Europe congress on mil medicine opens in Svetlogorsk Tue.

KALININGRAD, June 8 (Itar-Tass) - The first European congress on
military medicine opens in the resort city of Svetlogorsk, on the
Kaliningrad coast of the Baltic Sea, on Tuesday.
The widely representative forum, which is held on the initiative of
the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM), is hosted by the
Baltic Fleet (BF) on the basis of the Central military sanatorium of the
Russian Ministry of Defence.
Captain 1st Rank Yuri Kuroyedov, Assistant to the BF Commander, has
told Itar-Tass, "The main theme of the military medics' congress, the
first of its kind and of such a scope, will concern the problems of
preserving the health of servicemen in the European continent. The
Svetlogorsk-based Central military sanatorium affords wide scientific and
medical resources".
The forum will involve about 20 delegations from European countries,
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia's regions, and the
NATO Medical Command.
Representatives of the United Nations, Jordan, China, and the United
States will work at the Congress as observers. Major General Alexander
Belevitin, professor, chief of the Main military medicine directorate of
the Russian Defence Ministry -- chief of the Medical Service of the Armed
Forces, has been elected to preside over the Congress.
"Participants in the forum in Svetlogorsk will discuss medical support
for troops under conditions of armed conflicts and peacemaking operations
in the territory of Europe, as well as in peacekeeping operations outside
Europe. They will analyze the practice of medical support arrangements
under conditions of everyday activity of troops, in the process of
eliminating the aftermath of industrial accidents and natural calamities.
Those present will also discuss international cooperation and interaction
between the military medical services and international organizations,"
the BF officer pointed out.
The programme for the Congress provides for a meeting with
Vice-Admiral Viktor Chirkov, BF Commander, as well as a tour of the naval
clinical hospital of the BF in Kaliningrad.
A demonstration exercise to organize the work of a medical company of
a Marine brigade in the event of a massive influx of the wounded, sick,
and injured will take place at the Khmelyovka military proving ground of
the Baltic Fleet.
A conference of the chiefs of medical services of CIS countries will
be also held within the framework of the forum.
The ICMM was set up in Belgium in1921. Its goal is to strengthen
international contacts and cooperation among the military medics of
various countries in the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, as well as to
ensure exchanges of scientific information on military medicine. One
hundred and one countries are members of the ICMM, with 39 European ones
among them. Russia has been a member of the ICMM since 1965.

.Int'l strawberry festival to be held in Baikalsk in July.

IRKUTSK, June 8 (Itar-Tass) - An international festival of strawberry
Victoria will be held in Baikalsk, Irkutsk Region, from July 17 to 24.
Tatyana Glukman, deputy mayor of Baikalsk, has told Itar-Tass, "Our
city is now notable not only for the production of cellulose but also for
high yields of Eastern Siberia's largest strawberry".
The strawberry festival will include presentations of orcharding farms
-- of which there are several tens in the city: the locals consider it an
honour to cultivate the tasty berry at their country small holdings --
strawberry and omul fish (Coregonus autumnalis) auctions, a carnival of
"gods of the woods and water", a Miss Strawberry beauty contest,
performances of rock groups, and musical soirees.
Strawberry growth is facilitated by the landscape of Baikalsk: the
city is situated in a valley on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, and the
local climate is the warmest in the region.
In the opinion of researchers at the Siberian Branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, and other experts, the area of Baikalsk is an ideal
place for the development of tourism, recreation and, as a whole, for the
service sector and those branches of the economy that are not
capital-intensive.
In particular, the following three projects are suggested for
consideration: the bottling of Baikal water from the deep, the founding of
small businesses for the procurement and processing of berries, flowers,
leaves, and root crops, and the establishment of a special economic zone
of tourism and recreation type.
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