OMRI Daily Digets II, No. 171, 1 September 1995
CONTENTS
[01] OPERATION DELIBERATE FORCE SWINGS INTO THIRD DAY.
[02] CLINTON BLASTS SERBIAN "SAVAGERY."
[03] KARADZIC CALLS RAIDS UNNECESSARY . . .
[04] . . . WHILE MLADIC URGES RESISTANCE.
[05] HOLBROOKE PRAISES BELGRADE-PALE AGREEMENT . . .
[06] ...WHILE NEGOTIATIONS MAY END IN DEADLOCK.
[07] ROMANIAN REACTION TO NATO AIR STRIKES AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBS.
[08] ELECTRICITY HIKES IN BULGARIA.
[09] ALBANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN GREECE.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 171, Part II, 1 September 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] OPERATION DELIBERATE FORCE SWINGS INTO THIRD DAY.
International media on
1 September reported that the UN and NATO attacks on Bosnian Serb
positions are continuing. Planes have completed more than 500 sorties,
and artillery on Mt. Igman blasted Serbian guns and other targets. Bad
weather caused a temporary let-up in operations the previous day. A NATO
spokeswoman in Naples told reporters that the operation is nonetheless
taking place in stages and that "things are going on" even if this is
not readily apparent. The Serbs claimed that their "capital" in the ski
resort of Pale was being hit as well, and reporters there said a loud
boom caused windows to rattle. UN spokesmen said press reports that UN
commander General Bernard Janvier would meet with the Serbs' General
Ratko Mladic were "premature." -- Patrick Moore
[02] CLINTON BLASTS SERBIAN "SAVAGERY."
U.S. President Bill Clinton toldreporters in Hawaii that Operation Deliberate Force is "the right
response to savagery." He said that the Serbs have "everything to lose
and nothing to gain" by continuing the war and that "NATO is delivering
that message loud and clear." International media on 1 September also
noted that NATO spokesmen stressed that the attacks will continue until
the Serbs end their stranglehold on Sarajevo, Tuzla, and Gorazde. NATO
efforts continue to be popular in Sarajevo, where one policeman told
Reuters that the alliance should "bomb them and bomb them some more
until these Chetnik [Serbian] bastards beg for the mercy they never
showed anybody in this war." -- Patrick Moore
[03] KARADZIC CALLS RAIDS UNNECESSARY . . .
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic said that military action against his side is unwarranted
because the Serbs have signed on to the peace process. AFP on 1
September reported that he wrote UN special envoy Yasushi Akashi that
the attacks' purpose is "to weaken our power and our negotiating
position." Karadzic added that further raids "would accelerate
preparations for a long conflict that the international community would
not be able to win." The internationally wanted war criminal concluded
that "if NATO continues its attacks, that means it wants to put an end
to the peace process." -- Patrick Moore
[04] . . . WHILE MLADIC URGES RESISTANCE.
General Mladic took a different
tone from that of his civilian rival, Nasa Borba reported on 1
September. He called on both the army and the general population to
resist the attacks. Novi list said that the Serbs fired rockets at the
besieged town of Gradacac and other areas of northern Bosnia. The Serbs
claimed to have captured the two French pilots shot down on 30 August,
but it appears that the men are at large and hiding on Bosnian Serb
territory. The BBC said that they had sent radio signals to that effect.
Meanwhile, the five EU monitors that the Serbs originally reported as
dead were taken to Visegrad, once a mainly Muslim town on the Drina that
was the site of some of the first massacres and "ethnic cleansing" in
1992. After some hesitation, the Serbs released them to go to Zagreb,
Reuters reported. In Pale, there was great anger over the air attacks
among Bosnian Serb military personnel and civilians, while some "spoke
about taking revenge on any foreigners they could get their hands on."
-- Patrick Moore
[05] HOLBROOKE PRAISES BELGRADE-PALE AGREEMENT . . .
U.S. special envoy
Richard Holbrooke, before leaving Belgrade for Zagreb on 31 August, said
that "serious substantive negotiations" could begin after Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic and the Bosnian Serbs formed a joint
negotiating team, Reuters reported on 31 August. Holbrooke is quoted as
saying: "We consider President Milosevic's announcement that he can now
negotiate for the Bosnian Serbs something of a procedural breakthrough."
Milosevic announced that the Bosnian Serbs will give him a veto over the
terms of a peace deal. -- Fabian Schmidt
[06] ...WHILE NEGOTIATIONS MAY END IN DEADLOCK.
Milosevic, however, is
reported to have guaranteed the Bosnian Serbs that he will achieve
certain "minimums," such as the division of Sarajevo, the widening of
the Brcko corridor, and the delineation of a "compact territory" that
would include the handing over of Gorazde to the Serbs. The Bosnian
government and Croats would doubtless reject such proposals. Meanwhile,
German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel met with Bosnian Prime Minister
Haris Silajdzic in Bonn and encouraged him not to accept any solution
violating the territorial integrity of Bosnia. French President Jacques
Chirac also insisted Bosnia should retain its integrity as a state,
adding that "any other solution would be an insult to our values and to
the future." -- Fabian Schmidt
[07] ROMANIAN REACTION TO NATO AIR STRIKES AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBS.
Presidential spokesman Traian Chebeleu told a press conference on 31
August that the NATO air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs were a
"natural consequence" of the determination to "take all necessary
measures for implementing the Security Council decisions about the
protection of civilians," Radio Bucharest reported the same day.
Chebeleu added that political decision-makers should not, however,
become "entangled in the logic of force, which can by no means lead to a
solution." Foreign Ministry spokesman Mircea Geoana the previous day
called the shelling of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs a "criminal act."
-- Michael Shafir
[08] ELECTRICITY HIKES IN BULGARIA.
Electricity for private households
increased by 25% and for industry by 38% on 1 September, Kontinent
reported the same day. Prices for central heating, warm water, and coal
remain the same for households and have increased by 20% for industry.
Pensioners will receive monthly compensation of 140 leva ($2.10), far
less than originally announced by the government (see OMRI Daily Digest,
11 August 1995). Compensation for the hikes is estimated to cost the
state about 600 million leva ($8.84 million) per month. -- Stefan Krause
[09] ALBANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN GREECE.
Alfred Serreqi arrived in Athens on
31 August for a two-day official visit aimed at improving Albanian Greek
ties, Reuters reported the same day. He met with his Greek counterpart,
Karolos Papoulias, before official talks began. Greek Foreign Ministry
officials said the talks will focus on the status of Albania's ethnic
Greek community and the estimated 300,000 Albanians living and working
illegally in Greece. Greece has linked the question of legalizing an
unspecified number of Albanian seasonal workers to establishing more
Greek minority schools in Albania. Athens also wants the return of
property seized by the former communist regime from the Albanian
Orthodox Church and the lifting of visa requirements for Greek citizens
traveling to Albania. Serreqi rejected the establishment of independent
Greek schools in Albania and walked out of a meeting on 1 September,
Greek officials were quoted as saying. -- Stefan Krause
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to [email protected]
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