OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 65, 31 Mar 95
CONTENTS
[01] POLAND OPENS SECRET POLICE ARCHIVES.
[02] UNCRO FOR CROATIA?
[03] SARAJEVO AIRLIFT SCALED DOWN.
[04] BILL ON BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA MUSTERS SUPPORT IN TURKISH PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE.
[05] SERBIAN OFFICIAL HINTS AT CHANGE IN KOSOVO POLICY.
[06] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES 1995 BUDGET.
[07] GREECE DENIES ALBANIAN BORDER SHOOTING.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 65, Part II, 31 March 1995
EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE
[01] POLAND OPENS SECRET POLICE ARCHIVES.
Internal Affairs Minister Andrzej
Milczanowski signed an order on 30 March opening Stalinist secret police
(UB) archives dating from 1944-1956 to prosecutors, courts, historians,
and journalists. No information on informants will be released, however.
Milczanowski said his ministry would not vouch for the authenticity of
archival documents. He added that secret police archives dating up to
1965 would also be opened shortly, in keeping with the 30-year principle
observed in international practice. Gazeta Wyborcza reported on 31 March
that the archives are a mess and that only 25% of the materials have
been reviewed or classified. -- Louisa Vinton, OMRI, Inc.
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[02] UNCRO FOR CROATIA?
One day before UNPROFOR's peacekeeping mandateexpired in the former Yugoslavia, the UN Security Council endorsed three
draft resolutions calling for the continued presence of UN peacekeeping
forces there, Nasa Borba reported on 31 March. One resolution permits a
scaled-down force to remain in Croatia. According to Vjesnik, that force
has been dubbed UNCRO (UN Confidence Restoration Operation). The name
was apparently intended to meet Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's
demand that "Croatia" be reflected in the title. But Reuters on 30 March
reported that Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic had ruled out simply
calling the force UNCRO since it did not include the full name of his
country. The resolution was amended to state that the name of the force
is "UNCRO in Croatia which shall be known as UNCRO," according to
Reuters. An estimated 1,000 peacekeepers may be stationed along
Croatia's international borders, apparently in response to Zagreb's
demands that the force be charged with monitoring Croatia's frontiers
with Serbia and Bosnia rather than its borders with Croatia's rebel
Krajina Serbs. Details of how the proposal is to be implemented remain
sketchy. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali has been asked to
resume talks with involved parties on the proposal's implementation and
to report back to the Security Council on 21 April. Meanwhile, Krajina
leaders have renewed their opposition to altering the UNPROFOR mandate,
Nasa Borba reported. The UN Security Council is expected to meet again
on 31 March to discuss the mandate. Resolutions on peacekeepers in
Macedonia and Bosnia leave those missions basically unchanged. -- Stan
Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[03] SARAJEVO AIRLIFT SCALED DOWN.
AFP on 30 March reported that the
humanitarian airlift to Sarajevo has been "scaled down to 40% of normal
capacity" due to Bosnian Serbs' unwillingness to permit deliveries to be
made from the airport to the besieged city. Meanwhile, international
agencies reported the same day that Bosnian government offensives appear
to be bogging down because of continued heavy snowfall. In other news,
the Indonesian news agency Antara on 31 March reported that Jakarta
expects to send to Bosnia a battalion of soldiers specializing in
clearing away mines. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[04] BILL ON BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA MUSTERS SUPPORT IN TURKISH PARLIAMENTARY
C
OMMITTEE. The Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has
approved a bill authorizing the Council of Ministers to lift the arms
embargo against Bosnia-Herzegovina, state-run TRT television reported on
30 March. The bill is aimed at enabling the Bosnian government to
exercise its right of self-defense. -- Lowell Bezanis, OMRI, Inc.
[05] SERBIAN OFFICIAL HINTS AT CHANGE IN KOSOVO POLICY.
Mihajlo Markovic,
one of the leading ideologists of the Serbian Socialist Party, has called
for a dialogue with Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, international news
agencies reported on 30 March. Markovic, in an interview with the
Albanian independent weekly Koha, proposed a "debate on the re-
establishment of Kosovo's territorial autonomy," which was revoked by
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 1989. Markovic said that it was
time for Serbs and Albanians (the latter account for some 90% of
Kosovo's population) to try to live together and give up violence. "We
are all suffering, and nothing can be solved by force," he said.
Markovic's remarks indicate a possible shift in Serbian policy toward
Kosovo. But in the meantime, Serbian nationalists are planning a rally
in Pec on 8 April to demand an even tougher stand toward the Kosovo
Albanians. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[06] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES 1995 BUDGET.
The Socialist-led
government on 30 March approved the state budget for 1995, Bulgarian
newspapers reported the following day. The final draft of the budget
provides for a deficit of 47 billion leva ($700 million), or 5.6% of GDP.
Expenditures are estimated at 387 billion leva ($5.8 billion), and revenues
at 340 billion leva ($5.1 billion). GDP is expected to amount to 800-850
billion leva ($12.0-12.8 billion), while inflation is expected to drop
to 40-50% from 121.9% in 1994. The estimated budget deficit has risen
from the 42 billion leva projected on 24 March, because the government
wants to grant the army and police more money. It also needs funds to
finance its social projects, Kontinent reported. According to
Otechestven Front, 20% of the budget deficit will be financed directly
by the Bulgarian National Bank. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[07] GREECE DENIES ALBANIAN BORDER SHOOTING.
Greece on 30 March denied that
border guards shot at a group of four illegal Albanian immigrants,
killing one and wounding another, Reuters reported the same day. The
Defense Ministry and the army general staff categorically denied a
report by the Albanian daily Koha Jone stating that the incident took
place on 27 March about 15 kilometers inside Greece. The newspaper
quoted one of the four Albanians as saying he was detained but later
released and ordered to tell the Albanian authorities about the
incident. He said that a 37-year-old Albanian was killed, while the
wounded man was taken to a hospital in the Greek town of Kastoria. Koha
Jone did not report on the fate of the third Albanian. The Albanian
Interior Ministry has no knowledge of the incident, a ministry spokesman
said. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[As of 12:00 CET] Compiled by Jan Cleave
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