YDS 10/5

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

05. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT ON PEACE PROCESS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA - YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT DEBATES PEACE PROCESS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: BOSNIA CEASEFIRE DOES NOT DEPEND ON YUGOSLAVIA OR BOSNIAN SERBS - FEDERAL PARLIAMENT EXTENDS SUPPORT TO PEACE PROCESS - MAROVIC: PREVLAKA ISSUE TO BE SOLVED WITHIN GENERAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC-IVANOV: STABLE PEACE IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA MOST PRESSING GOAL - IVANOV: CEASEFIRE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN BOSNIA - SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES U.S. NEGOTIATOR - YUGOSLAVIA FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - NATO JETS FIRE MISSILES ON BOSNIAN SERB MISSILE BATTERIES - HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN BANJA LUKA REGION STILL CRITICAL

FILE CROATIA - U.N. SHARPLY WARNS ZAGREB OVER ITS VIOLATING SERB HUMAN RIGHTS - U.N. OFFICIAL ACCUSES CROATIA OF UNPRECEDENTED ETHNIC CLEANSING - MASS GRAVES OF KRAJINA SERBS DISCOVERED IN GRACAC

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - MUSLIMS ARE OBSTACLE TO PEACE IN BALKANS

YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT ON PEACE PROCESS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT DEBATES PEACE PROCESS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - The first joint session of the autumn sitting of the Yugoslav Parliament's two Chambers, which will focus on current issues of the peace process in the former Yugoslavia, began on Wednesday. The agenda of the joint session started with a report by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic on the current issues of the peace process in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, to be followed by a debate. The joint session was called at the demand of the oposition coalition made up of the coalition Depos- Serbian Renewal Movement, the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro.

YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER: BOSNIA CEASEFIRE DOES NOT DEPEND ON YUGOSLAVIA OR BOSNIAN SERBS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said Wednesday the Bosnia ceasefire 'does not depend on us (Yugoslavia and Bosnian Serbs), but on the other two sides (Bosnian Muslims and Croatia)'. Speaking during a break in a session of both Chambers of the Yugoslav parliament on the peace process in former Yugoslavia, Milutinovic announced that the problem of the ceasefire would be resolved in a few days. The session was taking place behind closed doors. Speaking to reporters, Milutinovic warned that threats to the peace process were always present and were never accidental - 'both we and the international community must be cautious that no-one make a wrong move at this time, because, if that should happen, everything would go back to the beginning'. Milutinovic said the international community should also force the other side (Muslims and Croats) to stop causing conflicts. 'Earlier under bombs (NATO air force attacks on Bosnian Serbs), and now under attacks (the Muslim-Croat offensive in western Bosnia) - a negotiating process cannot be held (that way), since it cannot yield any results objectively in such circumstances,' Milutinovic said. The logic that the sides should first reach agreement, and that peace should then begin, leads nowhere, Milutinovic said. This is 'an old tactic of putting off a solution, because the other side has a strategy of war, and not peace, and behaves accordingly,' he said. The New York agreement 'got half the job successfully done - agreement has been struck on constitutional principles (for Bosnia), nothing less will do, and that is the main achievement,' Milutinovic said. The harder part of the job remains to be done - the division of territories, and that is not simply a 51-49 percent ratio, 'but for quantity and quality to be in correlation,' he said. Each territory has its economic, traffic, cultural and other values, because one square meter in one place is not the same as one square meter in another place, Milutinovic said. 'There will be much to do (regarding this issue), but solutions will be found,' he was confident. The Bosnia peace plan envisages that one entity - the Federation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats - will get 51 percent, and the other entity - Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb State) - will get 49 percent of the territory of the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Milutinovic said deputies in the debate so far had given unreserved support to the policy of peace of the Yugoslav Government, with different 'shades which are natural to a multi-party system.' Asked to comment an agreement reached between representatives of the Serb-populated Srem-Baranja region and Croatia in Erdut on Tuesday on the basic principles for further negotiations between these two sides, Milutinovic said it was the beginning of a peaceful solution for the problem in that region. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister strongly condemned the assassination attempt on the life of President Kiro Gligorov of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Tuesday. Milutinovic said that those behind this assassination attempt did not care at all for the resolving of the crisis in the territory of former Yugoslavia. 'It is evident that the assasination was aimed at destabilizing Macedonia,' Milutinovic said.

FEDERAL PARLIAMENT EXTENDS SUPPORT TO PEACE PROCESS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Federal Parliament Lower House Speaker says both houses expressed full support to the current peace process and talks the Federal Government was conducting towards resolving the crisis in the former Yugoslav federation. After Wednesday's joint closed-door session of the Chamber of Citizens and Chamber of Republics and Provinces devoted to topical questions related to the peace process, Speaker Radoman Bozovic told newsmen that conviction was expressed in the debate that the 'coming peace conference would definitively end the war conflicts, do away with sanctions against Yugoslavia and create all the essential pre-conditions for a stable and just peace.' Speaking of the session Bozovic said 'democratic atmosphere and tolerance prevailed.'

MAROVIC: PREVLAKA ISSUE TO BE SOLVED WITHIN GENERAL POLITICAL AGRE EMENT B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - Montenegro's Parliament Speaker Wednesday night set out that the question of the strategic peninsula - Prevlaka - would be resolved within a general political agreement on the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Speaker Svetozar Marovic said, after a Federal Parliament session devoted to the current peace talks related to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, that this was the stand of Yugoslavia's negotiating team. Quoting federal Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic, Marovic said the talks on the issue of Prevlaka were taking the expected pace. Yugoslavia and Croatia were at odds over this peninsula at the very mouth of the Boka Kotorksa bay in the north of Montenegro's Adriatic coast. Prevlaka is currently demilitarized and under U.N. monitors' control.

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC-IVANOV: STABLE PEACE IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA MOST PRESSING GOAL B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov agreed Wednesday that stable peace in the war-battered territory of the former Yugoslavia was the most pressing objective. A statement released from Milosevic's Cabinet said the two sides had exchanged views on some topical issues relating to the process of ending the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and conditions for an overall stabilization of the political situation in the Balkans. Both sides supported current efforts aimed at speeding up the negotiating process prior to an international conference, at which the involved sides should reach a political agreement on a comprehensive peace settlement. This is also expected to lead to the removal of the sanctions against Yugoslavia. The statement cited the conclusion that citizens could feel free and exercize their equality and other legitimate interests only in peaceful conditions. Milosevic and Ivanov discussed further development of bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Russia, as well as a number of concrete issues relating to economic cooperation, primarily deliveries of Russian gas to Yugoslavia, the statement said.

IVANOV: CEASEFIRE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN BOSNIA B e l g r a d e, Oct 4 (Tanjug) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Wednesday, following talks here with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, that the Russian position was that a ceasefire should be accomplished as soon as possible on the entire territory of Bosnia. Talks with President Milosevic focused on issues of settling the crisis peacefully, Ivanov said, stressing that his task was to convey a message to Serbian President Milosevic from Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Ivanov said that Russia was ready to do everything possible to help reach a peaceful solution. The Russian diplomat explained that they discussed preparations for a peace conference, which should be held in the near future. Ivanov also confirmed he would hold a meeting Wednesday with representatives of Republika Srpska (state of Bosnian Serbs), but could not say where the meeting would take place.

SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES U.S. NEGOTIATOR B e l g r a d e, Oct 4 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic received on Wednesday evening U.S. Chief Negotiator for former Yugoslavia Richard Holbrooke to discuss ways and means for effectinga ceasefire on the fronts in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Holbrooke said he had come to Belgrade with an offer for a ceasefire in Bosnia after having met with Muslim Government officials in Sarajevo earlier in the day. Before meeting with Milosevic, Holbrooke said he would be returning to Sarajevo on Thursday, in an effort to secure a ceasefire in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

YUGOSLAVIA FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia believes that a meeting of the group for economic issues of the Conference on the former Yugoslavia in Geneva on October 10 should determine how big and what kind of economic cooperation was possible between the former Yugoslav republics which might contribute to restoring peace. In a Yugoslav platform, adopted by the Yugoslav Government Commission for following the Conference on Wednesday, it was assessed that a prerequisite for restoring economic cooperation in the former Yugoslavia was the lifting of the international sanctions against Yugoslavia, the Federal Information Ministry said in a statement. That would be a big step towards restoring lasting peace, because it would discourage militant forces of all warring sides, the statement added. A Yugoslav delegation, to be headed by academician Kosta Mihailovic, will urge the repair and reconstruction of traffic infrastructure, normalization of traffic and transit through the ecomomic space of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the repair and reconstruction of power network for international exchange and transit of electricity towards Western Europe. The Yugoslav delegation will raise in Geneva the question of the rights of refugees whose property had remained in the territory of some of the participants in the talks, the statement said.

YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT CONDEMNS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST GLIGORO V B e l g r a d e, Oct 4 (Tanjug) - The Government of the Federal Republicof Yugoslavia condemned in the strongest terms the assassination attempt against the President of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Kiro Gligorov. The official statement said that the Federal Government condemns the 'criminal terrorist attack on the President of FYROM, Kiro Gligorov, who had just returned from a visit to the Yugoslavia, where he held very important and useful talks with the President of the Republic of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, about the normalization of relations and cooperation between the two neighbouring countries and about the situation in the Balkans in general'. The criminal act was perpetrated at a time of when the process of stabilization in the Balkans was starting to yield concrete results, the statement said. The Yugoslav Government considers that the assassination attempt is directed not only against President Gligorov, but also against peace and security in the Balkans and against the interets not only of the Macedonian, but also of all the peoples in that part of Europe. The Yugoslav Government has expressed its best wishes for the speedy recovery of Kiro Gligorov, and hopes that he will soon continue his fruitful activity of statesman.

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

NATO JETS FIRE MISSILES ON BOSNIAN SERB MISSILE BATTERIES B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - NATO jets on Wednesday fired missiles on Bosnian Serb missile batteries on three separate occasions, twice in northern Bosnia and once south of Sarajevo, international news agencies said. NATO's Southern Command in Naples reported that NATO warplanes had fired missiles in self-defence. Reuters quoted NATO Spokesman Major Dag Christensen as saying that the planes had fired after being locked on to by radar while on routine 'operation deny flight' patrols over Bosnia. Christensen said the planes had fired harm (high speed anti-radiation) missiles at radars linked with ground-to-air missile positions. He said 'the results are not known,' adding that the planes had not been targeted by Bosnian Serb radar since. Harm missiles follow the radar beam directed at an aircraft back down their target, Reuters said. Christensen specified that the first two incidents had taken place in the morning, while the third had occured in the afternoon. International news agencies said the attacks were the first on Bosnian Serbs by NATO since mid-Semptember.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN BANJA LUKA REGION STILL CRITICAL B e l g r a d e, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - The ICRC has stated that the humanitarian situation in the region of Banjaluka, northwestern Bosnia, is still critical. A statement issued by the ICRC Office in Belgrade on Wednesday said more than 100,000 Serb refugees who had fled before the Moslem-Croat offensive in September had been accommodated in 20 municipalities of the Banjaluka region. The majority of the refugees have been accommodated in private houses where refugees who have fled war zones at an earlier stage are already living and with whom they share meagre meals, the statement said. A large number of the houses have been damaged, have no roofs or windows, the statement said. The ICRC is especially concerned about the conditions in which refugees live. The winter will only make it harder for them, so that the ICRC will have to adjust its activity in coming weeks to the refugees' needs dictated by the new season, the statement said.

FILE CROATIA

U.N. SHARPLY WARNS ZAGREB OVER ITS VIOLATING SERB HUMAN RIGHTS G e n e v a, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - U.N. High Commissoner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso on Wednesday most sharply warned Croatian President Franjo Tudjman that he would no longer tolerate drastic human rights violations in Krajina. In a letter whose contents were released at Geneva's Palais des Nations, Ayala said the U.N. was deeply concerned over what Croatian authorities i.e. their army was currently doing in the devastated Krajina. Croatia's aggression on southern and northern parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina has driven out about 250,000 local Serbs. Ayala said the U.N. was especially alarmed at Croatia's continued killing of innocent people, its looting of Serb property and torching of Serb houses. He said many things indicated that Croatian security forces were behind such actions. Ayala said the course of investigation carried so far resulted in evident facts that the wave of killings was still going on, that the bodies of showed signs of horrendous torture and that most victims were feeble and elderly people. Ayala also said that, according to information so far, at least three Serbs had been torched in their houses in Krajina. The latest example to this was a mass murder of 12 elderly people in the village of Varivode near Knin. Geneva on Wednesday recieved reports about this crime with disgust. Ayala listed as U.N.'s priority a safe repatriation of all displaced persons regardless of their nationality or ethnic origin. He said Croatia was doing its best to stop the repatriation of refugees. Ayala especially warned Tudjman against a discriminatory character of Croatia's latest laws depriving Serbs of their property, which clashed with article 17 of a Universal Human Rights Declaration signed also by Croatia. He said Croatia denied entrance even to Serb refugees who had valid papers issued by its authorites.

U.N. OFFICIAL ACCUSES CROATIA OF UNPRECEDENTED ETHNIC CLEANSING W a r s a w, Oct 4 (Tanjug) - The expulsion of Serbs from the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) cannot but be regarded as the largest-scale 'ethnic cleansing' operation in former Yugoslavia, U.N. Spokesman in Zagreb Chris Gunness was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Speaking for the Warsaw daily Rzeczpospolita, Gunness said that the Croatian Army's aggression of early August had displaced 170,000 Serbs from the RSK. International relief agencies put the figure at 250,000. Asked if the Serbs' flight from the RSK before the arrival of the Croatian Army could be regarded as ethnic cleansing, Gunness said that the assault had begun before dawn and the people, awakened by artillery thunder, had run for dear life, leaving everything behind. E.U. civilian police (CIVPOL) has found 150 bodies, some killed after the Croatian aggression, Gunness said and added that a number of them had been shot through the back of the head. He said that the U.N. was constantly intervening with the Croatian Government because of human rights violations in Serb Krajina. However, Croatian authorities are turning a blind eye to the crimes and have done nothing to prevent them, Gunness said. He said that the Croatian liaison officer in Serb Krajina had told U.N. officials that 375 people had been arrested for torching and looting abandoned Serb houses, but the U.N. had had no confirmation of the information from the Croatian Government. Thousands of Serb houses have been put to the torch in Serb Krajina, Gunness said, specifying that 60 percent of all Serb houses in Sector South and 40 percent in Sector North had been destroyed, mostly in rural areas.

MASS GRAVES OF KRAJINA SERBS DISCOVERED IN GRACAC Z a g r e b, Oct 4 (Tanjug) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee announced in Zagreb Wednesday that its monitors had discovered mass graves in Gracac (a town in the Sector East), where murdered Krajina Serbs have been buried. The Committee said that the greatest number of persons killed in the Krajina region are buried in Gracac and in Knin (former administrative center of the occupied Republic of Serb Krajina - state of Bosnian Serbs). The Committee said, citing E.U. evidence, that about six people are killed in Krajina every day, whose bodies are transportd to the above mentioned cemeteries. The Committee said that it had discovered new details in connection with the massacre of Serb civilians in the village of Varivode, near Knin. Of the 12 people believed to be killed, two have been found. They are Vukica Beric (80) - she is recovering in Knin hospital from burns after her house was torched by attackers, and Milan Pokrajac (77) who was found in his house. U.N. Secretary General Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi, said in Zagreb Tuesday that the U.N. had substantiated evidence that at least nine Serb civilians had been murdered in the village of Varivode. This is the most brutal single attack on Serbs who remained in Croatia after the Croatian offensive on Krajina, Akashi said and added that this indicated the need for international control and the protection of remaining Serbs in the region. The Committee denied Croatian official claims that 300 suspects have been arrested for crimes committed in Krajina. The Committee claims that the suspects were only under investigation and it called upon the Croatian authorities to announce publicly the names of individuals who had been arrested and against whom criminal proceedings had been initiated. The authorities in Zagreb have been denying for weeks the reports of U.N. monitors and international organizations that Croatian troops and policemen were involved in systematic looting, torching and destruction of Krajina Serb properties. They have also been denying that Croatian troops murdered civilians, for what there is also ample evidence collected by the U.N. and international organizations.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

MUSLIMS ARE OBSTACLE TO PEACE IN BALKANS B r u s s e l s, Oct. 4 (Tanjug) - The Muslim offensive against Bosnian Serbs in southern Sarajevo and the attempted assassination of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia President Kiro Gligorov place new obstacles in the way of the peace process in the Balkans, E.U. circles said in Brussels on Wednesday. Confirming these assessments, political commentator of the leading Brussels daily La Libre Belgique Michel Rosten said that 'the (Muslim) Government in Sarajevo obviously does not want peace.' Rosten said that Muslim forces were firing at Bosnian Serb positions from heavy weapons and that verbal protests to the U.N. meant nothing in such a situation. He wondered whether the Rapid Reaction Force, who are deployed in this zone, and the NATO air force could be put into operation in this case too.