YUGOSLAVIA: ECONOMY STRUGGLING AFTER KOSOVO CRISIS скачать в хорошем качестве

YUGOSLAVIA: ECONOMY STRUGGLING AFTER KOSOVO CRISIS

(16 Sep 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat Yugoslavia's economy is still grappling with the aftermath of the Kosovo crisis. With its infrastructure in ruins following the heavy bombings of the NATO campaign, everyday items such as household essentials and fuel have been rationed. Over half the work force is unemployed and analysts say there little hope of a recovery in the immediate future. Aside from its bombed-out buildings, Belgrade seems like an ordinary European capital - traffic jams, streets packed with pedestrians and cafes full of customers. Scratch the surface, however, and very little else is normal. Street vendors sell gasoline in plastic Coke bottles. Workers receive no monthly salaries, retirees get no pensions. The state tolerates massive smuggling and tax evasion just to prevent social unrest. Coming on top of international sanctions, the 78-day allied bombing campaign has given President Slobodan Milosevic's government a perfect scapegoat for the disastrous state of the economy. When NATO intervened to stop Milosevic's crackdown on the separatist province of Kosovo, the state-run economy already was in trouble because of years of mismanagement and sanctions stemming from earlier wars. The bombing campaign made it much worse - destroying oil refineries and wiping out much of Yugoslavia's infrastructure. Now, salaries and pensions, averaging no more than 50 U-S dollars a month, come months late - if at all - because the economy is at a virtual standstill. More than half the work force, or nearly 2-million (m) people, is unemployed. Social security and child welfare payments are a year late. Living standards have dropped to levels akin to the communist days of the early 1960s. The I-C-R-C and other international aid agencies launched a public kitchen programme aiming to reach 100-thousand most vulnerable people, refugees, and other displaced persons. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Before the programme was run by the Yugoslav Red Cross for some 14-thousand beneficiaries. Now we have embarked after many assessments in the field, and the programme has been built up to a case load of some 100-thousand persons." SUPERCAPTION: John Roche, I-C-R-C programme coordinator The I-C-R-C predicts increase in their aid programmes will be necessary in winter period. Gasoline is rationed by the government to 24 litres (5 gallons) per month. Drivers who cannot afford the high-priced gasoline offered by street vendors who smuggle fuel from abroad, have wait in lines of hundreds of cars to buy rationed gasoline. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croatian) "We are ruined, totally ruined. At my age, and being a famous musician, I have to sell smuggled petrol in the street, that's the end. I have to do that to support 6 members of my family," SUPERCAPTION: Mica Djordjevic, Gasoline seller It is common to see well-dressed people rummaging through garbage containers looking for leftover food. People sell smuggled goods, displayed on the parked cars in the main street of Belgrade. Just how much longer people are prepared to put up with this is the question those who oppose Milosevic would dearly like to know the answer to. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...