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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 237, 7 December 1995
CONTENTS
[1] CHIRAC WARNS MILOSEVIC OVER FATE OF PILOTS.
[2] BOSNIAN SERBS DENY KARADZIC'S IMMINENT DISMISSAL.
[3] GERMAN PARLIAMENT VOTES TO PARTICIPATE IN NATO BOSNIAN FORCE.
[4] SLOVENIA ENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[5] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES FORM "DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE."
[6] ROMANIAN-GERMAN RELATIONS THREATENED BY ROMANIAN CRIMINALS IN GERMANY.
[7] JEWISH BLOOD LIBEL REVIVED BY BABY SMUGGLING SCANDAL IN ROMANIA.
[8] BULGARIAN STATE RADIO BOSS SACKS DEPUTY.
[9] BULGARIAN HEALTH MINISTER SAYS SHE WILL NOT RESIGN.
[10] ARTICLE 19 EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER LUSTRATION LAW.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 237, Part II, 7 December 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] CHIRAC WARNS MILOSEVIC OVER FATE OF PILOTS.
At a time when Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic seems eager to make domestic and
international political capital out of his new-found role as a man of
peace, French President Jacques Chirac reminded him in a telephone call
on 6 December of his obligations stemming from the Dayton treaty. That
document, plus an earlier agreement between Belgrade in Pale, makes
Milosevic responsible for the conduct of the Bosnian Serbs. Chirac
warned Milosevic that if the two pilots shot down in August "were not
released in the coming days, France would be forced to draw all the
appropriate conclusions," the International Herald Tribune and Nasa
Borba reported on 7 December. The Bosnian Serbs originally said they
were holding the two men and providing medical treatment, but later
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic claimed they had been "kidnapped"
by unknown abductors. -- Patrick Moore
[2] BOSNIAN SERBS DENY KARADZIC'S IMMINENT DISMISSAL.
After several days of
speculation that Milosevic was about to remove Karadzic from power (see
OMRI Daily Digest, 6 December 1995), Karadzic's colleagues have formally
denied the rumors. Pale's SRNA news agency said that the leadership "is
absolutely united on all the essential matters" and that the report,
first carried by the independent Beta agency, "is just another attempt
to cancel out the results of four years' struggle by the Serb people for
their basic right to liberty in their own country and in their own
state. This manner of proceeding has no chance of succeeding, because
the people and the army are backing [their] leaders, despite attempts to
sow dissension among them." -- Patrick Moore
[3] GERMAN PARLIAMENT VOTES TO PARTICIPATE IN NATO BOSNIAN FORCE.
By a
surprising vote of 543 to 107, the German parliament on 6 December voted
to send 4,000 troops to participate in the NATO force in the former
Yugoslavia, Western agencies reported. Even half of the deputies
belonging to the leftist Green party voted for the resolution, signaling
a considerable turnaround in German policy toward the region. As
recently as June, the Bundestag agreed by a vote of 386 to 258 to send
Tornados to support UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. Meanwhile, NATO officials
are expressing concern that the deployment of the civilian
administration provided for by the Dayton peace accord is not keeping
pace with that of its military counterpart. -- Michael Mihalka
[4] SLOVENIA ENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
STA reported on 6
December that Slovenia has become the first former Yugoslav republic to
lift sanctions regime against the rump Yugoslavia. The announcement
followed in the wake of a parliamentary vote held the previous day.
Despite the decision to lift sanctions, Ljubljana is to continue to
insist that all assets from the former Yugoslavia remain frozen until
their distribution can be negotiated. According to Ljubljana, its share
of assets includes at least $2 billion worth of property that remains in
the rump Yugoslavia. -- Stan Markotich
[5] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES FORM "DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE."
BETA on 6December reported that Milorad Jovanovic of the Democratic Party of
Serbia announced that his party has reached an agreement with the
Democratic Party, the Serbian Liberal Party, and the Parliamentary
People's Party to forge a coalition--the Democratic Alliance--in the
near future. While the objective is to coordinate efforts in upcoming
electoral contests, Jovanovic stressed that each party will "retain its
full autonomy." Jovanovic also remarked, presumably only on behalf of
his own party, that the presence of NATO troops in Bosnia amounts to "a
[foreign] invasion." Meanwhile, Nasa Borba on 7 December reported that
Milos Minic, former minister of foreign affairs, is appealing for the
release of General Vlada Trifunovic and several of his co-defendants.
Trifunovic and other officers are currently serving sentences for
undermining national security. In 1991, the Varazdin corps, which at the
time were under their command, fled from advancing Croatian troops. --
Stan Markotich
[6] ROMANIAN-GERMAN RELATIONS THREATENED BY ROMANIAN CRIMINALS IN GERMANY.
Romanian Interior Minister Doru Ioan Taracila on 6 December began an
official visit to Germany to discuss cooperation between the two
countries' Interior Ministries in combating crimes committed by
Romanians on German territory, Radio Bucharest reported. German police
sources quoted by the Romanian press suspect that the criminals, who are
reported to be well trained, have links to the Bucharest authorities.
Die Welt quoted a high-ranking German government official as saying the
Romanian authorities' unwillingness to cooperate may affect relations
between the two countries, which he described as "tense." -- Matyas
Szabo
[7] JEWISH BLOOD LIBEL REVIVED BY BABY SMUGGLING SCANDAL IN ROMANIA.
Romanian police on 6 December announced they had detained an Israeli
citizen and three Romanians in Iasi on suspicion of smuggling babies
across the border into Moldova and to Israel, Reuters reported the same
day. A spokesman for the police identified the Israeli citizen as Mahmud
Asadi, a Palestinian who converted to Judaism and claims to have been a
personal secretary to assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Resurrecting a centuries-old anti-Semitic blood libel, the Bucharest
weekly Baricada had written in mid-November that there was no chance of
ever seeing the smuggled children alive because "as is well known,
Jewish matza [unleavened bread] demands kosher, young Christian blood."
But "as long as the Jewish Mafia" involved in "collecting kosher blood"
is protected by the Mossad, it is "unlikely" that proof of the horrible
deed can be produced, the weekly said. -- Michael Shafir
[8] BULGARIAN STATE RADIO BOSS SACKS DEPUTY.
Director-General of Bulgarian
National Radio Vecheslav Tunev on 4 December dismissed his deputy, Rayna
Konstantinova, saying it was "in the interest of the [radio's] work,"
Demokratsiya reported on 7 December. Tunev reportedly accused
Konstantinova of involvement in the protest staged by 53 BNR journalists
who accuse the radio's management of censorship. Konstantinova claims
not to have met with them, and her claim is supported by the dissenting
journalists. In an interview with 24 chasa, Tunev said the dismissal has
"neither political nor professional reasons." Konstantinova in an
interview with the same paper stressed that she did not have anything to
do with the program on which the journalists worked, since she was
responsible for BNR's foreign language service. -- Stefan Krause
[9] BULGARIAN HEALTH MINISTER SAYS SHE WILL NOT RESIGN.
Mimi Vitkova,
responding to demands by medical organizations and trade unions that she
resign, said on 6 December that there is no need for her to do so since
"the reform of the health care [system] is not blocked--on the contrary
it is starting to take effect," 24 chasa reported the following day.
Vitkova is accused of hindering reforms in the health care sector,
putting obstacles in the way of physicians running private practices,
and preventing the creation of an effective health insurance system.
Vitkova announced that a new salary scale will be introduced in 1996,
leading to a significant hike in doctors' incomes. The average salary
among physicians is currently 9,000 leva ($128). -- Stefan Krause
[10] ARTICLE 19 EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER LUSTRATION LAW.
The International
Center Against Censorship (also known as Article 19) sent a letter to
Albanian President Sali Berisha on 4 December expressing concern about
Albania's screening law, adopted on 30 November (see OMRI Daily Digest,
1 December 1995). Article 19 criticizes the fact that the commission
reviewing communist-era secret service files will be composed of seven
people nominated by the premier, the justice, defense and interior
ministers, the parliament, and the head of the secret service. The group
argues that the commission will not be independent and could veto the
right of citizens to participate in elections. It also says that since
journalists are included in the categories of people to be examined by
the commission, freedom of expression is endangered in Albania. --
Fabian Schmidt
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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