Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-12-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Belgrade opposes independence for Kosovo, SEECP troika told

[02] Papandreou meets trade unions in view of budget debate

[03] Finmin stresses importance of public utility reforms

[04] 'November 17' terror trial appeal continues

[05] President meets confederation for disabled

[01] Belgrade opposes independence for Kosovo, SEECP troika told

Molyviatis was accompanied by Romanian State Secretary for European Affairs Lucian Leustean and Croatian State Secretary Hido Biscevic, while the troika's mission is to sound out the views of the sides involved and signal the lively interest of surrounding Balkan countries in the final solution that is found for Kosovo's future.

After the meeting, Tadic said that the views of Belgrade and Kosovo's Albanians on this issue and Kosovo's final status were diametrically opposed. He called for recognition of two separate entities that will participate in future institutions.

"The Serb entity must be comprised of the municipalities where Serbs are a majority and of other non-Albanian ethnic groups," Tadic stressed, raising the issue of the Serb population's safety.

"Belgrade has no intention to govern Kosovo or to run the affairs of the Albanian community but it has a vital interest and absolute right to desire to influence procedures within the framework of the Serb entity, in order to ensure the economic and political developments and especially the safety of the Serb population," he said.

Tadic also welcomed the SEECP initiative, saying that the countries in the surrounding region had every right to be kept up to date on developments.

Speaking on behalf of the troika and the 10 nations in the SEECP, Molyviatis once again repeated the desire of countries in the region to actively participate in developments, since they were the ones that would have to suffer any repercussions caused by the solution found.

He also stressed that the road to Europe was the only solution that will bring security, stability and development to the broader Balkan region.

Molyviatis said that the SEECP fully agreed with the conditions set by international community for democratisation in Kosovo and stressed that they should be fully implemented alongside the process for determining the province's final status.

After the meeting with Tadic, the SEECP ministers met Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and they will wrap up their contacts in Belgrade by meeting Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.

The three ministers began a round of contacts in the area on Tuesday in Pristina, where they held talks with Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, prime minister Bajram Kosumi, main opposition leader Hashim Thaci, the leader of the "Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija (SKLM)" party Oliver Ivanovic and the head of the UNMIK peacekeepers Soren Jenssen Petersen.

According to diplomatic sources, the Albanian side insists on full independence for Kosovo, while the Serb minority raised the issue of security, referring to recent acts of violence against Serbs, which they explained as attempts by the perpetrators to strengthen their position ahead of upcoming negotiations.

Ivanovic also criticised UNMIK, accusing it of an insufficient response to the episodes.

[02] Papandreou meets trade unions in view of budget debate

His meetings on Wednesday took in the Piraeus Labour Centre in the morning and the two largest trade union organisations in Greece, the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE) and the civil servants' union ADEDY, which together represent the largest bloc of the nation's workforce in the private and public sectors.

After his talks in Piraeus, Papandreou said that the port-city poignantly mirrored the failings of the government's economic policy, whose results were unemployment and poverty.

Emerging from talks with ADEDY and GSEE later in the day, the main opposition leader stressed that there was "another road for the economy".

Accusing New Democracy of following policies that created rifts in society and were unfair to wage-earners, since they created problems for middle and lower-income groups while handing benefits to big business, Papandreou stressed that cooperation with the trade union movement, cooperatives and small businesses was the only road to another developmental course.

At the same time, he criticised a trend toward reducing wages and labour rights that used countries with low-level social rights as a model, saying it was a dead-end policy and proposing investment in human resources as an alternative.

Papandreou also underlined PASOK's opposition to all efforts to scrap collective labour agreements, which trade unionists claim is being attempted through the government's draft bill for reforming Greece's state-run public utilities (known in Greece as DEKO).

[03] Finmin stresses importance of public utility reforms

The minister was responding to a question on whether the &quot;next step&quot; would be to scrap permanency for civil servants.

Alogoskoufis said that the bill would reform the way the DEKO operated and establish transparency in conditions of competition.

He also noted that state-run utilities listed on the bourse would cease to be DEKO and will be obliged to conform to international accounting standards, while the &quot;provocative perks&quot; currently enjoyed by DEKO managements would be cut.

In response to other questions, he confirmed that the European Council on December 15-16 will discuss the possible reduction of VAT on certain groups of services from 19 pct to 9 pct, including house repairs for buildings over five years old, drainage and sewage services, electricity grid rates and tolls on bridges.

The minister said that the ECOFIN and Eurogroup finance ministers' meetings had not discussed the state of the Greek economy, though he had informed his EU counterparts that the public deficit will be reduce to 2.6 pct and would fall steadily in 2007 and 2008.

For the General Government deficit, he added, the target was to reduce this to 2.3 pct of GDP in 2007 and to 1.7 pct of GDP in 2008.

He said the rate of growth in Greece was forecast to end at 3.6 pct in 2005 and increase to 3.8 pct in 2006.

[04] 'November 17' terror trial appeal continues

Two of the individuals, Angeliki Sotiropoulou, the wife of convicted N17 arch-assassin Dimitris Koufodinas, as well as long-time anti-state activist Yiannis Serifis, were exonerated during the first instance trial. The two other defendants, Patroklos Tselentis and Nikos Papanastasiou, were acquitted on certain charges but found guilty of others. Both are currently serving prison time on terrorism-related convictions.

In another development, the bench prosecutor on Wednesday submitted a new report by the Greek police force's forensics unit, which focused on a set of keys found in one (Patmos street) of two N17 "safe houses" during the first stage of police investigations in the summer of 2002. According to press reports, certain fingerprints on the keys do not match any of the convicted N17 members to date.

Prosecutor Euterpe Koutzamani added that she wanted all the parties represented at the trial informed of the development as she intends to have the report read out during the proceedings, a prospect that generated objections by several defence attorneys. Among others, defence attorneys said the report was not requested by the five-justice court but is being introduced by authorities.

On their part, attorneys representing victims and the families of victims referred to additional N17 terrorists at large.

Seven separate keys with various stickers featuring handwritten notes, such as "Parkinson" (initially identified by authorities as the code-name of one of the N17 terrorists); apparent street names, "Lekka 28" and "Olympias 2", as well as the first names "Antonis" and "Babbis" were listed in the report.

The court withheld a ruling on the introduction of the report.

Defendants demand televised proceedings

Finally, the court was again petitioned by defendants to allow proceedings -- conducted in the same specially modified courtroom located within the women's section of the top-security Korydallos penitentiary where the first trial took place - to be televised.

Prosecutor Koutzamani voiced her objection to the prospect of televised proceedings, as did Tselentis.

All but one of the attorneys representing victims or families of N17 victims - the counsel for former minister and PPC chairman Yiannis Paleokrassas -- expressed their objections to television cameras in the courtroom.

Victims' group speaks out

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the appeals trial, the organisation representing the relatives of N17's assassinated victims - 23 since Dec. 1975 - issued an announcement lambasting the convicted terrorists' claim of "political motives" for their actions.

"The N17 murderers have tried, via their criminal acts, many times in the past - maybe with some success on a few occasions - to change the meaning of concepts and words. Then, some people, in the name of a supposed freedom to information, considered the proclamations that accompanied their (N17) assassinations as deserving an easy reprinting. They (proclamations) were more important than the universal right to life and liberty enjoyed by the victims and their families," the announcement by the group "Os Edo" (Enough is enough) read.

"It was proven, however, that the murders, robberies, bombings and injuries were designed and pre-planned unlawful acts by common criminals. November 17 was, in essence, a criminal band, a gang that operated for its own benefit, self-interest and convenience.

"Now the criminals are searching for a cheap alibi. They believe that they have found it in the groundless assertion of 'political' crimes. Their supporters are the same circles that worried that their (N17 terrorists) message of taking up arms would not be disseminated. They (circles) are again on the scene, backing up the criminals' alibi with bogus justifications and manipulations. What a disgrace..."

The announcement concludes:

"In a democracy and states with a constitution; with freedoms and civil rights, politics cannot be linked with murders and crimes..."

[05] President meets confederation for disabled

Papoulias congratulated the secretariat members and their companions for their work, stressing that it was a lofty expression of social solidarity and sentiment for one's fellow human beings, which he said was becoming rarer in our era.

The President spoke with emotion about his visit on Monday to a school for children with disabilities in the Ilioupolis suburb of Athens, adding that his thoughts went out to all the thousands of children who were not fortunate enough to attend such a school, and expressing hope that the institution would grow so that a large proportion of children with disabilities would find themselves in such schools.

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