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===== AIM Evening NEWS for Thursday, September 21, 2000 =====
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KOSOVO CORPS OFFICER KILLED
===========================

ORAHOVAC, September 21, 2000 (KFOR)

Yesterday morning in MNB South, several children reported they
had discovered the body of a man near the village of Sopnic to the
KFOR Military Police Station in Orahovac. KFOR headquarters in MNB
South confirmed that the victim had been identified as Skender Gashi
who is listed as being the Service Support Detachment commander in
the KPC Regional Training Group II (RTG II).

A preliminary investigation states that Gashi had been missing
since yesterday evening. He had been shot a total of seven times by
what appears to be an AK-47 Assault Rifle.


===================
20 YEARS FOR MURDER
===================

GNJILANE, September 20, 2000 (I-Net)

In the District Court in Gnjilane, Milos Jokic (21), charged for
murdering a Kosovo Albanian during last year's NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia, was sentenced yesterday to 20 years imprisonment.


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BELGRADE SENTENCES NATO LEADERS TO 20 YEARS EACH
================================================

BELGRADE, September 21, 2000 (BBC)

A court in Belgrade has sentenced 14 Nato leaders to 20 years in
prison each for war crimes committed during last year's bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia. The court had heard evidence on the Nato
use of cluster bombs and was told that Nato warplanes had dropped 10
tonnes of ammunition containing depleted uranium on Kosovo. The
presiding judge said an arrest warrant had been issued for the
convicted leaders, who include US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.

Sentenced in absentia, they have 15 days to appeal against the
verdict. The absent leaders were charged and sentenced with "inciting
an aggressive war, war crimes against the civilian population, use of
banned combat means, attempted murder of the Yugoslav president, as
well as with the violation of the country's territorial integrity".


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UN TO COUNT SERBS IN KOSOVO VOTE SUNDAY
=======================================

PRISTINA, September 21, 2000 (Reuters)

The United Nations will send observers to Serb enclaves in
Kosovo to "witness" voting in Sunday's Yugoslav elections but insists
it will not officially monitor a vote it views as a likely fraud.

The United Nations, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe are preparing
to monitor Kosovo's own local elections Oct. 28. While they plan to
neither help or hinder the Yugoslav vote, officials confirmed
Thursday they would count the turnout Sunday.

NATO will provide security for those planning to cast votes for
the Yugoslav presidency and federal assembly, in case of protests by
ethnic Albanians who reject Yugoslav sovereignty or clashes between
opponents and supporters of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The United Nations has an approximate idea of how many Serbs
remain in Kosovo, their age profile and the potential voter turnout.
The Serb population is estimated at around 100,000 -- half of what it
was before NATO bombing last year.

Momcilo Trajkovic, Kosovo Serb politician living south of the
capital Pristina, estimates there is a maximum of 18,000 voters in
central Kosovo enclaves. Most Kosovo Serbs in the province now live
north of the divided city of Mitrovica, where they enjoy relative
freedom of movement.


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"ELECTION SILENCE MUST BE OBSERVED"
===================================

BELGRADE, September 21, 2000 (Tanjug)

Ivan Radosavljevic, president of Elections Supervising Committee
asked all participants in the elections for Yugoslav president and
parliament, and local authorities in Serbia on Wednesday to respect
the rules of the election silence, pointing out that it was their
obligation to enable Yugoslav citizens to cast their votes in peace,
without pressures or anxiety.

In his address to the public, Radosavljevic said the election
silence begins on Thursday midnight and ends when polling stations
close at 8 p.m. on Sunday. During this time, only official organs in
charge of realizing the elections can give pertinent information
through media. These organs are obliged to provide, under equal
conditions, data on the course of the elections and their results to
reporters, so that the home and foreign public can be informed timely
and correctly.


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YUGOSLAV ARMY WARNS OF ELECTION SABOTAGE
========================================

BELGRADE, September 21, 2000 (Reuters)

Army chief-of-staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic was quoted on
Thursday as saying the voting would pass off peacefully only if there
were no interference. "If someone interferes from outside, it will
not be quiet," Beta news agency cited him as telling Montenegrin
state television in an interview late on Wednesday.

Leading Belgrade analyst Bratislav Grubacic said warnings of
Western sabotage were part of this pre-election message and could
also pave the way for tough action by the security forces against any
post-election demonstrations. "This is a very useful way to scare
people and give the impression that this election is a war operation
rather than a test of the people's will," he said.

Predicting that the government would declare victory in the
first round -- something pollsters say would have to involve fraud --
Grubacic said Milosevic would wait and see how many people complained
and then decide how to respond.

Some opinion surveys give his main challenger, Vojislav
Kostunica, a lead of between six and 20 percentage points.


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TENSION MOUNTS AS ELECTION NEARS
================================

BELGRADE, September 21, 2000 (BBC)

Tension is mounting in the former Yugoslav republics of Serbia
and Montenegro as Sunday's presidential poll approaches.

Opposition politicians fear that the elections will be followed
by a deep political crisis. Many expect Mr. Milosevic to declare
victory shortly after the polls close on Sunday night - regardless of
the result.

The combined opposition parties have called on all voters to
await the result outside their polling stations on Sunday night. "It
there are millions of people standing silently on the street,
Milosevic may be forced to think twice before resorting to violence,"
said Zarko Korac, leader of the Social Democratic Party.


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OPPOSITION GETTING READY TO "STEAL THE ELECTIONS" - SAINOVIC
============================================================

BELGRADE, September 21, 2000 (FoNet)

Nikola Sainovic, candidate of the Socialist-Left coalition for
the Federal Parliament and Deputy Federal Prime Minister, accused the
opposition today of planning to "steal the elections". He added on
the news conference that "opposition is obviously getting ready to
steal whatever they can, but observers and electoral boards will not
allow that to happen."


================================================
REFERENDUM ON MONTENEGRO INDEPENDENCE INDEFINITE
================================================

PODGORICA, September 21m 2000 (FoNet)

Branko Lukovac, Chief of Montenegro Diplomacy, stated beliefs
that Montenegro and Serbia would stay in a joint state. According to
his words, however, weather there would be or not a referendum on
Montenegro independence it will be definite only day after the
elections.


========================
DETENTION ANGERS RUSSIA
========================

MOSCOW, Russia, September 21, 2000 (Guardian)

Russia criticised the Nato and United Nations administrations in
Kosovo yesterday after British soldiers detained Russia's ambassador
to Yugoslavia in what appeared to be a breach of diplomatic protocol.
Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, protested to the UN
secretary general, Kofi Annan, over the conduct of the British troops
on the border between Kosovo and Serbia.

The incident occurred earlier this week when a British patrol on
the Kosovo-Serbia border stopped Valery Yegoshkin, who was travelling
in his official car. The British troops detained the ambassador for
one hour while declining to accept his diplomatic credentials and
insisting on searching his car, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman
said.

The ministry denounced the British troops' action as "a gross
violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations".


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RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED U.S. SPY'S CASE COMPLETED
============================================================

MOSCOW, Russia, September 21, 2000 (AP)

Russia's investigation into the case of alleged U.S. spy Edmond
Pope has been completed in preparation for his trial next month, the
prisoner's lawyer said Thursday.

Pope has been jailed in Moscow's Lefortovo Prison since April,
when he was arrested on charges of illegally buying plans for a
high-speed torpedo. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted. Pope
denies the charges.

A Moscow court this week turned down Pope's appeal to be freed
for medical treatment, saying the charges against him were too
serious. Pope has suffered from a rare blood-and-bone cancer, which
was in remission when he came to Russia earlier this year.

Lawyer Pavel Astakhov said Thursday that Pope and his defense
team had signed documents confirming that they had reviewed the
materials presented by the prosecution. The materials must be
registered in court by Sept. 28, Astakhov said. He said that Pope had
filed 10 petitions to the court, including one demanding that he be
examined by an English-speaking doctor.

Pope, a retired U.S. naval officer, worked for the Applied
Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. He later
founded CERF Technologies International, a company specializing in
studying foreign maritime equipment. He frequently traveled to
Russia. Pope's trial is scheduled for October.


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MINE KILLS 2 RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS
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MOSCOW, Russia, September 21, 2000 (AP)

Two Russian border guards were killed when they ran over a World
War II-era mine near the border with Norway, officials said Thursday.

The guards were on patrol Tuesday near the town of Nikel, in the
Murmansk region, when they struck the mine, the federal Border
Guards' press service said. One of the guards died at the scene and
the other died en route to the hospital, the press center said.

Many unexploded mines and other World War II ordnance are
scattered across western Russia, and there are frequent reports of
blasts and casualties.


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WORLD STILL BIASED AGAINST WOMEN
================================

LONDON, UK, September 20, 2000 (The Associated Press)

Eighty million unwanted pregnancies and 20 million unsafe
abortions. Millions of beatings and rapes. Infanticides and so-called
"honor" killings. This is what the world's women still endure each
year, despite major changes to their lot at the end of the 20th
century, according to a U.N. report published today.

The "State of World Population Report 2000" said girls and women
the world over are still routinely denied access to education and
health care - including control over their reproductive activity -
and to equal pay and legal rights. In developing countries, only 53
percent of all births are attended by professionals, translating into
"the neglect of 52.4 million women annually." Nearly 30 percent of
women who give birth in developing countries - some 38 million a year
- receive no care after the birth. Each year, the report said, women
undergo an estimated 50 million abortions, 20 million of which are
unsafe, resulting in the deaths of 78,000 women and the suffering of
millions more. The report added that at least one in three women has
been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some way. One in four is
abused during pregnancy.

Mexico and Peru have passed laws to increase access to
reproductive health services and the Portuguese government now
guarantees access to family planning. Botswana, China, Colombia, the
United Kingdom and Vietnam have increased penalties for various
sexual offenses and Bolivia no longer requires that a woman be found
"honest" to be considered the victim of a sexual offense. Germany has
criminalized rape by a husband against a wife.


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PEREC OUT OF OLYMPICS
=====================

SIDNEY, Australia, September 21, 2000 (BBC)

Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec is out of the Sydney Games
after fleeing Australia, say French officials. The French sprinter
left Australia in a storm of controversy amid claims a man threatened
her in a hotel. Perec has refused all media interview requests since
arriving in Sydney, claiming the Australian press are trying to
sabotage her chances of winning 400m gold. She was due to begin the
defence of her 400m crown on Friday.

French Olympic Committee president Henri Serandour and sports
minister Marie-George Buffet confirmed Perec, who was due to defend
her 200m and 400m titles, will not compete. "Marie-Jose Perec left
Australian territory on Wednesday, which means she has withdrawn,"
they said in a joint statement.

Perec's absence deprives the Games of a much-hyped showdown with
Australia's world 400m champion Cathy Freeman, but will boost the
medal hopes of Britain's Katharine Merry.


========
THE NEWS
========

Evening news edited by Nikola Stan

AIM, Belgrade, September 21, 2000 20:30


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