CONTENTS:

MITROVICA ISSUE TO BE SOLVED IN LONDON
WHY KOSOVO SHOULD (NOT) BE COMPARED WITH REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
ARTEMIJE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND RUGOVA
 
MITROVICA ISSUE TO BE SOLVED IN LONDON

According to UN Regional Administrator for Mitrovica Anthony Welch Albanian and Serb leaders from Mitrovica have been invited to London for talks reported Koha Ditore on page four.

The British Commonwealth Office for Foreign Affairs will organize a conference in January with Mitrovica Albanian and Serb leaders in London, "to participate in face to face talks to solve the Mitrovica problem and other problems there," said UN Regional Administrator Welch. The meeting with the press was organized to present what has been done during the year in handling the hard situation in Mitrovica.

Evaluating the year as one of successes and disappointments, Mr. Welch mentioned the forming of the Municipal Assembly in which unfortunately all community members have not been convinced to start working together. He  said  the middle of the year was quiet and that there was cooperation, although the security situation worsened during the destabilizing end of the year period.

Welch did not clarify the issue as to who will represent the Serb side at the conference in London UN, because there was a lack of time. It remained unclear whether the Mitrovica Serbs will be represented by counselors appointed by Bernard Kouchner, Serb political leaders or Belgrade appointees.

WHY KOSOVO SHOULD (NOT) BE COMPARED WITH REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said that further isolation of the country would harm the region, especially Bosnia& Herzegovina reported Zëri on page 15: "I am not ready to tie Republika Srpska's status with Kosovo's status, however if the criteria for Kosovo are broken then it would become difficult to explain what is happening and why the same criteria is not applied for Republika Srpska," said  Goran Svilanovic last night. "This problem is not of my will, on the contrary, it is a very important issue for which the international community should have more consideration," said the Yugoslav Foreign Minister.

Commenting on the pending referendum on Montenegro's status he said that he is in favor of respecting the will of the people and he said that dialogue between Serbia and Montenegro should help to reorganize the mutual community of Serbia and Montenegro, rather than making these two republics independent.

"Conditions for referendum that I would eventually place would not be so complicated: there should be a democratic atmosphere which presumes freedom of the press, promotion of political ideas by citizens and political organizing for all in Montenegro. There is a constitution, which was formulated by the people who are no longer in power, so let us decide according to it," said the FRY Foreign Minister.

"We have to respect every decision, however everyone that calls for a referendum has to think what would they do if the results would be 52 or 53 percent for one solution or the other. If there is a close result, the question remains what would a Montenegro secession result in," said Svilanovic.

He drew a difference between the wishes of the Serb people and aspirations of the international community who want the new FRY government to "confront the last ten years; the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and the victims of the Serb people in Serbia and out".

"I am not sure that everything can be explained with the responsibility of one person--Slobodan Milosevic. I support that Milosevic has the main guilt for many things that affected the Serbs, Muslims and Croatians. However I think that not everything can be explained with this. That would be too easy," said Svilanovic.

He added that the new governments in Serbia and Montenegro will not avoid cooperation with ICTY, which should adopt the same system as in Rwanda. 

ARTEMIJE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND RUGOVA

Chairman of the Serb National Council (SNV) Bishop Artemije evaluated the decision of Dr. Ibrahim Rugova to refuse an invitation by Vojislav Kostunica to commence talks as incomprehensible, reported Zëri on page 14.  "There are always conditions for talks. We can leave Kosovo's status for a later date, when peace and security conquer this region," said the Bishop., adding that "separation of Serbia and Montenegro would only make solving the Kosovo problem more difficult".

"The Montenegrin government, especially Djukanovic, and the Kosovo Albanians are the only ones who do not accept the democratic changes in Serbia and Yugoslav President Kostunica," said Bishop Artemije, adding Albanians and Djukanovic preferred Milosevic so that they could push their extreme goals.

"The Montenegrin government showed its real face after Milosevic's downfall, when it manipulated the people with a new religious sect. The so-called Montenegrin Church is lead by atheists who use the church to make Podgorica independent from Belgrade and for Djukanovic to became a small king," he said.