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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 240, 12 December 1995
CONTENTS
[1] BOSNIAN SERBS CARTING OFF FACTORIES FROM SARAJEVO TO SERBIA.
[2] GOLDSTONE REFUSES TO GRANT KARADZIC A REPRIEVE.
[3] ARE THE CROATS HIDING SOMETHING IN MRKONJIC GRAD?
[4] CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON DAYTON ACCORD.
[5] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA, BULGARIA TO RESUME TRADE RELATIONS.
[6] KOSOVAR SHADOW STATE TO OPEN OFFICE IN WASHINGTON.
[7] ROMANIAN COALITION MEMBER TO LEAVE ALLIANCE?
[8] ROMANIA, GERMANY TO COOPERATE IN COMBATING INTERNATIONAL CRIME.
[9] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT TO RUN AGAIN.
[10] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES TRANSDNIESTER'S LEGAL STATUS.
[11] CHANGES IN BULGARIAN CABINET IMMINENT?
[12] BULGARIA SAYS MACEDONIA STIRS UP ANTI-BULGARIAN FEELINGS.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 240, Part II, 12 December 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] BOSNIAN SERBS CARTING OFF FACTORIES FROM SARAJEVO TO SERBIA.
The Pale
authorities on 12 December are to hold a referendum on the Dayton
agreement among the Serbs of Sarajevo under their control. U.S. and
other officials have called the treaty a done deal and refuse to
recognize the ballot. RFE/RL said on 11 December that some Bosnian Serbs
have already begun fleeing the suburbs slated to pass to government
rule. The broadcast added that the Pale authorities are allowing the
people to leave for Serbia but strictly controlling how much of their
property they can take along. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the
next day wrote that the Bosnian Serb authorities have begun carrying off
industrial units and other equipment to Serbia. The International Herald
Tribune reported on a multiethnic demonstration in government-held parts
of Sarajevo to urge the suburban Serbs to stay. -- Patrick Moore
[2] GOLDSTONE REFUSES TO GRANT KARADZIC A REPRIEVE.
AFP on 11 December
reported that Justice Richard Goldstone of the Hague-based International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia immediately turned down a
Russian request to "suspend legal action" against the top indicted
Bosnian Serb war criminals. The Russians apparently wanted a reprieve
for Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic to enable at least
Karadzic to attend the Paris meeting on 14 December. The Pale
authorities called over the weekend for Karadzic to represent them in
Paris, but Karadzic's presence would be odd--to say the least--because
the treaty to be signed there bans war criminals from public office.
Meanwhile in Zadar, a Croatian military court sentenced 16 Krajina Serbs
to prison terms for war crimes. The only accused who was actually
present was given ten years. -- Patrick Moore
[3] ARE THE CROATS HIDING SOMETHING IN MRKONJIC GRAD?
Bosnian Croat forcesblocked the movement of five British armored personnel carriers in
central Bosnia on 10 December, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
reported two days later. They had previously pledged to allow the
British to pass. Croatian police also escorted journalists out of the
city, which was taken by Croatian forces in the wake of Operation Storm
but which goes back to the Serbs under the terms of the Dayton
agreement. The UN and others have charged the Croats with conducting a
"scorched earth" policy in the area. In this latest incident, reporters
counted four burning houses before they were forced to leave. -- Patrick
Moore
[4] CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON DAYTON ACCORD.
Mate Granic told a joint
session of the parliament on 11 December that with the signing of the
Dayton agreement, the biggest achievement for Croatia was the
affirmation of its territorial integrity, Novi List reported the next
day. Granic explained that if Croatia had refused to sign, sanctions
would have been imposed because of its military presence in Bosnia-
Herzegovina. He also revealed that Croatian troops had been within two
or three days of taking the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Banja Luka but
had held back because of international concern over a new flood of
refugees. In other news, Granic's first aide said that at the London
conference, the Croatian delegation had forced a debate on eastern
Slavonia, although the agenda did not include it. The delegates had
insisted that no solution for Bosnia could be found without a settlement
in eastern Slavonia, the BBC reported on 12 December. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[5] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA, BULGARIA TO RESUME TRADE RELATIONS.
The Bulgarian daily
Duma on 12 December reported that a visit to Belgrade by a Bulgarian
trade delegation, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister
Kiril Tsochev, will result in the restoration of "normal trade" between
the two Balkan states. During his visit, Tsochev signed a protocol with
Belgrade authorities on restoring trade and economic relations. Tsochev
and his team met with Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister and Finance
Minister Jovan Zebic. Zebic greeted his guests by thanking Bulgaria for
its "objective approach" to relations with Belgrade during the wars
throughout the former Yugoslavia. -- Stan Markotich
[6] KOSOVAR SHADOW STATE TO OPEN OFFICE IN WASHINGTON.
The Kosovar shadow
state government announced it will open an information office in
Washington, Reuters reported on 11 December. The State Department
welcomed the decision but said it would not constitute a diplomatic
mission. The Kosovar shadow state so far has offices in Bonn, Brussels,
Geneva, London, and Tirana. Meanwhile the UN human rights committee
approved a resolution, to be voted on by the General Assembly next week,
condemning human rights violations in Kosovo. -- Fabian Schmidt
[7] ROMANIAN COALITION MEMBER TO LEAVE ALLIANCE?
Chairman of the SocialistLabor Party (PSM) Ilie Verdet has said that the protocol signed in
January with the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) was "null
and void" because it "never functioned." Radio Bucharest and Libertatea
quote him as saying that the PSM "never participated in the government"
since it only backed the PDSR politically. He added that the PSM might
back a no-confidence motion in the government, regardless of what side
of the political spectrum the motion comes from. Since the alliance
between the PSDR and the Greater Romania Party (PRM) disintegrated, the
PSM has said several times that its alliance with the main coalition
partner has ceased to function. But Adrian Nastase, executive chairman
of the PSDR, said this did not stop the PSM from continuing to demand
positions for its members in local government. -- Michael Shafir
[8] ROMANIA, GERMANY TO COOPERATE IN COMBATING INTERNATIONAL CRIME.
Romanian
Minister of Interior Doru Ioan Taracila and his German counterpart,
Manfred Kanther, have signed a cooperation agreement on combating
organized international crime, Romanian media reported on 9 December.
The document, initialized in Bonn during Taracila's visit to Germany,
provides for cooperation between the two police forces in capturing
Romanian criminals in Germany, who have been making the headlines in the
German press over the last few weeks (see OMRI Daily Digest, 7 December
1995). -- Matyas Szabo
[9] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT TO RUN AGAIN.
Mircea Snegur told an 8 December press
conference marking the fourth anniversary of his election that he will
run for another term if the Party of Revival and Conciliation of Moldova
asks him to, BASA-press and Infotag reported. But he added that it was
"premature" to announce his candidacy now. Snegur expressed
dissatisfaction with economic cooperation within the CIS, adding that
Moldova will never abide by CIS political-military agreements. On the
pace of reform, Snegur said that the country was "lagging behind the
opportunities offered by history." In an allusion to the government of
Andrei Sangheli, he said that unlike those who opt for "discrediting
opponents" instead of "giving an honest account of their performance,"
he had "nothing to hide." -- Michael Shafir
[10] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES TRANSDNIESTER'S LEGAL STATUS.
The Moldovan
parliament has discussed the draft on the legal status of the
Transdniester region, Infotag and BASA-press reported on 8 December. The
draft envisages guaranteeing divisions of political power between
Chisinau and Tiraspol as well as preserving the ethnic, cultural,
linguistic, and religious traditions of the Transdniester population.
Tiraspol, however, recently proposed that the Transdniester and Moldova
build their relations as two independent states, each with its own
constitution. It also envisages establishing collaboration "on a
contractual basis" between the two states' armed forces, interior
ministries, and banks and other financial establishments. -- Michael
Shafir
[11] CHANGES IN BULGARIAN CABINET IMMINENT?
Following a meeting of theExecutive Bureau of the governing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the
major Bulgarian dailies on 12 December are speculating about possible
changes in the government lineup. According to those reports, Justice
Minister Mladen Chervenyakov and Interior Minister Lyubomir Nachev may
be replaced after the next plenary meeting of the BSP Supreme Council,
scheduled for January 1996. Standart reports that there is widespread
dissatisfaction within the party with the way the judicial system in
functioning. Kontinent and 24 chasa cite leading party officials as
saying that both Chervenyakov and Nachev are not doing enough to fight
growing crime. -- Stefan Krause
[12] BULGARIA SAYS MACEDONIA STIRS UP ANTI-BULGARIAN FEELINGS.
Bulgarian
Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Hristov on 8 December accused the
Macedonian authorities of using the 3 October attempt on the life of
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov as a pretext to stir up anti-
Bulgarian feelings in Macedonia. Reuters cited Hristov as saying that
"impermissible forms of pressure" were being exerted on "people who
consider themselves to be Bulgarian." He added that some people were
detained for days without charges being brought against them. Macedonian
police on 9 December continued their raids of Skopje suburbs in
connection with the assassination attempt, Vecher reported on 11
December. -- Stefan Krause
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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