News for March 19th, 1997

At 23:30 this evening, after a few hours long session, the University Council accepted the resignations of Chancellor Velickovic and Student Vice-Chancellor Djurdjevic. Several hundred students had been standing in front of the Chancellor's office since the beginning of the session at 18:00, waiting to hear the decision of the Council. After the long-expected news had been announced, the students went for a walk along the so called "media route" in spite of the snow storm. It was their first victory march. The last protest, and the second victory march, will take place tomorrow afternoon. General manager of the "Bezanijska kosa" clinic, Momcilo Babic, was elected the president of the University Council. Bosko Vlahovic, professor at the Teacher training School was appointed Babic's deputy. Both candidates were suggested by the members of the Council appointed by the Government.

Slobodan Jovanovic, President of the Foreign Policy Board of the Serbian Parliament and member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) estimates that panel discussions in the parliament cannon resolve the political crisis in the country. In his statement to the today's "Dnevni Telegraf" Jovanovic said that the majority of the SPS members are in favor of opening a dialogue with the opposition, and that they are "not running away" from a round table such as is suggested by the oppositional parties.

Slobodan Vuksanovic, spokesman for the Democratic Party - one of the members of the "Zajedno" coalition, stated today for the Beta news agency that the representatives of this coalition in the parliament will participate in the work of neither the Republic nor Federal Assembly, mostly because the direct television broadcast of their convocations has been canceled. Milomir Minic, President of the Citizen Council of the Federal Assembly, invited the "Zajedno" coalition to attend the tomorrow's session of this house; The main issue of this session will be the ratification of the Agreement between FR Yugoslavia and the Republic of Srpska on the establishment of the special parallel relations.

Srdjan Djuric, Editor of the Informative program of the BK Television, told the Beta news agency today that the program of this television can still be viewed south of Belgrade sometime around three o'clock in the afternoon. Djuric also said that the only certain thing at this moment is that "the hunt" for the BK TV is now pursued not only by the Radio-television of Serbia, but also by the Postal Service of Serbia, and that "this is obviously a coordinated action of those enterprises, ordered by those who are disturbed by the BK TV and want to limit it".

The proposed information law will definitely put an end to the freedom of the media in Serbia, concluded the participants of the discussion about the suggested form of the law, held in Nis last evening. Judging by the contents of the law, the oligarchy in our state will be at peace, since the media, their limits set by the new information law, will be at its service, acknowledged the participants of the discussion - journalists, editors of the media in Nis, representatives of some parties, sociologist and university professors.

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