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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 84, 29 April 1996
CONTENTS
[1] BOSNIAN UN AMBASSADOR BLASTS IRANIAN "REVELATIONS."
[2] SERBS, IFOR BLOCK REFUGEES' RETURN.
[3] THREE SERBS CONVICTED IN MURDER TRIALS OF ETHNIC CROATS.
[4] CHILD DIES IN BOMB EXPLOSION IN KOSOVO . . .
[5] . . . AND MORE ARRESTS REPORTED FOLLOWING RECENT SHOOT-OUTS.
[6] SLOVENIA'S REFUGEES TO BE RETURNED.
[7] SLOVENIAN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH ITALY.
[8] ROMANIA, RUSSIA POSTPONE INITIALING BASIC TREATY.
[9] SENIOR NATO OFFICIAL IN ROMANIA.
[10] MOLDOVAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTS MEET.
[11] BULGARIAN PREMIER PLAYS DOWN BUDGETARY PROBLEMS . . .
[12] . . . WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY DEPUTY LEADER CALLS FOR CABINET RESHUFFLE.
[13] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS HOST ELECTION SPECTACLE.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 84, Part II, 29 April 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] BOSNIAN UN AMBASSADOR BLASTS IRANIAN "REVELATIONS."
Muhamed Sacirbey
sharply denied an election-year spate of "leaks" in the U.S. press over
alleged past and present links between Sarajevo and Tehran. He suggested
European powers that resent America's role in the Balkans are trying to
sabotage U.S. plans to "train and equip" the Bosnian army. "I think the
issue in Bosnia is not so much age-old ethnic rivalries as it is
European imperial rivalries that have now lasted for over a
century...Why are these stories being spread? The primary U.S.
relationship in the Balkans is with Bosnia, [which] upsets some other
political relationships that have existed since before World War I,"
Onasa quoted him as saying on 28 April. -- Patrick Moore
[2] SERBS, IFOR BLOCK REFUGEES' RETURN.
Mass visits by Muslim refugees to
pray at family gravesites now under Serbian control were expected on 28
April, the Muslim holiday of Kurban Bairam, the Czech daily Mlada fronta
Dnes reported the next day. Oslobodjenje noted that some 200 Serbs near
Doboj pelted refugees with stones and prevented them from crossing the
border, despite provisions in the Dayton agreement assuring both the
freedom of movement and the right of refugees to go home. IFOR troops
kept the Muslims out of Serb territory elsewhere, such as by blocking
three busloads of refugees who wanted to go to Teslic. U.S. soldiers
turned back cars carrying Muslims, who sought to go to Mahala, near
Tuzla. Serbs stoned and wounded a dozen Croat refugees wanting to visit
their home village near Gradacac, Onasa said. IFOR's Gen. Michael Walker
added that IFOR cannot guarantee freedom of movement for "larger
civilian groups." -- Patrick Moore
[3] THREE SERBS CONVICTED IN MURDER TRIALS OF ETHNIC CROATS.
Three
individuals have been convicted on charges relating to the killings of
four ethnic Croats in Serbia's Vojvodina province, Vecernje novosti
reported on 28 April. A regional court in Sremska Mitrovica sentenced
Goran Vukovic to 15 years imprisonment for shooting three Croats in June
1993, while Pavle Draskovic was sentenced to ten years in prison for
murdering one Croat in April 1993. Meanwhile, Milan Nikolic received a
prison sentence of three and one-half years for instigating "national
and religious animosity" in the province. All three men are believed to
have been volunteer-paramilitaries during Belgrade's war with Croatia.
-- Stan Markotich
[4] CHILD DIES IN BOMB EXPLOSION IN KOSOVO . . .
One child was killed and
three others injured in a bomb explosion in Velika Reka on 28 April,
Reuters reported. The Democratic League of Kosovo said unidentified
culprits threw the explosive from a driving car and the bomb exploded as
the youngsters, aged nine-12, examined the device. Serbian police,
however, said the explosion was an accident, AFP reported. They claimed
the boys found the bomb in a field near a local agricultural co-
operative. Another bomb reportedly exploded outside a house in Dusanovo
the previous day, causing damage but no casualties. Serbian Deputy
administrator Milan Nesovic claimed that "the incidents are a desperate
move by extremist elements to destroy the increasingly favorable climate
created for talks on resolving the Kosovo issue," but did not say how
the long-standing deadlock on negotiations could be broken in a
foreseeable future. -- Fabian Schmidt
[5] . . . AND MORE ARRESTS REPORTED FOLLOWING RECENT SHOOT-OUTS.
Three more
Albanians were arrested following a wave of shoot-outs in Kosovo early
last week on 26 April, AFP reported. Altogether more than 100 Albanians
have been arrested all over Kosovo since the recent shoot-outs. The
Democratic League of Kosovo has again claimed that Albanians in custody
are being tortured by police. It also reported an increase in arbitrary
police raids into private houses. -- Fabian Schmidt
[6] SLOVENIA'S REFUGEES TO BE RETURNED.
The Slovenian government has decided
to repatriate approximately 18,500 refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina,
some 90% of whom are Muslims, by the end of 1997, Nasa Borba reported on
29 April. Representatives of the Slovenian refugee community reported
that some 60% of the refugees have already indicated that they would opt
to stay in Slovenia if given the chance. Nasa Borba reported that the
refugees fear their homes "have been destroyed and that [their]
territory, in accordance with the Dayton agreement, is now under the
jurisdiction of the Republika Srpska or the the Croats." The
resettlement process is scheduled to begin on 1 July 1995. -- Stan
Markotich
[7] SLOVENIAN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH ITALY.
Slovenian Foreign Minister
Zoran Thaler said on 26 April during a visit to Portugal that the
center-left's 21 April victory in Italian elections has positive
implications for bilateral Slovenian-Italian relations. Thaler remarked
that the political mood in Rome has changed since the Olive Tree
coalition emerged with a victory. Thaler also said that Slovenia's
chances of obtaining an association agreement with the EU, as a step
towards full EU integration, have improved markedly. Reuters quoted
Thaler as saying,"We believe that there is a realistic chance to have
our association agreement signed in the near future." -- Stan Markotich
[8] ROMANIA, RUSSIA POSTPONE INITIALING BASIC TREATY.
Russian Foreign
Minister Yevgenii Primakov and his Romanian counterpart, Teodor
Melescanu, on 27 April failed to initial a much-delayed basic treaty,
Western media reported. Primakov was quoted as saying that he saw no
"visible dissension with the Romanian side," but he questioned Romania's
wish to have Moscow publicly condemn the 1939 secret Ribbentrop-Molotov
pact that stripped Romania of the Bessarabia and North Bukovina
Provinces. Melescanu, on the other hand, suggested that Romania was
ready to drop its demand that the treaty include the pact's
condemnation, but wanted the issue settled in a supplementary
declaration with no legal ramifications. Primakov, who came to Bucharest
to attend the meeting of the Business Forum of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation, also met Romanian President Ion Iliescu on the same day. --
Dan Ionescu
[9] SENIOR NATO OFFICIAL IN ROMANIA.
General John Sheehan, Supreme Allied
Commander Atlantic (SACLANT), on 26 April met with President Ion
Iliescu, Romanian media reported. The two discussed Romania's
participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program and in exercises
staged by SACLANT last year. Meanwhile, Romania on 26 April started
individual discussions on possible membership in the alliance at NATO
headquarters in Brussels. -- Dan Ionescu
[10] MOLDOVAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTS MEET.
Moldovan President Mircea Snegur on
26 April in Bucharest met with his Romanian counterpart, Ion Iliescu,
Radio Bucharest reported. They discussed bilateral cooperation and
mutual support. Snegur, who was attending the Business Forum of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation group, had addressed the conference with
a plea for more political and economic stability, as well as military
security in the region. The four-day conference, which was attended by
more than 2,000 politicians and business people, closed on 28 April. --
Dan Ionescu
[11] BULGARIAN PREMIER PLAYS DOWN BUDGETARY PROBLEMS . . .
Prime Minister
Zhan Videnov on 28 April said that the government will not amend or
adjust the 1996 state budget in order to compensate for rising interest
rates, Pari reported. He said the government will pressure the Bulgarian
National Bank to lower the prime interest rate instead, which had been
raised from 49% to 67% on 25 April. Videnov said raising the interest
rate is no way of solving the state's fundamental financial problems and
is detrimental to investments. He also blamed the trade unions for the
situation. Trud cited Videnov as saying there is no need for ministers
to resign because of the economic and financial situation. He said that
"In the U.S., there is also a budget deficit, but no one resigns because
of that." -- Stefan Krause
[12] . . . WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY DEPUTY LEADER CALLS FOR CABINET RESHUFFLE.
Meanwhile, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Deputy Chairman Yanaki
Stoilov on 28 April demanded that several key ministers be replaced,
Standart reported. He singled out Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Economic Development Rumen Gechev and Finance Minister Dimitar Kostov,
who are blamed for failing to deal with the financial and economic
crisis, and Interior Minister Lyubomir Nachev, who failed to cope with
rising crime. Stoilov said "the changes have to be made now" because
"trust in the government is waning." He predicted that without personnel
changes, the BSP will be unable to fulfill its election platform. In
other news, Reuters on 26 April cited a top police official as saying
that financial losses from white-collar crime rose by 300% in the first
three months of 1996 compared to the same period last year. -- Stefan
Krause
[13] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS HOST ELECTION SPECTACLE.
The Democratic Party held a
huge music spectacle, for 30,000 people in Tirana on 27 April, Reuters
reported. President Sali Berisha said his agenda include "rapidly
improving living standards and ensuring fast economic growth." He also
promised to speed up the privatization of state industries, banks,
telecommunications and mines and to invest in infrastructure projects
and hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of candidates banned from elections
for their past Communist-ties has reached 139. The Socialists thus lost
45 candidates, the Social Democrats 22, the Democratic Alliance 11, the
Republican Party 13, while other smaller parties lost 45 candidates.
Only three Democratic Party candidates were effected by the ban. --
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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