OMRI Dailly Digest II, No. 80, 24 April 1995
CONTENTS
[01] KARADZIC BANS DIPLOMATS FROM SARAJEVO AIRPORT.
[02] FRENCH CHIEF-OF-STAFF IN SARAJEVO.
[03] MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN YUGOSLAV AREA.
[04] MILOSEVIC MEETS LEADERS FROM KRAJINA AND BOSNIA.
[05] BOUTROS GHALI THREATENS TO WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPERS FROM CROATIA.
[06] UN TAKES TOUGHER APPROACH ON RUMP YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS.
[07] KOSOVAR OFFICIALS ON POSSIBLE DIALOG WITH SERBIA.
[08] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES STATE BUDGET.
[09] BULGARIA MAY CLOSE DOWN NUCLEAR REACTORS EARLY.
[10] ALBANIAN OIL SMUGGLING REACHES LOW POINT.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 80, Part II, 24 April 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] KARADZIC BANS DIPLOMATS FROM SARAJEVO AIRPORT.
International media
reported on 23 April that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has
announced that Sarajevo airport "is a Serbian airport" and that no
diplomats or other political visitors to the Bosnian government in
Sarajevo will be allowed to use it. He added that the Contact Group
diplomats are not welcome and that the Bosnian Serbs "will not accept
the Contact Group [peace] plan, never, ever." He sent packing a group of
U.S. and German diplomats who had spent the night of 22 April in
sleeping bags on the airport floor. UN mediator Yasushi Akashi also got
no farther than the airport on an attempted visit to Sarajevo. Karadzic
gave a variety of reasons for his stand, which international media
agreed is outrageous even by the standards of this conflict. But Reuters
stressed that his toughness is the outcome of a deepening rift between
the Bosnian Serb military and civilian establishments. -- Patrick Moore,
OMRI, Inc.
[02] FRENCH CHIEF-OF-STAFF IN SARAJEVO.
France's highest army officer,
General Marc Monchal, arrived in the Bosnian capital on 23 April to
escort home the bodies of three peacekeepers who died in a munitions
accident the day before. These deaths brought French UNPROFOR fatalities
to a total of 36. AFP said that President Francois Mitterrand has
invited the presidents of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, and rump Yugoslavia to ceremonies in Paris on 8 May marking
the end of World War Two in Europe. It is unclear whether Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic was also on the list. His presence would be
crucial if the French were to try to use the occasion to stage the
Yugoslav-area summit they have been pressing for. -- Patrick Moore,
OMRI, Inc.
[03] MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN YUGOSLAV AREA.
The 24 April Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the battlefields were largely quiet
during the Orthodox Easter weekend. The main exception was around Brcko,
in the narrow north Bosnian Posavina supply corridor, which links Serbia
with its conquests in Croatia and Bosnia. Croatian Radio, for its part,
said that armed Krajina Serbs blocked the reopened Zagreb-Belgrade
highway in two places. Hina reported the previous day that Croatian
Defense Minister Gojko Susak met with his Slovak counterpart, Jan Sitek,
who was visiting Slovak UNPROFOR troops. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[04] MILOSEVIC MEETS LEADERS FROM KRAJINA AND BOSNIA.
Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic met with Krajina Prime Minister Borislav Mikelic,
Bosnian Muslim kingpin Fikret Abdic, and Bosnian Serb commander General
Ratko Mladic at Milosevic's residence in Belgrade, Nasa Borba reported
on 22 April. The men subsequently dodged reporters, who were unable to
obtain any further information. AFP commented on 24 April that the UN
war crimes tribunal in The Hague may also want to speak to Mladic. The
dispatch notes that Mladic and Karadzic are suspected of war crimes, but
no formal charges have been made. The Los Angeles Times on 22 April
reported that Germany has agreed to extradite Dusan Tadic for trial in
The Hague. Tadic is suspected of being the Bosnian Serb concentration
camp guard who killed at least 32 people and tortured 61 others at
Omarska. His trial would be the first international one for war crimes
since the end of World War Two. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[05] BOUTROS GHALI THREATENS TO WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPERS FROM CROATIA.
UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali has announced he may have to
withdraw UNCRO contingents if the Zagreb and Knin authorities do not
approve the peacekeepers' new mandate, AFP reported on 22 April. The
Serbs and Croats differ strongly over the number of soldiers needed,
where they should come from, what they should do, and where they should
do it. Reuters the next day reported on observances by Croatian Jews to
mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Jasenovac. That
concentration camp was the worst in wartime Croatia, where the Ustasha
regime carried out its genocidal policies against Jews, Serbs, and
Gypsies. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[06] UN TAKES TOUGHER APPROACH ON RUMP YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS.
According to Nasa
Borba on 22-23 April, UN Security Council Resolution 988 provides for
sanctions against the rump Yugoslavia to be partially lifted for periods
of 75 days rather than 100 days, as stipulated by Resolution 943. The
council also voted to impose stricter conditions for the easing of
sanctions against Belgrade. According to ITAR-TASS on 22 April, Russia
has already made known its objections to the council's decision. Russian
representative to the UN Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that Moscow
objects, among other things, to additional limits on deliveries of
aviation fuel to Belgrade. Nasa Borba on 24 April reported that all
Serbian parties are highly critical of Resolution 988. Leader of the
Serbian Radical Party and accused war criminal Vojislav Seselj commented
that the endorsement of the new resolution is "evidence of [Serbian
President Slobodan] Milosevic's incompetence." -- Stan Markotich, OMRI,
Inc.
[07] KOSOVAR OFFICIALS ON POSSIBLE DIALOG WITH SERBIA.
Fehmi Agani, deputy
leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, has made clear his views on a
possible Kosovar-Serbian dialog by saying "Kosovo is not a Serbian
internal question," Nasa Borba reported on 24 April. The Kosovars are
demanding that a solution to Kosovar-Serbian differences be found within
the framework of the Geneva Conference on Former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile,
Kosovar President Ibrahim Rugova has said that such a solution would be
either an independent Republic of Kosovo or a confederation with
Albania, in the event that "confederations are established on the
territory of the former Yugoslavia." The Serbs, however, reject
international meditation in the Kosovar-Serbian issue. -- Fabian
Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
[08] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES STATE BUDGET.
The parliament's Socialist
majority on 21 April passed the 1995 state budget, BTA and international
agencies reported the same day. The budget was approved by 123 to seven
after an all-night session. Opposition deputies in the 240-member
assembly left before the vote, saying they had to attend Mass on
Orthodox Good Friday. The budget deficit is projected at 48.8 billion
leva ($746 million), or 6% of estimated GDP. Inflation is projected to
reach 45-50% in 1995. But Kontinent on 21 April reported that non-
government institutes estimate inflation will reach 60-120% this year.
-- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[09] BULGARIA MAY CLOSE DOWN NUCLEAR REACTORS EARLY.
Yanko Yanev, chairman of
Bulgaria's Atomic Energy Committee, said on 21 April that the two oldest
reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant may be closed down years
ahead of schedule, Reuters reported the same day. Yanev said he will
propose to the parliament that a fund be set up for the decommissioning
of the two 440 megawatt reactors if reconstruction proves too expensive.
New safety systems, additional filters and earthquake protection are
needed, at an estimated cost of some $70 million. Reactor No. 1, the
oldest at the power plant, has already been closed down for inspections.
Yanev did not mention the two 1,000 megawatt reactors at Kozloduy, which
are also Soviet-built. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[10] ALBANIAN OIL SMUGGLING REACHES LOW POINT.
Reuters on 23 April reported
that profits gained by Albanians smuggling black-market fuel into rump
Yugoslavia have dropped from about $30 to $3.20 for one 200-liter
container since Bulgaria and Romania have grabbed a bigger share of the
illegal market. An Albanian official is quoted as saying that "trading
here is at a low point. It is about twenty times less than it once was."
Elsewhere, Italian coast guards held an Albanian cargo ship suspected of
carrying radioactive cargo for three days in Pescara. Police found no
trace of radioactive material, international agencies reported on 22
April. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
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