RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  25 June 1999

CHERNOMYRDIN WANTS WEST TO PAY FOR YUGOSLAV WAR DAMAGE.
"Segodnya" of 24 June quoted Russian special envoy to
Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin as saying in Strasbourg on 23
June that Russia is ready to help Yugoslavia restore its
economy, but that "it must be done at the expense of those
who bombed the country." Chernomyrdin added that Yugoslav
President Slobodan "Milosevic was elected by the population
of Yugoslavia and nobody but the citizens of Yugoslavia can
dismiss him. As for Russia, it will not interfere." In other
news, Aeroflot resumed flights to Belgrade on 25 June after
Hungarian officials approved an air corridor, Reuters
reported. Aeroflot suspended flights to Belgrade on 26 March.
Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT) resumed international
flights the same day. FS

CALLS FOR RESPECTING RIGHTS OF VOJVODINA
HUNGARIANS. The conference's closing documents also
stress the importance of respecting the rights of the
Hungarian ethnic minority in Vojvodina. Kavan also said
the CEI will send a special mission to Moldova, due to
the "continuous controversial presence of Russian units
in the country." The CEI was formed in 1989 to boost
political, economic, and cultural cooperation among its
members, most of which are former communist countries.
MS

HUNGARIAN SOCIALISTS RESIGN IN "VIP LOAN" AFFAIR.
Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) deputy chairman Sandor
Nagy and MSZP official Judit Csiha on 24 June announced
their resignations in response to reports last week that
they had received preferential "VIP loans" from
Postabank (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 June 1999). Nagy
said he had not broken the law by accepting the loan but
chose to resign in order to prevent any further attacks
on the party and himself. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's
advisor, Antal Rogan, said he is "pleased that a process
of purification has begun within the MSZP." Orban
recently said that no members of FIDESZ, the leading
member of the governing coalition, are implicated in
those irregular loans. MSZ

GROUND INVASION OF YUGOSLAVIA HALTED BY ORBAN? According
to a report confirmed by several independent sources, a
NATO plan to invade Yugoslavia may have been abandoned
due to the personal intervention of Orban with U.S.
President Bill Clinton, the Budapest daily
"Vilaggazdasag" reported on 24 June. The report says a
senior NATO figure gave Orban access to a plan requiring
that Hungarian territory be used to launch a ground
operation in April. According to the plan, only Western
military units were to take part in the invasion. The
timing of the ground attack was planned so tightly that
the Hungarian parliament would not have had time to
debate the issue before making a decision, the paper
concluded. MSZ

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