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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 46, 5 March 1996
CONTENTS
[1] FRENCH OFFICIALS FREE KARADZIC'S VICE PRESIDENT.
[2] BILDT, REHN: TRIALS FOR WAR CRIMINALS ESSENTIAL TO PEACE.
[3] TUDJMAN APPOINTS NEW ZAGREB LEADER.
[4] WILL SESELJ DIVIDE THE SERBIAN OPPOSITION?
[5] SLOVENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN EGYPT.
[6] METRO STRIKE CAUSES TRAFFIC CHAOS IN BUCHAREST.
[7] SIX ROMANIANS DIE IN JERUSALEM BOMB ATTACK.
[8] BULGARIAN INTEREST RATE GOES UP.
[9] BULGARIAN UPDATE.
[10] GREEK "SPY STORY" UPDATE.
[11] TWO ALBANIAN PAPERS CLOSE DOWN.
[12] FOUR ALBANIANS ARRESTED FOR FOUNDING COMMUNIST PARTY.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 46, Part II, 5 March 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] FRENCH OFFICIALS FREE KARADZIC'S VICE PRESIDENT.
French police briefly
arrested Bosnian Serb Vice President Nikola Koljevic In Paris on 2 March
on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued in Sarajevo in
1992 for genocide, AFP noted on 4 March. He was freed after French
government officials intervened and he went on with an advisor to
Radovan Karadzic to visit the Serbian community in France. In The Hague,
indicted war criminal General Djordje Djukic of the Serbian army said he
"does not feel himself guilty" as charged, Nasa Borba wrote on 5 March.
And in Croatia, the Helsinki Committee reported on atrocities committed
against mainly elderly Serbs by uniformed Croats in Krajina since the
area fell last summer, Novi list reported. -- Patrick Moore
[2] BILDT, REHN: TRIALS FOR WAR CRIMINALS ESSENTIAL TO PEACE.
Carl Bildt,
the high representative for civilian affairs in Bosnia, told an
international conference in Vienna on 4 March that the prosecution of
alleged war criminals before the Hague-based international tribunal is a
crucial element in the Bosnia peace process, AFP and Nasa Borba
reported. The UN reporter on human rights in former Yugoslavia,
Elisabeth Rehn, said recognition of rump Yugoslavia must depend on the
human rights situation there. She appealed to the international
community to make the lifting of sanctions and provision of
reconstruction assistance to Yugoslavia contingent on that. Bildt
announced that the chamber of human rights, an independent court of
justice, would be constituted in the middle of March. The conference,
held to discuss the human rights provisions of the Dayton accords, was
sponsored by the Austrian Foreign Ministry and attended by 150 delegates
from 30 countries. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[3] TUDJMAN APPOINTS NEW ZAGREB LEADER.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on
2 March named Marina Matulovic-Dropulic as a commissioner to fulfill the
duties of mayor of Zagreb, Croatian media reported the following day.
Tudjman earlier refused to confirm two candidates for mayor nominated by
the opposition majority on the city council, and instead decided to
appoint a commissioner while calling for new elections. Zagreb City
Assembly President Zdravko Tomac said the council would not confirm
Matulovic- Dropulic's appointment. The opposition alliance will nominate
another candidate for the post of mayor, Hina reported. "We will not
give in, because it is Zagreb that will decide whether democracy is to
stay or vanish," Vjesnik quoted Tomac as saying. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[4] WILL SESELJ DIVIDE THE SERBIAN OPPOSITION?
Nasa Borba on 5 March runs aseries of articles which attempt to evaluate the impact of the
controversial Serbian Radical party (SRS) and its leader, accused war
criminal Vojislav Seselj, on opposition party relations. A recurring
theme appears to be a suspicion in opposition ranks that any serious
cooperation aimed at forging unity aimed to dislodge the ruling
Socialist Party of Serbia likely shall not or cannot include the SRS. In
one piece, titled "What Opposition Colleagues Say About the Radicals,"
Aleksandar Cotric of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) argues: "The
question is just whether or not Seselj is really even a member of the
opposition, because everybody remembers a time when there was tight
cooperation [between the SRS] and the socialists...when he [Seselj] even
told his voters to cast their ballot for Milosevic for president." --
Stan Markotich
[5] SLOVENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN EGYPT.
Zoran Thaler met in Cairo with
Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal Ahmad al-Janzuri and Foreign Minister Amr
Musa on 3 March, STA reported that same day. At the top of the agenda
were continuing and developing bilateral economic ties, but the
possibility for Slovenian-Egyptian cooperation on issues relating to
Bosnia-Herzegovina was also discussed. "Slovenia and Egypt have a
similar point of view on resolving the Bosnia crisis...and [our] two
countries will cooperate in reconstruction projects for Bosnia and
Herzegovina," said Thaler. -- Stan Markotich
[6] METRO STRIKE CAUSES TRAFFIC CHAOS IN BUCHAREST.
Metro workers in
Bucharest on 4 March went on an indefinite strike to press demands for a
30% pay rise and better terms, Radio Bucharest reported. The strikes
will be held daily from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get around legal
requirements that metro workers must not strike for more than two-thirds
of the 19-hour-a-day timetable. The strike has affected some 700,000
commuters in Romania's capital who use the underground rail network
regularly. On 4 March, thousands of commuters lined up at bus and tram
stops despite low temperatures of some -10 Celsius. Romania's Transport
Ministry declared the strike "illegal" and "unwarranted," pointing at
the fact that the metro system receives state subsidies. Premier Nicolae
Vacaroiu also spoke of an "illegal" strike and urged the workers to
resume their activity. -- Dan Ionescu
[7] SIX ROMANIANS DIE IN JERUSALEM BOMB ATTACK.
Five Romanian guest workers
and a tourist were among the victims of last weekend's suicide bomb
attack in Jerusalem, Romanian and international media reported on 3-5
March. President Ion Iliescu condemned the attack, and expressed hopes
that such fanatical acts would not derail the peace process. The
Romanian Foreign Ministry released the names of the six victims and said
the bodies will be repatriated on 6 March. -- Matyas Szabo
[8] BULGARIAN INTEREST RATE GOES UP.
The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on 4
March raised the prime interest rate by 7%, Pari reported. The new rate
of 49% becomes effective on 6 March. BNB Governor Lyubomir Filipov said
"chaos on the currency market" necessitated the move but he hopes the
rate will fall under 25% by the end of 1996. The raise came just one
month after the BNB raised the prime interest rate from 34% to 42% on 1
February. In 1995, the rate was lowered seven times. Trud cited Filipov
as saying that without help Bulgaria can not meet its obligations to
repay foreign debts in 1996 because it would have to use its foreign
currency reserves which would further devalue the lev. 24 chasa said the
BNB's foreign currency reserves fell from $1.4 billion on November 1995
to $930 million. -- Stefan Krause
[9] BULGARIAN UPDATE.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic
Development Rumen Gechev and Interior Minister Lyubomir Nachev are
likely to be replaced soon, 24 chasa reported on 5 March. A report by
the Bulgarian Socialist Party's (BSP) sociopolitical commission said
they must leave the government of Prime Minister Zhan Videnov
immediately. BSP Deputy chairman Georgi Parvanov called for immediate
personnel changes, an intensified fight against crime, and a smoother
implementation of economic reforms. In other news, Standart reported
that official documents were falsified in order to allow for increased
grain exports. The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria
(KNSB) claims that more than one million tons of grain were exported
instead of the 500,000 tons the government had approved, thus causing a
severe grain shortage. -- Stefan Krause
[10] GREEK "SPY STORY" UPDATE.
Greece on 4 March demanded that Italy and the
Netherlands replace their military attaches, Reuters reported. Rome and
The Hague had recalled the attaches after Athens accused them of spying
(see OMRI Daily Digest, 4 March 1996). A senior government official said
Greece "will not accept the same people." Dutch Foreign Minister Hans
van Mierlo called the row "a little storm in a very big teacup" and said
there was no question of the Netherlands spying on a NATO partner. But
parliamentary deputies in The Hague said that if Greece does not
withdraw its accusation it will be asked to recall a diplomat from the
Netherlands. Italy said it will not send its military attache back until
Athens ends the "blown-up episode." -- Stefan Krause
[11] TWO ALBANIAN PAPERS CLOSE DOWN.
The Koha Jone publishing house has
announced it will close down two of its smaller publications to overcome
a financial crisis following a police crackdown on its delivery system,
Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 3 March. Editors-in-Chief Nikolle Lesi and
Aleksander Frangaj argued that Koha Jone is forced to close down AKS and
Sport Ekspres as police are continuing to impound nine of the daily's
delivery vans, some for over a month. Koha Jone has also been charged
with tax evasion for wrongly registering as a magazine rather than a
newspaper. -- Fabian Schmidt
[12] FOUR ALBANIANS ARRESTED FOR FOUNDING COMMUNIST PARTY.
A Tirana court
ordered the continued detention of three people who tried to re-found a
Communist Party and youth organization, Koha Jone reported on 5 March. A
fourth man, aged 73, has been put under house arrest. All those arrested
are over 50 years old and will be charged with founding anti-
constitutional parties or organizations. -- 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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