Subject: YDS 8/30 From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) 30. AUGUST 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY C O N T E N T S : FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH AKASHI - PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES STOLTENBERG - PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC HOLDS TALKS WITH SENATOR KERRY - ALBANIAN TERRORISTS KILL YUGOSLAV SOLDIER, WOUND ANOTHER AFTER THE LATEST MASSACRE IN SARAJEVO - U.N. SAYS BOSNIAN SERBS RESPONSIBLE FOR SARAJEVO MASSACRE - SERIOUS DOUBTS ABOUT LEGITIMACY OF U.N. ACCUSATIONS OF BOSNIAN SERBS - UNPROFOR TURNS DOWN SETTING UP JOINT INQUIRY INTO MONDAY BLAST - ONE CIVILIAN KILLED, THREE WOUNDED IN MUSLIM ATTACK ON SERB SUBURB FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - IZETBEGOVIC: MUSLIMS MIGHT PULL OUT OF NEGOTIATIONS - SANCHEZ: POSSIBLE SETTLEMENT OF CONFLICT IN TREBINJE AND DUBROVNIK ASSISTANCE FOR KRAJINA SERBS - CALL FOR PROTECTION OF SERBS WHO STAYED IN KRAJINA - INTERNATIONAL APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE FOR DISPLACED KRAJINA SERBS C O M M E N T A R Y - RUSHING TO CONDEMNATION OF BOSNIAN SERBS, by Tanjug editor Milan Sokolovic FROM FOREIGN PRESS - WHO IS THREATENING UNDER THE NAME OF THE "ISTRIAN BLACK HAND", Novi list - Rijeka FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH AKASHI B e l g r a d e, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic said in a talk with U.N. Special Envoy for the former Yugoslavia Yasushi Akashi here Tuesday that the peace process in the former Yugoslavia should continue to be pursued with an even greater perseverance. Milosevic said it was of the utmost importance now urgently to halt the fighting, resume the peace process and find a political solution which would guarantee peace and an all-round normalization of the political situation in the Balkans, a statement released by the Presidential Office said. Milosevic and Akashi discussed the latest developments in the war-affected parts of the former Yugoslavia, the implementation of the U.N. peacekeepers' mandate and their efforts to provide protection for the civilian population, the statement said. Attention was drawn to the fact that the continuation of the civil war took a daily toll in human lives, extended the sufferings of the civilian population and caused great material devastation, all of which undermined prospects for a stepped-up recovery and return to normal life. It was underscored that it was indispensable that the U.N. take effective measures to prevent new aggressive military operations whose only possible outcome could be more bloodshed, the statement said. It set out that that was a duty of primary importance for the U.N., one on which the world organization's prestige depended. The meeting between Milosevic and Akashi was attended also by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic, the statement said. PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES STOLTENBERG B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic received Tuesday Co-Chairman of the Geneva Conference on former Yugoslavia Thorvald Stoltenberg. Their talk dealt with the questions of the peace process and with the ensuring of necessary coordination in the moves aimed at ending the crisis politically, the Serbian President's Office said in anannouncement. PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC HOLDS TALKS WITH SENATOR KERRY B e l g r a d e, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - Peace and stability in the Balkans can be achieved only by for saking the military option in resolving the crisis and by the objective treatment of all parties to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. Senator Robert Kerry said at their talks Tuesday. At the same time, resolute support must be given to all those who are sincerely working for peace and helping create conditions for the success of the peace process, it was stressed at the talks in Belgrade, the Cabinet of the President of Serbia said. Senator Kerry, who is visiting the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, expressed special interest for Yugoslav positions on the current political situation in the region and prospects for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. It was stressed at the talks that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia wants to develop comprehensive cooperation with the U.S., as a country with which Serbia established diplomatic relations over a century ago and with which traditionally good relations were asserted by their alliance in both world wars. That is why the normalization of relations between the U.N. and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is of special importance for the normalization of the global situation in the region and an important step toward extinguishing fires stirred by those who are favoring a foreign intervention in the Balkans and who wish to draw Yugoslavia into the conflcit, it was said at the talks. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia appreciates highly U.S. efforts to achieve peace, it was stressed at the talks, and the two expressed confidence that the coming talks within the U.S. peacemission will lead to a fair and durable resolution of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic and U.S. Embassy Charge d'affaires in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Rudolf Perina took part at the talks. Kerry, a member of the Committee for Intelligence Affairs and Finances in the U.S. Senate, was also received by the Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Momcilo Perisic. General Perisic and Senator Kerry exchanged opinions about the military aspects of the situation in the former Yugoslavia, in connection with the U.S. initiative for renewing the peace process, Yugoslav Army General Staff Information Service said. ALBANIAN TERRORISTS KILL YUGOSLAV SOLDIER, WOUND ANOTHER B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - One Yugoslav soldier was killed and another was gravely wounded in a terrorist attack from Albania on a Yugoslav border patrol across the common border. The Yugoslav Third Army District said that, at 1315 cet on Tuesday, a terrorist group opened automatic fire from an ambush on the Yugoslav Army's Border patrol in the area of the Dejan Radanovic border post at Djakovica, about 300 m inside Yugoslav territory. Soldier Darko Sretenovic was killed in the attack, and his colleague Nebojsa Ivancev was wounded and is in a critical condition, the statement said. After the attack, the perpetrators crossed the border into Albania, under cover of a storm and poor visibility, the statement added. Investigative organs have examined the scene of the crime in an effort to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attack, the statement said. The border area in which the incident occurred is located in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija. AFTER THE LATEST MASSACRE IN SARAJEVO U.N. SAYS BOSNIAN SERBS RESPONSIBLE FOR SARAJEVO MASSACRE B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - U.N. officials in Sarajevo said on Tuesday that mortar rounds that killed 37 people and wounded 86 others in downtown Sarajevo on Monday had been fired from Bosnian Serb positions. Reuters quoted U.N. Spokesman in Sarajevo Alexander Ivanko as saying that UNPROFOR Commander for Bosnia-Herzegovina Gen. Rupert Smith, after extensive in sight into the results of the investigation, 'had concluded beyond all reasonable doubt' that the attack had come from Bosnian Serb positions. AFP agency quoted U.N. Spokesman Guy Vinetas saying that assumptions U.N. had collected clearly showed that the rounds had been fired from Bosnian Serb positions. U.N. officials said on Monday that a 120-mm mortar round had been fired. The Bosnian Serb state and military leaders on Monday denied any involvement in the incident and urged that a mixed expert commission be set up to investigate the case. The Bosnian Serb leadership on Monday voiced suspicion that Bosnian Muslims had stage-managed the attack just as, the Bosnian Serb leaders claimed, they did at the Markale market place. SERIOUS DOUBTS ABOUT LEGITIMACY OF U.N. ACCUSATIONS OF BOSNIAN SER BS B e l g r a d e, Aug. 30 (Tanjug) - Russian U.N. peace force Commander for the Sarajevo Sector, Artillery Colonel Andrei Demurenko has cast doubts on U.N. claims that Bosnian Serbs carried out the artillery attack on Sarajevo's Markale market on Monday, when 37 people were killed and about a hundred wounded. Demurenko said in a telephone conversation with an Itar-Tass reporter on Tuesday that certain technical aspects of the incident in Sarajevo leave room for serious doubts about the legitimacy of claims that the shells had been fired by Serbs. NATO forces and the Rapid Reaction Force, however, on Wednesday morning on two occasions bombed Bosnian Serb positions around Sarajevo, using air force and artillery units. Saying that the Sarajevo market had been attacked by a 120 MM calibre mortar shell deliberately fired at a place where there were many people, Demurenko pointed out that it was practically impossible to hit a 9m-wide street with mortars from a distance of 3-4 km, which is the distance to the nearest Serb artillery positions. he specified that the possibility of hitting such a target with a mortar was 1:1,000,000. Serbs do not have preciser instruments with which to bring the precision of their firing to even a normal level, which is when mortar shells fired from a distance of 3 km fall only 30 m away from the target, Demurenko explained. This means that the market can be hit theoretically, but in noway from the first attempt, and the tragedy was caused already by the first and only hit, Demurenko said. Demurenko explained that U.N. observers in charge of artillery had not heard the sound of any mortar shells either when allegedly fired or later when a series of subsequent explosion shook Sarajevo. That is why there are serious reasons to believe that mortar shells were fired from some technical weaponry other than mortars, but that would be very difficult to prove, Demurenko said. UNPROFOR TURNS DOWN SETTING UP JOINT INQUIRY INTO MONDAY BLAST B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - The UNPROFOR for Bosnia Command has not accepted the setting up of a mixed commission to find out the truth about the massacre in Sarajevo, the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) Command said in an announcement on Tuesday. The formation of a mixed commission to comprise representatives of UNPROFOR and the Serb and Muslim sides was proposed on Monday by the VRS Commander Gen. Ratko Mladic to UNPROFOR Commander for the former Bosnia-Herzegovina Gen. Rupert Smith. The VRS announcement said that before any investigation some of the UNPROFOR representatives and certain media, favouring the Muslims, accused the Serbs of the incident stage-managed by Muslims. The announcement asserted that three hours after the incident, the NATO Rapid Reaction Force together with Muslim formations retaliated from the direction of Mts Igman and Hrasnica against Serb defence positions and the civilian districts of Ilidza, Blazuj and Vrelo Bosne. The announcement said that in these attacks one was killed and 47 civilians were injured outside the church in Blazuj, while attacks continued on Tuesday on civilian targets in the Serb Sarajevo. In analyzing the course of action and the effects of retaliation, the VRS members had collected reliable evidence of the joint actions performed by the NATO Rapid Reaction Force and the Muslim units against the Serb side, the announcement pointed out. Serbs in Bosnia do not accept the 'UNPROPFOR suppositions' according to which they are responsible for the shelling of the Sarajevo market, Bosnian Serb Republic Information Minister Miroslav Toholj told the French AFP news agency. 'We do not accept these suppositions,' said Toholj and added 'as far as I can see, the U.N. itself drew its conclusions from a variety of circumstances.' Toholj reiterated his Government's demand to have a mixed inquiry commission set up to determine the truth about the massacre in Sarajevo. ONE CIVILIAN KILLED, THREE WOUNDED IN MUSLIM ATTACK ON SERB SUBURB I l i j a s, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - One civilian was killed and three were wounded Tuesday afternoon in a Muslim artillery attack on the populated parts of the Serb municipality of Ilidza in the Sarajevo area, Serb military sources reported. The sources said Ilidza inhabitnats were in shelters and Muslim shells continued hitting the area in late afternoon hours. FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA IZETBEGOVIC: MUSLIMS MIGHT PULL OUT OF NEGOTIATIONS P a r i s, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Muslim leader said Tuesday in Paris that his Government might pull out of the negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia under the pressure of Bosnian Muslim public opinion. Izetbegovic told the press he had not yet made a definite decision to this effect. Prior to his meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, he said he had asked French authorities to intervene, either through the Rapid Reaction Force or NATO, in retaliation for the shelling of Sarajevo Monday in which 34 people were killed. Referring to his talk Monday in Paris with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, Izetbegovic said they had discussed only constitutitional problems, not maps. Izetbegovic indicated that Holbrooke was expected to visit Sarajevo shortly to continue the talks on the U.S. peace plan. SANCHEZ: POSSIBLE SETTLEMENT OF CONFLICT IN TREBINJE AND DUBROVNIK T r e b i n j e, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - The Head of the E.U. Monitor Mission for the former Yugoslavia, Spaniard Raul Sanchez, expressed his confidence on Tuesday that an agreement could be achieved which would lead to the resolution of the conflict in Trebinje and Dubrovnik. This is what Sanchez said after talks with representatives of local authorities in Trebinje, a city in the south of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Possibilities for the peaceful resolution of the conflict, which flared up 15 days ago between Trebinje and the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, were reviewed at the talks. The Head of the delegation of the Community of Trebinje, Bozidar Vucurevic, expressed his readiness to continue the talks, but he stressed that no agreement had been achieved 'because Serb conditions have not been met.' Peace, according to him, can be achieved only when the last soldier of the Republic of Croatia leaves the occupied parts of the Community of Trebinje. ASSISTANCE FOR KRAJINA SERBS CALL FOR PROTECTION OF SERBS WHO STAYED IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - The U.N. High Commissioner for refugees of the Republic of Serb Krajina, Milan Trbulin, called on the U.N. Secretary General Special Envoy, Yasushi Akashi, to prevent by his authority 'crimes against and the extermination of Serbs who stayed in the occupied part of the Republic of Serb Krajina.' Trbulin said that the Croatian Army and police are terrorizing and killing Serbs who stayed behind. Thousands of Serbs held in camps are threatened by physical destruction, he said. 'Please do everything possible to save the lives of Serbs who stayed in Krajina, to prevent new crimes and punish the perpetrators, because what is going on now puts to shame everyone who feels like aman,' the letter said. The High Commissioner for refugees of the Republic of Serb Krajina asked Akashi to use his influence so that all international humanitarian organizations, especially the UNHCR, carry out their humanitarian mission in its entirety and prevent the further victimization of the Serbian people. In his call to Akashi, Trbulin pointed to statements made by the Croatian leadership, that the private property of expelled Serbs will be totally usurped. 'We consider that the world community cannot tolerate such a position, because under international law private property is inviolable, regardless of where the owner is staying,' Trbulin said in his letter to Akashi. INTERNATIONAL APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE FOR DISPLACED KRAJINA SERBS G e n e v a, Aug. 29 (Tanjug) - The Office of the UNHCR and other international institutions have launched a drive to aid Serbs expelled from Krajina after Croatia's occupation in early August, an UNHCR official said Tuesday. Deputy U.N. High Commissioner for refugees Walter Walzer told head of the Yugoslav U.N. Mission in Geneva, Ambassador Vladimir Pavicevic that the respective organizations had issued an international appeal for assistance to Krajina Serbs. Ambassador Pavicevic inquired about what progress had been made with the idea of convening a meeting of the group for humanitarian affairs of the international conference on the former Yugoslavia. He was told that an action to translate the idea into practice was under way, but that it was not known for the time being when the group would meet. What is known, as the Yugoslav diplomat was told, is that the main topic of the meeting will be the difficult position of the Serbs expelled from Krajina. C O M M E N T A R Y RUSHING TO CONDEMNATION OF BOSNIAN SERBS by Tanjug editor Milan Sokolovic B e l g r a d e, Aug 29 (Tanjug) - Prejudiced accusations on Monday that Serbs from Bosnia are guilty of the Sarajevo massacre which killed 37 and injured nearly 90 people were officially certified by UNPROFOR on Tuesday, but without any concrete proof needed to blame the Serbs again. In addition to remarkable efficiency in 'investigation', also notable were the distinct shades in statements made by U.N. representatives. Thus Spokesman Alexander Ivanko stated in Sarajevo on Tuesday that U.N. Bosnia Commander British Gen. Rupert Smith, having noted investigation results, had ascertained that the attack was undoubtedly carried out from Bosnian Serb positions. U.N. peace force representative Major Guy Vinet, however, asserted that the collected suppositions clearly indicated that the shells had been fired from Serb positions. Vinet's statement evidently deals with deductions based on indications, which is at least frivolous if not tendentious too. Concerned here are the accusations capable of undermining the latest peace initiatives that at long last point to an exit from the war tunnel. On the Sarajevo battlefront, Muslim and Serb positions are so close to one another that it is virtually impossible to find out which one had fired the shell that caused Monday's massacre. Then, one must not disregard a statement in which Muslim Commander Gen. Rasim Delic said on Monday that the only option for the Muslims is - war. Serbs in Bosnia, however, have already pledged they will opt for a political settlement of the crisis in this former Yugoslav republic, as was officially confirmed early on Tuesday by the Assembly of the Bosnian Serb Republic at Pale. The question arises as to who would benefit from the massacre - right ahead of major talks in Paris on Tuesday generally believed to open the paths to peace in former Bosnia-Herzegovina. The answer is - certainly not the Serbs. What also seriously accuses the Muslim side is the coincidence of atrocious sabotage acts taking place right ahead of important peaceturn abouts. The mid-1993 massacre on the Vasa Miskin street even served as the pretext to impose sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, although the subsequent heavy suspicion fell on the Muslims, especially because of the presence of television cameras at the massacre. Serbs from Bosnia were 'unequivocally' condemned also for the innocent victims of the early-1994 bombardment of the Markale marketplace, altough the involvement of Muslims in the sly killing of other Muslims has been recently confirmed also by former French President Mitterrand when he told a Government meeting that he learned about this involvement from U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Ghali in person. The Bosnian Serb Army leaders and the most responsible political quarters on Monday promptly denied every involvement in the latest Sarajevo massacre. But the denial remained without a broader echo, while at about the same time Major Vinet answered a newsman's question as to who had fired the shell by saying: 'Bosnian Serbs, of course.' On Monday evening, a U.S. State Department representative also accused the Serbs in Bosnia still before 'an investigation' was completed. At the same time, Gen. Mladic proposed a joint inquiry be set up, but his proposal, which would have warranted impartial approach, has been dropped. One may rightly wonder why bombs explode in Sarajevo for which Serbs are blamed. And why does this invariably happen ahead of crucial turnabouts towards political settlement and negotiations rather than war. Also, personnel carriers, with advocates of political solutions and equal treatment of all sides to the war in the territory of former Yugoslavia, in some mysterious way slip off the roads down into ravines. Too many events like these resemble each other so closely that can hardly be treated as mere coincidence. Immediate executors of such heinous crimes do not perhaps bear the biggest responsibility, but their patrons do. Their patrons obviously are too powerful and, in real fact, they represent the biggest threat to peace and the democratic processes that are being discussed all over the world all the time. FROM FOREIGN PRESS WHO IS THREATENING UNDER THE NAME OF THE "ISTRIAN BLACK HAND"? P o r e c, Aug 25 (Novi list, Rijeka) - Croatian citizens of the Serbian nationality in Porec, Umag, Vrsar, Rovinj, Pula and other Istrian towns receive these days anonymous threatening letters with the same content. They are warned to leave Istria immediately for they are undesirable in that land or they will be liquidated in the most brutal way. They are given the time until 30 August, while the ominous threats hidden behind the signature of the "Istrian black hand called Ucka" go beyond to describe what is going to happen (burning down of houses, rapes) to those who do not obey the "order". The letter is dated 13 August and is coming from Vrsar and Pula. Some citizens reported to the police that they received anonymous threats, but we could not get an official statement in the Police Headquarters for Istria. Besides the police, local authorities, i.e. Damir Kajin, President of the Assembly of the County of Istria, were also informed of anonymous threats. Damir Kajin immediately issued a press release. We have learnt from Damir Kajin that he will arrange a meeting with the Police Headquarters Commander for Istria on the anonymous threatening letter, as well as with the officials of the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, and that he will inform thereof the Zupan of Istria, because, as he has said, this is a serious matter. Although we could get no statement from the official police circles, we have learnt that some citizens have reported these threats to the police and it can be expected that those who have not yet done so will do the same. =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================