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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 207, 24 October 1995
CONTENTS
[1] CROATIA TALKS WITH REBEL SERBS.
[2] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER SHOWS SOLIDARITY WITH ARKAN.
[3] BOSNIAN SERBS APPOINT KASAGIC AS NEW PREMIER.
[4] LEADING MUSLIM PARTY ANNOUNCES NEW NEGOTIATING POSITIONS . . .
[5] . . . AND SO DO BOSNIAN SERBS.
[6] ROMANIAN STUDENTS' PROTEST UPDATE.
[7] MORE DEMONSTRATIONS IN CHISINAU.
[8] WORLD BANK TO OPEN CREDIT LINE TO MOLDOVA.
[9] GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ON NAME TO START SOON.
[10] EAST-WEST HIGHWAY TO BE BUILT IN THE BALKANS.
[11] SHOOTOUT IN KOSOVO.
[12] ALBANIAN WW II PARTISAN DIES IN PRISON.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 207, Part II, 24 October 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] CROATIA TALKS WITH REBEL SERBS.
Croatian and rebel Serb negotiators
emerged from talks in Osijek on 23 October agreeing that "significant"
steps had been taken in averting conflict and accepting reincorporation
of the occupied territories of eastern Slavonia under Croatian
authority, international media reported the same day. Croatian
negotiator Hrvoje Sarinic, echoing sentiments expressed by UN envoy and
talks co-chairman Thorvald Stoltenberg, said that "the principle of a
peaceful reintegration was accepted [by the Serb side], though some
matters must still be discussed." A draft agreement calling for the
peaceful reintegration of occupied eastern Slavonia into Croatia was
presented at the meeting, and talks are slated to resume on 25 October.
-- Stan Markotich
[2] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER SHOWS SOLIDARITY WITH ARKAN.
Bosnian Serb civilian
leader Radovan Karadzic on 23 October inspected troops led by Serbian
accused war criminal Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan. Arkan and the
roughly 300 men under his command have said they would travel to
Croatia's eastern Slavonia but that their original departure date of 22
October had to be delayed for "technical reasons." Following the
inspection ceremony in Bijeljina, Karadzic, who is also an accused war
criminal, remarked that Arkan's paramilitary "Tigers" will always be
"welcome" on Bosnian Serb territory, AFP reported on 23 October. -- Stan
Markotich
[3] BOSNIAN SERBS APPOINT KASAGIC AS NEW PREMIER.
The self-styled Bosnian
Serb parliament has named Rajko Kasagic, mayor of Banja Luka, the new
premier and has asked him to form a government, SRNA reported on 23
October. Premier Dusan Kozic resigned on 15 October in the wake of
legislators' demands that civilian and military leaders responsible for
Bosnian Serb battlefield losses be held accountable and purged. (See
OMRI Daily Digest, no. 201, 16 October 1995.) -- Stan Markotich
[4] LEADING MUSLIM PARTY ANNOUNCES NEW NEGOTIATING POSITIONS . . .
The Party
of Democratic Action (SDA), the leading Bosnian Muslim Party, accepted
new negotiating positions for the upcoming Ohio talks on Bosnia-
Herzegovina at a session held on 20 October in Fojnica, near Sarajevo,
BBC reported on 22 October. Bosnian President and SDA Chairman Alija
Izetbegovic underscored the poor functioning of the Muslim-Croat
Federation and proposed that the issue of Sandzak (a part of rump
Yugoslavia with an ethnic-Muslim majority) should be included in the
peace process. Nikola Koljevic, the deputy president of the Republic of
Srpska, said the new platform is "a time bomb for the peace
negotiations," Nasa Borba reported on 23 October. The SDA also proposed
partial demobilization of soldiers to provide a work force to revive the
economy. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[5] . . . AND SO DO BOSNIAN SERBS.
The Bosnian Serb platform for
negotiation, discussed in Bijeljina on 23 October, calls for a Union of
Bosnia-Herzegovina which "can only be a federation of states," BBC
reported the next day. The Republic of Srpska's delegation deputy
speaker, reporting on the 19 October meeting with Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic, claimed his full support of Bosnian Serb requests in
the peace negotiations scheduled for 31 October in Ohio. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[6] ROMANIAN STUDENTS' PROTEST UPDATE.
Students in Bucharest on 23 October
continued a series of street protests started last Tuesday, Radio
Bucharest reported. More than 10,000 people blocked traffic in the
capital, shouting anti-government slogans and demanding the dismissal of
Education Minister Liviu Maior. The demonstrators marched to parliament
headquarters and presented proposals for amending the education law. The
Chamber of Deputies agreed in principle that the amendments be discussed
in its commissions for education and law. Students in Cluj and Suceava
staged rallies in support of their Bucharest peers that drew 15,000 and
1,000 participants, respectively. -- Dan Ionescu
[7] MORE DEMONSTRATIONS IN CHISINAU.
Thousands of students on 23 October
resumed their protest in Chisinau after a two-day break, BASA-press and
Infotag reported. Demonstrating against an article in the constitution
that names "Moldovan" the country's official language, the students
blocked traffic on the city's main avenue for one hour and picketed the
mayor's office. At a meeting of the strike committee the same day,
Anatol Petrencu, the committee's leader and a university professor,
suggested suspending the strike until parliament discusses President
Mircea Snegur's initiative to amend the constitution. But student leader
Oleg Cernei said that the protests should continue, since no precise
date for debates on amending the article has been set. -- Dan Ionescu
[8] WORLD BANK TO OPEN CREDIT LINE TO MOLDOVA.
The World Bank's permanent
representative in Chisinau, James Parks, said the bank will open a
credit line to Moldova at the beginning of next year, ITAR-TASS reported
on 23 October. Parks said the project will support small- and mid-sized
enterprises in Moldova. The total cost of the project is estimated at
$49 million, of which $35 million will be granted by the World Bank,
$6.5 million by the Moldovan government, and the rest by European
countries and the EU. The credit will be granted until July 2000. --
Matyas Szabo
[9] GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ON NAME TO START SOON.
Greek government spokesman
Tilemachos Hytiris announced on 23 October that Greek and Macedonian
diplomats will hold separate talks with UN mediator Cyrus Vance to set a
timetable for negotiations on Macedonia's name, AFP reported the same
day. Greek Ambassador to the UN Christos Zacharakis will meet Vance on
24 October, and Greek-Macedonian talks are expected to start in late
October or early November. Greece objects to the name Macedonia, which
it says implies a claim on its northern province of that name.
Meanwhile, international media report that Australia on 23 October
established official diplomatic relations with Macedonia. -- Stefan
Krause
[10] EAST-WEST HIGHWAY TO BE BUILT IN THE BALKANS.
The presidents of Albania,
Bulgaria, and Turkey, Sali Berisha, Zhelyu Zhelev, and Suleyman Demirel,
respectively, and the acting Macedonian president and parliament
speaker, Stojan Andov, agreed on 23 October to build a trans-Balkan
highway, Bulgarian daily 24 chasa reported the next day. The road, which
will cost an estimated $1 billion, will link the Albanian port of Durres
with the Turkish city of Istanbul, via Skopje and Sofia. AFP cited a
Turkish presidential statement that construction is scheduled to take
four years. -- Stefan Krause
[11] SHOOTOUT IN KOSOVO.
Unidentified gunmen ambushed a police car and
seriously injured three Serbian policemen in Batlava, in the Kosovo
region of Serbia, on 23 October, international media reported the same
day. Following the attack, police started intensive raids on private
homes and arrested a number of ethnic Albanians. Eight Albanians were
detained; three were later released. -- Fabian Schmidt
[12] ALBANIAN WW II PARTISAN DIES IN PRISON.
Shefqet Peci, an 89-year-old
former commander of the WW II Fifth Partisan Brigade died in the prison
hospital of Tirana on 22 October, Republika reported on 24 October. Peci
was arrested on 11 October and accused of ordering the execution without
trial of 21 villagers from Buzemadhi in 1944. Peci is the first person
to be accused under the Law on Genocide from 20 September 1995 (see OMRI
Daily Digest 12 October). During the communist period, Peci was
transport minister and deputy chairman of parliament. Family members
said Peci was completely deaf, had broken bones due to old age and was
almost unconscious when he was arrested. He had started a hunger strike
the day after the arrest. -- Fabian Schmidt
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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