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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 40, 26 February 1996
CONTENTS
[1] NATO ALLOWS SARAJEVO EVACUATION.
[2] CONTACTS RESUME WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
[3] BOSNIAN FACTIONS AGREE ON GROUND RULES FOR ELECTIONS.
[4] MOSTAR'S EU ADMINISTRATOR TO QUIT.
[5] SOROS FOUNDATION "BANNED" IN RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[6] CROATIAN PRESIDENT TAKES AIM AT OPPONENTS...
[7] ...WHILE SUSAK BLASTS BOSNIAN ARMAMENTS PROGRAM.
[8] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN RESIGNS.
[9] SLOVENIA REOPENS TRADE WITH FORMER YUGOSLAVIA.
[10] U.S. AMBASSADOR'S STATEMENTS SPARK CONTROVERSY IN ROMANIA.
[11] FORMER CEAUSESCU COURT POET TO RUN FOR PRESIDENCY.
[12] STRIKES IN ROMANIA.
[13] BULGARIAN ROUNDUP.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 40, Part II, 26 February 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] NATO ALLOWS SARAJEVO EVACUATION.
NATO is allowing the Bosnian Serb army
to evacuate the remaining Serb-held areas of Sarajevo, international
media reported on 25 February. Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN. High
Commissioner for Refugees, said Bosnian Serb leaders incited the local
population to flee, but he also criticized the Muslim-Croatian police
for "insensitivity" in handling the remaining Serb residents. IFOR
commander U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith faced an angry crowd of Bosnian
Serbs demanding transportation for evacuation when he toured Vogosca
with Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik on 24 February. -- Michael
Mihalka
[2] CONTACTS RESUME WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
Senior IFOR commanders met with
their Bosnian Serb counterparts on 23 February, marking the end of the
Bosnian Serb boycott of all contacts with the international community,
international media reported. The Bosnian Serbs broke off contacts on 8
February in protest at the Bosnian government's detention of several
Bosnian Serb soldiers, two of whom were subsequently sent to The Hague.
British Lt.-Gen. Sir Michael Walker, commander of IFOR ground forces,
met on 24 February with deputy Bosnian Serb military commander Gen.
Zdarko Tolimir in Ilidza, one of the Serb-held suburbs of Sarajevo due
to be returned to Bosnian government control by 19 March. They discussed
the plans to evacuate Bosnian Serbs from those suburbs. -- Michael
Mihalka
[3] BOSNIAN FACTIONS AGREE ON GROUND RULES FOR ELECTIONS.
The Bosnian
factions on 23 February agreed to the ground rules for organizing
elections by September, Reuters and TANJUG reported. Robert Frowick,
OSCE mission head to Bosnia, who chairs the provisional election
commission, said everyone, including refugees, will be allowed to vote
at the place where they lived in 1991. Lists of voters, based on the
1991 census, are expected to be drawn up by 31 March. -- Michael Mihalka
[4] MOSTAR'S EU ADMINISTRATOR TO QUIT.
Hans Koschnick, told the German
weekly Bild am Sonntag he would step down from his post in July and
would not prolong his stay "under any circumstances," Reuters reported
on 24 February. He has recommended that the EU Ministerial Council
accept the Croatian and Muslim authorities' demand that the EU mandate
in the city be extended for another six months. But he stressed that
someone will have to replace him. Meanwhile, international agencies
report free movement in Mostar, although the total number of crossings
from the eastern to western part of the city is still small. A young man
on 23 February was hit on the head with a stone in the Croatian part of
Mostar, while vehicles with Bosnian-Croat license plates were stoned in
the Muslim-populated neighborhood two days later, Hina reported on 25
February. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[5] SOROS FOUNDATION "BANNED" IN RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
The New York-based Soros
Foundation has been banned in the rump Yugoslavia, international media
reported on 24 February. A Serbian court ruled that the group is not
properly registered and therefore has no legal right to operate. Sonja
Licht, head of the foundation in Belgrade, said the organization will
try to re-register. The Foundation opened its Belgrade office in 1991
and supports a number of humanitarian and democratic projects, including
aiding independent media. In recent weeks the Belgrade regime has
renewed its attacks against the independent media, declaring the
independent broadcaster Studio B TV illegal in a bid to take over the
station. -- Stan Markotich
[6] CROATIAN PRESIDENT TAKES AIM AT OPPONENTS...
Franjo Tudjman addressed a
congress of the governing Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) on 24-25
February. RFE/RL's South Slavic Service and news agencies noted that he
struck out at the labor unions, opposition, and independent media,
warning them that he would not allow anyone to turn "democracy into
anarchy." He said that the HDZ had "created Croatia" and would be needed
"for decades to come." Tudjman called the opposition "a coalition of
communists and fascists" that provoked strikes and social unrest. A
railroad strike is entering its fifth day, while Zagreb city and county
governments have been without top leadership for almost four months
because Tudjman refuses to recognize the opposition majority's choice
for mayor. The independent daily Novi list--one of the few mass-
circulation non-party periodicals--said his speech reflected "anger and
panic." -- Patrick Moore
[7] ...WHILE SUSAK BLASTS BOSNIAN ARMAMENTS PROGRAM.
Also speaking at the
HDZ meeting, Defense Minister Gojko Susak attacked Sarajevo's current
military expansion program. He warned that "it will be the Croatian
army, if necessary," that will "protect Croatian strategic interests."
He added that at this moment, uncontrolled rearming of the Bosnian army
represents the gravest danger to the implementation of the Dayton peace
agreement and stability of the [Muslim-Croat] federation." The speech
comes at a time when the Bosnian Croat and Bosnian government commanders
are on their way to the U.S. to discuss a weapons-and-training program
and when Zagreb has been criticized for the conduct of the Croats in
Mostar. Before closing, the HDZ congress sent a letter to German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl protesting West German Radio's merging of its
Croatian program into one for all the former Yugoslavia. The congress
accused Bonn of trying to "create a Euro-Slavia." -- Patrick Moore
[8] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN RESIGNS.
Stojan Andov on 23 February
resigned as chairman of the Macedonian parliament, Reuters reported. His
decision followed the parliament's approval of the new government of
Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, which excludes members of Andov's
Liberal Party. Andov chaired the parliament for five years. After the
attempt on President Kiro Gligorov's life in October 1995, he was acting
president. The Liberals said they are now in the opposition and will
support an initiative for early elections. -- Stefan Krause
[9] SLOVENIA REOPENS TRADE WITH FORMER YUGOSLAVIA.
Slovenian companies are
beginning to re-establish trade relations with rump Yugoslavia and
Bosnia, Reuters reported on 23 February. But an official from the
Slovenian Ministry of Economic Relations said restoring links with
Belgrade may be difficult, if not impossible. "I expect that an economic
agreement [with Belgrade] will have to wait until urgent political
issues are resolved," he said. Those issues include the division of
assets among the former Yugoslav republics. An agreement on trade ties
with Bosnia-Herzegovina is slated to be signed later this year. -- Stan
Markotich
[10] U.S. AMBASSADOR'S STATEMENTS SPARK CONTROVERSY IN ROMANIA.
Alfred Moses
has said that extremist parties such as the Party of Romanian National
Unity (PUNR), the Socialist Labor Party, and the Greater Romania Party
have no place in Romania's government if the country wants to join Euro-
Atlantic structures, Romanian media reported on 24-26 February. Meeting
with members of opposition parties in the Transylvanian city of Cluj,
Moses urged them to vote against Gheorghe Funar, the city's
controversial mayor and PUNR chairman, in the upcoming local elections.
The PUNR leadership reacted promptly, by accusing Moses of having
"overstepped his competence" and of "breaching diplomatic practice."
Adrian Nastase, executive chairman of the ruling Party of Social
Democracy in Romania, said that Moses would do better to comment on the
U.S. elections. -- Matyas Szabo
[11] FORMER CEAUSESCU COURT POET TO RUN FOR PRESIDENCY.
The Socialist Labor
Party (PSM), Romania's reborn communist party, has nominated its first
deputy chairman, Adrian Paunescu, as presidential candidate for the fall
1996 elections, Radio Bucharest reported on 25 February. A former poet
laureate under late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Paunescu
pledged to work toward establishing "democratic socialism" in Romania if
elected president. Until recently, the PSM was considered a member of
the ruling coalition. Its relations with the Party of Social Democracy
in Romania have deteriorated. -- Dan Ionescu
[12] STRIKES IN ROMANIA.
Some 100,000 railroad workers on 23 February took
part in a two-hour warning strike, Romanian media reported. The strikers
demanded that the minimum wage be raised from 126,000 lei ($45) to
280,000 lei ($99). The National Railroad Company management, which
offered a 20% wage hike in preliminary negotiations, said the strike was
"a deliberate act aimed at destabilizing national security." It also
asked the pro-secutor's office to investigate. Union leaders accused the
administration of trying to intimidate the strikers. Also on 23
February, 3,000 workers went on strike at two factories in the town of
Megidia to protest interruptions in electricity supply. Romania is
currently facing an acute energy crisis. -- Dan Ionescu
[13] BULGARIAN ROUNDUP.
President Zhelyu Zhelev in a TV address on 22
February called on Bulgarians to form local committees to push for the
return of land to its former owners, Reuters reported. Zhelev said land
restitution is still incomplete because of "narrow party interests and
the political prejudices of a few people" within the Bulgarian Socialist
Party. He added that only "pressure from below combined with the support
of democratic institutions and political forces" can help speed up the
process. Prime Minister Zhan Videnov on 23 February said the price of
electricity will go up by 20% at the end of April, RFE/RL's Bulgarian
service reported. Videnov was speaking at the inauguration of a new 440-
kW reactor at the Maritsa Iztok power plant. -- 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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