Subject: YDS 8/20
From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)

20. AUGUST 1995.
                      YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY
                                
  YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: EUROPE THREATENED BY OWN IRRATIONALITY



      B e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia  expects the U.N. Security Council to condemn  Croatia
for  crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing, and human rights
violations perpetrated during its aggression against the Republic
of  Serb Krajina, President of the F.R. of Yugoslavia Zoran Lilic
noted on Sunday.
     Lilic was speaking in central Serbia at an observance of the
first Serbian victory over the regular Turkish imperial army  190
years ago.
      Lilic said that the United Nations, in the best interest of
peace,  must  renounce  a policy of dual standards  in  order  to
eliminate a perilous hotbed in the Balkans.
      He  recalled that before the eyes of the whole  world,  the
Croatian army swooped down with all its might on the Serb  people
in Krajina in the action openly sponsored and genuinely supported
by two of the big powers.
      Lilic  assessed  that the situation was difficult  but  the
Republic  of Serb Krajina, even in the moments of worst hardship,
had  all  the  necessary  preconditions  to  successfully  defend
itself.  'Despite the notorious partiality since the outbreak  of
the  crisis on the soil of former Yugoslavia, and frequent proofs
of  the  disregard of a just solution to the Serb  question,  the
Krajina leaders had had space and chance to save the people  from
disaster.'  But,  he  added, instead of  powerful  resistance  an
incomprehensible  suicidal decision  had  been  made  to  retreat
without fighting.
      Endless  columns  of  misfortunate people  heading  towards
Serbia  and  the  F.R.  of  Yugoslavia, Lilic  said,  are  direct
consequences  of the irrational and non-cooperative administering
of the overall national policy.
      Responsible for such an outcome are those who had not  been
capable  of  estimating  what  is  achievable  through   a   just
liberation  war  and  what  is achievable  through  diplomacy  in
peacetime.
       Had  the  peace  plans  and  initiatives  offered  by  the
international  community  been accepted,  they  would  have  long
brought  peace to the Serb people in all the areas of the  former
Yugoslavia, said Lilic.
      Lilic pointed out that the latest events in the Republic of
Serb  Krajina  and the Bosnian Serb Republic had  shown  all  the
danger  of  a  policy of war adventurism to  which  the  F.R.  of
Yugoslavia had not and would not at any cost succumb.
      This is so not because we lack the strength to wage a  war,
but  because we justify only the right to a liberation war,  said
Lilic.
      This  is  why  we  have justified as well as  assisted  the
righteous  struggle  of  the Serb People in  the  (Bosnian)  Serb
Republic and in the Republic of Serb Krajina, Lilic said.
      He  added that once the war objectives were achieved,  when
there  was  no  sense  any longer to lose  human  lives,  we  had
insisted on a political settlement, and hence Yugoslavia will not
allow its being involved into the war.
      We  call  on  the international community to most  fiercely
condemn  the  brutal  aggression against  the  Republic  of  Serb
Krajina,  a  U.N.-  protected territory, and  to  halt  Croatia's
aggressive conduct which accounts for the biggest threat not only
to  the  peace process but also to peace and stability throughout
the region, Lilic said.
     Speaking about the huge efforts Yugoslavia takes to help the
Krajina  Serbs  sheltered  in Yugoslavia  and  the  Bosnian  Serb
Republic,  Lilic  stressed  that the  F.R.  of  Yugoslavia  is  a
democratic country in which all its citizens are equal  and  this
is how it will stay.
      For us there is no priority more important than to preserve
peace,  internal  stability and economic recovery,  and  all  our
political  wisdom and diplomatic art are directed  at  this  aim,
Lilic said.
      In  the  future we will also back up all useful initiatives
towards  finding out fresh and acceptable peace solutions  to  be
offered by the international community, he said.
      We  will  do this in profound confidence that the  path  of
peace  is the only path to the final termination of the  war  and
the  crisis,  but we must also say that there is  a  limit  which
cannot and must not be overstepped, he added.
     Our consistent and stable policy of peace gives us the moral
right  to  demand  the  full  and unconditional  lifting  of  the
sanctions, the detrimental effects of which are tangible also  in
other Balkan countries, lilic said.
      Not evaluating adequately the policy of peace being pursued
by  the  F.R. of Yugoslavia, Europe is taking the risk of burning
itself down in the flames of its own irrationality, Lilic said in
conclusion.

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       -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --
  D. D. Chukurov                     ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com
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