NEW REPORTS FOLLOW

NATO and KLA Agreed an Outline Plan for Disarming

LONDON - NATO and the Kosovo Liberation Army have agreed an outline plan for disarming KLA fighters, British government sources said on Wednesday.

"Discussions are still going on on the modalities of demilitarization," one government source said, adding that the outline agreement had been reached in talks between military officials in Tirana and had been forwarded to the North Atlantic Council.

Serbs Left Prizren

PRIZREN - The last Serbs pulled out of Prizren on Wednesday, past jeering ethnic Albanians, Reuters reported. Accompanied by German peacekeepers in jeeps, five Serbian Red Cross buses with drawn curtains and about 50 cars packed with clothes and household goods inched through the old town on their way to central Serbia.

According to the Reuters, one of KLA leaders Ekrem Rexha said Prizren was "100 percent controlled by the KLA and 100 percent controlled by KFOR.

Russian Demand for Using of Air Space

Ukraine "Yes", Bulgaria "No"

SOFIA, KIEV - Bulgaria on Wednesday denied that it had allowed Russia to use its air space for flights to Kosovo.

"Bulgaria has not given to Russia permission for using it's air space for flights to Kosovo," a Government's spokesman Stojana Georgijeva said and added that KFOR commander General Michael Jackson must allow any forwarding of persons or materials to Kosovo. Moscow's Balkan envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin said in St Petersburg "the question of flights of Russian military aircraft over Bulgaria has been settled".

According to France-press agency, Ukraine on Wednesday allowed Russia to use it's air space for flights of military planes, Ukraine's Defense Minister Sergey Nagoryanski said. He added that permission is given for three Russian military transporters "Iljusin 76", and that it will be in force for three days.

Four Persons Died

PRISTINA - UNHCR Special Envoy for Albania and Yugoslavia Denis Maknamara said on Wednesday that several thousands Albanian refugees are situated on Yugoslav - Albanian border, near the place of Kukes. "They tried to return to Kosovo again, but four persons were killed by mine on the road", he said a press conference in Pristina.

KFOR Disarmed 200 Terrorists

ZEGRA - US Marines on Wednesday disarmed some 200 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters and arrested their chiefs near the southeastern Kosovo village of Zegra after they refused to turn in their weapons.

The guerrillas were stopped and disarmed a few kilometers out of the village.

The guerrillas had refused on Tuesday to turn in their weapons to French soldiers of the KFOR peacekeeping force. They went back to the mountains for the night and returned to Zegra on Wednesday morning to march towards the town of Gnjilane.

KFOR Commander Addresses the Serbs at a Rally in Kosovo Polje

Gen. Jackson Appeals to Serbs to Stay in Their Homes

PRISTINA - KFOR Commander British General Mike Jackson addressed on Wednesday the Serbs rallied in Kosovo Polje, appealing to them to stay in Kosovo. He said that as of midnight on Tuesday, KFOR had taken on responsibility for the security of people in the so-called Zone-1, including Pristina and Kosovo Polje.

Gen. Jackson promised the rally that KFOR would take on responsibility for the security in Kosovo as a whole in the next few days.

"KFOR will have an equal treatment for all citizens (of Kosovo) and I can assure you that we shall do our best to secure life in safety and the future in Kosovo," Gen. Jackson said, announcing the signing of an agreement on demilitarization of the KLA in the next two or three days.

Reactions of Experts and Opposition Political Parties to Decree By Serbian President Milan Milutinovic

Serbian Parliament Must Convene

Vuk Draskovic: A dangerous and transparent decree. Slobodan Vuksanovic: We are witnessing a double game again.

BELGRADE - Serbian opposition parties on Wednesday accused the ultra-nationalist Radical Party of cutting a cynical deal to preserve the government while ostensibly trying to quit.

The Radical Party has 13 ministers in the 36-member cabinet of Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia's two republics. Its 82 deputies in the 250-seat Serbian parliament voted against the international peace deal accepted by Belgrade.

Serbian authorities have acknowledged that Milutinovic's decree, issued in the name of "continuity of the administration", avoided the need for the snap election which several opposition parties have demanded.

"Under Article 86 of the Serbian Constitution, during a state of war the President of the Republic can issue decrees, which are normally in the jurisdiction of the Parliament, but only if the Parliament is unable to convene. By issuing the decree under which the Radical Party deputies and ministers must stay in the government, the President exceeded his powers," Stevan Lilic, the law professor, a deputy head of the Democratic Center party (DC), told Glas Javnosti, referring to the decree issued by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic on Tuesday.

He also added that the situation of this kind was unknown up to now in legal or political terms.

"The Parliament must convene. However, even the Speaker of the Parliament does not understand what his job is. He is supposed to balance executive and legislative branches of power. Now we have a situation in which the Parliament does not do its job - instead of limiting the executive power, it turns its powers in to it."

Vuk Draskovic, leader of the moderate Serbian Renewal Movement, said Milutinovic's decree exposed "an agreement under which the Radicals will leave the government while actually staying a part of it".

"It proves that the regime has decided to lead Serbia astray again, needing the Radicals as fuel," Draskovic, whom Yugoslav federal president Slobodan Milosevic fired as deputy federal prime minister in April, told Studio B television.

Slobodan Vuksanovic, a deputy head of the Democratic Party, said Seselj had suggested he would leave the government to collect anti-regime votes, and could now argue he had been prevented from quitting. Vuksanovic believes that the point is in a double game.

"It is the game we have seen several times in the last few years, when the Radical Party supported a minority government in the Parliament."

N. MIJUSKOVIC

During Helsinki Meeting with US Officials

Russia Demands Its Own Sector

Foreign Minister Ivanov: We want a compromise, not a second-rate role

MOSCOW / HELSINKI- During the meeting with US officials in Helsinki, Russia persisted in its demand to get its own sector as part of the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, but said it was ready to compromise in details, a Russian official, who spoke on condition on anonymity, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Russian Interfax news agency quoted a Russian diplomat as saying that the compromise Moscow was willing to reach "will in no way lead to the infringement of Russian interests or provisions of the UN resolution".

"Russia has always been ready for a reasonable compromise, which would take into account interests of all parties concerned, but not at the expense of its interests," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said ahead of his meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Helsinki. "Russia cannot accept a second-rate role and it is ready, like others, to play an active role in building peace in Kosovo."

Bishop Artemije, along with a group of 200 Serbs, leaves Prizren

If Need Be, We Shall Go To Serbia

"We shall return if KFOR can guarantee life in safety"

PRIZREN - Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren confirmed on Wednesday that he, along with nine priests and a group of about 200 Serbs, was leaving Prizren because they did not feel safe there any more.

The bishop said they were heading for Pristina after members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) entered Prizren on Tuesday. He added that he would definitely leave the southern Serbian province and move out to Serbia if life in Pristina turned out to be insufficiently safe.

"We will take buses and, together with our people, leave under the protection of the German KFOR troops," bishop Artemije said.

He added that the Albanians, since KFOR troops entered Kosovo, had begun to beat and disarm the local Serb population. According to him, five Serbs, including a monk, were abducted in the area around Prizren on Tuesday alone.

"I am not leaving Prizren or Kosovo and Metohija for good. Rather, I am going to a safe heaven until KFOR can guarantee life in security. The Serbs who are leaving (Kosovo) will be back only if order is restored here and the KLA is disarmed," bishop Artemije concluded.

KFOR Commander General Michael Jackson Believes

Yugoslav Forces Will Withdraw On Schedule

LONDON - Commander of the UN international peacekeeping forces in Kosovo (KFOR) British General Michael Jackson said he believed that Yugoslav forces would withdraw from Kosovo as scheduled under the Military-technical agreement.

However, Gen. Jackson warned that, if there was some delay, KFOR's reaction would be tough. Under the Agreement, the dead-end for a Yugoslav forces pullout from southern parts of the province expired at midnight on Wednesday, Reuters reported, quoting Gen. Jackson as saying to the British Channel 4 television station.

Schroeder Denounces Ethnic Albanian Violence Over Kosovo Serbs

Terror by KLA Absolutely Unacceptable

Financing the reconstruction of the Balkans - a cost-effective and sound investment

BONN - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the German parliament Bundestag that ethnic Albanian violence over the Serbs in Kosovo was absolutely unacceptable.

"Moving out of the Serbs from Kosovo is as unacceptable for us as the mass fleeing of the Albanians was," Schroeder said in a public statement made ahead of the G8 summit due in Cologne over the next weekend.

Referring to the rebuilding of Kosovo and the Balkans as a whole, Schroeder said that the international community would have to make a great financial effort.

"The European Commission and World Bank have already been preparing an international donor conference.... Financing peace and rebuilding is a cost-effective and sound investment," the German Chancellor stressed.

The fourth volume in "Serbian Contemporary Drama" edition

Theater In-Between Wars

Edition titled "Serbian Contemporary Drama", launched by the Museum of Theater Art, Serbian Playwrights' Association and Institute for Cultural Development Studies, has recently been enriched with the fourth volume.

The volume contains five new plays: "When Will It Come?" by Ivan Panic, "Cactuses and Roses" by Djordje Lebovic, "The Putsch" by Miodrag Ilic, "On Oranges and Bread" by Irina Kikic, and "Theater in Countryside or an Ape and Tragedian" by Radoslav Zlatan Doric.

So, the new volume gathered together playwrights of different generations and styles of writing. Bogdan Spanjevic wrote in the introduction: "If we looked at these five plays as parts of a single whole, we would get a narrative arch spanning the early Middle Ages and the present, a period in which the Serbs have been dealing with theater in short intervals in-between wars. The narrative told in five completely different drama procedures is really dominated by motifs of war and theater, the two ways how the Serbs have learned to show who they really are and what their true essence is."

After beating Spain (27:24), Yugoslav national handball team won the third place in the World Championship

Bronze Medals for All

"We played for our people. I know there are some who did not believe in us, but we won these bronze medals for all," said Nedeljko Jovanovic as his fellow players were leaving the stands.

A bronze medal in the 16th World Handball Championship in Egypt has a specific weight. After many mishaps and accidents, the blue boys grabbed the medal away from the Spaniards, who had denied visas to our national team members, preventing them from taking part in a Tropheo Espana tournament.

"We believe God is on our side," echo the words of Peric. "On the eve of the Championship it was said that we would be losers again."

"However, we proved the skeptics were wrong. We are again on top of world, where Yugoslav handball used to be," Perunicic said.

V. Preradovic

Age of Sweden
Sweden won its fourth gold medal in world championships by beating Russia in the final (25:24), thus matching the handball ex-superpower, Romania. The current generation of Swedish handball players proved their supremacy in the last decade of the century.