These decisions were made at the most recent session of the city Assembly, at the end of the last week; the deputies from the ruling coalition Zajedno supported these decisions, while the local Socialists either voted against or refused to vote on these issues. They justified such political xenophobia with usual "patriotic" and "principled" reasons, which they compared to "treason" of the naive members of the fifth column [Zajedno deputies].
"The opportunities offered by the American project for economical development, financing, budget, procurement, and information system are great. USAID controls significant resources. Such cooperation is in the interest of the city of Nis and its citizens," says Nis mayor and vice-president of the Democratic Party Zoran Zivkovic. He adds that Nis and Kragujavac will be first cities in Serbia to participate in this USAID project.
"Zoran Zivkovic and his political allies want cooperation with out greatest enemies, who want to bomb us and our children. He wants to allow CIA agents into Nis and let them do whatever they want. He and his masters will have to answer for their actions to the people; they will have to say whether their homeland is Serbia and Yugoslavia or Germany and America," the president of the Socialist deputies' club, Stevan Matejic, said at the session of the City Assembly.
He added that the Nis leadership wants to allow the Americans to "introduce to this city the same sort of democracy given in that country to Comanche, Sioux, Cherokee and other Indians. Serbia always had its traitors. Vuk Brankovic and Dragisa Cvetkovic were some of the traitors in the past. Today the traitors are Zoran Zivkovic and those like him," concluded Matejic. Mayor Zivkovic responded that he and his political allies were proven patriots and dared the Socialists to sue him for treason if they can prove it. "All citizens of Nis and Serbia know who, while drinking whiskey in a foreign military base, signed agreements with Americans. They know who allowed NATO aircraft to control Serbs as if they were cattle, and who gave statehood to Kosovo while promising autonomy," said Zivkovic. Just in case, he added: "That was the president of FRY, Slobodan Milosevic".
Even the more experienced political observers were surprised with the adamant refusal of the local Socialists to cooperate with the Serbian cities of Novi Sad and Kragijevac. In their opinion, Nis should cooperate with "all the cities in Serbia and Yugoslavia," rather than only with the "free" cities [controlled by opposition]. This type of cooperation was, in their opinion, a bad deal for the citizens of Nis.
Representatives of the local authorities claim that the establishment of close ties between these cities is a natural move, since they are all smaller than Belgrade and are not divided into municipalities, while on the other hand, they are larger than all the other cities in Serbia and have similar problems. "We also sent an invitation to the Pristina local authorities, but they didn't respond. Maybe, because of the bad situation in Kosovo," says the vice-president of the City Assembly, Vladimir Domazet.
Translated on 12/5/98
Monitor sells a third of its circulation to subscribers abroad.
Last week, in Novi Sad, the printing of the weekly Nezavisni was delayed 24 hours. The reason for the delay was the request by the printer, Forum, that the editorial board send the official registration documents. The Serbian Ministry of Information delivered this request to the printer, under the threat of a $8,000 fine.
It appears that in Vojvodina, mail workers have taken upon themselves to enforce legal decrees. Since November 6, Nezavisni has not been travelling outside Vojvodina. Subscribers from Belgrade have not been receiving already paid papers. According to Mirko Sebic, editor-in-chief of this "Vojvodina civic magazine", the justification will probably be found in some bills that have been paid to the mail service, but the proof of payment has, for example, been mislaid.
Translated on 12/5/98