OMRI Daily Digest I,II, No. 150, 3 August 1995
CONTENTS
[01] RUSSIA CRITICIZES U.S. HOUSE VOTE ON ARMS EMBARGO.
[02] CROATIA HAS 100,000 MEN MOBILIZED.
[03] MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KRAJINA QUESTION SEEMS IMMINENT.
[04] WILL THE CROATS HAVE THE WEST'S SILENT BLESSING?
[05] UN ABANDONS ZEPA.
[06] MILOSEVIC SHARPLY CRITICIZED BY OPPOSITION FOR "PEACE APPEAL."
[07] KOSOVAR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC LEADER ON AUTONOMY.
[08] U.S. OFFICIAL IN MACEDONIA.
[09] ROMANIA DENIES BREAKING RUMP YUGOSLAV EMBARGO.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 150, Part I, 3 August 1995
RUSSIA
[01] RUSSIA CRITICIZES U.S. HOUSE VOTE ON ARMS EMBARGO.
Aleksandr Zotov,
President Yeltsin's special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, urged U.S.
President Bill Clinton to veto a bill, now passed by both houses of
Congress, which calls for the U.S. to ignore the UN arms embargo in
Bosnia. If the embargo ended, Zotov said, "the whole methodology of
dealing with this conflict would collapse." Zotov also told journalists
that Moscow would play an important role in any political solution of
the conflict in Bosnia, since "when it comes to producing influence on
the ground, the road is usually through Moscow." Izvestiya argued on 3
August that recent Bosnian Serb actions demonstrated Moscow's complete
inability to influence the situation. -- Scott Parrish, OMRI, Inc.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 150, Part II, 3 August 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[02] CROATIA HAS 100,000 MEN MOBILIZED.
International media on 3 August
reported that the UN estimates that the Croatian military has completed
its mobilization. The 100,000 men must be sent into action soon or will
have to be demobilized for economic reasons. The Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung said troops are massing about 70 km south of Zagreb. The Krajina
Serbs' army is about half the size of the Croats', but they have much
heavy weaponry left behind by the Serb-dominated former Yugoslav army.
Five Serbian tanks have been brought up around Strmica, but the mood in
Knin is that Krajina's collapse is imminent. Slobodna Dalmacija wrote
that Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal General Ratko
Mladic has met with his top generals. Krajina and Bosnian Serb civilian
leaders have appealed to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for
immediate military support, but their main supply corridor via Brcko
could be hit by Croatian artillery at Orasje. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI,
Inc.
[03] MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KRAJINA QUESTION SEEMS IMMINENT.
Nasa Borba on
3 August reported that the Croats shelled Drvar, while the Serbs hit
Gospic and Otocac with rockets. Krajina Serbs fired on two UN
helicopters flying over their territory, but one of their own planes
returned to base after being warned by NATO that it was violating the
"no-fly" zone. Croatia and Krajina are sending middle-level delegations
to Geneva for talks with UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg, but the BBC
quoted a UN spokesman as saying that his expectations for the meeting
were "realistic." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[04] WILL THE CROATS HAVE THE WEST'S SILENT BLESSING?
Western media have beenspeculating that the U.S. and some of its allies would not mind if the
Croats marched into Krajina and removed that issue from the
international agenda. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung added that U.S.
Ambassador Peter Galbraith's appeal on 2 August against an outbreak of
hostilities was probably just a formality and does not reflect a change
in the new Western attitudes toward Krajina. The New York Times on 1
August wrote that the feeling in many Western capitals is that the
Krajina Serbs deserve whatever they get following their invasion of the
Bihac pocket. Nasa Borba reported on 3 August, however, that special UN
envoy Yasushi Akashi called Milosevic's latest appeal for peace there "a
very positive initiative. " -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.
[05] UN ABANDONS ZEPA.
Some 70 French peacekeepers are leaving the second of
the two UN-designated "safe areas" the Serbs overran in July. Thousands
of Muslim civilians and military-aged men remain unaccounted for. The
atrocities commited by the Serbs in Srebrenica and Zepa fueled a growing
international perception that the Serbs are the aggressors and must be
stopped. This led to overwhelming votes in the U.S. Congress to lift the
arms embargo against the Bosnian government, but the VOA said on 3
August that supporters of the plan may not, after all, be able to
override President Bill Clinton's expected veto. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI,
Inc.
[06] MILOSEVIC SHARPLY CRITICIZED BY OPPOSITION FOR "PEACE APPEAL".
BETA on
2 August reported that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has been
roundly attacked by several opposition parties for his letter to Bosnian
President Alija Izetbegovic and Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko
Mladic appealing for peace. The ultranantionalist Serbian Radical Party
said the letter to "the war criminal Izetbegovic . . . comes at the time
of the greatest Muslim offensive against the Serbian people and
territory." It added that "Milosevic, instead of helping our brothers
and his compatriots . . . is surrendering Serbian forces." -- Stan
Markotich, OMRI, Inc.
[07] KOSOVAR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC LEADER ON AUTONOMY.
Mark Krasniqi, leader
of the Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo, said he rules out autonomy
for Kosovo under Belgrade's terms. BETA on 2 August said that the
province's Albanians are ready for a dialogue with Serbia but that
"Serbia does not want it." He called on the international community to
use political means to prevent a war in the region. According to
Krasniqi, the preconditions for talks with the Serbian government are
international mediation and an end to police repression in Kosovo. He
added that only the "legitimate representatives of the Albanian people"-
-namely, shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova--can take part in the
talks and that the only acceptable result is the establishment of a
Republic of Kosovo. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.
[08] U.S. OFFICIAL IN MACEDONIA.
Sarah Sewall, deputy assistant secretary of
defense with responsibility for peacekeeping and peace enforcement,
visited Macedonia on 1 August, international agencies reported. She met
with Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Handziski and visited U.S.
soldiers serving as part of UNPREDEP. A joint statement issued after the
talks with Handziski warned that "due to escalation of fighting in
Bosnia, there is a danger of the conflict spreading to the southern
Balkans." -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.
[09] ROMANIA DENIES BREAKING RUMP YUGOSLAV EMBARGO.
A spokesman for Romania's
Foreign Ministry on 2 August denied that Romanian authorities were
allowing passenger jets flying to Belgrade to load more fuel than needed
in breach of the UN embargo against Serbia and Montenegro. The statement
came in response to a recent article in The New York Times saying that
planes belonging to the Yugoslav airline JAT were overtanked in the
western Romanian town of Timisoara. The spokesman, speaking on Radio
Bucharest, said that international security measures require airplanes
to carry some extra fuel in the event that an emergency forces them
change their landing destination. Romania, he added, has always complied
with the UN embargo against the rump Yugoslavia. -- Dan Ionescu, OMRI,
Inc.
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