YDS 10/2

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

02. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC AND HOLBROOKE AGREE THAT A CEASEFIRE IN BOSNIA IS NECESSARY - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: POLITICAL CLIME TOWARD YUGOSLAVIA CHANGED - BRITISH DIPLOMAT STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF BELGRADE'S PEACE POLICY

FILE - CROATIA - E.U. MISSION: CROATIA RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS - U.S. OFFICIAL CALLS ZAGREB TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS - U.S. WARNS CROATIA NOT TO SETTLE EASTERN SLAVONIJA QUESTION BY FORCE - CROATIAN TROOPS ARE ABUSING SERBS IN KRAJINA - LE MONDE REPORTS ABOUT SYSTEMATIC CROATIAN TERROR AGAINST SERBS

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - KARADZIC: BOSNIAN MUSLIMS SABOTAGE PEACE PROCESS - REPUBLIKA SRPSKA: RUSSIA TO PLAY MORE ACTIVE ROLE IN SOLVING CRISIS - RUSSIAN MILITARY DELEGATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - GENERALS MLADIC AND ZHURBENKO MEET IN BIJELJINA - BRITISH EXPERTS: BOSNIAN SERBS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SARAJEVO MASSACRE

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - DESPARATE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC AND HOLBROOKE AGREE THAT A CEASEFIRE IN BOSNIA IS NECESS ARY B e l g r a d e, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - Chief U.S. negotiator for Bosnia Richard Holbrooke had Saturday talks here with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on a ceasefire in Bosnia. Milosevic and Holbrooke stressed the significance of the success achieved so far in the peace process, adding it was necessary that the international conference on the former Yugoslavia be convened soon, said a statement released by the President's Office. The talks focused on defining solutions for issues encompassed in the comprehensive peace plan for Bosnia, said the statement. Holbrooke said the talks had again been beneficial, but did not reveal any detals. He said the positions of the warring sides were widely apart regarding many territorial issues, and on the question of the body of authority of the future Bosnia, which comprises two entities - the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. Holbooke said both sides wanted a ceasefire, but did not know how to implement it.

YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: POLITICAL CLIME TOWARD YUGOSLAVIA CHANG ED N e w Y o r k, Sept. 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic has told Tanjug that the political climate toward Yugoslavia and its international position has changed noticeably. The world sees that Yugoslavia favors peace and that its role in the peace process is significant to stability in the Balkans. Milutinovic was attending a meeting on Bosnia at the U.N., after which he had numerous contacts and talks with ministers and other prominent figures. Many of them have shown interest in Yugoslavia renewing its contacts as early as possible, realizing the time was past for campaigning against Serbs, and the sanctions would soon be lifted, said Milutinovic. He said in talks with U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that the process of including Yugoslavia into international trends and institutions, including the U.N., should begin, along with the peace process and settlement of the entire crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Milutinovic also had talks with the German and Turkish Foreign Ministers, as well as officials of other countries that had kept at a distance when officials contacts were concerned, said Milutinovic. Speaking of the New York agreement on Bosnia, Milutinovic said that despite obstacles posed by the Bosnian Muslims, it was essential that the process continue and that agreement on an unconditional ceasefire be reached, after which a peace conference would follow. He said Washington would finally have to face the chief obstructor of peace in Bosnia and the side that opposed an end to the war. An important mission had been completed in New York for the Serbs, said Milutinovic, referring to the status of the Bosnian Serb state Republika Srpska, which has been acknowledged as an equal entity in the future state of Bosnia. New York has confirmed, in the adopted constitutional principles, what Yugoslavia had advocated since the outbreak of the war, that all three sides in Bosnia should be treated equally, respecting each other and their vital interests, said Milutinovic.

BRITISH DIPLOMAT STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF BELGRADE'S PEACE POLICY N o v i S a d, Sept. 30 (Tanjug) - Charge d'Affairs of the British Embassy in Belgrade Ivor Roberts has stressed the importance of the peace policy of Belgrade and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, announcing that sanctions against Yugoslavia may be removed in the near future. In an interview published in Sunday's edition of the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik, Roberts said that Milosevic had backed the Vance-Owen Plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina two years ago, as well as the Contact-Group Plan drafted last summer. He said Britain naturally supported and welcomed such attitude and hoped the sanctions could be removed in a very near future. The sooner the sanctions go, the better, he said, adding that he expected all sanctions to be suspended after the signing of peace, and fully lifted after the document went into effect. Roberts said the expected peace agreement could be signed in the next several weeks, or in a matter of days, and implemented in the next few months. He said it would be impossible to stop a spill-over of fighting into other Balkan regions unless Croatia stopped its aggression in Bosnia. He said it could lead to a conflict between Serbia and Croatia. The British diplomat said it was essential that the international community rein Croatia and force it to work on a peace solution for eastern Slavonia through negotiations with local authorities in the region, and through parallel negotiations on a normalization of the Croatian-Yugoslav relations.

FILE - CROATIA

E.U. MISSION: CROATIA RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS B e l g r a d e, Sept. 30 (Tanjug) - Croatian authorities bear high blame for violence against the Serbs in Krajina, a European Union mission report said, the French news agency AFP reported Saturday. The report, which the agency said was marked confidential, represented a synthesis of what E.U. representatives recorded daily in the field since the exodus of the Serbs began. It said that the Serbs who remained at their homes (following Croatia's attack on Aug. 4 on the Republic of Serb Krajina) were the victims of planned enemy actions marked with killings, torching of houses and looting. The Croatian Government made the return of Krajina Serbs impossible to the areas from which they fled before Croatia's military operation dubbed storm. According to the E.U. mission, in the region of Serb Krajina amere 4,500 Serbs remained, while 185,000 fled to Serbia and the Bosnian Serb Republic, the state of Serbs in Bosnia. The report concluded that the calls by Croatian officials to the Serbs to return totally contradicted reality. Traces of killings were numerous, the AFP cited the E.U. representatives findings and recalled that U.N. officials confirmed that remains of 62 persons were found in Krajina eliminated in summary executions, on the completion of Croatia's military operation. The U.N. also confimed that some Serb settlements in Krajina have been 90 percent first looted and burnt. The final figures of this violence could be much more tragic, but E.U. observers as well as those from the U.N. faced great difficulties in their efforts to reach the places where summary executions had taken place, the AFP said. The E.U. observers tried to check reports saying the Croatian Army burnt bodies in Knin's church, the E.U. mission paper said and added that the Croatian security forces denied them access. The report also said observers could see at the nearby cemetary a dredger digging graves in the presence of medical staff, two ambulances and a refrigerated truck. It underlines that if one of the goals of the operation storm was for Zagreb to establish control over Serb Krajina, the other was to get rid of the Serb population that constituted an important albeitun wanted minority. The Croatian authorities at first denied all accusations by international obeservers that the Serbs were subjectred to any type of torture, persecution and violence, but recently acknowledged that there was wrong doing which they reduced to isolated incidents and ascribed to uncontrolled elements in the army and alleged retaliation by Croatian civilians who fled from the Serb territory at the beginning of the war in 1990, the AFP said.

U.S. OFFICIAL CALLS ZAGREB TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for human rights John Shattuck has called Zagreb to end violence against Serbs in Krajina. Shattuck on Saturday evening said the U.S. might consider withdrawing its financial assistance and political support to Croatia unless Zagreb condemned all those responsible for killings and other crimes against Krajina Serbs, news agencies reported from Zagreb. After returning from a visit to Krajina, which was captured by the Croatian Army last August, Shattuck said his first impression had been that the region was devastated. Enough statements have been made by witnesses about corps found along roads and on other sites after Croatia's operation 'Storm,' which indicates a very large number of killings, especially of old people, Shattuck said. Barely about 3,500 Serbs, mostly old people, have remained in the former U.N. Sectors South and North in Krajina after estimated 250,000 local Serbs fled the region in the face of the Croatian military offensive. About 165,000 of them have found refuge in Yugoslavia. Anarchy, which seems to be reigning in Krajina, must end, Shattuck said, adding that the U.S. condemned every instance of human rights violation. He said the purpose of his visit had beene specially to condemn such violations in Krajina in the past few weeks. Those crimes would never have happened had the Croatian Government taken measures to prevent them, such as arrests and punishment, he said. He stressed that attention was now focused on the treatment of Serbs, who, he said, had the right to return to Krajina. Shattuck also called Zagreb to revoke its recently adopted law allowing Serb property in Croatia to be confiscated without any compensation. He said that the property of Serbs must be respected and that the Croatian Government was potentially creating a policy of massive confiscation.

U.S. WARNS CROATIA NOT TO SETTLE EASTERN SLAVONIJA QUESTION BY FOR CE Z a g r e b, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - U.S. Ambassador to Zagreb Peter Galbraith said on Saturday the U.S. had made it clear to Croatia that it was completely unacceptable that the problem of eastern Slavonija be settled by military means. Croatia must be a homeland for Serbs as well as for Croatians, Galbraith told a news conference, and added this was a condition for U.S. engagement in settling the eastern Slavonija problem. There can be no peaceful solution, i.s. 'reintegration' of eastern Slavonija, part of the Republic of Serb Krajina, without full respect for the rights of Serbs in Croatia, including the right to return and reclaim property, said Galbraith.

CROATIAN TROOPS ARE ABUSING SERBS IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Sept. 30 (Tanjug) - Croatian troops and police are killing and mistreating Serbs who have remained in Krajina, said a statement by Amnesty International issued in London on Friday. The statement said that an officially sanctioned policy of intimidation and collective punishment was being implemented against the Serbs, news agencies report. It said the organization had reports of the possible extrajudicial execution of scores of Serbs from Krajina, and the abuse and systematic destruction of Serb homes. Amnesty International has sent a protest letter to the Croatian Government saying that the aged, unable to leave Krajina, were chiefly the victims of abuse and mistreatment by Croatian troops.

LE MONDE REPORTS ABOUT SYSTEMATIC CROATIAN TERROR AGAINST SERBS P a r i s, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - Croatian Army troops are practicing a policy of systematic terror against Serbs in Krajina, the Paris daily Le Monde said on Sunday. Croatian troops, which last August occupied most of the Serb Krajina, have indulged in 'systematic terror and massive looting, killing and other crimes against Serb civilians,' the French paper quoted E.U. and U.N. sources as saying. In an article headlined 'Croats accused of atrocities against Krajina Serbs,' the paper said that 'the Government in Zagreb has carried out a comprehensive operation of ethnic cleansing of Serb population in Krajina, where Serbs have been living for the past five centuries.' 'The Croatian Army has burned down 60 percent of the Serb property (in Krajina) to prevent an economic reconstruction' because the objective of the Croatian policy of systematic terror is to empty Krajina of all Serbs and finally ban the return of Serb refugees, Le Monde said. The paper warned that Croatian forces had 'tortured, looted and killed' Serbs during their flight from Krajina.

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

KARADZIC: BOSNIAN MUSLIMS SABOTAGE PEACE PROCESS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - President of the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) Radovan Karadzic Sunday described as critical the present moment in the peace process in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, saying that the Bosnian Muslims were sabotaging the peace initiatives. 'The key to peace is now in Washington's hands,' Reuters quoted Karadzic as saying to reporters in the northeastern Bosnian Serb town of Bijeljina. The Bosnian Serbs trust the Americans' ability to solve the problem, Karadzic said. He said that, if they managed to bring the Muslims to the negotiating table, and he personally believed they were capable of doing it, then the peace conference could mean the end of war.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA: RUSSIA TO PLAY MORE ACTIVE ROLE IN SOLVING CRISI S B e l g r a d e, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb Paraliament Speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and a Russian Delegation on Saturday agreed on the need for Russia to take a more active part in resolving the crisis in former Yugoslavia. The State Duma delegation was headed by member of the Committee for Foreign Issues Alexander Vasilyevish Minzhurenki, said the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA. Russia made a big mistake in failing to use its power of veto in the U.S. Security Council, to block unilateral actions by the U.S., it was heard at the meeting, said SRNA.

RUSSIAN MILITARY DELEGATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA B a n j a l u k a, Oct 1 (Tanjug) - A delegation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Sunday inspected some positions of the Bosnian Serb Army (BSA) accompanied by BSA Commander-in-Chief Gen.Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb Army Command Press Service has announced. The Russian military delegation headed by Deputy Chief of Staff General Vladimir Zhurbenko also witnessed the effects of NATO airraids on military and civilian targets in Republika Srpska (R.S.- Bosnian Serb Republic). The Press Service said the Russian delegation was especially interested in the latest aggression of Croatian regular army and the continuing offensive of the Bosnian Muslim-Croat coalition on R.S. free territories. Russian delegation's visit to Bosnian Serb Army took place in a friendly atmosphere, which demonstrates Russia's support and understanding of the just aims of the Serb people's combat, Bosnian Serb Army Command said.

GENERALS MLADIC AND ZHURBENKO MEET IN BIJELJINA B a n j a l u k a, Sep 30 (Tanjug) - The Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army Gen.Ratko Mladic met Saturday in Bijeljina the First Deputy Chief of Staff of Russian Army General Vladimir Zhurbenko, Bosnian Serb Army Press Service reports. They discussed issues regarding the defense of Republika Srpska (R.S.) and the situation following Croatia's aggression on R.S. and the latest Muslim offensives on free Serb territories. R.S. President Radovan Karadzic joined the meeting and expressed conviction that Gen.Zhurbenko's visit was a demonstration of friendship of brotherly Russian people and an expression of its understanding and its support to the just combat of the Serb people in R.S.

BRITISH EXPERTS: BOSNIAN SERBS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SARAJEVO MASSAC RE L o n d o n, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serbs are not responsible for the Sarajevo massacre on August 28, which triggered two-week NATO bombings of Serb targets, the London weekly Sunday Times said on the basis of reports by British military experts. The fatal mortar shell that reportedly killed 37 people was certainly not fired from Bosnian Serb positions, British experts said, offering reliable estimates that the shell had been fired in fact from Muslim positions. British experts arrived on the spot 40 minutes after the explosion, together with other UNPROFOR members, and their French colleagues agreed with their analysis. The experts later warned the U.S. that responsibility for the massacre lied with the Muslim army and not with the Bosnian Serbs. Their report, however, was ignored in the UNPROFOR Command, the Sunday Times said. A senior U.S. officer in the Command rejected the British and French findings and the U.N. immediately accused the Bosnian Serbs on the basis of his own report, the paper said. The British experts said in the report that five mortar shells had been fired on the location of the massacre on August 28. Four of them were suspected of having come from Bosnian Serb positions, but it was established that they were not the ones that caused the massacre. The tragedy was caused by the fifth shell that came from Bosnian Muslim Army positions. Senior Russian UNPROFOR officers in Sarajevo carried out a ballistic expertise immediately after the incident, proving that the shell had been fired from Muslim positions. This fact, however, failed to attract any attention whatsoever. The Sunday Times said British experts had shown that almost identical technology had been applied in the shelling of Sarajevo's Radio and Television Center on June 29 and, even more importantly, in the Markale massacre, in which 68 people were reported killed on February 5 last year. U.N. officers in Sarajevo have been voicing serious suspicion for a while that the Muslim Army is occasionally shelling its own people in an effort to start the propaganda machinery against the Bosnian Serbs. A U.N. official has said that NATO air strikes were also called in the past on the basis of wrong reports and 'the same mistakes.' During the two-week massive air strikes on Bosnian Serb military and civilian targets, NATO planes carried out 3,200 sorties and dropped 10,000 tons of bombs that killed 152 and wounded 273 civilians, Bosnian Serb Army Commander Gen. Ratko Mladic said last Tuesday.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

DESPARATE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA B e l g r a d e, Oct. 1 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Red Cross Secretary-General Rade Dubajic Sunday said that the humanitarian situation in western and northern parts of the Republika Srpska (R.S.) was desparate. After the latest Croatian-Muslim offensive on the R.S., the situation is most critical in the northern town of Brod and in the western towns of Prijedor and Banjaluka, Dubajic said. A Yugoslav Red Cross team, official of the Brussels-based European Union Humanitarian Bureau (ECHO) George Clet and offical of the Norwegian Council for Refugees Lars Eric Skanser were on a two-day mission in the R.S. to assess the humanitarian situation in the Banjaluka region, which has offered a harbor to 127,000 refugees. 'The humanitarian situation is desperate, and the worst in Brod, which has 15,000 refugees, and in Prijedor and Banjaluka, which have received 35,000 new refugees each. Another 9,000 refugees are in Modrica, while 2,350 families are in Odzak,' said Dubajic. He said a large number of centers, especially in Prijedor and Banjaluka, were unequipped for such a large number of people, who mostly include old people and mothers with little children. 'There are no mattresses, blankets and sanitary supplies. People are sleeping on the bare floor. Food is a special problem. Refugees in refugee centers are starving and families which have received relatives are left to manage as they possible can,' Dubajic said. He said the ICRC and the UNHCR had increased help, but it was all quite insufficient. The current Croatian-Muslim offensive and the earlier two-weeks NATO bombing of Bosnian Serb targets have prevented distribution of humanitarian supplies in the R.S., Dubajic said. The officials of the Yugoslav Red Cross, the ECHO and the Norwegian Council for Refugees concluded in talks with Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Dusan Kozic that food, clothes, bed linen, medicine, plastic sheets, plywood and stoves needed to be urgently provided for refugees. They also agreed that houses needed repair and that new facilities should be build for more permanent accomodation.