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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 57, 20 March 1996
CONTENTS
[1] BOSNIAN PEACE PROCESS ENTERS SECOND STAGE.
[2] CROATIAN DEFENSE MINISTER UNDERGOES LUNG SURGERY.
[3] THREE WAR CRIME SUSPECTS ARRESTED.
[4] MUSLIMS, CROATS RESUME JOINT PATROLS IN MOSTAR.
[5] AUSTRIA PREPARED TO SEND AN AMBASSADOR TO RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[6] SLOVENIAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEK PLANT CLOSURE.
[7] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY, OPPOSITION ATTACK RUSSIAN DUMA VOTE.
[8] ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS POLITICAL PARTIES' LAW.
[9] MOLDOVAN POLITICAL CRISIS UPDATE.
[10] GERMAN PRESIDENT IN BULGARIA.
[11] BULGARIA TO SELL STATE ASSETS.
[12] GERMAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTER VISITS ALBANIA.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 57, Part II, 20 March 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] BOSNIAN PEACE PROCESS ENTERS SECOND STAGE.
Crowds in a festive mood came
from the rest of Sarajevo into Grbavica on 19 March to mark the
reunification of the city and inspect their flats, CNN reported. A
wreath was laid atop Mt. Trebevic, the former excursion site just above
the city from which the Serbs shelled Sarajevo during their four-year
siege, Sky News added on 20 March. Strict controls are in effect to
prevent the activity of Muslim gangs that marred the transfer of Ilidza,
Nasa Borba said. IFOR confirmed that government troops have pulled out
of the Marshal Tito barracks as they were required to do following the
Serbian army's departure from the suburbs. The reunification of Sarajevo
marks the end of the military disengagement stage of the peace process,
which will now focus on reconstruction, elections, the return of
refugees, and other civilian issues. Some 90 days after the Dayton
agreement came into effect, the republic is now fully divided into the
Federation and the Republika Srpska. -- Patrick Moore
[2] CROATIAN DEFENSE MINISTER UNDERGOES LUNG SURGERY.
Gojko Susak has been
operated on at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in the U.S., AFP said on 20
March, quoting Globus. The Croatian Defense Ministry refused to comment,
although rumors of Susak's hospitalization in the U.S. have been
circulating for at least a week. He is one of the most powerful men in
Croatia because of his key office, his close relationship with President
Franjo Tudjman, and his prominence among the influential "Herzegovinian
lobby" in political and economic life. -- Patrick Moore
[3] THREE WAR CRIME SUSPECTS ARRESTED.
Three Bosnian war crimes suspects
were arrested in Germany and Austria on 17 March, AFP reported. The
Austrian interior ministry said the men, held in Vienna and Munich, will
not be identified until they are charged, which indicates that neither
is on The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal list of war-crimes
suspects. Bosnian Serb media identified one of them as a Bosnian Croat,
arrested for alleged atrocities against Serbs, and the other as Muslim,
wanted for the same reason. The Hague-based tribunal spokesman Christian
Chartier said that a third suspect arrested in Germany matched the
description of one of its indicted suspects. He is suspected of
mistreating inmates in a prison camp in Bosnia in 1992. His ethnicity
was not revealed, but the court statement said the camp housed mainly
"non-Serbs." Meanwhile, Croatia's foreign minister told Vjesnik that
Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic, indicted for crimes against
humanity, would surrender to the tribunal, while the Serbian President
also promised to transfer to The Hague two Serbs suspected of war
crimes. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[4] MUSLIMS, CROATS RESUME JOINT PATROLS IN MOSTAR.
Muslims and Croats
agreed to resume joint police patrols in Mostar after suspending them
for several hours following a series of arrests carried out by both
sides over the weekend, AFP reported on 18 March. EU police spokesman
said the police officers agreed to resume their patrols after Muslims
and Croats arrested over the weekend were released. Three Muslims were
arrested on 16 March in the Croat part of the city following a blast
that destroyed a shop. Two Croat truck drivers were arrested in the
Muslim part of the city. Despite an agreement on reunification of the
city reached during the Geneva 17 March summit, Croats and Muslims
maintained their police barricades, AFP and Nasa Borba reported on 19
March. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[5] AUSTRIA PREPARED TO SEND AN AMBASSADOR TO RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
Michael
Weninger, Austria's charge d'affaires in Belgrade, said on 19 March that
Vienna has taken steps to upgrade relations with rump Yugoslavia to
ambassadorial level. Nasa Borba on 20 March reported that he did,
however, stress that the appointment of an ambassador shall be linked to
regional developments. The chargee said Vienna, following the lead of
the European Union, is ready to extend full diplomatic recognition "just
as soon as mutual recogniton between [rump] Yugoslavia and Macedonia
takes place." -- Stan Markotich
[6] SLOVENIAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEK PLANT CLOSURE.
Slovenia's Ecological
Movement, supported by Greenpeace, began to collect petition signatures
on 19 March in a bid to try to force the government to close down the
country's only nuclear plant, Krsko. If 40,000 signatures are collected
by 17 May, the environmentalists will be able to force a referendum on
the plant's closure. One Greenpeace representative observed: "In 10
years Slovenia would be able to replace the energy which is produced by
the nuclear plant, mainly by new small gas and hydro power plants and by
household efficiency programmes." Last year neighboring Croatia said it
would give up its claims to the plant and its resources and not protest
its closure on condition that Zagreb is fully compensated. Efforts in
1995 in the Slovenian legislature to close the plant failed due to lack
of support. Reuters carried the story. -- Stan Markotich
[7] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY, OPPOSITION ATTACK RUSSIAN DUMA VOTE.
The ruling
Party of Social Democracy in Romania on 19 March stated that although
the Russian Duma's recent resolution denouncing the breakup of the
Soviet Union cannot have any direct legal or political consequences, it
may represent an infringement on the sovereignty of the newly
independent states, including Moldova. Opposition parties expressed fear
that Russia might return to a policy of spheres of influence and
endanger the independence of former Soviet bloc states, Romanian and
international media reported on 18-19 March. Adrian Severin of the
Democratic Party said the logical consequence of Duma's decision was
"Russia's return to an imperial formula and to an authoritarian rule."
Dinu Zamfirescu, leader of the Liberal Party '93, expressed astonishment
over President Ion Iliescu's lack of response to the Duma decision. --
Matyas Szabo
[8] ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS POLITICAL PARTIES' LAW.
The parliament's two
chambers on 19 March passed in joint session a long-delayed Political
Parties' Law, Radio Bucharest reported. The law allows parties set up on
ethnic criteria to function in Romania. Its draft -- and especially the
provisions regarding the financing of political organizations and the
functioning of ethnic parties -- aroused heated debates in Romania.
Parliament eventually adopted a more conciliatory version, proposed by
the Chamber of Deputies. Parliamentarians representing the extreme
nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity and Greater Romania Party,
and the neo-communist Socialist Labor Party voted against ethnic
parties. Petre Turlea, an independent, described those parties as
"racist by definition" and "non-constitutional." Romanian TV said that,
if not attacked at the Constitutional Court, the bill is going to be
promulgated by President Ion Iliescu. -- Dan Ionescu
[9] MOLDOVAN POLITICAL CRISIS UPDATE.
The situation has remained calm in
Chisinau as the country awaits a Constitutional Court ruling on the
legality of Defense Minister Pavel Creanga's dismissal last week. The
move has provoked a serious political crisis in the Republic of Moldova
that ended in a war of words between President Mircea Snegur and his
opponents. Meanwhile, Igor Smirnov, the president of the self-proclaimed
Dniester republic, expressed concern over the situation in Moldova,
BASA-press reported on 18 March. He said recent developments signaled "a
split among the top leadership in Chisinau." Smirnov on 16 March had
discussed the crisis by telephone with Moldovan Premier Andrei Sangheli
and Parliament Speaker Petru Lucinschi, and met the same day in Tiraspol
with the Russian Ambassador to Moldova, Aleksandr Papkin, in the
presence of Gen. Valerii Yevnevich, commander of the Russian troops
headquartered in Tiraspol. -- Dan Ionescu
[10] GERMAN PRESIDENT IN BULGARIA.
Roman Herzog arrived in Sofia on 19 March
for a three-day official visit, Bulgarian and Western media reported.
After meeting with Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev, Herzog said
Germany will help Bulgaria during its "difficult transition phase." He
also pledged German support if Bulgaria wants to join the EU and NATO.
Herzog also proposed German help for the reconstruction of Bulgaria's
dilapidated nuclear power plant at Kozloduy, considered a safety risk by
the West. Addressing the parliament on 20 March, Herzog said the road to
EU membership will be "long and hard." On 19 March, both sides signed a
cultural agreement which among others provides for mutual recognition of
university degrees. Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Bulgaria,
providing nearly half its foreign capital. -- Stefan Krause
[11] BULGARIA TO SELL STATE ASSETS.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Economic Development Rumen Gechev on 19 March announced that the
government will auction off some of the country's largest state-owned
companies this year, Western media reported. Gechev declined to list all
enterprises, but he said they include a 25-30% share in the national
telecommunications company and the Sodi works in Devnya, one of the
world's largest producers of calcined soda. Gechev said that if Bulgaria
does not have several big privatization deals in 1996, it will not be
able to service its debts. According to Gechev, Bulgaria spent 10% of
last year's budget to service foreign debt, and another 39% to keep
loss-making enterprises going. He said that the government and the
Bulgarian business community are "displeased with the quite low level of
foreign investment" but admitted that the cabinet failed to create
favorable conditions in 1995. -- Stefan Krause
[12] GERMAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTER VISITS ALBANIA.
German Minister of Economic
Cooperation and Development Carl Dieter Spranger arrived for a two-day
visit to Albania on 19 March, the Albanian language service of Radio
Deutsche Welle reported. Spranger told Albanian President Sali Berisha
that he was impressed by the progress of reform in Albania and assured
him that the German government will support the economic development of
Albania and help it reach an association agreement with the European
Union. It is his third visit to Albania since 1992. -- 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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