Subject: News I, 23/07/93 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). To: macedonia@husc.harvard.edu (macedonia list.) Date: Fri, 23 Jul 93 14:07:01 EDT Bulletin, 23/07/1993 ( ) ------------------------ A.N.A Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yosi Beilin arrived in Athens yesterday for a three-day official visit and talks with the government on the further development of Greek-Israeli relations. Mr. Beilin held talks with Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis late yesterday and was due later to meet with senior foreign and national economy ministry officials. The same sources said the talks would focus on ``the further development of bilateral relations between Greece and Israel``. Mr. Beilin and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Virginia Tsouderou will hold a joint press conference at noon today. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): Some 50 Greek troops taking part in the UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia are due to return home today when fresh replacements arrive on a Greek Airforce C-130 plane. The replacements will be accompanied by another C-130 aircraft carrying hygiene equipment and humanitarian aid for the Somali population. Athe remaining original troops in Somalia will be replaced August 3 by another dispatch of fresh troops. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): A delegation from the Yugoslav government, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Danilo markovic, has visited the holy community of Mount Athos to discuss celebrations to be held in four years` time marking 800 years of Serbian presence in the monastic state, the Macedonian Press Agency reported from Thessaloniki yesterday. The delegation also includes Religion Minister Dragan Dragojilovic and Culture Minister Dzioka Stojisic. Mr. Markovic visited Thessaloniki Mayor Constantinos Kosmopoulos yesterday accompanied by the two ministers and the alternate general consul in Thessaloniki Raiko Ristic. Mr. Kosmopoulos referred to the tradiotional friendship between the two peoples and presented Mr. markovic with a book of the history of Thessaloniki and Vergina. Mr. Markovic thanked both the mayor and the people of Thessaloniki for the extensive aid they have sent to the people of Serbia, underlining the strong bonds between the two peoples forged through the ages and strengthened through Orthodoxy. Mr. Skojisic announced the opening of a museum on Corfu on land donated by the Corfu municipality. The museum will highlight the presence of the Yugoslav army on the island during the years 1916-1917 and the joint campaign launched with the Greek army under the general guidance of the Entente during World War One. The museum will contain historic documents, photographs and the archives of the Serb newspaper published during that period. --- Speaking to reporters later on the possibility of the war in former Yugoslavia spreading further south, Mr. Markovic said ``we respect the rights of the Albanians living in Kosovo, but they must realise that Kosovo belongs to Serbia and New Yugoslavia``. ``Of course we recognise the rights of the Albanians who live there. They should have their own education, their own training and their own language. The republic of Serbia and the federal republic of Yugoslavia have accepted these positions and have put forward the legal bases for some kind of autonomy in Kosovo ... But of course all this will take place in the framework of the sovereignty of Serbia and the federal republic of Yugoslavia. I believe that all this was also accepted by the European Community and the Albanians' trends for independence are not accepted by the EC. I believe that the Albanians know this``, he said. ANA Belgrade, 23/7/1993 (ANA - N. Georgiadis): Ibrahim Rugova, leader of Kosovo's Albanians, yesterday said that Albanians in Kosovo intended to request a change in Serbian borders in the future or union with Albania. ``We were realists until now but if the West accepts the principle of the partitioning of Bosnia on an ethnic basis and the change of this republic's borders, we will also take new measures``, Mr. Rugova told an Austrian news agency, without explaining what the new measures would be. mr. rugova's statement follows a series of statements and announcements made recently which show a change in th epolicy line of the Albanian-speaking leadership. ANA Paris, 23/7/1993 (Macedonian Press Agency): The EC sees Greece as a ``bridge`` to the markets of former communist countries in the Balkans and central Europe, French press reports have said. Articles appearing in the majority of French newspapers have stressed that Greece is presently ``the top foreign investor in Romania and the second in Bulgaria``. The situation at the moment, French papers report, seems to show that Greece has achieved its goals of penetrating the economies of these countries after the collapse of the communist regimes. The way has been opened for industrialists, especially those involved in the textile, clothing and food sectors, to develop a favourable field of action. Since Greece has succeeded in curbing inflation, the press reports add, and cut down on its financial outlays, it has decided to implement the criteria laid down by the Maastricht treaty for the convergence of Europe's economies. The papers add that Greece is trying ``to display good behaviour in order to benefit from Community solidarity``. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): The Orthodox Academy of Crete will today host jurists from the European community's Court at a conference on safeguarding fundamental social rights in the EC. According to an announcement, Athens University Law Professor Julia |liopoulou-Stranga was instrumental in the realisation of the conference. Apart from Greek jurist Costas kakouris and other European Court judges, the conference will also be attended by the president of Sapin's Rodrigez Pineiro and other distinguished jurists from EC member-states. The guests will attend an official dinner on Saturday evening in which president of the Academy, Metropolitan Irineos of Kisamou and Selinou will address. The Hania Bar Associan will hold a special function for the guests on Sunday. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis chaired a meeting of New Democracy deputies participating in the summer session at the ND par;ty's head office last night. ``We reviewed the course of legislative work ... and had a more general exchange of views on matters of general policy and, more specifically, on matters concerning all sectors and regions``, Mr. Mitsotakis told reporters afterwards. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): Main opposition Pnahellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader Andreas Papandreou met former Cyprus president and Democratic Party leader Spyros Kyprianou in Ekali yesterday. Mr. Papandreou said after the meeting that one of the conclusions reached was the imperative need for a national conference, in light of recent important developments in the region and the United Nations. Mr. Kypriakou said he agreed that a national conference should be held to define a strategy and a course to confront Turkish expansionism. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): Hundreds of participants from abroad are expected to attend what has been called the ``most important`` international conference of Panmacedonian unions in 25 years. Members of Pnmacedonian unions and government representatives from Australia, Europe, the US, Canada and South America are due to arrive in the next few days for the official inauguration of the conference on Sunday. The conference will end Tuesday. Australian participants, including government members, arrived yesterday with European delegates were due late yesterday. President of the Federal Panmacedonian Union of Australia Nikos Katsakis, in statements to the Macedonian Press Agency, said the conference will be ``the most important of the six Panmacedonian conferences organised in the past 25 years``. ANA Skopje, 23/7/1993 (ANA - M. Vichou): US President Bill Clinton in notplaning to increase the number of US troops in the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, UNPROFOR spokesman in Skopje Alan Roberts told the ``Mils`` agency yesterday. Mr. Roberts was replying to persistent rumours that an additional 700 US troops would be deployed in Skopje. ``I do not know the source of these rumours. However, I should say that the arrival of the 318 US troops is the result of an agreement between the governments of the US and (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). the possible sending of additional US troops here is again a matter for the two governments``, he said. ANA Bucharest, 23/7/1993 (Macedonian Press Agency / Reuter): The sale of the controlling share of Romania's largest shipping company Petromin SA to Greek shipowning company Forum Maritime SA is in its final stages, it was announced yesterday. Negotiations between the Greek and Romanian side concern conditions of guarantee the Romanian side has proposed to the Greek side and participation in the nominal capital. The Romanian government has been fully briefed on the above negotiations, according to the Romanian press agency ROMPRESS. Petromin in May signed a $335 million deal involving the sale of 51 per cent of its stake to Forum Mritime. Petromin owns 92 tankers and bulk carriers with a total capacity of 4.6 million tonnes. ANA Athens, 23/7/1993 (ANA): The number of reported AIDS cases in Greece totalled 800 at the end of June, up from 609 cases in April 1992, Dr. Ioannis Stratigos said yesterday. Stratigos, who heads the Centre for Infectious Diseases, said that a total of 305 deaths from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome had been reported by the end of last month.