Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press

 
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia's energy crisis worsened Tuesday with a state of emergency declared in one town and several factories shutting down elsewhere because of electricity cutoffs.

In the central Serbian town of Cacak, authorities introduced a state of emergency after a major relay station broke down and some 80,000 people were plunged into darkness for more than 24 hours.

Cacak's deputy mayor, Mile Kandic, announced that all factories, shops, schools and kindergartens would be temporarily closed. Several other factories throughout Serbia were also closed.

The state power company in Yugoslavia's main republic Serbia - home to more than 90 percent of the country's 10 million people - announced more eight- to 10-hour blackouts throughout the country.

``Even though the cutoffs are drastic, they make sense,'' Dragan Batalo, deputy general director of Serbia's power grid, told Belgrade's Radio B92. ``It was the only way for the system to stabilize.''

Batalo called for rationing of the country's dwindling electricity supplies and urged the public to show patience.

Officials cite several reasons for the energy shortage. A summer drought and an abnormally mild winter have lowered water levels of the Danube and Sava Rivers, cutting back on hydroelectric production.

Yugoslavia and other countries of the Balkans share a regional power grid, which allows them to import electricity from each other in times of need. However, because of high demand elsewhere and Belgrade's severe economic problems, officials say imports can make up only about 20 percent of the shortfall.

The power grid was poorly maintained during the administration of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic, when the government was strapped for cash because of international sanctions imposed over the ethnic wars in the Balkans.

As a result, only about a third of the necessary maintenance was conducted on the network this year, officials admit.

In addition, power stations were targeted during last year's NATO bombing campaign, launched to force Milosevic to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

Power cutbacks, coming during the Christmas season and at a time when temperatures hover around freezing, have not been well-received. The public is eager for improvements in life after Milosevic's ouster in October and the rise of a democratic government under President Vojislav Kostunica.

The pro-democratic Civic Alliance party on Tuesday demanded that a ``state of natural disaster'' be declared nationwide.

On Monday in Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, protesters hurled stones at the local power company offices. Residents of another Nis neighborhood blocked streets, burned tires and set fire to garbage containers to protest power outages.

Meanwhile, Tuesday, a nearly half of Belgrade was without electricity while technicians struggled to maintain energy supplies for hospitals, bakeries and other crucial facilities.

AP-NY-12-26-00 0919EST

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.