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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 59, 22 March 1996
CONTENTS
[01] ALBRIGHT STONED IN VUKOVAR.
[02] WAR CRIMES HEARINGS ON VUKOVAR HOSPITAL MASSACRE BEGIN...
[03] ...AS RUMP YUGOSLAVIA STILL SHIELDS ITS WAR CRIMINALS.
[04] TUDJMAN VETOES YET ANOTHER OPPOSITION CANDIDATE IN ZAGREB.
[05] SLOVENIAN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS ON STRIKE.
[06] ROMANIA'S DEFENSE COUNCIL ON NATO INTEGRATION.
[07] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT MAY BE IMPEACHED.
[08] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT, MINERS REACH SETTLEMENT.
[09] GERMAN PRESIDENT ENDS VISIT TO BULGARIA.
[10] ALBANIA, GREECE SIGN FRIENDSHIP TREATY.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 59, Part II, 22 March 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] ALBRIGHT STONED IN VUKOVAR.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine
Albright was jeered by Serbs yelling "you fascist" during her visit to
Vukovar to discuss the future of eastern Slavonia with Serb rebel
leaders. Serbs then pelted her motorcade with rocks, damaging the
vehicles but causing no injuries to Albright or her party, the Czech
daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported on 22 March. She played down the
incident but reminded the rebel leaders that all sides are expected to
respect the conditions of the agreement reached last fall in Dayton
between the Serbian and Croatian presidents, Nasa Borba noted. That
pact provides for a return of the last rebel-held part of Croatia to
Zagreb's sovereignty within two years. Local Serb leaders have been
encouraging Serb refugees to settle there and hinting that they will
hold a referendum on any return to Croatian authority, all of which is
counter to the agreement. -- Patrick Moore
[02] WAR CRIMES HEARINGS ON VUKOVAR HOSPITAL MASSACRE BEGIN...
Croatian
media reported that the war crimes hearings against three ex-Yugoslav
army officers by The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia began on 20 March. Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic
and Veselin Sljivancanin are charged over ordering the deaths of 261
non-Serb patients in a Vukovar hospital in November 1991. However,
they cannot be tried in absentia. In another development, the war
crimes tribunal announced the opening of offices in Belgrade and in
the area of Republika Srpska, to enable its prosecutors to interview
victims and witnesses in Serb areas, AFP and Onasa reported.
Meanwhile, war crimes tribunal said it would make important
announcements on 22 March, signaling new indictments, Onasa reported a
day earlier. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[03] ...AS RUMP YUGOSLAVIA STILL SHIELDS ITS WAR CRIMINALS.
Despite
insisting that it intends to cooperate fully with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, mounting evidence
continues to suggest that Belgrade is providing refuge for suspected
war criminals. On 21 March Belgrade's independent Radio B92 reported
that not only is Veselin Sljivancanin, one of three Yugoslav army
officers indicted in November 1995 for allegedly playing a role in the
shooting killings of at least 260 civilians in the Croatian city of
Vukovar in 1991, sheltered by rump Yugoslav authorities, but that he
has been rewarded. According to the report, Sljivancanin was recently
promoted from major to colonel and re-posted in Belgrade. -- Stan
Markotich
[04] TUDJMAN VETOES YET ANOTHER OPPOSITION CANDIDATE IN ZAGREB.
Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman on 21 March blocked a third nominee for mayor
of Zagreb put forward by the opposition-dominated city council. The
council had earlier passed a vote of no-confidence in Tudjman's own
appointee, and now has nominated its fourth candidate, former Liberal
leader Drazen Budisa, Novi list reported the next day. The imbroglio
is seen as a test case for Croatian democracy, since the seven-party
opposition coalition controls 60% of the council, Nasa Borba noted.
Tudjman argues that he cannot tolerate "enemies of state policy"
running Zagreb and that he has the right to confirm the mayor in
office. Tudjman's own party has warned him to be more reasonable,
however, since the deadlock will force new elections that polls
suggest will make the opposition even stronger despite a government
attempt at gerrymandering, Reuters said. Novi list added that
opposition leader and council president Zdravko Tomac has written the
Council of Europe calling for Croatia's admission to that body, but
that Tudjman's party has objected to this letter and called for Tomac
to go. -- Patrick Moore
[05] SLOVENIAN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS ON STRIKE.
Slovenia's doctors and
dentists went out on strike on 21 March, demanding a 25% wage hike.
Union officials have pledged that the job action will continue until
the demand is met, Reuters reported. A specialist currently earns an
average monthly salary of 114, 000 tolars ($860). The doctors' and
dentists' strike started one day after journalists from the
state-supported Radio and Television Slovenija company ended their
walk-out. -- Stan Markotich
[06] ROMANIA'S DEFENSE COUNCIL ON NATO INTEGRATION.
President Ion Iliescu
on 21 March presided over a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council
(CSAT), Romania's main security watchdog, Radio Bucharest reported.
The CSAT examined the pace of a sweeping reform of the national army
aimed at making it more compatible with NATO standards. It also
approved that a Romanian delegation discuss the possible expansion of
the alliance at NATO's headquarters in Brussels later this year. An
Iliescu spokesman on the same day described Bucharest's efforts to
join NATO as Romania's "only strategic option." In a related
development, Radu Timofte, the chairman of the Senate's defense
commission, stated that, under the current political and economic
circumstances in Europe, Romania's failure to join NATO would amount
to "a disaster." -- Dan Ionescu
[07] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT MAY BE IMPEACHED.
Infotag on 21 March quoted Nicolae
Andronic, deputy chairman of the Party of Revival and Conciliation in
Moldova, as saying that the parliamentary majority is considering the
possibility to impeach President Mircea Snegur. Andronic suggested
that the current majority, dominated by the Agrarian Democratic Party,
was posing a threat to the Moldovan society by fostering political
instability. The statement is part of a war of words triggered by the
dismissal of Defense Minister Pavel Creanga last week. Snegur's
military adviser Alexandru Gorgan denied on 20 March that a split
occurred in the army following Creanga's dismissal and accused Premier
Andrei Sangheli of instigating Creanga to disobey the president, who
is also supreme commander of the army. -- Dan Ionescu
[08] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT, MINERS REACH SETTLEMENT.
A two-day strike in the
Maritsa Iztok coal mines ended on 21 March after the government's
Energy Committee and the Confederation of Labor "Podkrepa" agreed to
higher wages and other benefits, Duma reported. The miners in
Bulgaria's biggest mine will receive at least 35% higher wages in 1996
than in 1995. and those in other mines would obtain a 30% increase.
They had demanded a 60% raise. Earlier that day, Energy Committee
Deputy Chairman Rumen Ovcharov said electricity rationing would have
to be introduced by the end of the week if the strike continued. He
called the strike "politically motivated." Standart, citing a secret
service report to Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, alleged that the
influential business conglomerate Multigroup was behind the strikes,
hoping to profit from eventual imports of Russian electricity, but
"Podkrepa" leader Konstantin Trenchev dismissed the charges and said
the strike was a strictly unionist matter. -- Stefan Krause
[09] GERMAN PRESIDENT ENDS VISIT TO BULGARIA.
Roman Herzog on 21 March
ended a three-day official visit to Bulgaria, Western media reported.
He pledged support for Bulgaria's economic reforms, but urged Sofia to
create favorable conditions for foreign investment. Herzog also called
on Bulgaria to close down the nuclear power plant at Kozloduy, saying
"reactors which can not be modernized should be closed down as soon as
possible," while Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev stressed Bulgaria's
wish to modernize the reactors and asked for EU help. Herzog said
Germany and NATO are opposed to a new defense pact in Eastern Europe
as proposed by Russia last year. The same day in a radio address,
Zhelev said restoring the Soviet Union would be dangerous for Russia
and the rest of the former East Bloc. He said Bulgaria "must finally
submit its application for [NATO] membership." -- Stefan Krause
[10] ALBANIA, GREECE SIGN FRIENDSHIP TREATY.
Greek President Kostis
Stephanopoulos and his Albanian counterpart Sali Berisha signed a
friendship and cooperation treaty on 21 March, international agencies
reported. They pledged to "respect human rights and those of
minorities." Stephanopoulos, who is scheduled to visit the Greek
minority on 22 March said Athens "does not want to use it to attack
Tirana." Berisha said he had received "assurances" that Athens would
consider legalizing the status of 300,000 illegal Albanian immigrants
to Greece as soon as possible. Both sides also decided to boost their
military and economic ties and to open new border crossings. Greece
will open a consulate in Korca and Stephanopoulos inaugurated a new
department of Greek literature at the Albanian national library in
Tirana. Greece also pledged to support Albania's EU association and
both sides will cooperate in environmental protection and the fighting
organized crime. -- 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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