Subject: YDS 8/23 From: ioannisk@grip.cis.upenn.edu (Ioannis Kakadiaris) YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY CONTENTS: FROM MONTENEGRO - MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT BULATOVIC: YUGOSLAVIA IS FIRMLY FOR PEACE HUMANITARIAN AID - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS' RELIEF AID TO REFUGEES IN YUGOSLAVIA IS INSUFFICIENT KRAJINA - ATROCITIES - U.N. SAYS CROATS CONTINUE KILLING SERBS IN KRAJINA FROM FOREIGN PRESS - THE GUARDIAN: VICTORIOUS CROATIA CLOSES DOORS TO ETHNIC MINORITIES FROM MONTENEGRO MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT: YUGOSLAVIA IS FIRMLY FOR PEACE P o d g o r i c a, Aug. 22 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic said on Tuesday that Montenegro and Yugoslavia were firmly for peace. The Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro is not a war lord, because if it were, the war would have been over long ago, Bulatovic told Montenegrin television. Yugoslavia has raised the level of combat preparedness along its borders in order to protect them, and not in order to launch first strikes against anybody, Bulatovic said. He added that Yugoslavia was being subjected to constant provocations in the triangle between Dubrovnik, Trebinje and Herceg-Novi, which was something the international community was aware of. Bulatovic said that the Republic of Serb Krajina, unfortunately, existed no more in terms of state and army, as the result of the policy of its leadership. The Serb Krajina leadership was determined to pursue the war option, but was not consistent even in this, it did not defend Krajina, he said. Because of this, he said, the Croatian neo-fascist regime has achieved more even than Ante Pavelic (leader of Croatian fascist during World War Two), because there are no Serbs in Croatia any more. Bulatovic said that the whole world had known long in advance that Croatia would attack the Republic of Serb Krajina and the Serb Krajina leadership had known three days before the offensive was launched on Aug. 4. The Serb Krajina leadership did nothing, however, while assuring Yugoslavia that it was capable of offering a resistance, Bulatovic said. He criticised also the Bosnian Serb leadership, especially for its plans for unification and creation of a commonwealth of Serb lands. Bulatovic said he hoped that the Bosnian Serb leadership would take rational steps and realise that a few dozen square miles of territory were not worth loss of human life. Asked why he was not present in international diplomatic contacts to end the crisis in former Yugoslavia, like Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bulatovic said that negotiators were chosen for their power and influence. The West has chosen Milosevic, because he is undeniably the man with the greatest influence among the Serbs, Bulatovic said. He added that he and the Yugoslav state leadership (President Zoran Lilic and Prime Minister Radoje Kontic) were absolutely up to date on Milosevic's diplomatic and negotiating activities. HUMANITARIAN AID INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS' RELIEF AID IS INSUFFICIENT B e l g r a d e, Aug. 22 (Tanjug) - Relief aid coming from abroad or from international organizations is insufficient as compared to the number of refugees from the Republic of Serb Krajina, it was said at a meeting between Serbian Government officials and senior regional officials on Tuesday. The meeting which focused on ways to provide for the refugees, said that a total of 154,274 refugees had so far crossed the Yugoslav border and that stocks of food, medicine and hygienic supplies in places where many refugees were accommodated had been insufficient, the Serbian Ministry of Information said in a statement released after the meeting. It was said at the meeting that most refugees had found shelter in Serbia's Northern province of Vojvodina or in Belgrade although they could not be permanently provided for there. KRAJINA - ATROCITIES U.N. SAYS CROATS CONTINUE KILLING SERBS Z a g r e b, Aug. 22 (Tanjug) - The Zagreb-based U.N. Command said Tuesday it had reports about Croatian servicemen daily killing Serb civilians and burning down their houses in the Republic of Serb Krajina. U.N. spokesman Christopher Gunnes told newsmen that 13 houses were ablaze in Donji Lapac, Sector South, on Sunday, while U.N. observers noted more killings. He said that in the village of Kakanj on August 18, two weeks after the Croatian army attacked Krajina, two Croat soldiers killed two villagers and beat down one villager. In the same village, U.N. observers later sighted another two Croatian soldiers throwing a beaten Serb out of his house which they set aflame, Gunnes said. FROM FOREIGN PRESS VICTORIOUS CROATIA CLOSES DOORS TO ETHNIC MINORITIES L o n d o n, Aug. 21 (The Guardian, by Julian Borger) - A new Sparta may be emerging in central Europe. Flushed with its victory over its Serb minority, Croatia is basking in martial glory. Patriotic music fills the airwaves. The country's red chequered flag files from almost every home. Even the smiling young girls on magazine covers wear combat uniforms. Dissident voices questioning the army's conduct are being muffled and measures are being taken to ensure that the country's new-found ethnic "purity" is not diluted. Clear signs emerged yesterday that the government was raising the drawbridge to prevent other minorities taking the place of the Serbs, more than 150,000 of whom have fled. According to U.N. officials, Croatia is threatening to bar entry to Muslim forced out of Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia, while welcoming Bosnian Croats expelled from the same region. If Croatia sticks to the decision, more than 1.000 Muslims will be stranded on the Bosnian side of the border. Up to 30.000 more Muslims face expulsion from the Banja Luka area, where Bosnian Serbs have been evicting thousands of non-Serbs, in retaliation for Croatia's offensive against the Serb rebel region of Krajina. The newly assertive regime has shown scant sympathy for the Muslim victims of this latest bout of ethnic cleansing. They are seen principally as an unwelcome distraction from the triumphant reclamation of Croatian territory. A new video appeared in the shops this weekend entitled "Five Years of Croatian Freedom". It portrays President Franjo Tudjman, dressed in a brilliant white uniform with outsized epaulettes, reviewing row upon row of military hardware from the back of a Jeep. During the video's 90 minutes, paeans of classical proportions are heaped on the soldier-leader. He is described as the "Prometheus of Croatia, igniter of the drowsing spirit of patriotism for the fatherland". Critics who question the methods used in the conquest of Krajina are lambasted by the state-controlled media, despite growing evidence of summary executions and the burning of Serb homes. Croatia is clearly not a dictatorship and there are small opposition parties in parliament. But for the time being at least they are all singing the same tune. The Social Liberals' leader, Drazen Budisa, declared it was not the time to criticise but a "time to rejoice". This may be a relatively short period of euphoria following a military victory which surprised even its own authors. But a few dissidents are beginning to wonder what kind of consequences the triumph of militarism will have for Croatia's young and partial democracy. Liberals believe pluralism will be an early victim of the new triuphalism. In 1991. 22 per cent of the population was non- Croat, mostly Serb. There are now thought to be only 130.000 Serbs left, about 3 per cent of the population. The Croatian government has formally invited back the Krajina Serbs who fled to Bosnia and Serbia earlier this month. But in reality the door is closing behind them. According to the United Nations and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Serb villages are being systematically razed. President Tudjman confirmed on Friday that the constitution would soon be adjusted to remove all vestiges of the Serb presence, erasing clauses giving special status to ethnic minorities exceeding 8 per cent of the population. The formally Serb settlements of Knin and Glina would also lose their minority privileges. Other minorities will not be welcome in their place. President Tudjman has ordered out 30,000 Muslims who fled fighting in the Bosnian enclave of Bihac earlier this month and Muslims attempting to escape Serb-held areas of Bosnia are also being denied refuge in Croatia. Political diversity could be another early victim of Croatia's assertive mood. Zvonimir Cicak, a political commentator, predicts that victory will be followed "not just by a national homogenisation but a party homogenisation as well". The pro-government press is dropping heavy hints elections could be called before the end of the year. The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) controls well over half parliament's 138 seats, and that majority is expected to be considerably strengthened in the euphoria of victory. Optimists believe that after elections, Croatia will have a chance of returning to political normality. "Soon enough, the HDZ is going to have to answer for bread- and-butter economic issues, and that tends to spawn a plurality of views," a Western diplomat said. The pessimists stand that logic on its head. Mr Cicak fears that it provides President Tudjman and the HDZ with a motive for extending the martial atmosphere as long as possible. "We are entering a dark tunnel in Croatian political life", Mr Cicak said. "If you are a Sparta, you don't need a parliament, you just need soldiers."