YDS 10/10

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

10. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS - MILOSEVIC TALKS WITH BILTD - IN EXPECTATION OF PEACE IN BOSNIA

FROM THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - KARADZIC: BOSNIAN SERBS WILL HONOUR CEASEFIRE - NEW NATO AIR STRIKES ON BOSNIAN SERBS - 29 CIVILIANS WOUNDED - SCORES OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN MUSLIM-CROAT ATTACKS

YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA - YUGOSLAV DEPUTY PREMIER: RUSSIA HAS IMPORTANT ROLE IN RESOLVING CRISIS

S A N C T I O N S - YUGOSLAVIA APPEALS TO WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION FOR HELP

FILE CROATIA - NORWEGIAN UN MILITARY OBSERVERS CONFIRM CROAT CRIMES - ETHNIC CLEANSING UNDER CROATIAN LAW, LIBERATION SAYS

BOSNIA PEACE PROCESS

MILOSEVIC TALKS WITH BILTD

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic received Monday night Co-Chairman of the Conference on Former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt. A presidential office statement said questions considered included fostering the peace process towards achieving a definitive peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was assessed that the accords signed in Geneva and New York and the agreement on a general cessation of hostilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina were the chief elements for a definitive peace agreement through which the cessation of hostilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina was to become definitive peace. Expectations were voiced that the peace package for Bosnia-Herzegovina would be successfully rounded off and that the current dynamics and preparations for the international peace conference would be maintained. The talks were also attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic. Bildt said that his meeting with Milosevic had been useful. He said that he had discussed with Milosevic preparations for a peace conference on Bosnia, scheduled to be held in Washington on Oct. 31.

IN EXPECTATION OF PEACE IN BOSNIA by Zoran Jevdjovic

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - On the eve of a ceasefire that is due to take effect throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina at midnight local time on Monday, the majority of politicians and commentators agree that peace stands a greater chance than ever. To all appearances, most of the key factors desire an immediate restoration of peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The US President Bill Clinton administration is manifesting great resolve to help end the war in order to enter the coming presidential campaign with the Bosnia file closed. It is believed that this accounts for the US efforts to find a peaceful solution that have mainly focused on persuading Bosnian Moslems and Croats that a peaceful settlement has no alternative in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia. Belgrade's constructive role is also crucial in the current peace process, which is now being recognised throughout the world. Regardless of the west's former biased position, Serbia and President Slobodan Milosevic's principled stands could have elicited nothing but a positive response, even among the countries that do not appear to be, to put it mildly, completely innocent in triggering the crisis in the region. The Republika Srpska has been recognised, while the Bosnian Serbs have been granted equality that eliminates the possibility of their being outvoted in the future. This is in line with Belgrade's continual efforts to secure a solution that would take into account interests of all three sides - Serbs, Moslems and Croats. Politicians and commentators explain the foreign factors' interest in securing peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately by the fact that further escalation of the Balkan conflict does not suit European powers. European factors, apart from a few of them, have nothing against taking into account the situation in the field, which means that Bosnia-Herzegovina should be made up of the Moslem-Croat federation and the Republika Srpska. It is yet to be seen, however, how real is the danger coming from other forces in the United States that are preparing for presidential elections. They, naturally, do not want Clinton to succeed, so that it should be estimated how powerful are their ties with those factors in Europe and elsewhere in the world that back the war option in Bosnia. Political observers that hold more restrained views say there are still factors due to which one should be careful in predicting future developments. Incidents in which civilians have been killed or wounded - the latest of them being the incident in the refugee camp at Tuzla, northern Bosnia - staged by Bosnian Moslems with an aim of laying the blame on Bosnian Serbs and prompting the world to retaliate, can have negative impact on the developments. Moslem-held radio Sarajevo reported on Sunday that at least six people had been killed and 30 wounded in the shelling of the refugee camp at Tuzla, blaming Bosnian Serbs for it. Politicians and commentators say, however, that whenever a peace agreement was close at hand, the said incidents were exploited in a synchronised manner by the propaganda machinery and media, putting off the conclusion of peace. Bosnian Moslem officials' statements that rather speak of their intention to continue fighting, than of prospects of peace and a ceasefire - are yet another reason for being careful in predicting future developments. At the point when world's diplomats are doing their best to bring about peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, it becomes evident who wants peace and who, on the other hand, openly or secretly backs the war option.

FROM THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

KARADZIC: BOSNIAN SERBS WILL HONOUR CEASEFIRE

B a nj a l u k a, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic said on Monday that the Serb side in Bosnia would honour the ceasefire. Karadzic told reporters that it was up to the international community to ensure that the Muslim side, too, should respect the ceasefire. 'We shall take no offensive action after the emplacement of the ceasefire,' he said. 'We believe that the United States is a guarantor that peace will be established, because it took the initiative for establishing this peace,' said Karadzic. 'We have been cooperative enough in the peace process, accepting what we thought we would never accept, which is the union (of Bosnia-Herzegovina)', he added. Karadzic reiterated that the Croats and Muslims, encouraged by NATO's air strikes against Bosnian Serb civilian and military targets, had managed to seize new territories. He said that the Serbs would therefore not recognise any conquests made since the beginning of NATO air raids and since the signing of agreements in Geneva and New York. Commenting on the latest deaths at Zivinice, near Tuzla, the President of the Republika Srpska said this was a pattern followed by the Muslims every time they needed to undermine an international initiative.

NEW NATO AIR STRIKES - 29 CIVILIANS WOUNDED

B a nj a l u k a, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Twenty-nine civilians were wounded in NATO air strikes on Bosnian Serbs on Monday afternoon, the Republika Srpska General Staff said. NATO planes bombed deep inside Serb territory from 15:50 hrs to 16:30 hrs local time (13:50 to 14:30 gmt), targeting civilian objects in the municipalities of Sekovici, Kalesija and Zvornik, with UNPROFOR artillery and tank backup, said the statement. The Republika Srpska General Staff said that these were initial and incomplete reports on casualties. The attacks by UNPROFOR artillery and NATO warplanes were synchronized with Muslim attacks. The headquarters of the Army of the Republika Srpska accused on Muslims of staging a new massacre of civilians in the refugee camp of Zivinice, near Tuzla, in an attempt to block the peace process and put the blame on the Serbs for the massacre. In a statement, the RS Army rejected Muslim claims that the Serbs were responsible for the crime. The statement said that the RS Army had not opened artillery fire towards Zivinice on Sunday because there had been no large-scale military operations in the area. The statement said that news agencies immediately carried the claims of the Muslim radio and that similarly to previous situations, the report was immediately used, without investigation or evidence, for new accusations against the Serbs. The RS Army statement said that this way yet another scenario by Muslim extremists, such as in the case of 'Markale-2' which had served as a pretext for massive and criminal NATO air raids against Bosnian Serbs.

SCORES OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN MUSLIM-CROAT ATTACKS

B a nj a l u k a, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Several dozen civilians were killed or wounded on Monday in Croat-Muslim artillery attacks on Mrkonjic Grad and Serb villages south of that town in the west of Republika Srpska. The Republika Srpska General Staff said in a statement that these were only initial reports on casualties in the day-long shelling, in which regular Croatian troops and Bosnian Muslim units fired about 10,000 different shells and missiles at the area. Bosnian Serb Army Monday repelled strong Muslim and Croatian attacks on nearly all fronts in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. From the region of mt. Igman, which should have been under UN control, Muslim formations used heavy guns to fire on the Serb town of Trnovo, southeast of Sarajevo. In this section of the war zone, the Muslims used poison gas.

YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA

RUSSIA HAS IMPORTANT ROLE IN RESOLVING CRISIS

M o s c o w, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Deputy Premier Jovan Zebic stressed the vast importance of Russia's role in resolving the crisis in former Yugoslavia here Monday and assessed that it was more and more appearing as a factor guaranteeing a peaceful and just solution. Speaking at the opening of a Yugoslav economic exhibition in the capital of the Russian Federation, Zebic underscored that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia highly appreciated Russia's urging that the international sanctions against Yugoslavia be lifted. The exhibition, open until Oct. 15, presents the potentials and possibilities of comprehensive cooperation between manufacturing, foreign trade, and other firms of Yugoslavia and Russia, in the belief that their relations will develop quickly after the sanctions are lifted. President of the Russian Chamber of Trade and Industry Igor Smyrnov said at the opening of the exhibition that Russia was against these sanctions not only because of the damages to Russia's economy, but also because of purely human, friendly reasons.

S A N C T I O N S

YUGOSLAVIA APPEALS TO WHO FOR HELP

G e n e v a, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia appealed on Monday to the World Health Organisation to do its all at least to alleviate the grave consequences of international sanctions against Yugoslavia in the field of health care. The consequences of the anti-Yugoslav sanctions are the worst and most dramatic precisely in the field of health care, said a Yugoslav delegation, meeting with who Director-General Hiroshi Nakajima in Geneva. The delegation is headed by Yugoslav Health Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic. The sanctions-induced difficult humanitarian situation in Yugoslavia has been further aggravated by a huge number of refugees, especially since the arrival of the latest wave of about 200,000 Serbs expelled from Serb Krajina, the Yugoslav delegation said. Since the influx of the Serb refugees displaced by Croatia's invasion of the Republic of Serb Krajina, the number of refugees in Yugoslavia has risen to about 700,000. This is why Yugoslavia has turned to who for help on the eve of Nakajima's trip to New York to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutors-Ghali, members of the U.N. Security Council and the Chairman of the U.N. Sanctions Committee. The Yugoslav side stressed in the meeting that it expected Nakajima, while in New York, to urge for the lifting of the sanctions in the field of health care.

FILE CROATIA

NORWEGIAN UN MILITARY OBSERVERS CONFIRM CROAT CRIMES

O s l o, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - Norwegian UN military observers confirmed Monday the reports about the killing of Serbs in the Republic of Serb Krajina and looting and burning of their property by Croatian troops. Officer Peter Halgunset told the national NTB news agency that he knew about a brutal murder of a married couple of 80-year olds in the village of Varivode, near Knin, whom he said he used to visit because they were ill and helpless. It was one of the most terrible examples of human horrors I have witnessed, Halgunset, who has been a UN military observer in the former Yugoslavia the past two years, said. He explained that, as head of an eight-member team of UN military observers in Krajina, he had sent a report to the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague about Croat crimes against Serbs. Halgunset said more than 70 per cent of Serb houses in 100 Serb villages or so had been plundered, burned or razed.

ETHNIC CLEANSING UNDER CROATIAN LAW, LIBERATION SAYS

P a r i s, Oct. 9 (Tanjug) - In a detailed report titled Croatian Parliament conducts ethnic cleansing under law, the French daily Liberation warned on Monday that Croatian lawmakers have passed a series of laws whose objective is the extermination of the Serb community in Croatia. 'Travelling in Krajina, destroyed and devastated, without the Serb population, expelled from the area where they have been living for centuries, we have seen horror', a correspondent of the French paper said quoting Franjo Tudjman's outcry: 'They have disappeared as if they never existed'. The daily said that the remaining Serb properties have been placed under the guardianship of the Croatian state, that the remaining Serbs are denied rights in the sphere of housing, that murders and looting are continuing in Krajina and that it is clear that Croatia wants to be make sure that Serbs do not return. The daily cited reports of the EU, the UN Security Council, the Helsinki Committee... these laws are discriminatory, Croatian lawyer Darinka Vecerina said, member of the Committee for Human Rights in Zagreb. Tudjman's regime does not recognize Serbs as citizens, but grants Croatian citizenship to Bosnian Croats who never lived in Croatia. This is not only ethnic cleansing, this is a racist policy, the paper said. Finally, the paper warned that Croatian crimes and terror had only drawn 'cautious remarks from Europe and America, without any results'.