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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 80, 23 April 1996
CONTENTS
[1] KARADZIC DEMANDS INQUIRY OVER BRITISH MOVE TO BANJA LUKA.
[2] RULES SET FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
[3] FINLAND RECOGNIZES RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[4] CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER IN MACEDONIA.
[5] ROMANIAN SENATE STRIPS EXTREMIST POLITICIAN OF IMMUNITY.
[6] ROMANIA, YUGOSLAVIA, INITIAL BILATERAL TREATY.
[7] BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MAINTAINS HE HAS ONLY BULGARIAN CITIZENSHIP.
[8] BULGARIAN ROUNDUP.
[9] ETHNIC TENSIONS RISE AFTER KILLING OF STUDENT IN KOSOVO.
[10] MAJOR CHANGES IN ALBANIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 80, Part II, 23 April 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] KARADZIC DEMANDS INQUIRY OVER BRITISH MOVE TO BANJA LUKA.
Bosnian Serb
civilian leader Radovan Karadzic continues to be upset over the move of
the British headquarters to Banja Luka (see OMRI Daily Digest, 22 April
1996). AFP quoted Karadzic's news agency, SRNA, as saying that Karadzic
"ordered an inquiry to find out who promised to set up the British
divisional headquarters in Banja Luka despite the opposition of
parliament and the leadership of the Republika Srpska...Stationing of
foreign troops in Banja Luka will be detrimental to this city, which is
the most important cultural, university, and business center in the
Republika Srpska." At issue is a test of wills not only between Karadzic
and the British, but also between the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale
and the one in Banja Luka, which wants its city to become the capital.
Meanwhile in Stockholm, the Chief Justice of the international war-
crimes tribunal, Richard Goldstone, said that Karadzic and Gen. Ratko
Mladic, also an indicted war criminal, are becoming increasingly
marginalized and that the chances of arresting them are improving. --
Patrick Moore
[2] RULES SET FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
The OSCE on 22 April issued a 12-page
booklet setting down the rules for the elections slated to take place by
mid-September. Called "the most complex elections in history," balloting
will involve seven levels of government, from the presidency of the
republic to local officials. Election supervisor Robert Frowick said
that the vote will require freedom of association, expression, and
movement, as well as a politically neutral atmosphere. This is quite a
tall order for Bosnia and it is not clear whether the elections will
actually take place. The Bosnian government representative, Kasim Begic,
was unhappy with the provisions in the booklet which allow for refugees
to vote in their new places of residence rather than in their prewar
homes, as specified in the Dayton agreement. Begic also wanted tighter
controls on participation by parties from Croatia and Serbia,
Oslobodjenje reported on 23 April. -- Patrick Moore
[3] FINLAND RECOGNIZES RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
Finland became on 22 April the tenth
country to recognize rump Yugoslavia as the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, following similar moves by France, Britain, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, and Germany, Beta reported
that same day. Finnish officials have remarked that their decision was
in accordance with EU policy that enabled recognition once rump
Yugoslavia and Macedonia moved towards bilateral recognition on 8 April.
AFP added that on 18 April the European Parliament criticized those
countries which have recognized the rump Yugoslavia, suggesting that the
decision failed to incorporate consideration of continuing human rights
abuses in Serbia's predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo province. --
Stan Markotich
[4] CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER IN MACEDONIA.
Josef Zieleniec on 22 April was in
Skopje on a one-day official visit, Nova Makedonija reported. Zieleniec
met with his Macedonian counterpart, Ljubomir Frckovski, President Kiro
Gligorov and other officials. Zieleniec and Frckovski gave a positive
assessment of the perspectives for bilateral cooperation. They said a
number of mostly economic agreements will be drawn up and should be
ready to be initialed soon. Meanwhile, the same daily reported that
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski canceled an official visit to
Macedonia scheduled for 24-25 April. Strahil Chervenkov, head of the
Bulgarian Foreign Ministry's Southeastern European Department, was cited
as saying the visit was postponed because of "frequent anti-Bulgarian
reports in the Macedonian media which do not create the atmosphere for a
ministerial visit." -- Stefan Krause
[5] ROMANIAN SENATE STRIPS EXTREMIST POLITICIAN OF IMMUNITY.
The Romanian
Senate on 22 April voted to strip Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the leader of
the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party, of his parliamentary
immunity. The Prosecutor General's Office has accused Tudor of
"offending public authorities" by insulting President Ion Iliescu and
Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Magureanu. There
are also 16 other pending cases against Tudor brought on by private
plaintiffs. An RFE/RL correspondent in Bucharest reported that the
Senate's decision might prevent Tudor from running for president in the
fall elections. Romanian law forbids persons with a criminal record from
running for the presidential office. Even if the sentence were not
passed till then, Tudor's candidacy could be contested in court by
private persons, Evenimentul zilei wrote on 23 April citing Senate
Judicial Commission chairman Ion Predescu. -- Michael Shafir
[6] ROMANIA, YUGOSLAVIA, INITIAL BILATERAL TREATY.
The Foreign Ministers of
Romania and rump Yugoslavia, Teodor Melescanu and Milan Milutinovic, on
22 April initialed in Bucharest a 20-year friendship treaty, Romanian
and international media reported. The treaty will be officially signed
by the two countries' presidents later this year. Milutinovic was also
received by President Ion Iliescu and by the chairmen of the bicameral
parliament, Adrian Nastase and Oliviu Gherman. -- Michael Shafir
[7] BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MAINTAINS HE HAS ONLY BULGARIAN CITIZENSHIP.
Georgi Pirinski on 22 April said that he renounced his U.S. citizenship
in 1974, 24 chasa reported. Reacting to allegations that constitutional
provisions might prevent him from running for president, he said he was
"surprised that the matter is being discussed without anyone asking me."
Pirinski, who is considered one of the most likely presidential
candidates of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), was born in
New York in 1948. Under the Bulgarian constitution, the president and
parliamentary deputies are not allowed to have dual citizenship.
Pirinski's statement is the first indication from him directly that he
may run for president. Meanwhile, Parliamentary President Blagovest
Sendov said he will run for president if the BSP nominates him, but that
he will be "very pleased" if this does not happen because he expects the
election campaign to be "extremely brutal." -- Stefan Krause
[8] BULGARIAN ROUNDUP.
Ahmed Dogan, leader of the mainly ethnic Turkish
Movement for Rights and Freedom, will visit Turkey again within the next
three weeks and meet with Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and the
Organization of Turkish Immigrants from Bulgaria in Bursa, Bulgarian
media reported. Dogan returned from his first "official" visit to Turkey
on 20 April, during which he met with Turkish President Suleyman Demirel
and other political leaders. In other news, one worker was killed and
six injured in an explosion in a wood-processing plant in Veliko
Tarnovo, Kontinent reported. The accident happened when a turbine caught
fire. Similar incidents occurred in that plant in 1981, 1991, and 1993.
Zhelyazko Hristov, Deputy Chairman of the Confederation of Independent
Trade Unions in Bulgaria, said that 1,215 workers have been killed in
industrial accidents since 1990 and 131,249 injured. -- Stefan Krause
[9] ETHNIC TENSIONS RISE AFTER KILLING OF STUDENT IN KOSOVO.
The killing of
a 20-year-old Albanian student by a Serb civilian in Pristina on 21
April has instigated several shootings throughout Kosovo, resulting in
four additional deaths and four injuries, international media reported.
Reportedly, the student was shot dead from the fifth floor of a nearby
apartment house while leaving a birthday party. Police arrested the
culprit, who claimed he thought the Albanian was stealing his car.
Elsewhere, more than 1,000 demonstrators from Kosovo noisily protested
the recognition of rump-Yugoslavia by several EU countries outside a EU
foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, Reuters reported on 22 April.
-- Fabian Schmidt
[10] MAJOR CHANGES IN ALBANIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP.
Eight members of
the Democratic Party's leadership have been purged in an unexpected
meeting of the party's National Council on 21 April, Koha Jone reported
on 23 April. The meeting took place only two weeks after a party
congress in which the new leadership was elected. Among those purged are
the former party leader Eduard Selami and former Secretary-General
Tomorr Dosti. Others include former Finance Minister Genc Ruli, former
Vice Premier and Agricultural Minister Rexhep Uka, and the head of the
state control commission, Blerim Cela. Koha Jone noted that party leader
Tritan Shehu did not participate in the meeting and claims that he was
not invited by President Berisha, who was chairing the conference. --
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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