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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 206, 23 October 1995
CONTENTS
[1] DID MILOSEVIC SECRET SERVICE CAPTURE THE FRENCH PILOTS?
[2] NORTHWESTERN BOSNIAN DEVELOPMENTS.
[3] BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS OPENING OF GORAZDE ROUTE.
[4] IZETBEGOVIC DEMANDS WITHDRAWAL OF CROATIAN TROOPS.
[5] BOSNIAN SERBS THREATEN, TORTURE PRISONERS.
[6] BOSNIAN SERBS DISCUSS PEACEKEEPING.
[7] PROTEST AGAINST BOSNIAN CROATS' VOTING IN CROATIAN ELECTIONS.
[8] ISLAMIC GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RIJEKA BOMB ATTACK.
[9] POLICE ATTACK STUDENTS IN BUCHAREST.
[10] GREATER ROMANIA PARTY RENOUNCES OFFICIAL POSITIONS.
[11] RUSSIAN ARMY IN MOLDOVA FIRES CONTROVERSIAL COLONEL.
[12] PRESIDENTS OF FOUR BALKAN COUNTRIES PLEDGE COOPERATION.
[13] GREECE, MACEDONIA TO SET UP LIAISON OFFICES.
[14] MUSLIM CLERGYMEN CONFER IN ANKARA.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 206, Part II, 23 October 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] DID MILOSEVIC SECRET SERVICE CAPTURE THE FRENCH PILOTS?
French DefenseMinister Charles Millon on 22 October said that Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic had given Paris "a certain number of assurances,"
that the two French Pilots, shot down over Bosnia on 30 August, are
alive, AFP reported on 21 an 22 October. Millon, however, did not
confirm or deny a report in the London Sunday Times that the pilots were
in the hands of Milosevic's secret police. Millon said: "we don't know
who is holding them," but pointed out that no negotiations were taking
place with Milosevic. The Sunday Times on 22 October had cited security
service staff in Belgrade, the paper reported the two pilots were in or
somewhere near Belgrade. -- Fabian Schmidt
[2] NORTHWESTERN BOSNIAN DEVELOPMENTS.
The UN said fighting in northwest
Bosnia has died to "negligible" levels and that UN staff have been given
freedom of movement through all areas except Bosanska Otoka, AFP
reported on 21 and 22 October. Commanders of the government army and the
Bosnian Serbs had met on the front-line near Sanski Most on 20 October
and agreed to make their nominal truce real. On 22 October, however, a
Serb military communique claimed that the Bosnian army fired on Serb
positions in Doboj and the Mount Ozren region the same day. UN military
observers reported hearing just one detonation near the town of Sanski
Most on 21 October and some gunfire. -- Fabian Schmidt
[3] BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS OPENING OF GORAZDE ROUTE.
The Bosnian
government is considering delaying peace talks, scheduled for the U.S.
on 31 October, because Bosnian Serbs continue to block traffic on the
road to the eastern enclave Gorazde, AFP reported on 22 October. The
road so far is only open to UN convoys, but even those are reported to
have been stopped at four checkpoints. The Bosnian government demands
the opening of the route for civil traffic as a precondition for peace
talks. Elsewhere, the ultra-nationalist leader of the "Tigers," and
accused war criminal Zeljko Raznatovic "Arkan," said on 21 October that
he planned to leave northwestern Bosnia and re-deploy his men in eastern
Slavonia. The withdrawal of the "Tigers" was demanded by the U.S. State
Department. -- Fabian Schmidt
[4] IZETBEGOVIC DEMANDS WITHDRAWAL OF CROATIAN TROOPS.
AFP reported on 21
October that Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic has said that Croatian
forces fighting Serbs in Western Bosnia shall have to withdraw thirty
days following the signing of a peace treaty. "Serbia and Croatia must
be asked to formally state that they have no territorial aspirations in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and that they will not stimulate separatist aims,"
Izetbegovic added. -- Stan Markotich
[5] BOSNIAN SERBS THREATEN, TORTURE PRISONERS.
On 21 October Bosnian Serb
forces and the Bosnian government exchanged about 20 prisoners, the
first such exchange since the 12 October ceasefire went into effect.
Among those released by the Serb side were two Turkish journalists,
taken prisoner about two weeks ago. Commenting on conditions of
incarceration, one of the freed observed "They told me I would be hanged
with a silk rope," Reuters reported on 22 October. Sarajevo Serb poet
and novelist Vladimir Srebrov, who spent three years in detention, was
also among the released. An advocate of peace and a multicultural
Bosnia, Srebrov reported on being tortured during his incarceration, and
having suffered three broken ribs and a broken jaw. -- Stan Markotich
[6] BOSNIAN SERBS DISCUSS PEACEKEEPING.
SRNA reported on 22 October that on
that same day Bosnian Serb deputies met in Bijeljina, where the main
topic of discussion seemed to be ironing out a common position on
upcoming peace talks, slated to start in the U.S. on 31 October.
According to the Bosnian Serb agency, delegates agreed that a
multinational peace force would be acceptable, provided only that it
came from "friendly" countries, which includes Ukraine and Russia. --
Stan Markotich
[7] PROTEST AGAINST BOSNIAN CROATS' VOTING IN CROATIAN ELECTIONS.
International agencies reported on 23 October that the Bosnian
government protests Bosnian Croats participation in the upcoming
Croatian elections, with the exception of Croatian nationals living or
working in Bosnia. Since 12 of 127 seats in the Croatian parliament will
be reserved for members of the Croatian diaspora, and five Bosnian
Croats are running as candidates of the leading Croatian Democratic
Community (HDZ), there is a possibility that Bosnian Croats will be
elected to the parliament in Croatia. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[8] ISLAMIC GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RIJEKA BOMB ATTACK.
The car bomb
explosion in front of the county police station in Rijeka on 20 October,
resulting in one dead, two seriously wounded and 27 slightly injured,
was set by Al-Jama' ah al-Islamiyah (The Islamic Group), Egypt's largest
militant Muslim group, RAI Television reported on 21 October. The
Islamic Group released a statement saying that this terrorist act was
intended to force the Croatian authorities to release the group's
spokesman, who was detained by Croatian police in September. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[9] POLICE ATTACK STUDENTS IN BUCHAREST.
Special riot police units used
batons and tear gas on 20 October to disperse a crowd of several
thousand students marching towards President Ion Iliescu's residence,
Western agencies reported. One student was wounded in the action.
Several political formations, including the opposition Party of Civic
Alliance, condemned the show of force against peaceful demonstrators.
After a meeting on 21 October, student leaders and representatives of
seven parliamentary parties issued a joint statement supporting the
students' demands. Cristian Urse, chairman of the Bucharest University
Students' League, summed up those demands with the words "decent living
conditions for students." Radio Bucharest quoted him as requesting that
the head of the Bucharest Police Inspectorate be dismissed because of
the police action. -- Dan Ionescu
[10] GREATER ROMANIA PARTY RENOUNCES OFFICIAL POSITIONS.
The chairman of the
extremist Greater Romania Party (PRM), Corneliu Vadim Tudor, resigned
from the Senate's defense commission on 20 October, Romanian media
reported. His decision came one day after the ruling Party of Social
Democracy in Romania (PDSR) severed all political ties with the PRM.
Three PRM state secretaries and one prefect also resigned. Tudor said
the main reasons for the parties' disagreement was the PRM demand to
outlaw the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania, and his party's
dissatisfaction with certain provisions of the future basic treaties
with Hungary and Ukraine. Tudor added that his resignation was also
meant as a protest against alleged attempts by the authorities "to bury
Dumitru Iliescu's case." Iliescu, who heads the Protection and Guard
Service, had been accused by Tudor of corruption and nepotism. -- Matyas
Szabo
[11] RUSSIAN ARMY IN MOLDOVA FIRES CONTROVERSIAL COLONEL.
Col. Mikhail
Bergman, commander of the Tiraspol garrison of the Operational Group of
Russian Forces in Moldova's Dniester region (former 14th Russian Army),
was dismissed on short notice on 20 October, the agency BASA-press and
radio station Ekho Moskvy reported. Bergman received a verbal order to
leave his post within three days. He was later told that the order had
been issued by Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. According to
Bergman, the way his dismissal was conducted showed that "we live in a
lawless society." Colonel Bergman was a close associate of Lt. Gen.
Aleksandr Lebed, the former commander of the 14th Army. Both used to be
very critical of the leadership of the self-styled Dniester republic. --
Dan Ionescu
[12] PRESIDENTS OF FOUR BALKAN COUNTRIES PLEDGE COOPERATION.
The presidents
of Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey, Sali Berisha, Zhelyu Zhelev, and
Suleyman Demirel, respectively, and the acting Macedonian President and
Speaker of the Macedonian parliament, Stojan Andov, met on 22 October in
New York on the sidelines of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary
of the UN, international agencies reported the following day. They
pledged to work for peace in the Balkans and press ahead with new
infrastructure programs, including roads, power and telecommunication
links. A document they signed stresses the importance of such projects
linking the Balkans and Western Europe. -- Stefan Krause
[13] GREECE, MACEDONIA TO SET UP LIAISON OFFICES.
Greece and Macedonia on 20
October signed an agreement opening liaison offices in each other's
capitals, Reuters reported the same day. The opening of such offices is
one of the provisions of the interim accord signed in New York on 13
September. Athens and Skopje have yet to resolve their conflict over
Macedonia's name, which will be the subject of talks scheduled to start
in New York at the end of October. Until an agreement is reached, the
Macedonian liaison office in Athens will have a sign outside giving the
republic's name as "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," and as
"Macedonia" on the sign inside the door. -- Stefan Krause
[14] MUSLIM CLERGYMEN CONFER IN ANKARA.
A three-day gathering of official
Muslim clergymen from Central Asia, the Transcaucasus, the Russian
Federation, and the Balkans opened in Ankara on 23 October, the Turkish
Daily News reported the same day. The meeting was organized by Turkey's
Religious Affairs Directorate and was opened by its chairman, Mehmet
Nuri Yilmaz. Yilmaz noted at a press conference that 1,443 foreign
students received religious training in Turkey from 1991 to 1995. It is
expected that numerous Turkish aid and construction projects from the
Balkans to Central Asia will be evaluated during the conference. --
Lowell Bezanis
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
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