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Serbia Today 96-01-04
Serbia Today
4 January 1996
In This Edition
IFOR COMMANDER FONTENO: "CROATS ARE RACISTS"
Supplement to the News Briefs: OPTIONS FOR RETURN FROM EUROPE OF SOME 700,000 REFUGEES
CONTENTS
[01] PARIS WARNS IZETBEGOVIC
[02] CROAT-MUSLIM DISPUTE ABOUT SARAJEVO
[03] IFOR COMMANDER FONTENO: "CROATS ARE RACISTS"
[04] UNHCR PROHIBITED CONTACT WITH SERBS
[05] THEY KILLED JASENOVAC TOO
[06] LEADER HAS CAUSED WAR
[07] FOREIGNERS ARE ASKING FOR OUR VACCINES
[08] Supplement to the News Briefs: OPTIONS FOR RETURN FROM EUROPE OF SOME 700,000 REFUGEES
[01] PARIS WARNS IZETBEGOVIC
France is warning the Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic
that the mission of the international forces is not
preservation of the public peace and order in Sarajevo, but
implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, whose basic
target is the achievement and securing of a true peace. This
stand was expressed because of the growing polemics about
detention of 16 Muslims, among them military persons, during
their crossing through the Serbian quarters of the city.
Izetbegovic's ministers are accusing the French forces of
being responsible for such 'violation of the peace agreement'
and 'not guaranteeing safety in a single Sarajevo'. At the
accusation of Bosnian authorities that NATO soldiers are not
performing their mission, as reported by the Paris "Le
Figaro", the Commander of the French forces in the Sarajevo
zone, General Zeller is answering: "No, this is not our task.
This is the problem for the police, and not a military
problem. We are responsible for establishing confidence and
for guaranteeing peace". France is consistently demanding
that all the international guarantees be granted to the
Serbian population and for the international police forces to
be sent to Serbian quarters of Sarajevo. "Our activities must
be impartial", reiterated again General Zeller the French
stand, while the Izetbegovic's camp is trying by all means to
put the international forces in the service of the Muslim
interests. (Politika, January 4, 1996)
[02] CROAT-MUSLIM DISPUTE ABOUT SARAJEVO
Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) in Sarajevo has renewed
today its request for establishing a Croat municipality in
the city of Sarajevo, with a full local self-government,
which is fiercely opposed by the Muslim side. The pro-Muslim
city assembly of Sarajevo has by the end of December already
decided that Sarajevo shall be organized as a canton in the
Muslim-Croat Federation, but this solution was opposed by the
remaining Sarajevo Croats. In the press release HDZ of
Sarajevo is warning that the political status of Sarajevo has
not been arranged in accordance with the Constitution of the
Muslim-Croat Federation, and is demanding full equality of
Croats with Muslims in all the fields. (Vecernje novosti,
January 4, 1996)
[03] IFOR COMMANDER FONTENO: "CROATS ARE RACISTS"
When speaking of the international politics and its
evaluation of the Croat political reality, the new year did
not have a very good start for Croatia. The temperature in
Zagreb was raised by the American Colonel Gregory Fonteno,
the IFOR Commander for Bosnian Posavina. He stated for "The
Wall Street Journal" in a clear and unambiguous language of a
soldier, after his first encounter with the Balkan reality,
that "Croats are racists". American Croats, at the press of a
button from Zagreb, have already sent a letter to the U.S.
President Bill Clinton "to remove the impertinent colonel".
Although it is not up to soldiers, of course. to conduct
politics, the statement by the American colonel in European
media was interpreted as "the return of Croatia to its
neo-Fascist roots", which the world can not tolerate.
Because, Croatia in the way it has behaved with Serbs over
the past few years, has already entered the ranks of racist
states. (Vecernje novosti, January 4, 1996)
[04] UNHCR PROHIBITED CONTACT WITH SERBS
In the refugees camp in Gasinci in the Eastern Croatia, 306
Serbs arrived yesterday, against whom by the decree of
President Tudjman on the New Year's Eve, the criminal
prosecution was suspended based on accusations that they have
taken part in armed rebellion. The spokesman of the UN High
Commissariat for Refugees (UNHCR) Mans Nieberg stated that
the UNHCR personnel were prohibited from talking with these
Serbs who are a part of the total of 455 pardoned Serbs.
"Therefore, we do not know what are their intentions and
where would they like to go", said Nieberg and added that the
camps which are under the control of Croat authorities and in
which a large number of Serbs is detained and Bosnian
Muslims, are extremely well guarded. Croat authorities did
not publish yet the precise number of Serbs detained in
prisons. Croat Helsinki Board has recently warned that many
Serbs have been put to trial, "in express procedure, at
suspicious trials when at the same time even twenty citizens
of Serbian nationality were being tried at the same time,
with only one defense attorney for all of them". Therefore,
members of this Board have demanded a law to be passed on
general amnesty which Tudjman has promised to Serbs in
Krajina, during the Croat military action. (Politika ekspres,
January 4, 1996)
[05] THEY KILLED JASENOVAC TOO
"Today the Memorial Center of Jasenovac is only a great heap
of remnants. As if there has never been there a sanctuary of
death". This is how the Split "Feral Tribune" is beginning
its report about Jasenovac, the execution grounds for over
700,000 Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, who perished in the World War
Two from the Ustashi hand. There is no more Memorial Center,
and only the walls have remained and scattered photos of camp
inmates from half a century ago. The exhibits, testimonies on
terrible Ustashi crimes have vanished, and the present-day
authorities in Croatia, following in the path of the one-time
Ustashi state, and hiding its crimes claiming that "the
exhibits have already been taken to Belgrade at the beginning
of war". According to the international conventions in force,
war crime is destruction of monuments and cultural heritage,
so the question is only whether Serbs will bring charges with
the International Tribunal in The Hague. Because, the Croat
Ustashi half a century ago, have killed so many thousands of
Serbs (from 60 million victims of Fascism in World War Two
every sixtieth was killed by them), and now they have killed
even Jasenovac itself. (Borba, January 4, 1996)
[06] LEADER HAS CAUSED WAR
Among a few isolated intellectuals who are raising voice in
criticism of the Croat authorities, is the writer Predrag
Raos. In "Novi list" he says: "HDZ and Tudjman must go. For
as long as they are in power in this country, there can be no
peace or democracy. Tudjman is speaking all the time about
de- stabilization, and the war actually started with his
coming into power". While saying that in Croatia we are
witnessing the darkest form of chauvinism, Raos concludes
that not one of the political parties is willing to enter
coalition with Tudjman's Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) -
for reasons of ethics. "The difference between them and us is
not the difference in the program, but the difference in
moral", says Raos. (Vecernje novosti, January 4, 1996)
[07] FOREIGNERS ARE ASKING FOR OUR VACCINES
Institute for Immunology and Virusology "Torlak" has draft
proposals for agreements on export of the 'polio' vaccine
(vaccine against poliomyelitis) and "DI-TE" (diphtheria and
tetanus) in the value of 15 million USD, said the director of
this institution Dr. Tomislav Jankovic. The Institute is
receiving requests for deliveries of other types of vaccines,
but it is necessary for contracting new deals to make
organizational and other preparations. Institute "Torlak"
before the sanctions were imposed, was one of the leading
European producers of vaccines, sera and immunological
preparations, but over the past years was forced greatly to
reduce its production. (Politika, January 4, 1996)
[08] Supplement to the News Briefs: OPTIONS FOR RETURN FROM EUROPE OF SOME 700,000 REFUGEES
Some 700,000 refugees from former Yugoslavia because of the
war conflicts have been received in the developed countries
of Europe. By offering them temporary shelter, but not a
refugee status, they are now planning to be freed of burden
of such a large number of refugees as soon as possible.
According to the plan of the UN High Commissariat for
Refugees (UNHCR) their return would take place in the third
phase (the first phase would be the return of refugees from
within Bosnia, and the second phase of those from former
Yugoslav republics).
The recent attempt by Germany to start a successive return of
refugees (in this country there are some 350,000 refugees
from former Yugoslavia) was stopped personally by the High
Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs. Sadako Ogata, with her
strongest argument being the cold winter.
Temporary shelter of "former Yugoslavs" as they are called by
the UNHCR, means that the host country is guaranteeing the
protection from the forcible return to where they would be in
danger, which further means : treatment in accordance with
the international humanitarian standards and, finally, that
the refugees are allowed to stay for as long as their return
to the country of origin is not possible. Europe has shown
its 'generosity' by giving refugees temporary protection
probably because it did not believe that this period will
last for long.
Now when the peace has been concluded, it is very important
to have the cooperation of all the sides: governments of the
countries which have offered shelter to refugees and
governments of their country of origin, in the process of
eventual repatriation, especially in the implementation of
the Dayton agreement and return of refugees to
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Although the war is over, it seems that
the process of return of refugees will be slow and tedious.
There are several questions facing the UNHCR. Is the
temporary shelter becoming a permanent asylum? Who is the one
to decide and determine whether the conditions are there for
a safe return? What is to happen to those who have lost
temporary shelter, but do not wish to return, or their houses
have remained in the territory held by the opposite side?
According to the UNHCR interpretation recently published in a
study, the exceptions for extension of temporary shelter
refer to those whom the country of origin refuses to take
back, in case when the country of asylum and the country of
origin agree to that effect, to the refugees who are under a
special medical treatment which they would not obtain in the
country of origin, and to the refugees who would be separated
from their families. For those who under these criteria shall
remain in the country of asylum, i.e. their final solution is
the relocation to a third country, the state in which they
have found refuge shall grant all the rights and
possibilities for them to become its naturalized citizens.
Together with Germany, among countries with several tens of
thousands of refugees from former Yugoslavia, are also
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway,
Switzerland and Great Britain. (Tanjug, January 4, 1996) .
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