YDS 10/24

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

24. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER'S VISIT TO LONDON - MILUTINOVIC: YUGOSLAVIA, BRITAIN HOLD VERY CLOSE VIEWS

MILOSEVIC - AKASHI TALKS - MILOSEVIC PAYS TRIBUTE TO AKASHI - AKASHI: MILOSEVIC'S CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE PROCESS IS SIGNIFICANT

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - KOLJEVIC, KRAJISNIK, BUHA - MEMBERS OF RS DELEGATION TO PEACE TALKS - MUSLIMS, CROATS VIOLATE CEASEFIRE IN BOSNIA

CROATIA - SREM-BARANJA REGION - NO TANGIBLE RESULTS OF SERB-CROATIAN TALKS IN OSIJEK

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - ISRAELI PAPER ON CROATIA'S NEW ELECTORAL LAW

YUGOSLAVIA - D.P.R. OF KOREA - AGREEMENT ON SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL COOPERATION

YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER'S VISIT TO LONDON

MILUTINOVIC: YUGOSLAVIA, BRITAIN HOLD VERY CLOSE VIEWS

L o n d o n, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said in London late on Monday that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Great Britain held very close views on the situation in former Yugoslavia and the Bosnia peace process. Milutinovic was on a one-day official visit to Great Britain, accompanied by his Assistant Zivadin Jovanovic. Milutinovic described his talks with British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind as extremely good and said they had related chiefly to the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Yugoslavia believes that the peace process has every chance to succeed, but that the hopes for peace might be jeopardised by fresh conditions being set primarily by the Muslim side, Milutinovic said at the press conference held at the Yugoslav Embassy. Yugoslavia takes the view that the basic principles for a peace settlement agreed upon in Geneva and New York in September must remain the basis for agreement, he said. Milutinovic said that the main problem - the drafting of maps for dividing Bosnia - was yet to be solved, and this should be completed in the course of the upcoming talks and peace conference. Yugoslavia is greatly interested in the holding of elections as early as possible in both entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said and added that there were still those among the Muslims, as well as among the Bosnian Serbs, who do not want peace. Milutinovic said that, according to Yugoslav views of an international force for implementing a Bosnia peace treaty, it was still not clear what the true purpose and objectives of such a force would be. If this force will bring the status of an occupied country to Bosnia, as was the case with Germany after World War II, then it would be unacceptable, he said. He added that it would be a heavy defeat for the international community if the 60,000-strong international force were to go to Bosnia-Herzegovina to fight the local population. The only acceptable option is for the international force to help establish peace and make it possible for the people in Bosnia-Herzegovina to move freely and resume their normal lives, Milutinovic stressed. Milutinovic said that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia considered as acceptable any solution for the Srem-Baranja region (Sector East) agreed upon by the Zagreb government and the region's Serbs. He added that he would not advise anybody, though, to choose the war path in dealing with the problem.

MILOSEVIC - AKASHI TALKS

MILOSEVIC PAYS TRIBUTE TO AKASHI

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic paid tribute on Monday to U.N. Special Envoy for the former Yugoslavia Yasushi Akashi for his impartial stand maintained towards the actors of crisis in former Yugoslavia. A presidential office announcement said that during their cordial meeting Milosevic thanked Akashi for his active and constructive cooperation and generous endeavours to help peace return to the war- ridden areas and to alleviate the difficult aftermath of the civil war. Mutual content was expressed during the talks with the fact that the peace process was on the way to its prompt and successful ending through a comprehensive political settlement and a peace treaty for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the announcement added. In the end the announcement said that particularly emphasized at the talks between Milosevic and Akashi was the significance of the normalization of relations between the international community and the F.R. of Yugoslavia which represents the firm factor of stability and peace in the region.

AKASHI: MILOSEVIC'S CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE PROCESS IS SIGNIFICANT

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - U.N. Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi paid tribute to Belgrade and President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic for the endeavors towards a just peace in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In a special appearance on Serbia's television Monday night, Akashi said President Milosevic is a very intelligent, very competent and brilliant leader, who has taken a very active role in the peace process over the past two years. Noting that he has during his mission had a number of opportunities to work together with the Serbian President, Akashi pointed out this had been a privilege for him. Summing up his impressions about Milosevic, Akashi also said that some Serb leaders should listen to his counsel much closer.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

MEMBERS OF RS DELEGATION TO PEACE TALKS

B i j e lj i n a, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - Parliament of the Republika Srpska decided on Monday that the RS delegation to the peace talks in the U.S. on October 31 would comprise RS Vice President Nikola Koljevic, Assembly President Momcilo Krajisnik and Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha. The RS delegation would in fact be included into a six-member delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to be headed at the peace talks in the U.S. by President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic.

MUSLIMS, CROATS VIOLATE CEASEFIRE

B a nj a L u k a, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - The Republika Srpska Army General Staff said late Monday the Croatian army and Muslim forces had violated the ceasefire in the Manjaca sector of the front south of Banja Luka in western bosnia. The General Staff's Information Service said Muslims and Croats had violated the ceasefire also in the area of mt. Ozren and the town of Doboj on northern Bosnia. The ceasefire was respected on other parts of the front, said the statement.

CROATIA - SREM-BARANJA REGION

NO TANGIBLE RESULTS OF SERB-CROATIAN TALKS

O s i j e k, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - Talks between delegations of the Council of the region of Srem and Baranja and the Croatian Government held in the Croatian town of Osijek on Monday did not result in any tangible results, except for setting a date for a new meeting. The talks in Osijek were mediated by Co-Chairman of the International Conference on former Yugoslavia Thorvald Stoltenberg and the U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith. The talks were also attended by European Union Ambassador Geerd Ahrens, but representatives of the Russian Federation failed to appear. At the beginning of the negotiations, Stoltenberg and Galbraith offered both delegations a draft agreement on the future of the Srem-Baranja region. The draft was accepted only as a working document, according to Serb negotiating team head Milan Milanovic. During the five-hour meeting, there were concrete talks on the length of the planned period of transition under U.N. administration, guarantees for human rights protection, and conditions for a demilitarization of the region. Milanovic said the Serb side had remained firm in its stand that the period of transition should be five years, while Galbraith had proposed a two-year period. The U.S. proposal has practically eliminated the Croatian demand that the period of transition last one year or 18 months, Milanovic explained. He especially underscored that nothing had definitely been agreed yet, or signed, thus denying a statement by Croatian delegation head Hrvoje Sarinic that the Serb side had agreed on Monday to a 'peaceful reintegration'. 'Sarinic's statement is just part of the election campaign of the Croatian Democratic Union,' Milanovic assessed. The next round of Serb-Croatian talks has been scheduled for Wednesday in Serb-held Erdut.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

ISRAELI PAPER ON CROATIA'S NEW ELECTORAL LAW

T e l A v i v, Oct. 20 (Tanjug) - The Jerusalem Post said on Friday that the new Croatian electoral law provided for the fulfilment of Croatia's dream of creating a greater, ethnically pure state that would also include parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatian authorities claim that out of the 350,000 Croatian voters in the diaspora, 291,000 live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is nothing but a quiet annexation and another step towards the division of Bosnia in an ostensibly legal way, Jerusalem Hebrew University professor Shlomo Avineri told the paper. Avineri and a group of international experts have recently visited Croatia to study the country's new electoral law adopted ahead of the early parliamentary elections scheduled for October 29. Avineri said that the provision in the law giving Croatians in the diaspora 10 percent of the seats in parliament had no precedent in the democratic world and that it raised many questions about the representation of citizens in parliament and sovereignty. Such law does not exist in any of the countries with large diasporas, such as Israel and Greece, Avineri said and added that 12 of the 127 seats in the Croatian parliament were not just a symbolic representation. This may influence the composition of the government and the adoption of important laws, he added. Croatia's new electoral law also reduced the number of Serb mps from 13 to three, Avineri said and added that the official explanation was that this was done to conform representation to the size of the remaining Serb community in Croatia. Serbs accounted for almost one-fifth of Croatia's population before it seceded from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, but their number has since dwindled to just about three percent.

YUGOSLAVIA - D.P.R. OF KOREA

AGREEMENT ON SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL COOPERATION

P y o n g y a n g, Oct. 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister of Science, Development and Environment Janko Radulovic and President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea State Committee Choe Hui Jong signed Monday an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries. The Yugoslav delegation, which is on a three-day visit, was received Monday also by D.P.R. of Korea Vice President Li Jong Ok, who lent full support to Yugoslavia's efforts for a political solution to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. The D.P.R. of Korea Vice President also lent full support to the efforts invested by Yugoslavia and other countries for the lifting of the unjustly imposed sanctions against Belgrade.