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Serbia Today 96-06-17Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Serbia Today17 June 1996CONTENTS
[01] ABOUT PREPARATIONS FOR THE FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAPresident of the Republic Slobodan Milosevic received this Saturday Deputy U.S. Secretary of State John Cornblum, who has arrived in Belgrade at the head of the American team for implementation of the Dayton Agreement. During the talks the preparations for the forthcoming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina were discussed, and especially further successful solution of the problems pertaining to the freedom of movement and creation of conditions for a free access to the media. Information were exchanged and stands on the entirety of civilian and political aspects of the implementation of the peace plan. During the meeting, actual questions of the bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the United States were tackled, with the statement that this process is having a positive development and that the normalization of the relations between the two countries is in the interest of strengthening of peace and stability in the region. (Politika, June 16, 1996)[02] UNDERSTANDING WAS SHOWN FOR THE SERBIAN STANDSPrime Minister of the Republic of Srpska Gojko Klickovic, Serbian media in Pale report, has expressed his satisfaction with the results of the Ministerial Conference in Florence and the treatment of the Republic of Srpska delegation. "Serbian request was that there can be no negotiations outside of the formula agreed upon in Dayton, according to which Bosnia-Herzegovina is composed of three sovereign peoples and of the two equal entities", said Prime Minister Klickovic. Foreign Minister of the Republic of Srpska Aleksa Buha stated upon his return from the conference that the meeting in Florence marked calming down of the hysteria about extradition of President of the Republic of Srpska Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic. "Hysteria is now stopped and the international community, at least as far as The Hague Tribunal is concerned, is on the way of finding the right measure", said Buha. (Borba, June 16, 1996)[03] HARIS SILAJDZIC INJUREDSome hundred supporters of the Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic has prevented on Saturday in Cazin the promotional rally of the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina and its president Haris Silajdzic was attacked and injured. Former Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Muslim government was hit from the back with a metal bar on the head and is now in the hospital. Izetbegovic's supporters, with high raised flags of the Party of Democratic Action and the pictures of their leader, shouting the name of Allah, were beating up people escorting Silajdzic, demolishing cars, and there was no police to be found. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has condemned this attack. "Local authorities did not fulfil their task to protect the most basic rights of citizens and democratic principles", reads the statement of the O.S.C.E. (Politika, June 17, 1996)[04] AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON AMNESTY REJECTEDGovernment of the Republic of Croatia has refused the initiative for passing of the Law on General Amnesty of Serbs in Croatia. In this way it has confirmed that it does not accept criticism and objections arriving even from the international community on the recently passed 'selective'' Law on Amnesty, whose provisions are aimed only at those citizens of Croatia of Serbian nationality who are living in Baranja, Western Srem and Eastern Slavonia, meaning in the present-day areas under the UNTS transitional administration. Ministry of Justice of Croatia has given an explanation that the general amnesty is already in a corresponding way being implemented through the existing laws, which is not true. On the citizens of Serbian nationality who have escaped last year in the face of aggression of the Croat Army in Western Slavonia and Krajina no law on amnesty is being applied at all. In spite of the guarantees of the Dayton Agreement, corresponding UN resolutions and the civilizational norms of behavior, for Serbs there are no conditions whatsoever for a free return to their homes in Croatia. (Politika, June 15, 1996)[05] PARIS CRITICIZES CROAT POLITICSOfficial Paris on several occasions has criticized the politics of the Croat government, and the chief of French diplomacy Herve de Charrette has requested that the international community makes a strong pressure on Zagreb to respect the provisions of the Dayton Agreement. France is of the view that "Mostar crisis" and crisis in the Croat-Muslim federation is the consequence of the anti- Dayton actions of Zagreb. This stand of the French Government is supported by the press, especially since President Tudjman is trying to "silence up the press of Croatia". The commentator of the French International Radio stated that Tudjman "has introduced the regime based on fear and totalitarianism", and the Paris "Liberation" yesterday is writing that Tudjman's Croatia "is a state which does not tolerate criticism". French media are unison in the view that Tudjman is escalating dispute with the West. The decision of the chiefs of western diplomacies to prevent admission of Croatia in the Council of Europe has angered the one-party authorities in Zagreb, because this has shown to the western public all the democratic failures of the Tudjman's regime, which Klaus Kinkel is calling "a strange democracy". (Vecernje novosti, June 17, 1996)[06] ETHNIC CLEANSING OF SLOVENIANSIn Ljubljana, a book was promoted by the Slovenian journalist and publicist Roger Gogala entitled "Fight for the Southern Frontier - Istria", in which the author is proving that Croatia, in the division of territories after World War Two, in comparison with the other republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was extremely privileged. With the remark that this analysis could serve as argumentation to the Slovenian diplomacy in its further negotiations with Croatia about the frontiers in Istria, the author is warning at the examples of "systematic ethnic cleansing of Slovenians from Istria". In this he is relying on the statement of "the Croat expansion at the expense of Slovenia". The author recalls also "the Croat global expansionist ambitions" mentioning in this context "constant Croat appropriation of Boka Kotorska and appropriation of the Prevlaka Peninsula which was never Croat". At the end the author recalls "one insupportable paradox of the post-war Yugoslavia, when Croatia obtained Istria only after World War Two - perhaps as its reward for having collaborated with the occupiers and for being a German satellite". Gogala recalls also the fact that Croats "have joined in larger numbers the anti-Fascist struggle only at the end of 1943, when they have seen who will win and when from the Fascist and defeated camp they were transferred among peoples who have defeated Fascism". (Politika, June 16, 1996)[07] Supplement to the News Briefs: APPETITES OF JUDGE CASSESEPresident of the International Tribunal for the War Crimes Committed in Former Yugoslavia, Antonio Cassese, in his intentions is more and more reminding one of the mercenaries who were coming to former Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the head hunt on Serbian heads. Cassese recently stated that he will demand from the UN Security Council to impose again sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Srpska, because according to him, they are refusing to cooperate with the International Tribunal.Offended probably by the refusal of the U.S. Administration to give him support, Cassese two days ago played another card in Florence: he demanded from the international community "to force Serbs to cooperation with the Tribunal" by banning the athletes of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of the Republic of Srpska from appearing at the forthcoming Olympic Games. By this act Cassesse has turned into a judge who, according to his personal rules and moods, is judging the entire Serbian people, pronouncing it guilty in advance. If it was not so, then it would never even occur to the president of The Hague Tribunal to blame for the consequences of eventual war crimes an entire people and its best athletes. In his frequent threats to Serbs Cassesse is perhaps trying in advance to avoid some certain and not at all pleasant questions. Let us mention only those that we have the impression are reflecting the very essence of the Tribunal which is presided upon by judge Cassese - its unbecoming political dimension. Why The Hague Tribunal did not open an investigation against even one foreign mercenary who has spent the war in the ranks of Croat armies in Croatia and Bosnia or in the Muslim army? Even more so since the participation of mujjahedins in the army of Bosnia- Herzegovina is not at all disputable, as well as it is not disputable that mercenaries, roughly speaking, according to all valid regulations, are practically "outlaws"? Why The Hague Tribunal after the statement by Yasushi Akashi that the massacre in Sarajevo Markale was committed by Muslims, did not even give a hint that an investigation will be opened and responsibility determined of those who are guilt for the death of 68 people? Is the spiral of crime of the Muslim side ending at the level of local commanders and ordinary soldiers, although it was determined that the president of the Muslim Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic was present in the prison camps of Celebici and Musale, in Konjic, whose director is suspected of war crimes? Izetbegovic knew what was doing done in these prison camps, claim numerous eye witnesses. Why are The Hague Tribunal, its main Prosecutor Goldstone and President Cassese treating President of the Republic of Srpska Radovan Karadzic and Commander of the Main Headquarters of the Republic of Srpska Army Ratko Mladic as war criminals, although even in absentia they were not tried? Especially because, for example, there is no evidence that Serbs have killed "thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica", as is being claimed by both Goldstone and Cassese. Also, is it amplifying or reducing "the Serbian guilt" the fact that The Hague Tribunal did not succeed is condemning General Djordje Djukic, Colonel Aleksa Krsmanovic and Goran Lajic against whom indictments were raised? Cassese, as if intentionally, is trying to miss his target, because only in this way he can "hit all the rest": the entire Serbian people. (Vecernje novosti, June 15, 1996) Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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