach to Kashmir. The latest Hurriyat statement is being seen as an angry reaction to a reported rise in incidents of alleged custodial killings by the police. More than six people are believed to have been killed in such incidents during the past week. ===================== MIR MEETS ITS NEMESIS ===================== January 28, 2001 (BBC) A Russian cargo craft has docked with the ageing Mir space station, marking the start of the countdown to the platform's scheduled destruction in March. The Progress M1-5 "burial ship" docked at 0833 Moscow time (0533 GMT), slightly behind schedule, officials said. Ground controllers intend to fire the thruster rockets of the cargo craft - which has two tones of fuel on board - to nudge Mir out of its orbit next month. Most of the 15-year-old station is expected to burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere. Russian space officials have tried to allay continuing fears that Mir might crash on land, saying plans are still on course for it to fall in an area of the Pacific Ocean some 6,000km by 1,000km, well to the east of Australia and New Zealand. The Progress's successful docking was a relief after recent glitches with Mir's systems, including problems with the navigation system which had forced space officials to delay the launch of the cargo craft last week. =============================================== BILL GATES GIVES $100 MILLION FOR AIDS VACCINE =============================================== DAVOS, Switzerland, January 27, 2001 (Reuters) Microsoft Corp boss Bill Gates on Saturday pledged $100 million to help develop an African AIDS vaccine which could be ready within five years, if all goes well. Trials of the new vaccine will begin in Kenya in the next few days, Seth Berkley, head of the non-profit making International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), told reporters at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. The vaccine, which has been tested since August on volunteers in Oxford, England, was developed after doctors found that a group of prostitutes in Nairobi never contracted HIV, despite repeated exposure to infection. It is one of around 25 vaccines being tested on humans around the world but is the first to target the "A'' strain of the HIV virus prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - the software billionaire's charity - said the new $100 million being provided to Berkley's group was a "challenge grant,'' designed to encourage other backers. Internet company Yahoo Inc is providing a further $5 million. In all, the IAVI is seeking $550 million to fund its development work through 2007. "It is clear that a widely accessible preventive vaccine is the best hope for ending this pandemic...IAVI's model of speed and flexibility has allowed the Oxford/Nairobi vaccine candidate to move forward in near record time,'' said Berkley. Recent scientific advances made it likely a vaccine of at least limited efficacy would be ready within a decade -- and it could take as little as four to five years in a best case scenario, he added. More than 25 million people in Africa are now infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the United Nations. ======== THE NEWS ======== The News edited by Vladimir Trkulja and Vukasin Stojkov. 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