OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 123, 26 June 1995
CONTENTS
[01] ZAGREB PROTESTS RUMP YUGOSLAV ARMY PRESENCE.
[02] BILDT ON BOSNIAN CRISIS.
[03] "MORALE IS HIGH" SAYS BOSNIAN COMMANDER.
[04] NINE KILLED IN SARAJEVO.
[05] SCANDAL OF MILITARY ATTACK ON ILIESCU CONTINUES . . .
[06] . . . AS DOES SCANDAL ON ALLEGED ILIESCU KGB LINKS.
[07] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT REPLACES STATE MEDIA BOSSES.
[08] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF ALLOWING MANIPULATION OF SECRET FILES.
[09] NEWEST U.S. SPY PLANE TO FLY FROM ALBANIA.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 123, Part II, 26 June 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] ZAGREB PROTESTS RUMP YUGOSLAV ARMY PRESENCE.
Vecernji list on 26 June
reports that the Croatian president's chief-of-staff and head of
Croatia's commission for UNCRO Hrvoje Sarinic has contacted UN special
envoy Yasushi Akashi by letter to protest the increasing presence of
rump Yugoslav forces on Serb-occupied territories of Croatia. According
to Sarinic's letter, the rump Yugoslav army presence in terms of men and
materiel has been increasing appreciably since the recent transfer of
Lt. Gen. Mile Mrksic, formerly of the rump Yugoslav army, to the post of
commander of the Krajina Serb forces. Sarinic also observed that since
Belgrade began press-ganging ethnic Serb refugees on 11 June throughout
the rump Yugoslavia for forced military service, an estimated 4, 000 men
have arrived in Krajina. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[02] BILDT ON BOSNIAN CRISIS.
International media reported on 25 June that
new European Union mediator Carl Bildt spent time that day briefing
French President Jacques Chirac on developments in the former
Yugoslavia. Almost no details of the closed-door meetings, described as
"informal," are expected to emerge before the EU summit in Cannes on 26
June, where discussion on Bosnia is slated for the first day. Bildt has
also spoken to representatives of the international five-member Contact
Group about details of his first mission to the war-torn country, which
involved a rapid and dramatic exit from Sarajevo as the EU negotiator's
convoy came under fire, Nasa Borba reports on 26 June. In other news,
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet on 26 June resolved to send
military back-up for UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. The historic
decision has yet to receive parliamentary approval. -- Stan Markotich,
OMRI, Inc.
[03] "MORALE IS HIGH" SAYS BOSNIAN COMMANDER.
Bosnian army Chief of Staff
Rasim Delic, assessing the military situation throughout Bosnia, has
concluded that Bosnian Serb forces are overextended and weakening while
"morale is high" in all Bosnian government units . "We will try to
maintain the present advantage at all costs," he was quoted as saying by
the Croatian news agency Hina on 25 June. Meanwhile, Bosnian government
military sources have said for the record that the siege of Sarajevo is
not, contrary to Bosnian Serb reports, weakening and may be expected to
continue throughout at least the summer; on 25 June international media
reported that on that same day Bosnian government forces captured a
strategic hill just outside Sarajevo that had been occupied by Bosnian
Serb troops. Finally, on 25 June Reuters reported that the Bosnian army
continues to block peacekeepers' movements while it awaits clarification
of the role of 'rapid reaction' reinforcements for the UN mission." The
Bosnian government has expressed concern that the forces' presence may
effectively hamper offensives against the Bosnian Serbs. -- Stan
Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[04] NINE KILLED IN SARAJEVO.
Reuters reported on 25 June that a shell
exploded near a playground in the war-torn city, killing three adults
and three children and bringing the death toll from shelling and sniping
for that day to nine. At least thirty others were wounded, police
sources reported. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[05] SCANDAL OF MILITARY ATTACK ON ILIESCU CONTINUES . . .
The leader of the
extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, told a
press conference on 23 June that his formation continued to support
President Ion Iliescu, Radio Bucharest reported the same day. Tudor said
his party's weekly had published the letter of the 300 active and
reserve officers implying the president was guilty of high treason (see
OMRI Daily Digest, 21 June 1995) in the name of "freedom of the press."
The daily Evenimentul zilei reported on 24 June that Iliescu said he
believed the Prosecutor General's office was manned by "professionals"
who know how to "go about their business," in what seems to be a threat
to sue Tudor. Meanwhile, three opposition parties, the Liberal Party
'93, the Democratic Party-National Salvation Front and the Social
Democratic Party, called on the Supreme Council of National Defense to
investigate the affair and take action if the letter proves to have been
forged. The daily Romania libera on 26 June quotes the chairman of the
Senate's Defense Committee, Alexandru Radu Timofte, as saying that the
letter had been written by just one person and the 300 signatories "do
not exist."-- Michael Shafir, OMRI, Inc.
[06] . . . AS DOES SCANDAL ON ALLEGED ILIESCU KGB LINKS.
The daily Ziua
reported on 23 June that two agents of the Romanian Intelligence Service
(RIS) have been identified while taking videotapes of the journalist who
first revealed the alleged past links of President Ion Iliescu with the
KGB. The journalist, Tana Ardeleanu, was filmed while meeting a reporter
for the independent news agency Mediafax. An official of the RIS
admitted that the two had taken the shots, but claimed that the
operation had nothing to do with the allegations against Iliescu. The
two agents, he said, were on a mission to "catch two spies" but had
erred and also "acted unprofessionally." Ziua on 26 June said it was
suing the two agents and the RIS. The Association of Romanian
Journalists said in a press release carried by Radio Bucharest on 25
June that it was "astonished" by the RIS deed, which was branded as "an
illegal action of a political police, directed against the independent
press," and said the explanations of the RIS were "puerile." -- Michael
Shafir, OMRI, Inc.
[07] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT REPLACES STATE MEDIA BOSSES.
The National Assembly
on 23 June elected new directors of national television and radio and of
the state-run news agency BTA, RFE reported the same day. Ivan Granitski
replaced Hacho Boyadzhiev as head of Bulgarian National Television,
Vecheslav Tunev took over Bulgarian National Radio from Ivan Obretenov,
and Milen Valkov became new head of BTA. He replaced Stefan Gospodinov,
who died last week. Most opposition deputies voted against the
candidates, who had been nominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party
(BSP). The BSP majority rejected opposition proposals to have the three
candidates come to parliament and explain their future plans, to have
the outgoing directors explain to the assembly the reason for their
removal, and to broadcast the debate live. Opposition speakers called
the replacement a move to put state media under effective BSP control.
-- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[08] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF ALLOWING MANIPULATION OF SECRET FILES.
Skender Gjinushi, leader of the Social Democratic Party, accused
President Sali Berisha before the Constitutional Court on 23 June of
encouraging manipulation of former secret police files, international
n
ews agencies reported the same day. He also asked the court to ban
Rilindja Demokratike, the newspaper of Berisha's Democratic Party. The
paper had accused Gjinushi, who was education minister in the last
communist government, of having worked for the secret police Sigurimi
under the code name Agap. This information can only come from Sigurimi
files, but officially they have not been opened do far because there is
no law on their disclosure. Gjinushi in return accused the newspaper of
manipulating Sigurimi files, adding that "the President knows about
this" and that Berisha is using these files "to threaten his opponents."
The court did not announce its ruling on the case, but a ban of Rilindja
Demokratike is unlikely. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[09] NEWEST U.S. SPY PLANE TO FLY FROM ALBANIA.
The Pentagon is sending its
newest unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to Albania where it will fly
missions over Bosnia in support of NATO and U.N. forces, U.S. media
announced on 23 June. The aircraft, called the "Predator", is a new-
generation aerial reconnaissance system still in the experimental stage.
It can stay airborne for up to 40 hours, and its sensors can see through
clouds. In early 1994, the CIA for several months flew some older
reconnaissance drones out of the airport at Gjader, in northern Albania.
-- Doug Clarke, OMRI, Inc.
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a Prague-based nonprofit organization.
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