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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 35, 19 February 1996
CONTENTS
[01] MIXED EVALUATIONS OF BOSNIAN SUMMIT.
[02] IFOR RELEASES SUSPECTED TERRORISTS.
[03] IFOR GAINS ACCESS TO BOSNIAN SERB WEAPONS DEPOTS.
[04] IFOR AT FULL STRENGTH.
[05] UPDATE ON STUDIO B TAKEOVER BID IN BELGRADE.
[06] KOSOVO TERRORIST GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR REFUGEE CAMP BOMBING.
[07] HOLBROOKE SAYS KOSOVO OF "HIGHEST IMPORTANCE".
[08] GOVERNMENT PAPER SAYS TUDJMAN IS OUT OF TOUCH WITH POLITICAL REALITY.
[09] ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN ROMANIA.
[10] UPDATE ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA.
[11] BULGARIAN ETHNIC TURKS PROTEST ANNULMENT OF KARDZHALI ELECTIONS.
[12] OIL THIEVES POLLUTE DRINKING WATER IN BULGARIAN TOWN.
[13] RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER IN ALBANIA.
[14] UPDATE ON GREEK-TURKISH DISPUTE OVER ISLET.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 35, Part II, 19 February 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] MIXED EVALUATIONS OF BOSNIAN SUMMIT.
Outgoing U.S. Assistant Secretary
of State Richard Holbrooke said he was pleased with the results of the
Rome gathering, saying it served to smooth out the "bumps in the road"
that had emerged and presented the Dayton process with its first serious
crises, the BBC reported on 19 February. Leading Bosnian Serb
politicians responded differently to the provisions dealing with the
future of the Serbs in Sarajevo, and Nasa Borba noted that 800 Serbs
left the suburb of Hadzici for Branunac in eastern Bosnia even as the
summit was taking place. -- Patrick Moore
[02] IFOR RELEASES SUSPECTED TERRORISTS.
IFOR on 16 February handed over to
Bosnian government authorities 10 people detained in a raid on an
alleged terrorist camp the same day, international media reported. Eight
of the detainees were Bosnian and had documents identifying them as
employees of the Bosnian Interior Ministry. The remaining two were
Iranian nationals whom, according to the Iranian government, were on a
humanitarian mission. Another Iranian national with a diplomat's
passport was released after questioning. -- Michael Mihalka
[03] IFOR GAINS ACCESS TO BOSNIAN SERB WEAPONS DEPOTS.
Following the use of
anti-tank aircraft and helicopter gunships in a show of force, IFOR
gained access to two Bosnian Serb weapons depots on 17 February,
international media reported. IFOR has twice been prevented from
entering the depots, near Han Pijesak and Han Kram, in eastern Bosnia.
Some 25 tanks and 13 armored fighting vehicles were discovered.
Meanwhile, the Bosnian Serbs have pulled back 10 tanks from the 20-km
exclusion zone separating the Bosnian entities. IFOR on 16 February said
it will destroy all unreported weapon systems in the zone. -- Michael
Mihalka
[04] IFOR AT FULL STRENGTH.
IFOR has reached its full strength of 60,000
troops, according to U.S. General George Joulwan, NATO's supreme allied
commander in Europe. International media quoted him as saying on 18
February that the movement of IFOR forces into Bosnia was "the biggest
and most complex in Europe since World War II." Some 50,000 troops from
16 NATO states and 10,000 from 16 non-NATO states make up the force.
Negotiations are still under way with Albania, Bulgaria and Bangladesh
about contributing troops to IFOR. -- Michael Mihalka
[05] UPDATE ON STUDIO B TAKEOVER BID IN BELGRADE.
Some 20 journalists working
for independent Studio B Television were fired on 17 February for
refusing to cooperate with a new editorial board appointed by the ruling
Socialist Party of Serbia, Serbian media reported. This development came
one day after a Belgrade court ruled that Studio B had been improperly
constituted. Leaders of most major parties called press conferences on
16 February to criticize the SPS and Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic. Serbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic said the latest
bid to take over Studio B underscores Milosevic's fundamental lack of
commitment to democracy, free speech, and freedom of the press. The
government's action also prompted public protests in Belgrade on 16
February. -- Stan Markotich
[06] KOSOVO TERRORIST GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR REFUGEE CAMP BOMBING.
A
previously unknown terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the
bombing of Serbian refugee camps in Kosovo on 11 February (see OMRI
Daily Digest, 13 February). The Kosovo Liberation Army sent a letter to
Rilindja saying the attacks were only a "first warning" to the Serbs,
whom it accused of wanting to "colonize" the province, AFP reported on
17 February. The group called on the international community to
recognize the self-declared independence of the province. Meanwhile, an
unidentified leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of
Kosovo, told Gazeta Shqiptare on 18 February that the group is preparing
for a guerrilla war. Neither of these groups are supported by the main
political formations in the province. -- Fabian Schmidt
[07] HOLBROOKE SAYS KOSOVO OF "HIGHEST IMPORTANCE". U.S.
Assistant Secretary
of State Richard Holbrooke has renewed the commitment to open a U.S.
Information Agency office in Kosovo "in the very near future." Holbrooke
stressed that there has been no "meeting with the Yugoslav leadership in
which [he has] not discussed this issue." He added, however, that "I'm
not going to go into the nature of the confidential diplomatic exchanges
on issues like this because they don't serve the purpose," AFP reported
on 18 February. -- Fabian Schmidt
[08] GOVERNMENT PAPER SAYS TUDJMAN IS OUT OF TOUCH WITH POLITICAL REALITY.
Slobodna Dalmacija on 19 February reported that Vlado Gotovac has
replaced Drazen Budisa as head of the Croatian Social and Liberal Party-
-the country's largest single opposition grouping--following the party's
poor showing in last October's parliamentary elections. The Croatian
opposition has failed to offer a serious presidential alternative to
Franjo Tudjman and, above all, has been unable to present a united front
against the governing Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ). It has
nonetheless managed to win control of the city and county of Zagreb,
although Tudjman has blocked its first candidate for mayor and now plans
to veto the second one and thereby force new elections. News agencies on
18 February quoted the government-controlled daily Vjesnik as saying
that HDZ party professionals expect their party to lose Zagreb by an
even bigger margin in a fresh vote but have found Tudjman unwilling to
listen. In its virtually unprecedented criticism of the chief executive,
the paper suggested that the president was "out of touch with political
reality." -- Patrick Moore
[09] ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN ROMANIA.
The Socialist Party on 18
February chose chairman Tudor Mohora as its candidate in the fall
presidential elections, Romanian TV announced on the same day. Incumbent
President Ion Iliescu has not yet officially declared his intention to
run again but is widely expected to do so. Among the other declared
contenders are Chairman of the Democratic Convention of Romania Emil
Constantinescu, Chairman of the Democratic Party--National Salvation
Front, former Premier Petre Roman, leader of the extremist Greater
Romania Party Corneliu Vadim Tudor, and Radu Campeanu, the leader of a
group that split away from the National Liberal Party. Also on 18
February, former international tennis star Ilie Nastase was named the
Party of Socialist Unity in Romania's candidate for mayor of Bucharest.
Local elections will probably take place in May. -- Michael Shafir
[10] UPDATE ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA.
Valerii Yevnevich,
commander of the operational group of Russian forces stationed in the
breakaway Dniester region, has said the withdrawal of the troops is
being hindered by Moldovan, Ukrainian and Dniester authorities, Romanian
TV reported on 16 February, citing international agencies. According to
Yevnevich, only two out of 19 rail convoys have left the region, since
the Moldovan authorities have failed to provide rail cars. Chisinau says
Moldova's share of the military equipment should be transported back to
Moldova by the Russians, while Yevnevich claims the Moldovans should
fetch it themselves. He also said there are problems with transit
because Dniester custom officials are demanding a share of armaments in
exchange for allowing the rail cars to transit the region. Ukrainian
custom officials want "alcohol and $20 per rail-car." -- Matyas Szabo
[11] BULGARIAN ETHNIC TURKS PROTEST ANNULMENT OF KARDZHALI ELECTIONS.
Some
6,000 ethnic Turks on 17 February demonstrated against the annulment of
the local elections in Kardzhali, AFP reported the same day. The
election of both the city council and Rasim Musa from the ethnic Turkish
Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS) as mayor was declared invalid on 5
February after the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) charged there had
been irregularities. DPS Chairman Ahmet Dogan warned that "If this house
catches fire, everything will burn down." He told demonstrators that
pressure should be exerted on the government by all legal means. By-
elections in Kardzhali have been called for May. In other news, Reuters
reported that BSP parliamentary deputy and chairman of the parliament's
Agriculture Committee Todor Todorov, who was found shot at his house on
5 February (see OMRI Daily Digest, 7 February 1996), died on 19 February
without regaining consciousness. -- Stefan Krause
[12] OIL THIEVES POLLUTE DRINKING WATER IN BULGARIAN TOWN.
Thieves who tried
to siphon diesel oil from a pipeline in Varna on 16 February polluted
the drinking water of the Black Sea town and eight surrounding villages,
Bulgarian and Western media reported. The oil from the underground
pipeline connecting Varna with the Neftohim oil refinery soaked into
water supplies and leaked into a nearby river. Water tankers carried
emergency supplies to Varna over the weekend. Neftohim spokeswoman
Tatyana Hadzhieva said 60 similar thefts were registered last year. She
added that Neftohim in 1995 invested 80 million ($1.1 million) leva for
changing pipelines for environmental reasons and another 13 million leva
($175,000) to have Interior Ministry troops guard pipelines. Meanwhile,
Bulgarian media on 19 February reported that the situation is
"normalizing" itself but that drinking tap water is still forbidden. --
Stefan Krause
[13] RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER IN ALBANIA.
Sergei Krylov arrived for a
two-day official visit to Tirana on 16 February, international agencies
reported the same day. The two sides pledged to try to find a political
settlement to the Kosovo conflict but could not agree about how to
negotiate an end to the conflict. Russia rejected Albania's demand that
Serbia's admission to international organizations be linked to solving
the conflict in Kosovo. They also disagreed about whether Serbia should
be forced to accept mediation by a third party. Krillov was received by
President Sali Berisha. -- Fabian Schmidt
[14] UPDATE ON GREEK-TURKISH DISPUTE OVER ISLET.
The European Commission on
16 February confirmed its "solidarity" with Greece in the dispute over
the Imia/Kardak islet, Reuters reported. But at the same time, it
stressed this did not mean it was taking a stand on the "legality of
either the Turkish or Greek positions." Meanwhile Athens has called for
an EU-Turkey ministerial meeting scheduled for 25 March to be postponed
because it coincides with the Greek national holiday marking the
beginning of the insurrection against the Ottoman Empire in 1821. --
Lowell Bezanis and Stefan Krause
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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