BELGRADE, April 22
(AFP)
Russia�s chief Yugoslav crisis negotiator Viktor Chernomyrdin met with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic Thursday in Belgrade, Serbian state television reported.
Also present at the meeting was Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, the television said.
�We came with specific proposals for stopping the tragedy in Yugoslavia,� the state news agency Tanjug quoted Chernomyrdin as saying upon his arrival at Belgrade airport.
Chernomyrdin was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin last week to push for an end to the month-long NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Before setting out on this latest Russian peace bid, Chernomyrdin had talks late Wednesday with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who has just returned from Belgrade.
He also had a lengthy meeting with Milosevic�s elder brother Borislav, Yugoslavia�s ambassador to Moscow, ITAR-TASS news agency said.
Chernomyrdin served as Yeltsin�s prime minister for more than five years, and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Wednesday that Yeltsin �gave a firm order to seek a political solution in the Balkans,� ITAR-TASS reported.
Russia, historically sympathetic toward the Serbs, has bitterly opposed the NATO campaign punishing Milosevic for his crackdown against ethnic Albanians in the separatist Kosovo province.
Chernomyrdin has already visited the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine as part of his mission.
�The positions of Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia coincide,� Chernomyrdin was quoted as saying Wednesday in Kiev. �It�s a dead-end situation, solving the problem with bombs.�
He added that the 12 former Soviet republics bound in a loose union called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) would work together to peacefully resolve the crisis.
�Leaders of other CIS countries that I visited before coming here support the Russian initiative,� he said.
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said, according to ITAR-TASS: �We have been eagerly awaiting the meeting with Viktor Chernomyrdin and believe his peace mission can be a success.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, April 22
(THE GLOBE)
�Astana should become a centre of political life. The political movements and parties will be in the same place - where the authority is,� a leader of the new movement declared on April 22 in Almaty.
Leonid Solomin, the chairman of the Confederation of Kazakhstan�s free trade unions announced that leaders and activists of the public non-governmental organizations (NGO) took the decision to establish the Republican public-political movement �Birlesu-Yedinenye� and on the movement�s base - public people�s headquarters �Election-99�. At the broadened meeting of the Confederation Coordination Council held with participation of the NGOs representatives, Leonid Solomin was elected the leader of the new movement.
�We are sure that the establishment of the republican public movement �Yedinenye� located in the new capital Astana, will make public life more active. We have established our public movement not for the pre-election campaign, but for continuous everyday work to contact and cooperate with the executive and legislative power. We want to create an effective mechanism to influence the authorities,� the representatives of the new movement said.
According to Mr. Solomin, the difficult situation in regions, stalled enterprises, people�s poverty, search for radical measures and, subsequently, involuntary politicization, were the reasons which persuaded some leaders of NGOs and free trade unions to move to political field.
Mr. Solomin believes that none of the existing parties has either created or will create real mechanisms for its activity. None of the parties have properly determined their aims nor formed a stable social base to achieve its purposes. �The objective of the majority of the parties is to gain portfolios and places in the Parliament for those for whom they were created,� the leader of �Yedinenye� stated.
The chairman is not going to nominate his candidature for the upcoming election. Expressing his attitude to the �Otan� party supporting the president: �It�s a pity, but nobody invited me to join the party.�
As far as the leader�s attitude to NATO�s celebration and the president�s participation in it are concerned, Mr. Solomin said, that the organization has the right to exist. In the chairman�s opinion, �any platform, even the platform of NATO�s 50th anniversary is good for our President. The President�s opinion may be heard there, and we should learn it.�
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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