YDS 9/22

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

22. SEPTEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC, BILDT DISCUSS PEACE PROCESS - FRENCH PRESIDENT RECEIVES YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER - YUGOSLAV, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTERS SEE PARIS TALKS AS VERY FAVORABLE - CROATIA IS TRYING TO COMPLETELY ELIMINATE THE SERBS

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - PEACE-KEEPING FORCES: SITUATION IN BOSNIA STABILIZING - ICRC CONFIRMS NATO AIR RAIDS DAMAGED SERB CIVILIAN FACILITIES

CROATS - CRIMES - CROATIAN TROOPS KILL 47 SERB REFUGEES

DETAINED SERBS IN CROATIA - UN DENIED ACCESS TO SERBS DETAINED IN SIBENIK, ZADAR

HUMANITARIAN AID - INTERNATIONAL AID FOR REFUGEES IN YUGOSLAVIA - INSUFFICIENT - BOSNIAN SERB RED CROSS OFFICIAL: 127,000 REFUGEES PLUS IN WEST BOSNIA

C O M M E N T A R I E S - SERBS IN BOSNIA HAVE COMPLIED, NOW ITS THE TURN OF MUSLIMS, by Zoran Jevdjovic

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - VOICE OF RUSSIA: NATO AND U.N. ALSO TO BE BLAMED FOR SERB WITHDRAWALS - SPANISH PAPER: CHANCE FOR TALKS ON BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC, BILDT DISCUSS PEACE PROCESS B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Co-Chairman of the International Conference on former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt exchanged views Thursday on the ongoing peace process. It was jointly assessed that the latest efforts and political activities aimed at concluding peace between the warring sides in the Bosnian conflict would ultimatly bear fruit thereby closing the negotiating process launched by the U.S. peace initiative, with a comprehensive political solution and concluding peace at an international conference in the near future. It was pointed out that at this time the international community should resolutely back the proclaimed commitment for ending the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and extend genuine support to restoration of peace and stability in the Balkans and boost the region's economic and overall recovery.

FRENCH PRESIDENT RECEIVES YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER P a r i s, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - French President Jacques Chirac conferred in Paris on Thursday with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic on an end to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and an integral settlement of the Yugoslav crisis. Milutinovic told reporters after leaving the Presidential Palace that France could do much toward reviving the peace process. France plays an important role as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a major European power, Milutinovic said. He said France was ready to support any peace initiatives launched by Belgrade toward ending the Bosnian war and the Yugoslav crisis. Milutinovic said he had received assurances that France would urge the lifting of all economic sanctions against Yugoslavia, as soon as the peace conference was over. During the talks, the two sides also considered the question of the about 800,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina who have found shelter in Yugoslavia. 'We are one step away from peace...but by some stupidities we could be very close to the big war,' Milutinovic warned, but added that he was nevertheless optimistic. Chirac said he would like Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to visit Paris, Milutinovic said. Sources at the Presidential Palace said it was also heard during the talks that there was a wish that Chirac visit Yugoslavia. Milutinovic also told reporters that most of his talks with former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, also held on Thursday, had been devoted to the peace process and efforts to end the Bosnian war. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister said he had conveyed an invitation to visit Belgrade to d'Estaing, who currently heads the ruling Democratic Union UDF and the Foreign Policy Committee of the National Assembly. The invitation was accepted with pleasure, Milutinovic said.

YUGOSLAV, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTERS SEE PARIS TALKS AS VERY FAVORAB LE P a r i s, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav and French Foreign Ministers Milan Milutinovic and Herve de Charette said Thursday evening that the result of Milutinovic's talks in Paris had been very favorable and encouraging. Milutinovic and De Charette told reporters that there had been substantial progress in the peace process, which should put an end to the Bosnian war and the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. 'I believe that we have probably never been closer to the end (of the crisis),' said De Charette, while Milutinovic carried French President Jacques Chirac's stand voiced at the meeting on Thursday that peace could be achieved if no one made wrong moves in the next few weeks. De Charette said prospects of peace were of paramount importance also for restoring traditionally good political and economic relations between France and Yugoslavia. Milutinovic said bilateral relations should now be additionally encouraged after a certain lull. He said Yugoslavia urged that it be treated equally in relations with France and that both sides pull together to the mutual benefit. Milutinovic and De Charette also shared identical stands toward the lifting of the sanctions against Yugoslavia. De Charette said that France favored that the lifting of the sanctions against Yugoslavia unfold simultaneously with the peace process.

CROATIA IS TRYING TO COMPLETELY ELIMINATE THE SERBS B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - Croatia is trying to completely eliminate the Serbs both from the Republic of Serb Krajina and from Croatia by temporarily siezing the property of the Serbs who fled Serb Krajina, the Yugoslav Government said on Thursday. The Yugoslav Government believes that both the law and the act on the temporary taking over the Serb property are used by the Croatian authorities as a legal means to implement the policy of ethnic cleansing, the Federal Information Secretariat said in a statement. The Yugoslav Government warned that the law and act represent Croatia's gross violation of the sacrosanct international law on the inviolablility of private property. Such a move does not contribute to the peace process and the creating of conditions for the return of the exhiled Serb refugees from the territory of Serb Krajina and Croatia, as guarranteed by U.N. Security Council Reslution No. 1009, the Yugoslav Government said. The Yugoslav Government has determined what diplomatic, political and legal measures and activities the corresponding state organs should take regarding Croatia's so-called temporary taking over and managing the property of the departed Serbs.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

PEACE-KEEPING FORCES: SITUATION IN BOSNIA STABILIZING Z a g r e b, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - The U.N. Peace-Keeping Command in Zagreb announced Thursday that the situation in Bosnia was stabilizing. Officers of peace-keeping forces said the joint Croatian-Muslim offensive in western Bosnia had practically ceased, U.N. Peace-Keeping Forces Spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko said. According to Ivanko, the situation in Banjaluka was stabilizing, even though it has absorbed over a 100,000 Serb refugees who fled the Muslim-Croat offensive. U.N. monitors have reported movements of regular Croatian army troops across the Una to Croatia. Clashes are still going strong on Ozren and near Doboj (northern Bosnia), Ivanko said at a press conference. Confirming reports that Serbs have withdrawn more than 250 pieces of heavy arms from around Sarajevo, Ivanko stressed that the Muslim Government has been 'seriously warned' to end mortar attacks on Serb parts of Sarajevo. The Muslim side responded by saying that military elements out of army control were reponsible for the attacks, but Ivanko said the explanation was not acceptable.

ICRC CONFIRMS NATO AIR RAIDS DAMAGED SERB CIVILIAN FACILITIES B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - The recent 10-day NATO bombing of the Serb parts of Sarajevo has torn up parts of the water supply system and damaged apartment buildings, the Belgrade Office of the ICRC said on Thursday. ICRC is the first humanitarian organization to be allowed to enter the Serb parts of Sarajevo following military operations by NATO and the Rapid Reaction Force against Serb military and civilian targets. An ICRC team investigated the situation in Sarajevo's Serb subrubs Vogosca, Ilijas, Ilidza and Hadzici. The ICRC, together with the local Red Cross in Pale, political centre of the Bosnian Serb State Republika Sprska, were able to evaluate the scope of the damage which had only caused additional sufferring to the civilian population. An ICRC statement said that its representatives in the field had noted a shortage of food, especially for those who use soup kitchens and are thus the most threatened, as well as a lack of medical supplies and surgical materials in medical institutions.

CROATS - CRIMES

CROATIAN TROOPS KILL 47 SERB REFUGEES B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - Croatian troops killed 47 civilians when they opened fire at a convoy of Serb refugees near the Bosnian Serb town of Bosanski Novi, northwest of Banja Luka, Bosnian Serb authorities said on Thursday. The attack took place on Monday evening, when the refugees were less than two kilometers from that town, the British news agency Reuter said. The Agency said Reuter Television had filmed 18 bodies, including those of women and children, riddled with bullets. The killed civilians were aged from 12 to 72 years. The U.N. said Croatian troops on Monday crossed the Sava river at the border with Bosnia and entered 50 km into Bosnian Serb territory, between the towns of Bosanski Novi and Dubica in the northwest, Reuter said. Bosnian Serb authorities said the civilians had been trying to flee from Croatian forces but that they had caught up with them. 'A quick intervention of a (Serb) anti-terrorist unit prevented an even greater tragedy,' an official statement said. The Croatian Defense Ministry has not reacted so far to this crime.

DETAINED SERBS IN CROATIA

UN DENIED ACCESS TO SERBS DETAINED IN SIBENIK, ZADAR B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - Un officials have been denied access to 35 of the 38 Krajina Serbs who were handed to Croatian authorities last week at the un base in Knin. The group had sought refugee there together with 742 other Serbs after Croatia launched a massive attack on un-protected Serb Krajina on August 4. U.N. Spokesman Alun Roberts said that U.N. officials were granted access to the Serbs suspected of war crimes, rape and sabotage in the Split prison, but not in the prisons in Sibenik and Zadar. The 38 Serbs from the U.N. base in Knin, including one woman, were taken to Croatian prisons at the weekend under un escort. Twenty-one Serbs are now detained in Zadar, ten in Sibenik and seven in Split, said Roberts and added that un legal experts would monitor the investigation. Roberts said that un representatives saw the seven prisoners in Split on Monday when everything was in order, and that they learned on Tuesday that four of them had been transferred to Zadar. We have not been notified about the transfer or the reasons for such action, he said. Roberts said that the Deputy Chief of Civilian Affairs from the Knin base had gone to Split on Wednesday to ask why the transfer was made and why the U.N. had no problem seeing prisoners in Split but not those in Zadar or Sibenik. U.N. legal experts have investigated the suspects and written their statements for Croatian investigators ... charges will be dropped where no sufficient evidence exists and such persons will be free to go to Serbia or anywhere else they wanted, Roberts was categorical. The dispute about the group of alleged war criminals was the main reason why the evacuation of the Serbs who found refuge at the U.N. base in Knin took more than a month and a half to complete. We found ourselves in a very difficult situation indeed: the evacuation of Serb refugees, who had lived under very difficult and uncertain conditions, had been postponed and there was a possibility of Croatian troops storming the base and taking the suspects away, he said. Everybody from the list denied that they had committed any crimes, said Roberts and added that an octogenarian and two children had figured on the expanded list. Personal data for one of the suspects did not match those in the indictment, after which un officials insisted on doing a finger-print test... it proved that the person was not the one sought by Croatian authorities and he was not handed over, Roberts explained. 'One of the persons on the list had never been in the base so that four more names were added to the first group of 34 suspects,' he added.

HUMANITARIAN AID

INTERNATIONAL AID FOR REFUGEES IN YUGOSLAVIA - INSUFFICIENT B e l g r a d e, Sept. 21 (Tanjug) - International humanitarian aid for some 700,000 refugees accommodated in Yugoslavia was insufficient and slow in arriving, Serbian officials in charge of caring for refugees told a press conference in Belgrade Thursday. Head of the crisis staff Branislav Ivkovic and Serbia's Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina said the refugees were being cared for by the citizens, economy and state institutions. There were in Yugoslavia, according to official figures, 175,000 refugees from the western parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina (the state of Krajina Serbs) that were in early August occupied by the Croatian troops. 'The situation is exceptionally difficult. We need help, especially in building materials and fuel,' said Ivkovic and added it escaped him why the U.N. Sanctions Committee continued making problems for these imports. He said the international community 'closes its eyes before the humanitarian catastrophe in Banjaluka, where there are more than 120,000 Serb refugees.' 'Donations to Serbia's Commissariat for Refugees are more than modest - in money one million dinars, 100,000 dollars and 4,000 German marks and in goods half a million marks and half a million dollars,' said Morina. The refugees from Serb Krajina, Ivkovic said, have been given the necessary aid and accommodation, but Yugoslavia expected that the 'international community secure their return and guarantee them security.' Serbia's Statistical Office was processing data and assessing the property of the refugees from Krajina (land, houses, livestock and other goods) that remained in Krajina. After the negotiations wereover, the refugees would decide on their own whether they wanted to stay or return, said Ivkovic. Ivkovic and Morina said Serbia was the only republic of the former Yugoslavia which maintained the same percentage of non-Serb population (about 32 percent) as was recorded before the war on the territory of the former Yugoslav Federation.

BOSNIAN SERB RED CROSS OFFICIAL: 127,000 REFUGEES PLUS IN WEST BOS NIA B a n j a l u k a, Sept 21 (Tanjug) - More than 127,000 Serbs have been displaced from their ancestral lands since the latest Muslim-Croat offensive against the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska started two weeks ago, a local Red Cross official said on Thursday. The refugees are mostly women with children, old and ailing people from the areas of Sipovo, Jajce, Srbobran and Kljuc in western Bosnia, which have been invaded by Muslim-Croat forces, Bosnian Serb Red Cross President Ljiljana Karadzic said. Many have come also from Krupa and Dubica in northwestern Bosnia, areas that have been heavily shelled by Croatian forces, and from villages on Mt Ozren in the north, she added, speaking at a press conference in the Bosnian Serb biggest city of Banjaluka. She said they had been accommodated in school buildings, nursery schools and similar facilities which were ill suited for the purpose, and the available food was limited in quantity. The Bosnian Serb Red Cross organisation has appealed to international relief agencies for help.

C O M M E N T A R I E S

SERBS IN BOSNIA HAVE COMPLIED, NOW ITS THE TURN OF MUSLIMS by Tanjug's Diplomatic Editor Zoran Jevdjovic B e l g r a d e, Sept 21 (Tanjug) - Serbs have complied with all of NATO's demands and they now rightfully expect from the Muslims to do the same, and end their offensive operations in and around Sarajevo. Bosnian Serbs have complied with the demands under the agreement signed six days ago and have withdrawn their heavy weaponry from around Sarajevo, it has been confirmed by NATO and the U.N. Butmir airport has also been put at the disposal of the U.N. and all routes have been opened for humanitarian organizations and the U.N. in the Sarajevo region. According to last night's official statement, Gen. Bernard Janvier and Admiral Leighton Smith have decided on the suspension of air strikes against Serbs. At the same time, Serbs have expressed their readiness, the statement said, to discuss the cessation of hostilities with all the parties to the conflict, and with the support of the U.N. Unfortunately, the Muslim side has shown in the past that their promises don't mean much, but hopefully the positive moves of Bosnian Serbs will help the future efforts of Serb representatives at the peace talks. Furthermore, the Bosnian Serbs have removed the possibility that they be accused for some future massacres like the ones at Markale, which have always been a pretext for making decisions with grave consequences. The obvious partiality of many factors in the international community should also be expected in the future to a certain extent. However, a solution cannot be found in conflict with the strongest factors in international politics, even if their demands are unfounded, and their manipulations obvious. Even much bigger countries cannot stand up to the policy of force. Bosnian Serbs have to show diplomatic wisdom and firmness on the battlefield, and face possible future attempts by those forces who wish to continue the conflict and detabilize the Serb national space. Bosnian Serbs have complied with all the demands made by the strongest western powers. It is now up to those powers to ensure the compliance of their proteges, within the U.S. peace initiative. That is the only way for constructive efforts to continue and give results at the negotiating table. Yugoslavia has repeatedly said that the Geneva agreement constitutes a very good base. It must not be jeopardized, because it is in the interest of all the parties to the conflict, now more than ever before, to end the war and resolve the crisis in Bosnia.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

VOICE OF RUSSIA: NATO AND U.N. ALSO TO BE BLAMED FOR SERB WITHDRAW ALS M o s c o w, Sept 21 (Tanjug) - A commentator of the Voice of Russia said on Wednesday that the Muslim-Croat offensive in western Bosnia-Herzegovina had seriously endangered prospects of a peaceful solution to the Bosnian crisis, which had been within reach. Responsibility for such developments should be shared by Muslims, Croats, the U.N. and NATO, the Radio said in a Serbian-language broadcast on Wednesday evening. According to some estimates, the 15-day massive air raids have destroyed about 80 percent of Bosnian Serb military potential. The figures may be exaggerated but NATO, in connivance with the U.N., has de facto become a thiird party to the conflict, the Radio said. U.N. officials in Zagreb have stated that Muslims and Croats now hold between 60 and 65 percent of Bosnian territory. they now control territories which, according to demarcation maps, elaborated by the international Contact Group, should belong to Bosnian Serbs. The President of the Serb Republic, the Bosnian Serb state, Radovan Karadzic, has said that at the peace talks the Serb side would treat the territories seized by Muslims and Croats exclusively as Serb territories. The Radio said that one could wonder whether the Muslim side would agree to that. The Voice of Russia said that ethnic cleansing was being perpetrated in the territories seized by Muslims and that tens of thousands of Serbs were driven away from their homes.

SPANISH PAPER: CHANCE FOR TALKS ON BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA M a d r i d, Sept 21 (Tanjug) - The Spanish daily ABC wrote on Thursday that it was now most important to use the chance for peace talks that the three sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina are finally ready to accept. In an article titled 'Peace Not War' ABC from Madrid said that the Geneva September 8 meeting at which it was decided that Bosnia-Herzegovina would be made up of two entities the Croat-Muslim Federation and the Republica Srpska was followed only a day later by NATO air raids on Bosnian Serb positions. It is incomprehensible that at a moment when peace talks were progressing NATO planes under U.S. pressure continued raids and sided with Croats and Muslims before the eyes of the entire world. The Spanish daily described as very wrong the decision of U.S. President Clinton to use Tomahawk cruise missiles in attacks on Bosnian Serbs without consulting his allies. Openly taking sides against Bosnian Serbs had provoked the rage of the Russians and President Yeltsin and threatend to revive the specters of the cold war, the daily said. It said in conclusion that when Serbs withdraw their heavy weapons and Geneva talks result in an agreement UNPROFOR, and not NATO which listens to the U.S., should monitor the implementation of the peace agreement.

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