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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 219, 9 November 1995
CONTENTS
[1] DOES STATE DEPARTMENT HOLD THE SERBIAN "SMOKING GUN"?
[2] MONTENEGRIN PRIME MINISTER OFFERS LOGISTICAL SUPPORT TO NATO.
[3] KOSOVO UPDATE.
[4] SATIRICAL WEEKLY LAUNCHED IN SERBIA.
[5] PRO-MONARCHY DEMONSTRATION IN BUCHAREST.
[6] MOLDOVAN PRIME MINISTER ON TREATY WITH ROMANIA.
[7] CHISINAU, TIRASPOL FAIL TO AGREE ON SUMMIT.
[8] WAR OF WORDS CONTINUES BETWEEN BULGARIAN PRESIDENT, SOCIALIST PARTY.
[9] ALBANIAN INTERIOR MINISTER PRESENTS LISTS OF BORDER VICTIMS.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 219, Part II, 9 November 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] DOES STATE DEPARTMENT HOLD THE SERBIAN "SMOKING GUN"?
The BBC on 9November reported on the ongoing public controversy between Justice
Richard Goldstone of The Hague war crimes tribunal and the U.S. State
Department. Goldstone earlier this week suggested that Washington was
wary of providing or unwilling to provide his court with the information
it needs to prosecute war criminals. U.S. officials said in reply only
that there had been "glitches" in making highly secret materials
available. A BBC analyst suggested that while nobody denies that
Washington is the court's strongest supporter, the State Department
might be withholding information that could prove counterproductive to
American policy. One such possibility might be evidence clearly linking
war crimes to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, whom Washington
regards as central to its current "peace process." In another
development, Western agencies quoted a State Department spokesman as
saying that all parties to the conflict will be expected to help the
tribunal and that Washington regards justice as important as peace. --
Patrick Moore
[2] MONTENEGRIN PRIME MINISTER OFFERS LOGISTICAL SUPPORT TO NATO.
Milo
Djukanovic, returning the visit by American congressmen who were in
Montenegro earlier this year, said he wants to back the Dayton talks by
offering logistical support for NATO troops at the port of Bar, Nasa
Borba reported on 8 November. Bar could be used to ship weapons,
equipment, and men to Bosnia, he suggested. While Washington
acknowledged this proposal as a confirmation of the "recognizable
foreign policy of Montenegro," a spokesman of the Serbian Radical Party
in Montenegro said it was part of a plan for the secession of Montenegro
from rump Yugoslavia, Montena-fax reported the same day. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[3] KOSOVO UPDATE.
Kosova Daily Report on 8 November said that Serbian
police raided 106 Albanian homes in Pec over the last nine months. At
least 88 ethnic Albanians were beaten up and another 61 maltreated,
while a total of 149 people were detained. During the same period, 17
Albanian party and trade unions activists were sentenced to long prison
terms in the western Kosovar town. The report also says that "Serbian
police have been continuously hunting down draft-age Albanians," adding
that "dozens were delivered to military inductions, while two of them
were forcefully drafted." Elsewhere, police reportedly cracked down on
ethnic Albanian schools in Vucitrn near Mitrovica and maltreated school
staff. Raids are also reported from around Pristine. Meanwhile, Kosovar
shadow-state Prime Minister Bujar Bukoshi urged the U.S. to maintain
sanctions against rump Yugoslavia until a solution to the conflict has
been reached, Reuters reported on 8 November. -- Fabian Schmidt
[4] SATIRICAL WEEKLY LAUNCHED IN SERBIA.
Nasa Borba on 9 November reported
that a satirical weekly--the first of its kind in the rump Yugoslavia--
has been launched. Smrklost is to be published in Kragujevac and is
staffed by local journalists and cartoonists. The independent daily
called the new publication the "first Serbian Feral," referring to
Croatia's Feral Tribune, which is widely known for satirizing key
political and social developments in Croatia. -- Stan Markotich
[5] PRO-MONARCHY DEMONSTRATION IN BUCHAREST.
Some 3,000 Romanians on 8
November gathered in Bucharest to mark the 50th anniversary of a
brutally suppressed anti-communist rally, international agencies and
Radio Bucharest reported. The demonstrators, waving flags with the
insignia of the Romanian monarchy and portraits of exiled King Michael,
shouted "Down with Iliescu." King Michael addressed the crowd live via a
local radio station. "Even though Romania is not under Soviet occupation
anymore, the struggle that we started in 1945 against communism has not
finished," he said. Emil Constantinescu, leader of the Democratic
Convention opposition bloc, and Ion Diaconescu, deputy chairman of the
National Peasant Party-Christian Democratic (PNTCD), also addressed the
crowd. The protest meeting was organized by the PNTCD's student
organization. -- Matyas Szabo
[6] MOLDOVAN PRIME MINISTER ON TREATY WITH ROMANIA.
Andrei Sangheli, in an
interview with Nezavisimaya gazeta carried by BASA-press and cited by
Radio Bucharest on 8 November, said Romania's insistence that the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is mentioned in the pending treaty with Chisinau
is aimed at demonstrating that Moldova is an "artificial state." He
stressed that this was not the case, since the Moldovan state was "set
up over 500 years ago, long before the Romanian state was set up last
century." Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mircea Geona on 8 November
responded by saying Sangheli's interview reflected conflicts within the
Moldovan leadership in which Romania does not wish to become involved.
Radio Bucharest reported that Geona reiterated the Romanian position
that Bucharest is striving for a relationship of a "special character"
with Chisinau. He noted that this must be also reflected in the treaty
between the two countries. -- Michael Shafir
[7] CHISINAU, TIRASPOL FAIL TO AGREE ON SUMMIT.
Teams of experts meeting in
Chisinau last week have failed to reach agreement on the next Moldovan-
Transdniestrian summit, Infotag reported on 8 November. A
Transdniestrian official told the agency that the sides disagree over
the summit's agenda, with Chisinau insisting on discussing a draft law
on autonomy for the breakaway region and Tiraspol wanting to discuss
relations between two independent republics. The last summit meeting was
held on 13 September. -- Michael Shafir
[8] WAR OF WORDS CONTINUES BETWEEN BULGARIAN PRESIDENT, SOCIALIST PARTY.
Z
helyu Zhelev. addressing EU diplomats on 8 November, accused the
Socialist-dominated parliament of poor performance due to division
within the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Standart reported on 9 November.
Meanwhile, BSP deputies are threatening to ask the Constitutional Court
to rule on Zhelev's support for Stefan Sofiyanski, the Union of
Democratic Forces' candidate for mayor of Sofia. The second round of
local elections in the capital, a run-off between Sofyianski and BSP
candidate Ventsislav Yosifov, is to take place over the weekend.
According to the BSP, the president is constitutionally prohibited from
taking sides in elections. -- Michael Wyzan
[9] ALBANIAN INTERIOR MINISTER PRESENTS LISTS OF BORDER VICTIMS.
Agron
Musaraj on 8 November presented the Parliamentary Commission on Defense,
Public Order, and the Secret Service with the first lists of Albanians
killed at the border between 1990 and 1992 and the chief border guards
responsible for the killings. The head of the commission, Azem Hajdari,
said the first indictments against border guards could be made when the
commission received the complete documentation, ATSH reported the same
day. After May 1990, the penal code ceased to specify leaving the
country as "high treason" and to justify the killing of illegal
emigrants. Hajdari estimates the number of victims to be more than 100.
Investigations have already begun against former President Ramiz Alia
and Interior Minister Hekuran Isai. -- 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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