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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 225, 17 November 1995
CONTENTS
[1] U.S., GOLDSTONE AGREE THAT WAR CRIMINALS MUST FACE JUSTICE.
[2] CROATIA DUCKS ON WAR CRIMINALS.
[3] BOSNIAN CROAT LEADER DISSATISFIED WITH DAYTON TALKS.
[4] BOSNIA, CROATIA AGREE TO LINK CURRENCIES.
[5] KOSOVAR HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP WANTS MILOSEVIC INDICTED.
[6] MONTENEGRIN PREMIER'S U.S. VISIT. BET
[7] ITALIAN DELEGATION IN SKOPJE PROMISES LOAN.
[8] ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN MINORITY RESUMES PROTESTS.
[9] ROMANIAN CHIEF OF STAFF AT NATO HEADQUARTERS.
[10] MOLDOVA WILL NOT APPLY TO JOIN NATO.
[11] BULGARIA TO GET RUSSIAN SPARE PARTS FOR DEBT.
[12] ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIES FRIENDSHIP TREATY WITH ITALY.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 225, Part II, 17 November 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] U.S., GOLDSTONE AGREE THAT WAR CRIMINALS MUST FACE JUSTICE.
Richard
Goldstone, chief justice of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, said
there cannot be real peace in the Balkans as long as war criminals go
unpunished, the BBC reported on 16 November. The Independent also quoted
him as saying that diplomats have no right to offer war criminals deals
as part of a peace settlement. The State Department stressed that there
can be no peace without justice and said that it expects Bosnia,
Croatia, and Serbia to cooperate with the tribunal, international media
noted. To date, Belgrade has been unwilling to hand over Karadzic,
Mladic, or any other of the 45 indicted Serbs. No Muslims have yet been
indicted. -- Patrick Moore
[2] CROATIA DUCKS ON WAR CRIMINALS.
The Guardian on 16 November reported
that Croatian Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa has indicated he has no
intention of handing over the six Bosnian Croats indicted on 13
November. Reuters quoted him as saying the charges have not been
substantiated and that Croatia must "abide by procedure." The
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 17 November quoted Croatian spokesmen
as calling General Tihomir Blaskic's transfer back to Zagreb a rotation
rather than a promotion, as it has widely been viewed. Globus asked
Matesa why another of the six, Dario Kordic, recently got a medal for
promoting Croatia's reputation abroad. The newly appointed premier
replied: "It is not my job to give views on why Dario Kordic received
that medal. He was most probably given this medal by the president
himself." Elsewhere, Novi list wrote on 17 November that the Bosnian
army has been guilty of "genocide" against the Bosnian Croats. Slobodna
Dalmacija said that Blaskic is a professional who could not have
committed war crimes. -- Patrick Moore
[3] BOSNIAN CROAT LEADER DISSATISFIED WITH DAYTON TALKS.
Kresimir Zubak, in
a letter sent to U.S. negotiator Richard Holbrooke on 15 November, said
he cannot sign the proposed peace agreement because it does not
sufficiently take Bosnian Croat interests into account, the BBC reported
on 17 November, quoting Radio Herceg-Bosna. Zubak added that he had
expected to be more actively involved in drawing up the text, especially
with regard to the maps but that he had been informed via intermediaries
only. Meanwhile, a UN spokesman in Sarajevo complained that despite a
recent agreement, Bosnian government and Bosnian Croat forces are
denying the UN free movement, Nasa Borba reported on 17 November. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[4] BOSNIA, CROATIA AGREE TO LINK CURRENCIES.
Bosnia's Muslim-Croatian
Federation and the Croatian government agreed on 16 November to link the
Bosnian dinar and the Croatian kuna, German media reported on 16
November. The link will be based on the Deutsche mark and will go into
effect on 20 January 1996. The agreement was worked out with the
assistance of officials from the IMF and World Bank. -- Michael Wyzan
[5] KOSOVAR HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP WANTS MILOSEVIC INDICTED.
Kosovo's Council
for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms has said it will hand over
documents to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia that could lead to an indictment of Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic. International agencies on 16 November reported that
the council has charged Milosevic, former Serbian police chief Zoran
Sokolovic, and other police officials with responsibility for crimes
against humanity and genocide, including the killing of about 150
Albanians since 1989. It also points to some 300,000 cases of harassment
and torture. According to Kosova Daily Report, the council said that in
October 188 persons were arbitrarily arrested or detained and 123
Albanian households raided. It also reported cases of plundering,
torture, and forcible induction into the army during that period. --
Fabian Schmidt
[6] MONTENEGRIN PREMIER'S U.S. VISIT.
BETA on 16 November reported that
developments surrounding the official recent visit to the U.S. by a
Montenegrin delegation, led in part by Premier Milo Djukanovic, may be
unnerving some officials in Belgrade. Djukanovic, who was in the U.S.
from 5-13 November, met with top U.S. administration staff for
discussions over NATO's possible use of the port of Bar. Tanjug on 15
November reported that Djukanovic discussed using Bar as a transit point
for personnel and equipment that may be involved in enforcing a peace
for Bosnia. The premier was quoted as stressing that "this was not a
matter of...installing NATO forces in Montenegro but of transportation."
BETA reported, however, that Djukanovic held the talks "without
consulting Belgrade." -- Stan Markotich
[7] ITALIAN DELEGATION IN SKOPJE PROMISES LOAN.
Italian government
officials, during a visit to Macedonia on 16 November, offered the
country a credit worth 24 billion lire (about $15 million), Nova
Makedonija reported the next day. The loan is for support of small and
medium-sized enterprises. Italy, which will take over the rotating EU
presidency in January, promised to use its good offices to help complete
the process of Macedonia's integration into international institutions.
-- Michael Wyzan
[8] ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN MINORITY RESUMES PROTESTS.
The Covasna County branch
of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania has called on
Hungarian pupils, teachers, and parents to resume their protests in
support of mother-tongue tuition at all levels, Adevarul reported on 17
November. The organization proposed hoisting white flags and forming
human chains around the county's Hungarian schools. Adevarul quoted
Romanian President Ion Iliescu in Paris as saying the ethnic Hungarians'
criticism of the education law was "demagogic." -- Matyas Szabo
[9] ROMANIAN CHIEF OF STAFF AT NATO HEADQUARTERS.
A military delegation led
by Romanian Chief of Staff Gen. Dumitru Cioflina has ended its visit to
NATO headquarters in Brussels, Radio Bucharest reported on 16 November.
A NATO spokesman praised Romania's participation in the Partnership for
Peace program and its active role in developing military cooperation
with NATO. Cioflina stressed that joint activities with NATO proved that
Romania was a "serious partner" whose final political goal was full
membership in the alliance. In another development, Romania on 16
November announced that it had met the demands of the 1990 Conventional
Forces in Europe treaty by cutting its armed forces by half, Reuters
reported. -- Matyas Szabo
[10] MOLDOVA WILL NOT APPLY TO JOIN NATO.
President Mircea Snegur on 16
November stressed again that his country does not intend to apply to
join NATO, BASA-press reported. Snegur told senior Moldovan officers at
the Defense Ministry that Moldova's participation in the Partnership for
Peace program does not mean it is planning to join the alliance, as
claimed by leaders of the breakaway Dniester region. Snegur stressed
that the Moldovan Constitution stipulated neutrality and that the
country would therefore not be part of any military alliance. -- Dan
Ionescu
[11] BULGARIA TO GET RUSSIAN SPARE PARTS FOR DEBT.
Russian and Bulgarian
negotiators on 15 November in Moscow signed an agreement whereby Russia
will provide $48 million worth of maintenance and spare parts for
Russian-built Bulgarian warplanes in partial repayment of its $100
million debt to Bulgaria, BTA reported. The agreement was reached during
a meeting of the Bulgarian-Russian Commission on Special Production. The
report said the Russians expressed an interest in setting up joint
ventures for the development, production, and sale of military equipment
to third countries. -- Doug Clarke
[12] ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIES FRIENDSHIP TREATY WITH ITALY.
The Albanian
parliament on 16 November ratified a treaty between Albania and Italy
calling for wider economic cooperation and joint efforts to fight
organized crime, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration,
international agencies reported on 16 November. The treaty also includes
a provision regulating the immigration of Albanian seasonal workers to
Italy. The parliament the same day passed a law on the privatization of
the state-owned Trade Bank, Rilindja Demokratike reported. -- 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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