OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 141, 21 July 1995
CONTENTS
[01] THOUSANDS STILL MISSING FROM SREBRENICA.
[02] ZEPA DOES NOT WANT SREBRENICA'S FATE.
[03] PRESSURE GROWS FOR ACTION IN BOSNIA.
[04] DISPLAY OF AIR POWER "NOT SEEN SINCE THE GULF WAR."
[05] SERBS MAKE GAINS AROUND BIHAC.
[06] SERBIAN RADICALS PRAISE BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.
[07] MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR NATIONAL EQUALITY IN KOSOVO . . .
[08] . . . WHILE KOSOVAR INFORMATION MINISTRY DENOUNCES HIS STATEMENTS.
[09] PARIS CLUB GIVES MACEDONIA MORE TIME TO PAY DEBTS
[10] MACEDONIA, TURKEY SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT.
[11] ALBANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SURVIVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 141, Part II, 21 July 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] THOUSANDS STILL MISSING FROM SREBRENICA.
Mlada fronta dnes on 21 July
reported that thousands of people who fled Srebrenica, especially
military-aged men, remain unaccounted for. The VOA on 20 July said that
refugees who have reached Tuzla tell "shocking stories" of rapes,
beatings, robberies, and killings. Some people were arbitrarily taken
off the buses and not seen again. One massacre reportedly took place
when Serbs dressed in UN uniforms and driving UN vehicles tricked
refugees into coming out of the woods where they had been hiding and
mowed them down. The stories told in Tuzla are apparently fairly
consistent but cannot be independently confirmed because the Serbs will
not let UN monitors into areas under their control. The Security Council
on 20 July passed a resolution that, among other things, reminded the
Serbs that individuals will be held accountable for the war crimes they
commit. The Belgrade weekly NIN on 21 July called Srebrenica "a ghost
town." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[02] ZEPA DOES NOT WANT SREBRENICA'S FATE.
International media on 21 July
reported that the Bosnian Serb forces are in effective control of Zepa
but that local Bosnian army forces refuse to surrender and face what
appears to be certain death. The Serbs insist on classifying all Muslim
males between 18 and 55 as prisoners of war, and the men fear they will
be killed or, at best, sent to a concentration camp. When talks broke
down late in the afternoon of 20 July, the Serbs shelled the town. The
government troops responded by firing mortars at both the Serbs and the
79 Ukrainian peacekeepers, whom they blame for doing nothing to protect
the UN-designated "safe area." The Serbs meanwhile have brought up buses
to prepare for what the VOA called "the ethnic cleansing" of Zepa and
its 17,000 Muslims. BETA on 20 July reported that the U.S. has written
to the Bosnian Serbs asking them to allow international humanitarian
organizations access to Zepa. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[03] PRESSURE GROWS FOR ACTION IN BOSNIA.
Bosnian Prime Minister Haris
Silajdzic told CNN on 20 July that "there is a time for words and a time
for action. . . . The time comes when babies are cut in half, young
girls raped and grown up people [are] numb with terror --that is a time
for men to act. This is the time to act in Bosnia or leave Bosnia
alone." The International Herald Tribune quoted U.S. Speaker of the
House Newt Gingrich as saying that "the notion of a small band of
barbarians directly taking on the civilized democracies and winning is a
threat to the survival of the security system and we should respond to
it with whatever level of coercion is ultimately required." The EU
administrator of Mostar, Hans Koschnick, told AFP that "the hypocrisy of
the current international policy in Bosnia is no longer bearable." The
New York Times on 21 July, however, said that President Bill Clinton
"deserves credit for avoiding American combat fatalities." -- Patrick
Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[04] DISPLAY OF AIR POWER "NOT SEEN SINCE THE GULF WAR."
This is how the VOAon 21 July described the White House's plan outlined the same day at the
London meeting of the Contact Group countries plus Italy, Ukraine, the
Netherlands, Canada, and Spain. International media suggested that the
Serbs will be warned against attacking Gorazde, Sarajevo, or Tuzla or
taking peacekeepers hostage. If they do not heed the warnings, their
capital at Pale, command centers, missile sites, radar installations,
fuel dumps, or other targets may be attacked. Britain is especially
concerned for the fate of 300 of its peacekeepers at Gorazde and has
reportedly endorsed the American plan. France wants U.S. helicopters to
ferry 1,000 French troops into Gorazde, and reports are contradictory as
to whether Washington has brought Paris around to its point of view.
Elsewhere, Serbian media on 21 July reported that Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic has offered to swap some territory held by his men
around Sarajevo in return for Gorazde. His men shelled downtown Sarajevo
that same day. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[05] SERBS MAKE GAINS AROUND BIHAC.
Krajina Serb forces aided by local Muslim
renegades have taken much territory in the west of the Bihac pocket, the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on 21 July. Hina the previous
day quoted Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic as saying that Zagreb
will take steps to protect the enclave, the fall of which would greatly
improve land links between Krajina and the Bosnian Serbs. Bihac will
doubtless be on the agenda when Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and
his Bosnian counterpart, Alija Izetbegovic, meet in Split on 22 July. --
Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[06] SERBIAN RADICALS PRAISE BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.
The Serbian Radical Party
(SRS), led by accused war criminal Vojislav Seselj, has sent
congratulations to the Bosnian Serb forces, BETA reported on 20 July.
SRS deputy leader Maja Gojkovic told a 20 July press conference that the
Bosnian Serb assault on the Zepa enclave constitutes its "liberation"
and the destruction of a base that had been used for "terrorist action"
by the Bosnian Muslim forces. Gojkovic warned the international
community against becoming embroiled in the war in Bosnia, predicting
that the Bosnian Serb forces will continue their advances and turn their
attention to the "liberation" of Gorazde. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[07] MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR NATIONAL EQUALITY IN KOSOVO . . .
Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic, visiting Kosovo for the first time since 1992,
called for "a policy of national equality" in which "every citizen will
be equal," Reuters and BETA reported on 20 July. At a rally in Kosovska
Mitrovica, he called on ethnic Albanians to sideline their political
leaders and embrace the Serbian administration. Milosevic also visited
the metallurgic works in Trepca where he expressed his "deep
satisfaction" about the return to work of 1,200 ethnic Albanians who had
boycotted the facility since the abolition of autonomy in 1989. Hinting
at charges of atrocities allegedly committed by Albanians in the 1980s,
he said: "We must get away from such cruelties and never return to them,
no matter whoever they be against, Serbs, Albanians, Turks or Muslims."
-- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
[08] . . . WHILE KOSOVAR INFORMATION MINISTRY DENOUNCES HIS STATEMENTS.
The
Ministry of Information of the self-declared Republic of Kosovo
responded sharply to Milosevic's statement that Kosovo will become "a
region of mutual understanding, cooperation and coexistence." It
declared that his name "stands for the introduction of a system of
violence and apartheid, for the killing of Albanians [and] their
imprisonment, the occupation of Kosovo, the [dismissal] of hundreds of
thousands of Albanians from their jobs, large-scale campaigns of raids
and tortures, the staging of dozens of political trials, ethnic
cleansing, and the colonization of Kosovo with Serbs." The ministry
concluded that all Milosevic's visits to Kosovo have aimed at mobilizing
the Serbian minority against the Albanians, Kosova Communication
reported on 20 July. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
[09] PARIS CLUB GIVES MACEDONIA MORE TIME TO PAY DEBTS.
The Paris Club of
government creditors has agreed to reschedule Macedonia's official
debts, Reuters reported on 19 July. Macedonian Finance Minister Jane
Miljovski said the creditors called the accord "satisfying." The deal
will give Skopje up to 15 years to pay the bulk of its nearly $300
million debt. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
[10] MACEDONIA, TURKEY SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT.
Macedonia and
Turkey on 20 July signed an agreement on military cooperation providing
for the exchange and training of military experts and joint military
exercises, international agencies reported the same day. The document
was signed during a visit to Skopje by Turkish army Chief of Staff Gen.
Ismail Hakki Karadayi, who met with his Macedonian counterpart, Gen.
Dragoljub Bocinov, and Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov. Karadayi
stressed that the accord "is not directed against the security of a
third country." It is the third and broadest document that the two
countries have signed on military cooperation. Karadayi's visit came
just one week after Turkish President Suleyman Demirel traveled to
Macedonia to sign a 20-year friendship treaty. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI,
Inc.
[11] ALBANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SURVIVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE.
Safet Zhulali has
survived a no-confidence vote brought against him by the opposition
Socialist Party, Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 21 July. The Socialists
claimed that during the campaign for the referendum on a new
constitution, Zhulali violated the principle of political independence
in the army by rallying for President Sali Berisha's constitution
proposal. Zhulali survived a previous no-confidence vote brought by the
Socialists, who charged him with being involved in arms trade with the
Bosnian Serbs. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
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