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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 25, 5 February 1996
CONTENTS
[1] SERBIAN POLICE TO STAY ON IN SARAJEVO UNTIL 19 MARCH. CN
[2] BOSNIAN SHORTS.
[3] WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE MET.
[4] ICRC FINDS 88 SERB PRISONERS IN TUZLA.
[5] IZETBEGOVIC MEETS CHRISTOPHER.
[6] MILOSEVIC, CHRISTOPHER DISCUSS WAR CRIMES, TRIBUNAL.
[7] MILOSEVIC AGREES TO USIA OFFICE IN KOSOVO.
[8] GOLDSTONE SAYS PROMINENT SERB SUSPECTS MAY FACE JUSTICE.
[9] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT.
[10] ROMANIAN EXTREMIST PARTY STICKS TO RULING COALITION.
[11] CIS REJECTS DNIESTER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION.
[12] GREECE, MACEDONIA CUT VISA FEES.
[13] BULGARIA TO INTENSIFY TALKS WITH NATO.
[14] FORMER ALBANIAN PRESIDENT BACK IN JAIL.
[15] ALBANIAN JOURNALIST FREED.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 25, Part II, 5 February 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] SERBIAN POLICE TO STAY ON IN SARAJEVO UNTIL 19 MARCH.
CNN reported on 3
February that the international community's chief representative in
Sarajevo, Carl Bildt, said that the Bosnian Serb police could remain 45
days more in the Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs slated for return to
government control. He said this was necessary to avoid a vacuum in
authority and to reassure the Serbian population. BBC reported the next
day that the Bosnian civilian authorities had tried to thwart Bildt's
moves, but that the Bosnian military had complied. The Serbian police
have, however, announced a 9 pm to 5 am curfew in those suburbs, and it
is not clear how the Bosnian authorities will respond. Oslobodjenje
noted on 5 February that those suburbs will be under government control
alone after 19 March. The paper added that the government meanwhile says
that only IFOR and the international police should be armed there.
Bildt's arrangement calls for the Serbian police to wear sidearms. --
Patrick Moore
[2] BOSNIAN SHORTS.
Some 100 Croatian police will help the force in Mostar
starting 10 February, Oslobodjenje reported on the 5th. The Czech paper
Mlada fronta Dnes said that Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker Momcilo
Krajisnik stated that Pale does not recognize the new Bosnian republican
government announced last week, since Pale was not party to the
arrangement. Nasa Borba noted that Serbian refugees have begun returning
to the Mrkonjic Grad area, which is passing from Bosnian Croat to
Bosnian Serb control in keeping with the Dayton agreements. Most of the
homes there were so badly damaged that the refugees will not be able to
return permanently for some time. Vecernji list reported that a Serbian
radio station in Eastern Slavonia continues to urge Serbian refugees
uprooted in last year's allied offensive to move into Croatian homes
there. Western press reports last week said there are several signs that
the East Slavonian Serbs have no intention of letting the region return
to Croatian control as it is supposed to do. -- Patrick Moore
[3] WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE MET.
The Bosnian factions have withdrawn from
territory adjacent to the zones of separation or set to change hands
under the Dayton peace accords by the 3 February midnight deadline,
international and local media reported. Five Serb-held suburbs of
Sarajevo were being handed over are to the Muslim-Croat federation, as
were areas around the city of Mostar and an access corridor from
federation territory to the eastern enclave of Gorazde. The Serb
republic assumed control of the area around Mrkonjic Grad in northwest
Bosnia. Bosnian Federation Defense Minister Vlado Soljic said on
Croatian TV on 3 February that the Bosnian government and Croat forces
had fully complied with the deadline and that he didn't "think that any
side will run the risk of forcing IFOR to implement this part of the
agreement by force." Meanwhile, Major-General Mike Willcocks, chief of
staff of NATO ground forces in Bosnia, reported in Sarajevo on 3
February that the netural zones around the country had been violated
some 40 times but that all of these had been the result of
"misunderstandings, bad map reading or no map reading." -- Michael
Mihalka
[4] ICRC FINDS 88 SERB PRISONERS IN TUZLA.
The International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) found 88 unregistered Serb prisoners on 2 February
when it was finally allowed access to the Bosnian government run prison
in Tuzla, international media reported. The ICRC gave no details on when
the prisoners might be released. The government had denied the ICRC
access to the prison since September 1995. The ICRC said on 1 February
that the Bosnian Serbs still hold some 20 prisoners in defiance of the
Dayton peace accords which mandated all prisoners be released by 19
January. -- Michael Mihalka
[5] IZETBEGOVIC MEETS CHRISTOPHER.
On 3 January U.S. Secretary of State
Warren Christopher met Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and other
government officials in Sarajevo to discuss civilian problems in
implementing the Bosnia peace accords, Onasa reported the same day.
Izetbegovic said while the military part of the Dayton peace agreement
was being successfully implemented, the civilian part that includes the
reunification of Sarajevo and Mostar and establishment of the federation
was going slower. He expressed his dissatisfaction to Christopher over
High Representative Carl Bildt's consent to Serb police staying in
Sarajevo for another 45 days, and over Serb destruction of factories and
buildings that are to revert to government control. Izetbegovic informed
Christopher there was little political freedom in the Republika Srpska
in regards to media and political activity, which are conditions
affecting elections, and discussed the release of prisoners. On
prospects for the country's reconstruction, Christopher said: "Bosnia
has a chance, it has a future with the U.S. and strong partners from
Europe." -- Daria Sito Sucic
[6] MILOSEVIC, CHRISTOPHER DISCUSS WAR CRIMES, TRIBUNAL.
Nasa Borba on 5
February reports that during his visit to Belgrade the previous day, US
Secretary of State Warren Christopher held extensive talks with Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic on the question of Belgrade's cooperation
with the UN War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Milosevic
said he would allow an international war crimes investigator to
establish an office in Belgrade, but resisted pressure to say that his
authorities would extradite suspected war criminals, notably Bosnian
Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, to face trial in
the Hague. Milosevic described the talks as "frank and open." For his
part, Christopher noted that US relations with rump Yugoslavia were
improving "step by step," but also observed that Washington was not yet
prepared to post an ambassador to Belgrade or to approve financial aid
to the rump Yugoslavia. -- Stan Markotich
[7] MILOSEVIC AGREES TO USIA OFFICE IN KOSOVO.
Following the talks, U.S.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic agreed to the opening of an United States Information
Agency office in Kosovo, international agencies reported on 4 February.
During the talks, Christopher raised the issue of human rights
violations in Kosovo urging Milosevic to "ensure the status for Kosovo
that would ensure respect of political and human rights" for the Kosovar
Albanians. The International Herald Tribune on 5 February quoted
Christopher as saying that rump Yugoslavia "will never achieve full
acceptance into the international community, will never achieve full
approbation by the United States until it reconciles the status of
Kosovo." Albanian President Sali Berisha praised the planed USIA office
and the preconditions Christopher set for the admission of rump-
Yugoslavia into international institutions, Reuters reports on 5
February. -- Fabian Schmidt
[8] GOLDSTONE SAYS PROMINENT SERB SUSPECTS MAY FACE JUSTICE.
Nasa Borba on 5
February reports that in an interview on a BBC program the previous day,
Chief Prosecutor on the UN War Crimes Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, Richard Goldstone, said that the chances of Bosnian Serb
leaders Karadzic and Mladic facing trial in the Hague are increasing.
According to the Nasa Borba, Goldstone appears to be of the opinion that
"Karadzic and Mladic are moving ever closer to the Hague," and said that
chances for their extradition seem greater now than ever before. He did
temper his comments by observing that he did not have a crystal ball,
and could not predict exactly how developments would unfold. -- Stan
Markotich
[9] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT.
The Democratic Party on 3
February nominated its leader, Petre Roman, as a candidate for
presidential elections to be held in the fall of 1996, Romanian and
Western media reported. Speaking to a crowd of some 1,000 supporters,
Roman pledged to put an end to the "misery, indifference and influence
peddling which have become characteristic of the present authorities."
Roman also vowed to be a president "for the future not for the past," as
well as Romania's first social-democratic president. The 49-year-old
Roman, who was the country's first post-communist premier, was forced
out of government by street protests against his economic reforms in
September 1991. -- Dan Ionescu
[10] ROMANIAN EXTREMIST PARTY STICKS TO RULING COALITION.
The National
Council of the chauvinistic Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) on 3
February decided to remain in the governmental coalition, Romanian media
reported. Despite the recent conflict that emerged around the dismissal
of Telecommunications Minister Adrian Turicu, a PUNR member (see OMRI
Daily Digest, 31 January), party Chairman Gheorghe Funar said "we did
not join the governmental coalition in order to quit it." Another PUNR
minister, Valeriu Tabara, said however, that practically all of the
ministers who are members of the PUNR have been suspended, due to
systematic obstruction by the ruling Party of Social Democracy in
Romania (PDSR). Turicu was dismissed on the ground of having appointed
one of his proteges as director of the Romtelecom company. -- Matyas
Szabo
[11] CIS REJECTS DNIESTER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION.
The Executive Secretariat
of the Commonwealth of Independent State in Minsk rejected an
application for membership from the self-proclaimed Dniester republic,
BASA-press and Moldpres reported on 2 and 3 February. In reply to an
application submitted by Dniester President Igor Smirnov on 5 January,
the secretariat stressed that "Moldova, which includes the Dniester
region, is a CIS member since 27 June 1994, when the Moldovan parliament
ratified the CIS statutes." Cooperation within the CIS, the letter
added, is based on respect for the territorial integrity of its member
states and on refraining from any action which may encourage territorial
dismemberment. Over 80% of the participants in a Dniester referendum
held on 24 December voted in favor of the region's adherence to CIS as a
separate entity. -- Dan Ionescu
[12] GREECE, MACEDONIA CUT VISA FEES.
Delegations from Macedonia and Greece
on 2 February in Skopje ended two-day talks on normalizing relations,
AFP reported the same day. They signed an agreement aimed at making
traveling between the two countries easier. Visa fees will be cut by
about 80% and will cost no more that around $5. Both sides said this
agreement will "stimulate the exchange of people and goods [and] speed
up economic cooperation." The Macedonian and Greek governments have
agreed that delegations meet at least twice a year to discuss bilateral
relations. -- Stefan Krause
[13] BULGARIA TO INTENSIFY TALKS WITH NATO.
The Bulgarian government on 2
February decided to intensify its talks with NATO, including on possible
membership in the alliance, Standart reported the following day. An
expert group from the foreign and defense ministries is scheduled to
prepare a document on Bulgaria's position on NATO enlargement by the end
of March. The decision comes after NATO Assistant Secretary-General for
Political Affairs Gebhardt von Moltke on 29 January called for an
"intensified dialogue" and asked Sofia to respond to that offer by the
end of March. So far, the Socialist government has said Bulgaria will
join NATO only if it becomes a system of collective security and takes
Russian objections into account. -- Stefan Krause
[14] FORMER ALBANIAN PRESIDENT BACK IN JAIL.
The last communist president of
Albania, Ramiz Alia, was arrested on 2 February, AFP and Reuters
reported. Alia is charged with political persecution, deportations and
ordering the use of firearms against civilians, including border
killings and ordering police to fire on protesters in 1990-1991. A
Tirana court rejected an appeal by his lawyer Kleanthi Koci to put him
under house arrest. Koci submitted a medical report saying that Alia
suffered from a serious heart problems. However, the court ruled that
Alia was "a danger to society". Alia was first arrested in 1992 and
sentenced to nine years in prison for abuse of power and human rights
violations. He was released in July 1995 following a series of amnesties
and the introduction of a new penal code. Investigations are continuing
into another 31 communist officials arrested and charged with crimes
against humanity. -- Fabian Schmidt
[15] ALBANIAN JOURNALIST FREED.
Altin Hazizaj, a journalist of Koha Jone who
was arrested on 31 January while reporting on the eviction of a squat in
Tirana, was released on 2 February. The release followed several
protests by international human rights groups who claimed that Hazizaj
was obstructed in fulfilling his journalistic duty to report on the
eviction of former political prisoners from an unfinished building they
had occupied. An investigation against Hazizaj for allegedly assaulting
two policemen will continue and he has to report to authorities twice a
week, Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 3 February. -- 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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