YDS 9/27

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

27. SEPTEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: NEW STAGE OPENS IN PEACE PROCESS - BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENT SEES NEW YORK AGREEMENT AS STEP TOWARDS PEACE - DOCUMENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES OF FUTURE BOSNIAN STATE ADOPTED

VISIT OF RUSSIAN STATE DUMA - YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SAYS YUGOSLAVIA FAVOURS UNCONDITIONAL PEACE - DUMA PRESIDENT RYBKIN: AGAINST DOUBLE STANDARDS IN BOSNIA - YUGOSLAV, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTS FOR PEACEFUL, JUST END TO BOSNIA CRISIS

BOSNIA - FIGHTING - MLADIC: AGGRESSION CONTINUES ON WESTERN BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC - U.N. DENIES BOSNIAN MOSLEM ALLEGATION ON MASS GRAVE NEAR KRUPA

SERB REFUGEES IN BOSNIA - SERB REPUBLIC RECEIVES ONLY ONE THIRD OF AID NEEDED DAILY

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - WHO IS AGGRESSOR IN BOSNIA?

BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS

NEW STAGE OPENS IN PEACE PROCESS

N e w Y o r k, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic Tuesday said after meeting foreign ministers of Croatia and the Sarajevo Muslim government in New York that a new stage in the Bosnia peace process was being opened. The important and very urgent step in the new stage could be an agreement on cessation of hostilities and ceasefire throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, said Milutinovic. He said it could almost be said that the continuation of the peace process has been secured and that now it would be hard for anyone to halt and cut it short. In Milutinovic's view what had been achieved at the meeting was to re-affirm the basic principles agreed on constitutional principles in Geneva.

BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENT: AGREEMENT AS STEP TOWARDS PEACE

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - The accord about constitutional arrangements for the future state of Bosnia-Herzegovina is a further step in the direction of peace and confirms the existence of the Republika Srpska and the equality of the Serbs with the other peoples in former Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said late on Tuesday. Karadzic described the New York agreement as a further affirmation of the principles adopted in Geneva on Sept. 8. These principles, he said, are based on respect for the reality and for the equality of the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia, and for the fact that there are three peoples living in these lands. President Karadzic said that those who wanted to prolong the war would not find it easy to annul the results of the Tuesday conference. He said that a political settlement was to be expected in the near future, and it might prove painful for all three parties to the conflict, but the values attendant on peace would carry the day.

DOCUMENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES

N e w Y o r k, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Foreign ministers Milan Milutinovic of Yugoslavia, Mate Granic of Croatia, and Muhamed Sacirbej of the Bosnian Muslim government adopted a document on the constitutional organization of the future Bosnian state in New York late Tuesday. The document, adopted through the mediation of the Contact Group, says two states will coexist as completely equal entities - the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb state, Republika Srpska. The paper formulates the most basic constitutional principles, while all other less significant questions were left to be negotiated and resolved by the two entities. The document demands and expects that democratic and free elections in both entities be held as soon as possible. In this context, the two governments were asked to immediately enable the freedom of movement of people, to secure the right to refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes or to be reimbursed, that freedom of speech and press be secured as well as respect for internationally-recognized human rights. It also envisages that the OSCE to send its observers to all principal towns of the Muslim-Croat federation and the Republika Srpska. Within 30 days, after the OSCE monitors determine conditions have been created for elections, the two entities would organize voting with full cooperation from the international monitoring teams. On the basis of the results of democratic elections, a parliament would be formed and a state presidency. Two-thirds of the deputies would be elected from the territory of the Muslim-Croat federation and one-third from the Republika Srpska. All parliament decisions would be adopted by a majority of votes, but on condition the majority included at least one-third of votes from each of the entities. In a similar way, a state presidency would be formed. Its decisions would be adopted by a majority vote. However, if one-third of the members assessed that an adopted decision was aimed against the vital interests of one entity, then the entire case immediately goes to the parliament of the entity whose representatives were dissatisfied with the outcome of the voting in the presidency. The government would function in much the same way. The state would have a constitutional court which would decide on questions from the domain of the constitution. Foreign policy of the joint state would fall under the competence of the presidency, but the two sides were left to negotiate how it would function, but must adhere to the above mentioned constitutional principles.

VISIT OF RUSSIAN STATE DUMA

YUGOSLAVIA FAVOURS UNCONDITIONAL PEACE

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic said Tuesday he was hopeful that a tripartite meeting in New York would be successful and described as Yugoslavia's basic goals the resumption of political talks, based on principles of equality, and the restoration of peace. We believe this will be a just peace, as such peace alone has lasting prospects, Lilic said at a meeting with a Russian State Duma delegation, led by Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin. We do not wish to be placed into a situation in which the limits of our patience and readiness for political talks are being tested, which some people are trying to do since the very outbreak of the crisis, an official statement released after the meeting quoted Lilic as saying. It is absolutely necessary to focus on putting out the flames of war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, while any additional conditions might only bring about a turn to the war option and, in that case, the war would not stop within the present boundaries, said Lilic. Rybkin said the Duma delegation highly appreciated Yugoslavia's stand that peace could be achieved only by equally observing interests of all the warring sides and its urging that Bosnian Serbs be granted neither more or less than that being granted to Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Lilic thanked the Duma, the Russian Government and President Boris Yeltsin for their helping achieve a more balanced stand toward the warring sides. He said the war would not have escalated in the first place if certain factors in the international community had been impartial. Lilic said that Russia and Cyprus alone had raised their voices against NATO's outrageous large-scale aggression against the Republika Srpska. He also said that NATO air strikes had made Bosnian Muslim-Croat offensives possible and caused another massive columns of Serb refugees. Lilic also thanked Russia for its relief aid, saying the humanitarian issue of providing for 750,000 refugees in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and for more than 100,000 others in Banja Luka was very grave, especially now that winter was coming. He said Yugoslavia's major task was an economic recovery and a restoration of its position of a factor of stability and prosperity in the Balkans and in Europe.

RYBKIN: AGAINST DOUBLE STANDARDS IN BOSNIA

P o d g o r i c a, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic on Tuesday told visiting Russian State Duma MPs that the latest course of the peace process confirmed that equal treatment of all warring sides was the main prerequisite for peace and a stabilization of the situation and relations in the region. This has been the stand of Montenegro and the F.R. of Yugoslavia since the very beginning, Bulatovic said in talks with the Russian delegation. Bulatovic said Montenegro appreciated the role and contribution of the Russian Federation to the peace process. The two sides agreed that the peace process had entered the final stage and that it would soon result in a conference and a peace accord, said a communique on the meeting.

FOR PEACEFUL, JUST END TO BOSNIA CRISIS

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav and Russian parliament officials agreed on Tuesday that the Bosnian civil war must end immediately in a peaceful and just settlement. The delegation upholds the course of peace steered consistently by the Yugoslav leadership, said a communique issued at the close of the visit and signed by delegation head Ivan Rybkin and speaker of the Yugoslav Parliament Chamber of Citizens Radoman Bozovic. The Russian and Yugoslav parliaments will cooperate in European and international parliamentarian organizations, the communique said and reaffirmed the parliaments' readiness to help along stability in the Balkans and in Europe as a whole. They agreed that bilateral inter-parliamentary cooperation should be planned and developed in all fields and that parliamentary committees and commissions should cooperate on a regular basis, the joint communique said.

BOSNIA - FIGHTING

AGGRESSION CONTINUES ON WESTERN SERB REPUBLIC

B a nj a L u k a, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - The Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladic said at a press conference Tuesday in Banja Luka that calm prevailed at all frontlines in the Republika Srpska except in its western part. The aggression of Croatian and Muslim forces on Serbs continues, Mladic said, expressing conviction that the NATO attacks and the Croatian-Muslim offensive on the Bosnian Serb state had been prepared for a long time with the aim of changing the balance of power to the detriment of Bosnian Serbs. They have chosen the military option as they had failed in their diplomatic moves, but they probably did not really wish such moves to succeed, Mladic said. Mladic also disclosed that 152 civilians had been killed and 273 injured in the 3,200 sorties of NATO aircraft, which dropped 10,000 tons of bombs. Mladic described as unreasonable the Muslim demands for the demilitarization of Banja Luka and their threats of fresh offensives, explaining that Bosnian Serb Army was fighting to defend the homes of the Serb people and that it relied on its own potentials and on the strength of the people. Bosnian Serbs have for a long time been proposing a cessation of hostilities as a step towards peace throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina and providing opportunities to all sides to resolve all issues in another manner, but unfortunately to no avail, Mladic said.

U.N. DENIES MOSLEM ALLEGATION ON MASS GRAVE

N e w Y o r k, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - The United Nations has denied the latest Bosnian Moslem allegation that a mass grave of Moslems has been discovered at the town of Krupa, northwestern Bosnia. A report, which has been forwarded by the U.N. Protection Force to the U.N. Security Council President, said only one body that had not been identified had been found in the alleged mass grave. The news on the discovery of the 'mass grave' was launched several days ago by Bosnian Moslem Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, who alleged that the bodies of 500 Moslems who had been killed were buried there.

SERB REFUGEES IN BOSNIA

SERB REPUBLIC RECEIVES ONLY ONE THIRD OF AID NEEDED DAILY

B a nj a L u k a, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - International and local humanitarian organizations daily deliver less than one third of aid needed for refugees by the Republika Srpska, and shortages are therefore still severe, Bosnian Serb Deputy Refugee Commissioner Slobodan Ecimovic said Tuesday. Nearly 128,000 Serb refugees from western and south-western parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina occupied by Croatian-Muslim forces in their latest offensive are currently in reception centers, private accommodation or on roads. The situation is the most critical as regards baby food which is not being supplied at all, and canned food, clothing, footwear, mattresses and blankets are also in extremely short supply, Ecimovic said. As several cases of contagious hepatitis have been registered in some reception centers, the commissioner's office fears the outbreak of an epidemic and has consequently appealed to all international humanitarian organizations to provide aid with all speed.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

WHO IS AGGRESSOR IN BOSNIA? (by Michal Olbrich)

P r a g u e, 'PRACE', 20 September 1995 - Occasionally we can hear that Serbs are aggressors in Bosnia. Even many active politicians use this to explain the need for an intervention against Serbs. It is difficult to say whether it is their ignorance or ill will. It is not possible to brand Serbs in Bosnia as aggressors. An aggressor is an outside attacker coming from another country. However, Serbs have lived in Bosnia for centuries. The Muslim people, with whom Serbs and Croats share Bosnia, stems from Serbs and Croats who were converted into Islam during the Ottoman rule. Islamization was more successful in towns than in villages. This resulted in the fact, incomprehensible to many, that, before the present war, the Serbs inhabited 64 per cent of the Bosnian territory while accounting for only somewhat over 40 per cent of the population. Simply, more Serbs lived in rural areas and more Muslims in urban areas. The referendum, at which Serbs did not take part, resulted in Bosnia's secession from the former Yugoslavia. The Serbs responded to this with armed resistance. This means that this was not a Serbian aggression but their struggle for self-determination related to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the same way as was the Muslim position related to the former Yugoslavia. This means that there is no aggression in Bosnia, but a civil war.

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