Subject: YDS 8/29 From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) 29. AUGUST 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY C O N T E N T S : THE LATEST MASS-CRIMES IN SARAJEVO - AT LEAST 33 DEAD IN SHELL BLAST IN SARAJEVO - KARADZIC SAYS MUSLIMS STAGE-MANAGE CRIME IN SARAJEVO - MUSLIM SHELLS KILL ONE WOMAN, WOUND 48 OTHER CIVILIANS CHRONOLOGY OF SELF-VICTIMISATION OF BOSNIAN MUSLIMS FORMER BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA - BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC ACCEPTS U.S.PEACE INITATIVE - BOSNIAN MUSLIM COMMANDER REJECTS U.S. PEACE PLAN CROATIA-KRAJINA - CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CHANGE NAMES OF SERB TOWNS IN KRAJINA C O M M E N T A R I E S - U.S. PEACE INITIATIVE ENTERS DECISIVE PHASE, by Zoran Jevdjovic - KRAJINA IS COMPLETELY DEVASTATED, by Nikola Stanojevic FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS - SERB REFGUEE TESTIFIES TO EXISTENCE OF CREMATORY FOR SERBS IN SISAK - SERB PROPERTY IN CROATIA IS BEING DIVIDED UP - LONDON PAPER ON TRAGIC FATE OF KRAJINA SERB REFUGEES - SPANISH DAILY URGES U.S. TO TAKE UNBIASED STAND THE LATEST MASS-CRIMES IN SARAJEVO AT LEAST 33 DEAD IN SHELL BLAST IN SARAJEVO S a r a j e v o, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - UNPROFOR has started investigating the explosion and no decision will be taken in haste, its Spokesman Lt.Col. Chris Vernon said in Sarajevo. News agencies report that only one 120 mm shell exploded, killing at least 34 and injuring over 80 people, only 30 meters from the Markale market place. Bosnian Serb Government Information Minister Miroslav Toholj expressed his deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and added, quoted by AFP, that Izetbegovic's Government was using the classic Islamic terrorism methods to shock international public opinion and put the blame on Serbs. News agencies draw a parallel between this latest explosion and the one of February last year at Markale, when Muslim sources claimed 68 people had been killed and nearly 200 injured. The agencies point to many similarities - one shell killing scores of people, nearly the same place, and the timing - just before important international meetings. The explosion at Markale market place had occurred a few days before the Security Council session at which a resolution was adopted to give a ten-day deadline to the Serbs to withdraw their heavy weapons to 20 km from Sarajevo. Suspicions that Muslims might be responsible for the Markale crime were confirmed both by earlier unprofor reports and statements of the then UNPROFOR Commander Michael Rose, as well by Special U.N. Envoy Yasushi Akashi, who all said several times that Muslims forces were firing on their own civilians so that Serbs could be blamed. Several sources had confirmed that there had been a secret UNPROFOR report clearly stating that the shell had been fired from Muslim positions. Today's hurry of the Muslim Government in Sarajevo was also indicative, as it held an emergency session immediately after the explosion, at which Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic demanded that the latest U.S. peace mission at the time be suspended and that NATO 'protect' Sarajevo. Muslim politial and military leaders have not hidden these past few days their dissatisfaction with the new U.S. peace initiative. Izetbegovic desribed this plan recently as a 'non-binding initiative', while his Army Commander Rasim Delic said Sunday in Jablanica that the Americans were offering something 'with no head or tail', announcing that Muslims would continue fighting regardless of international initiatives, Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reports. KARADZIC SAYS MUSLIMS STAGE-MANAGE CRIME IN SARAJEVO B e l g r a d e, Aug 28 (Tanjug) - President of the Bosnian Serb Republic Radovan Karadzic accused the Muslim side on Monday of having stage-managed a massacre in Sarajevo in order to halt the Bosnia peace talks. Before the opening of Assembly session on Monday, Karadzic said that the Muslim side could have been expected, like every time before major crossroads in talks, to stage-manage a massacre of its own population so as to sabotage the peace process. Karadzic was quoted by the Bosnian Serb SRNA agency as telling newsmen that whenever the crucial moments came at the talks, or an important personality was arriving in Sarajevo, we had witnessed similar events. Karadzic hoped that the international community and media would not be tricked by this provocation while, he said, the Bosnian Serb Republic would energetically demand an international commission to be formed - in which the Bosnian Serb Republic would have its expert - to investigate who was responsible for the attack. MUSLIM SHELLS KILL ONE WOMAN, WOUND 48 OTHER CIVILIANS I l i j a s, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - One woman was killed and 48 other civilians were wounded on Monday in a Muslim artillery attack on the orthodox church St. Sava in Sarajevo's Serb district of Blazuj. Fifteen children are among the wounded and a local priest and his verger, Bosnian Serb military sources said. The attack took place at the end of liturgy on the orthodox holiday of The Feast Day of The Mother of God, when the church was full of people, and a wedding had also been scheduled. Muslim artillery attacked from Mt. Igman near Sarajevo, from where the church in Blazuj is a clearly visible target, the sources said. More than 80 shells hit the serb municipality of Ilidza, of which Blazuj is part, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported quoting Bosnian Serb army sources. When an UNPROFOR team arrived in Blazuj to investigate, Muslim artillery again attacked, so that the team of experts had to leave without having done anything, the Serb military sources said. Commenting the Muslim artillery attack on the church in Blazuj, Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said Serbs had always honoured the holidays of the other faiths. 'However, in Second World War and again today, our enemies have attacked us on our Christian Orthodox holidays. It is a continuity of a criminal behaviour and it does not surprise us.' CHRONOLOGY OF SELF-VICTIMISATION OF BOSNIAN MUSLIMS B e l g r a d e, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - The following is the chronology of graver crimes of which the Muslim authorities in Sarajevo have accused Bosnian Serbs, whereas Serbs have insisted that the crimes were instances of Muslim self-victimization: May 27, 1992 - Vase Miskin street in Sarajevo - 14 killed, about 70 wounded. Serbs say the crime was stage-managed by the Muslim leadership in order to get sanctions introduced against the Yugoslav Federation of Serbia and Montenegro, which was done under U.N. Security Council Resolution 757 of May, 30. June 22, 1992 - Shell hits Marshal Tito street in Sarajevo - 8 killed, 65 wounded. Serbs say the Muslim side's goal was to secure air strikes against Serb positions. August 18, 1992 - Shell hits the Evropa hotel in Sarajevo - 5 killed, 8 wounded. Serbs insist the purpose of the Muslim side was to influence the outcome of the Conference on the former Yugoslavia in London Aug. 26-28. August 12, 1993 - Shell hits a queue for water in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja - 12 killed, 15 wounded. Serbs say Muslim leadership wanted to undermine the Geneva peacetalks on a union of three republics in Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 12-July 31. November 9, 1993 - Mine explodes in 'Prvi Maj' school in the Sarajevo suburb of Ali-Pasino Polje - 4 children killed, 20 wounded. Serbs say Muslims wanted to undermine a French-German proposal for the renewal of the Geneva talks, tabled on Nov. 8. Januaray 15, 1994 - Mine explodes near brewery in Sarajevo among people queuing for water - 8 killed, 19 wounded. Serbs say Muslims wanted to influence peace talks scheduled to open in Geneva on Jan. 18 and NATO leaders who were to meet that same day in Brussels. January 1994 - Mine explodes amid children sled riding - 6 boss killed. Serbs say Muslims wanted to provoke NATO action and secure exemption of Bosnian Muslims from the U.N. embargo on arms deliveries to the former Yugoslavia. February 4, 1994 - Mortar shell hits civilians queuing for humanitarian aid in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja - 9 killed. Serbs say the aim of the Muslims was to prevent the resumption of the peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 10. February 5, 1994 - One or more planted mines explode at (or a mortar shell hits, as claimed by UNPROFOR), Sarajevo's open-air market Markale - 68 killed, about 200 wounded, according to Muslim figures. Serbs say the crime was intended to thwart the scheduled peace talks in Geneva, provoke air strikes against Serb positions, and back demands for arms deliveries to Bosnian Muslims. In the nine listed crimes against peace, in which one shell or mine was used with incredible precision, a total of 134 civilians were killed and nearly 400 innocent people wounded. After the massacre in Vase Miskin Street, Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic wrote down in a book of condolences: 'I hope this has not been for nothing.' FORMER BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC ACCEPTS U.S.PEACE INITATIVE B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - The Assembly of the Bosnian Serb Republic welcomed early Tuesaday the U.S. peace initative and confirmed its readiness to conclude lasting peace. In a statement issued after a 12-hour extrarodinary session the National Assembly said that it 'welcomes the U.S. initative for a political solution to the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and confirms a readiness to conclude lasting and just peace,' the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported. The Assembly also decided to include a Bosnian Serb delegation in the negotiatimg team of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. BOSNIAN MUSLIM COMMANDER REJECTS U.S. PEACE PLAN B e l g r a d e, Aug 28 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Muslim Commander Gen.Rasim Delic rejected the U.S. peace initative to end the three-year war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and told his troops that war was the only way forward. I a statement transmitted Sunday by Bosnian Muslim Television and Radio Delic said that the plan was still not finalised. 'We cannont expect much from the international community. We only have one way to go - to continue to fight,' he told troops of the Fourth Muslim Bosnian Corps in the area of Konjic west of Sarajevo. Delic's statement coincides with the renewal of the U.S. peace initiative in the scope of which U.S. Assistant Secretary of state Richard Holbrooke will meet Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic on Monday. CROATIA-KRAJINA CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CHANGE NAMES OF SERB TOWNS IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - Croatian authorities have ordered that the names of Serb towns in occupied Krajina be changed, and according to that decision Dvor na Uni will be renamed after the war criminal Cardinal Aloiz Stepinac. ISKRA, an agency of the Republic of Serb Krajina, reported on Monday that the name of the town Dvor na Uni should be changed or has already be changed into Stepinac-Grad. Cardinal Stepinac was convicted and executed as a war criminal after World War Two. The Krajina Serb agency said that in the town of Dvor na Uni, Stepinac ordered in World War Two the killing of over two thousand Serbs. Stepinac supported Croatian fascists - ustashis who brutally killed in WW II more than a million Serbs. Tudjman's regime rehabilitated, immediately upon coming to power, Stepinac and Budak, whose books have become obligatory literature in elementary schools. The current Croatian authorities stressed, when they rehabilitated Stepinac, that he was no war criminal and that he was actually saving Serbs and Jews by converting them to Catholicism. C O M M E N T A R I E S U.S. PEACE INITIATIVE ENTERS DECISIVE PHASE by Zoran Jevdjovic B e l g r a d e, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - The U.S. peace initiative for Bosnia-Herzegovina enters a decisive stage this week, after a month of intensive diplomatic efforts and a pause caused by the tragic death of three members of the U.S. negotiating team in a road accident near Sarajevo. As early as Monday, and the latest on Tuesday, head of the U.S. negotiating team Richard Holbrooke will meet in Paris with Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. The five-nation Contact Group for Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet in the French capital on Tuesday, after which the U.S. delegation will travel to Belgrade. According to what Holbrooke said in a TV statement Sunday, a dramatic headway is expected in the peace process in the next week or two. If not, the conflict could escalate and lead to NATO's large-scale military engagement. It is quite clear from the experience to date, whose side the western military alliance would take. Holbrooke, himself, has already said the Bosnian Serbs were in his view the main obstacle to peace, which makes it obvious that the threat with the use of force for the purpose of imposing a settlement unequivocally pertains to Serbs. What Washington is offering is practically a division of Bosnia-Herzegovina into two entities, with the Contact Group plan as a basis which to build on in the subsequent talks. Under the U.S. proposal, Bosnia-Herzegovina would, however, remain an internationally recognized state in the form of a loose confederation in which each entity would pursue its own policy and would have its own administration on its own territory. The Serb entity would be able to set up with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the same kind of ties as the Muslim-Croat federation with Croatia. The main question presenting itself now is whether it is possible in the existing conditions to achieve a compromise which would enable an end to the fighting and would open prospects for a settlement. The U.S. side says it takes as a starting point the need for the conflict in the Balkans to end as soon as possible, a conflict which has become a very unpleasant theme of major confrontations on the U.S. political stage. At the same time, the U.S. Administration wants to score a point at the international level so as to secure an argument more for the upcoming bitter presidential election campaign. European countries are in one way or another compelled to follow Washington's moves and wishes, regardless of their obvious disagreements with the U.S. over what needs to be done in the Balkans. Yugoslavia's position remains unchanged. It proceeds from the need for the conflict to end as soon as possible, which is a global Serbian national interest, and from the need for a settlement to be reached through talks in which all warring sides would be treated as equals, which is a basic guarantee for Belgrade that an eventual agreement will be of a lasting nature. Yugoslav authorities are doing everything to draw the attention of the Bosnian Serbs to the realistic possibilities and the need to acknowledge the realities in international relations, realities which decisively determine the future course of events. Although it is not to be found in western analyses, Bosnian Muslims are obviously not satisfied with what has been offered. Muslim Army Chief Rasim Delic, for instance, said on Sunday that there was only one course for the Muslims, the continuation of war. Is this the actual Muslim stand or just a maneuvre prior to the decisive talks remains to be seen. Be it as it may, the coming days are awaited with uncertainty because they will be decisive for the U.S. initiative and in general for a state of war or peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. KRAJINA IS COMPLETELY DEVASTATED by Nikola Stanojevic Z a g r e b, Aug 28 (Tanjug) - Even the scant reports coming from Krajina, from which over 250, 000 Serbs fled following Croatia's aggression in early August, testify about widespread crimes that are being commited against the remaining Serbs. They do not speak only of the destruction and burning of Serb houses, for which a Croat official said 'let them burn, that way we can be sure the Serbs will not return', but also of the murder of Serbs civilians. President of the Independent Serb Party (SSS) in Croatia Milorad Pupovac said that independent, non governmental and international organisations, which have to maintain their dignity and which were present in the area throughout, should give a more realistic picture of what is happening even if some world politicians wish to hide the facts and speak of an allegedly purely proffessional action. Nine people were massacred in the villaage of Zagrovic, one of whom was so badly mutilated that even their sex could not be determined. U.N. observers reported that 11 old people were killed from the home of the retarded near Topusko. Europan Union observers witnessed the killing of two people in a village on August 18, and the beating up of a third one after which his house was burnt down. All these crimes are only a fraction of what is really happening since full information is hard to come by because the Croatian army has banned access of U.N. and international humanitarian organisations to the Krajina area. The Crotian regime claimed that crimes had 'not ' been committed, that there were no torchings or tearing down of Serb houses and, only when pressed by multiplying evidence, in the past few days admitted to 'individual excesses'. It also insists that there had been no planned ethnic cleansing, even though some Croatian officials, when they though noone could hear them, expressed satisfation that the 'Serb issue in Croatia has been settled', a commentator of the Rijeka Novi Listre marked. At the cermony marking the opening of the Zagreb-Split railway, Tudjman himself ironically said 'the Serbs have left and goodbye to them,' while at the same time speaking about the 'call' addressed to Serbs to remain in Krajina. The presence of Serbs in Croatia has had a tragic balance in the past years. since 1990, over 300,000 Serbs left Croatia according to U.N. data, not including the 250,000 Serbs from Krajina. Krajina has been devastated, there are no Serbs left, and all traces of them are being destroyed, pupovac said. Pupovac also spoke about different methods of so-called 'quiet' ethnic cleansing, or ways of expelling Serbs from Croatia - eviction from flats, sacking from jobs, pressure on children to go to Catholic religious classes, converting Serbs into Catholicism, and even killing of entire Serb families, all of which are fully documented. The suffering of the Serbs during Croatia's aggression on Krajina and western Slavonia (early May) as well as the 'quiet' ethnic clensing are all products of the same policy which aimed at finally resolving the Serb issue in Tudjamn's state. Milorad Pupovac said that 'part of the ruling Croatian politicians were not for a moment ready to accept the settlement of the Serb issue by political means. Everything had been done to make life of the Serbs in Croatia unbearable and to set off the mechanism of force for the settlement of the Krajina issue.' 'The result of such a militant policy is that Tudjman's regime has succeeded in doing what the fascist Croatia during World War Two failed to do - to drive out the Serb people from Krajina and other Serb ethnic territories,' Pupovac said. FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS SERB REFGUEE TESTIFIES TO EXISTENCE OF CREMATORY FOR SERBS IN SISA K B e l g r a d e, Aug 28 (Tanjug) - A Krajina Serb refugee has said part of a refugee column fleeing to Serbia in mid-August before Croatia's aggression against Serb Krajina has been cut-off and taken to a metal plant in Sisak where Serbs were cremated alive in its furnaces. The Belgrade daily Politika Ekspres on Monday published the testimony of Petrinja-born Milan S. quoting him as saying, 'these bestialities and atrocities are beyond description. Several hundreds of people from this column and perhaps even one thousand of them have somehow been 'cut-off' and taken to a big company in Sisak. It was a metal complex. Fire was burning in the furnaces. An elderly man next to me said: 'Look, they have thrown Radoje alive into the furnace.' Milan S. said people around him were screaming and crying for help. 'They used heated pincers to remove women's insides out and to castrate men.' He said most of the executioners were not speaking Croatian but an incomprehensible language. He also said they had been drunk and he supposed they must have been foreign mercenaries. Milan S. was saved from the scaffold by his long-time business associate who was wearing Croatian army uniform and who told him he had been forcibly drafted into the army. The man drove Milan S. to another Serb refugee column which he joined and found shelter in Serbia. SERB PROPERTY IN CROATIA IS BEING DIVIDED UP B e l g r a d e, Aug 26 (Tanjug) - Croatian authorities are already announcing a law to confiscate property of Serbs who fled ahead of the onslaught of the Croatian Army, Belgrade daily Politika wrote monday. At the beginning of August the Croatian Army attacked the Republic of Serb Krajina forcing some 250,000 Krajina Serbs to fleefrom their ancestral homes. Those who remained were tortured or killed and Serb homes were systematically looted and torched. Even Croatian officials indirectly confirm that this is wide-scale ethnic cleansing. Croatian Reconstruction Minister Jure Radic told Croatian refugees from Bosnia to 'consider their stay in Croatia permanent'. When they said they feared the Serbs' return, Radic told them not to worry because the State would take over administration of the property of theose who had fled, Politka wrote. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman yesterday called on Croatians throghout the world to return to Croatia. 'We shall offer them land and houses and farms ..' he said meaning of course the ones that belonged to the Serbs, Politika wrote. Judging by such statements from top state officials, protection and respect of private property in Croatia (regardless of where the owner is) does not exist, the paper said. LONDON PAPER ON TRAGIC FATE OF KRAJINA SERB REFUGEES L o n d o n, Aug 28 (Tanjug) - The fate of Krajina Serbs is a much more tragic and complex question than the Zagreb Government believes, and will practically determine the fate of all other refugees in former Yugoslavia, the London Independent newspaper said on Monday. The newspaper said that Krajina Serbs had been displaced from their ancestral hearths and that, from a long-term and wider point of view, the most important question to determine was if they would ever be allowed to return to their homes. This will determine if the other refugees will ever be able to return to their homes and, in these terms, the tragic consequences of the Croatian attack are unforeseeable, the paper said. The Independent newspaper's commentator said that the plight of the Krajina Serbs resembles closely that of the Palestinian refugees from Israel. It is therefore legitimate to doubt the estimates of the U.S and some European countries that the tragedy of the Krajina Serbs could pave the way for a peaceful settlement of the crisis informer Yugoslavia, the paper said. SPANISH DAILY URGES U.S. TO TAKE UNBIASED STAND M a d r i d, Aug. 28 (Tanjug) - The Spanish daily ABC said the 'U.S. should take an unbaised and more just stand' toward the warring sides in Bosnia. In a report on the latest U.S. peace initiative, the daily ABC said the 'U.S. should take an unbiased and more just stand regarding the problems in former Yugoslavia, if it wishes the newpeace plan to be generally accepted.' Credibility in negotiations is not established in the way the U.S. has behaved so far, 'by actively supporting Croats and Muslims', ABC said. The daily warned that the exodus of 250,000 Serbs from their ancestral lands in Krajina following Croatia's latest aggression was'a flagrant example of large-scale ethnic cleansing.' =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================