YDS 9/19

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: [email protected] (D.D. Chukurov)

19. SEPTEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC, HOLBROOKE STRESS NEED FOR TOTAL CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES IN BOSNIA - MILOSEVIC, HOLBROOKE SAY PEACE TALKS ADVANCING - YUGOSLAV MINISTER VISITS UNESCO - RUSSIAN STATE DUMA DELEGATION VISITS YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT - HUMANITARIAN AID FROM RUSSIA

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - BOSNIAN SERBS REPORT ALL-OUT MUSLIM OFFENSIVE IN HERZEGOVINA - SECURITY COUNCIL REQUESTS MUSLIMS, CROATS TO END OFFENSIVE IN BOSNIA - WHITE HOUSE WARNS MUSLIMS AND CROATIANS TO STOP MILITARY ACTION - ITALIAN SENATOR DEMAND URGENT END TO MUSLIM, CROAT ATTACKS ON SERBS - MUSLIMS, CROATS JEOPARDIZE BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS, SAY BRITISH ANALYSTS

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - BOSNIAN SERBS APPEAL TO OGATA, SOMMARUGA TO HELP SERB REFUGEES - CRITICAL HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN BANJALUKA REGION - INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS COMMITTEE SAYS SITUATION IN BANJALUKA TRAGIC

O P I N I O N S - YUGOSLAV EXPERT: NATO VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS, LAWS OF WAR

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC, HOLBROOKE STRESS NEED FOR TOTAL CESSATION OF HOSTILITIE S IN BOSNIA B e l g r a d e, Sept 18 (Tanjug) - President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. Assistant Secretry of State Richard Holbrooke 'stressed at their talks the need for a total cessation without delay of hostilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina'. Serbian President Milosevic and U.S. Envoy Holbrooke 'continued here on Monday talks about the major issues of a political settlement of the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an attempt to prepare for the conclusion of a comprehensive peace agreement at the upcoming peace conference', the Serbian President's Office stated. Milosevic and Holbrooke, at their meetings on Sunday and on Monday, 'made the necessary clarifications in view of achieving a united approach to settling pending issues, by way of negotiations within the U.S. peace initiative', the statement said. Milosevic and Holbrooke said at the talks they expected, 'in view of the general determination expressed, that the international community will succeed in convincing the parties to the conflict to cease all hostilities', the statement said. 'That would give a significant impetus to the diplomatic efforts underway and enable the conclusion of preparations for the conference', the statement said.

MILOSEVIC, HOLBROOKE SAY PEACE TALKS ADVANCING B e l g r a d e, Sept.18 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke told reporters after their meeting in Belgrade on Monday that they had made some progress in the talks. As they parted, Holbrooke told Milosevic their dialogue would be resumed within a week. He added that he would inform U.S. President Bill Clinton and the National Security Council about the results achieved in the talks so far. Holbrooke said: 'We're going to redouble our efforts.'

YUGOSLAV MINISTER VISITS UNESCO P a r i s, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor Monday received a Yugoslav Government delegation at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The delegation was headed by President of the Yugoslav Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO and Minister for Development, Science and Environment Janko Radulovic. The status of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in this organization, possibilities for expanded cooperation in conditions of partial suspension of sanctions, questions of brain drain from Yugoslavia as a result of sanctions were the main topics discussed. Protection of cultural monuments, especially of the culture of Serbs in Krajina, the problems of children refugees and other questions the realization of which was related to a full lifting of U.N. Security council sanctions against Yugoslavia were also considered. Mayor stated the readiness to contribute to the resolution of the topical questions Yugoslavia faced, within the possibilities UNESCO enjoyed as part of the U.N. system. Radulovic Monday met with Corin Lepage, Environmental Protection Minister in the French Government, whom he informed about Yugoslavia's problems related to environmental protection.

RUSSIAN STATE DUMA DELEGATION VISITS YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT B e l g r a d e, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - Air strikes against Bosnian Serbs must not reoccur because Croats and Muslims attack Bosnian Serb territory under NATO's aegis, it was heard at a meeting between Russian and Yugoslav parliamentarians in Belgrade on Monday. In the talks between the delegation of the Russian State Duma (Lower House) and the Yugoslav parliamentarians, it was said that the most important issue now was to stop the war in former Yugoslavia and that NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb military and civilian facilities were unjust and groundless. The expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbs from their ancestral homes in the Republic of Serb Krajina and parts of the Bosnian Serb Republic was condemned at the meeting. President of the Yugoslav Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee Borisav Jovic said that Yugoslavia's commitment to a peaceful settlement of the crisis remained unchanged. He said that there was no reason to keep the sanctions against Yugoslavia in force and called for their full suspension. Head of the Russian delegation, President of the State Duma Foreign Relations Committee Vladimir Lukin said that this was a 'mission of solidarity with Yugoslavia's citizens and Serb brothers in the Bosnian Serb Republic.' He said that a group of Russian M.P.S would visit the Bosnian Serb administrative centre of Pale. It is necessary to strengthen the Yugoslav-Russian economic cooperation and increase Russia's engagement in providing humanitarian assistance for refugees in Yugoslavia, it was heard in the talks.

HUMANITARIAN AID FROM RUSSIA B e l g r a d e, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - Serbia's Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina Monday held talks with a delegation of the European Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy (EMAP) about the problems of caring for and extending himanitarian aid to the large number of refugees on the territory of Serbia. The visit of the EMAP delegation was in the context of the coming meeting of the EMAP International Secretariat in Athens, devoted to analyzing the situation in the former Yugoslavia, a Serbian Government statement said. A number of deputies of Russia's State Duma were on the delegation, headed by Viktor I. Zorkaltsev. The guests informed Morina about the humanitarian aid the Russian Federation had secured so far, as well as its economy and citizens. The Russian deputies informed Morina that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yarov has signed a Government decree providing for the stay of some 3,000 children refugees in Russia throguhout the coming winter.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

BOSNIAN SERBS REPORT ALL-OUT MUSLIM OFFENSIVE IN HERZEGOVINA B i l e c a, Sept 18 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb Army sources reported on Monday that Muslim troops had launched an all-out offensive on the Serb parts of Herzegovina (southern Bosnia-Herzegovina). The combined artillery and infantry attacks were mounted early on Monday from the area of Konjic in northern Herzegovina, to spread at about 1200 gmt in the direction of Mostar and Nevesinje, with the main thrust directed against Borci and Nevesinje. After an artillery grounding, the Muslims launched infantry attacks along the entire line of the front, to which the Bosnian Serbs offered a powerful resistance, inflicting heavy casualties on the attacking force, Bosnian Serb Army sources said. Fighting is still in progress on Monday night, with the frontline unchanged. Strong Muslim and Croat provocations were reported also from other sectors of the Herzegovina front, notably Croat provocations in the area of Capljina and Stolac, about 30 km south of Mostar.

SECURITY COUNCIL REQUESTS MUSLIMS, CROATS TO END OFFENSIVE IN BOSN IA N e w Y o r k, Sept 18 (Tanjug) - The U.N. Security Council on Monday again requested the Muslim Government in Sarajevo and Croatia to end their offensive in Bosnia lest they jeopardise the peace process and aggravate the humanitarian situation. The President of the Council, Italian Ambassador Paolo Fulci, summoned the heads of mission of the Muslim Government in Sarajevo and Croatia to caution them not to turn a deaf ear to the U.N. request to end the offensive operations. This is the third such request addressed by the U.N. Security Council to Sarajevo and Zagreb since the latest offensive startedunder the umbrella of nato air raids on bosnian serb positions thatbegan on aug. 30. Fulci told reporters that the U.N. was concerned over the situation in western Bosnia, where the Muslim-Croat offensive had displaced more than 100,000 people who had sought shelter in the Bosnian Serb city of Banjaluka. The humanitarian situation in the area is disastrous and seriously jeopardises the ongoing peace process, he said. Russian U.N. Ambassador Sergei Lavrov again on Monay moved for the Security Council's more determined action to stop the Muslim-Croat offensive and the Bosnian war. The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Advisor Chinmaya Gharekhan reported to the Council on the current situation in Bosnia, saying that, while the situation in western Bosnia continued dramatic, that around Sarajevo was calming down. Gharekhan said that relief flights and land convoys into Sarajevo were gradually being normalised and that, judging from reports from the ground, the Bosnia Serbs had withdrawn more than a half of their heavy weaponry out of range of the city.

WHITE HOUSE WARNS MUSLIMS AND CROATIANS TO STOP MILITARY ACTION W a s h i n g t o n, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - The White House Monday sent an energetic demand to the Bosnian Muslims and Croatians to urgently end military actions and thus enable the peace process to continue along the course it has embarked on. 'We have made it very clear that we wish they would suspend fighting and turn their attention to the discussions that U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke has been conducting,' White House Spokesman Mike Mccurry told reporters. Mccurry underlined that the international community had cause to be concerned over continued fighting in western Bosnia and that this was the reason why initiatives were being launched from all quarters to put an end to this. We have had direct conversations with the Sarajevo Muslim Government, he said, and urged them not to try to resolve on the battlefield those issues that we now believe were now being addressed with some success at the negotiating table, especially now that new and realistic possibilities have been opened for this.

ITALIAN SENATOR DEMAND URGENT END TO MUSLIM, CROAT ATTACKS ON SERB S R o m e, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - A number of Italian Senators and prominent political figures Monday demanded the Government urge with all its might an immediate stop to the aggression of Croatia's regulars and the Bosnian Muslim forces on the Serbs in western and central Bosnia and prevent an assault on Banjaluka. The demand urged the Government to 'use all its influence in international forums', including the U.N. Security Council, which it currently presides. A Senator of Berlusconi 'Forza Italia', Livio Caputo, who was Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in the previous Government, warned that an attack by Croatia's regular army on the largest Serb city in Bosnia would cause a humanitarian disaster and erase everything done so far in the way of achieving peace. Caputo said the international community must prevent the other side of making use of the military advantage created by NATO bombing of Serb positions. An identical demand, with nearly identical explanation and warning of possible consequences, was sent to the Italian Government by a group of Senators of the Left. Apart from demanding the stopping of the Croatian-Muslim offensive 'by all means', they appealed for the sending to Banjaluka of 'urgent and much more abundant' humanitarian aid for the Serb refugees.

MUSLIMS, CROATS JEOPARDIZE BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS, SAY BRITISH ANALY STS L o n d o n, Sept 18 (Tanjug) - The Bosnia peace process is being seriously jeopardized by the Muslim-Croat side, which, encouraged by NATO and western support, has no intention of halting the offensive in western and central Bosnia, British analysts said on Monday. British military circles say that Croatia's regular army has the key role in the offensives in western Bosnia and that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is in command of the entire project. British diplomatic circles say that Muslims may even withdraw from the peace process, convinced that they can gain more on the battlefield than through talks. The Daily Telegraph of London said that Muslims were preparing an offensive against Bosnian Serbs in Sarajevo and that they were not interested in a Sarajevo truce. The Times of London said that unless the West, and primarily the U.S., succeeded in convincing Muslims and Croats to stop the offensives, the peace process would fail. The West has means to do it. The question is whether it wants to, and this is why mild warnings and concern look so cynical. Sources in London unanimously agree that Serbs will not be able to tolerate if Croats and Muslims attack Banjaluka.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

BOSNIAN SERBS APPEAL TO OGATA, SOMMARUGA TO HELP SERB REFUGEES B e l g r a d e, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb authorities on Monday appealed to President of the ICRC Cornelio Sommaruga and UNHCR Sadako Ogata to help more than 100,000 Serb refugees in Banjaluka. Bosnian Serb Health Minister Dragan Kalinic and Commissioner for Refugees Ljubisa Vladusic sent a letter to Ogata and Sommaruga, inviting them to come to Banjaluka and get an insight in the tragic humanitarian situation, created because of the Muslim-Croat offensive against the western Bosnian Serb Republic. As a direct result of NATO bombing of Bosnian Serb positions and subsequent Muslim-Croat aggression against Bosnian Serb towns and villages in the west, about 100,000 people have fled to Banjaluka and other towns, said the letter. A large number of refugees are women, children, the elderly, the exhausted and the ill. There are shortages of food, medicines and fuel, and accommodation is also lacking, said the letter. The letter said that the coming cold days would create further difficulties to the people who are exhausted after four years of warand after assisting Serb Krajina refugees. We want you to immediately come to Banjaluka and see all the misfortune of the Serb people in the region, the letter said. You have to come and have to help, it added.

CRITICAL HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN BANJALUKA REGION B e l g r a d e, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - Humanitarian situation in Banjaluka, Prijedor and Doboj is critical, said a team of the Yugoslav Red Cross (JCK) which visited these towns in the Bosnian Serb Republic from Friday through Sunday. About 100,000 refugees arrived over the last weekend from towns in the west and northwest of the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS), captured by joint Croat-Muslim forces and assisted by regular army of the neighboring Croatia. 'The exodus of the population is great, territory in which people arrive small, and all reserves of food depleted during the august exodus of Krajina Serbs,' JCK Secretary-General Rade Dubajic told reporters. He said that columns of literally hungry refugees, mostly women and children and elderly people, were moving slowly with their animal-drawn vehicles along roads into Banjaluka. 'Many old people died of exposure, especially on the Mrkonjic Grad-Banjaluka road,' member of the JCK team dr Branislav Ljiljak said. In prijedor over 28,000 refugees have been accommodated in 19 reception centres. Due to shelling of Mt Ozren area, in the north of the RS, 7,000-8,000 peole have arrived in Doboj and 4,000 in Kotorsko. The situation in Kotorsko is difficult, because columns of refugees have been shelled on several ocassions, so that many wounded have arrived, Dr Ljiljak said. Dr ljiljak said medical care in Doboj was appalling. He also said the hospital was badly lacking both personnel and supplies. He said the wounded were lying on the floor, with nobody to care. prnjavor,doboj and prijedor hospitals have run out of bandages anddisinfectants, antibiotics and analgetics. the situation in rs is additionally made difficult by aninformation blockade, resulting from a communications breakdownfollowing nato air strikes. the population is 'forced' to listen tocroat and muslim media which place misinformation and disseminatepanics among the population, a jck team member said. the jck appeals to all those who can help to send food,medicaments, blankets, tents, plastic foils, food for babies anddiapers, and other kinds of aid.

INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS COMMITTEE SAYS SITUATION IN BANJALUKA TRAG IC belgrade, sept 18 (tanjug) - the international committee of thered cross says the humantarian situation in the northwestern bosniantown of banjaluka is tragic, Spokesman for the ICRC Belgrade Office Josue Anselmo said Monday. Anselmo said that people had fled to Banjaluka without anything and that many of them were walking around, carrying a sack and a blanket, looking for a shelter and something to eat. After joint Croat-Muslim forces, supported by the regular army of the neighboring Croatia, had captured a number of towns in western bosnian Serb Republic, about 100,000 people found refuge in Banjaluka alone. Several thousands of Bosnian Serbs have arrived to the towns of Prijedor and Doboj. Many of them had been wounded in Croat-Muslim shellings of refugee columns that had been moving toward Doboj. The ICRC sent the first shipment of food to Banjaluka on Friday. The food was distributed by ICRC teams and 30 local high school students on Saturday. The Banjaluka local authorities granted Monday the ICRC officials free movement in the region which prompted the ICRC to send five trucks with aid to Prijedor and one truck each to Laktasi and Brod. The ICRC will be sending five trucks carrying 16,000 blankets and 15,500 meals from Belgrade to Banjaluka on Tuesday, Anselmo said.

O P I N I O N S

YUGOSLAV EXPERT: NATO VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS, LAWS OF WAR B e l g r a d e, Sept 18 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav expert on international laws of war Miodrag Starcevic has said NATO's bombing Bosnian Serbs has grossly violated international norms. The Belgrade daily Politika on Monday quoted Starcevic as saying that NATO planes 'struck mostly civilian targets', violating basic principles of the international laws of war which called for an absolute distinction between combatants and non-combatants. Starcevic said the rule that only attacks on military units were legitimate was codified under the 1907 Hague Convention and was contained also in the rules of war. NATO air strikes in Bosnia, launched on August 30, killed 800 Bosnian Serb civilians and injured about 2,000 others, Russian Defence Minister Pavel Grachev said last week. Politika quoted Starcevic as saying that NATO had violated also the 1949 Geneva Convention on the care and protection of the wounded and patients, which strictly banned air strikes against them. However, Starcevic said, NATO had hit Bosnian Serb hospitals in Blazuj and Kasindol around Sarajevo and in Kalinovik 40 km south of Sarajevo. He said NATO had also violated another convention on the protection of civilians under which civilians could not be the subject or the deliberate target of the attacks, but this was exactly what had happened in the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb Republic. NATO proclaimed that the air strikes were aimed at having Bosnian Serbs withdraw their heavy weapons from around Sarajevo, but on the other hand, its warplanes had bombed civilian targets 150-200 km away from Sarajevo, Starcevic said. He said NATO's 'disproportionate military operation' was beyond the NATO mandate as, under the rules of the international laws of war, the force must be used in proportion to the goal set. 'If the 'intervention' is aimed at removing the threat to Sarajevo, there is no reason whatsoever for striking the entire territory of the Republika Srpska,' Starcevic said. He said that international norms banned also the hitting of targets of the so-called dangerous force, such as hydro-electric power plants, artificial storage hydro-power dam sites, and nuclear power plants, but NATO had, nevertheless, recently bombed the area around a hydro-electric power plant near the eastern Bosnian Serb town of Visegrad along the border with Yugoslavia. Starcevic said NATO had a duty to adhere to these conventions because its air strikes had made it become one of the warring sides.

- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --