YDS 10/27

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

27. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

PEACE PROCESS - YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT LILIC: IT IS ONLY A STEP TO FINAL PEACE - KARADZIC CONFIDENT AT LEAST 49 PERCENT OF BOSNIA WILL BE SERB

YUGOSLAVIA - FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS - GOVERNMENT FORMS COMMISSION FOR RELATIONS WITH IMF

BILATERAL TALKS - YUGOSLAV-BELGIAN POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS - YUGOSLAVIA, SLOVAKIA BEGIN CONSULAR CONSULTATIONS - YUGOSLAV-ROMANIAN COMMISSION ON LOCAL CROSS-BORDER TRAFFIC

CROATIA - SERBS - SERBS IN CROATIA LIVE IN FEAR PRIOR TO PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

PEACE PROCESS

YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: IT IS ONLY A STEP TO FINAL PEACE

L e s k o v a c, Yugoslavia, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic said on Thursday that final peace in former Yugoslavia was only a step away. 'We are only a step from the goal, a step from final peace and the affirmation of the policy we have pursued continually since the outbreak of civil war in former Yugoslavia,' Lilic said, meeting local officials in southeastern Serbia. Lilic said that it had been the policy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that solutions should be sought through dialogue and political methods. Yugoslavia has been making active and agile efforts for a peaceful end of the civil war in former Yugoslavia, investing all its strength and enjoying overwhelming support from its people, he added. Lilic said that Yugoslavia had constantly striven for a peace settlement, from the 1992 plan of Portuguese diplomat Jose Cutilheiro, to the present day and the latest plan put forth by the United States. 'This has been our position in dealings with both the international community and some Serb leaders who thought that different solutions were possible, that a solution could be found through war, which I am deeply convinced is not in the best interest of the Serbian people,' he said. 'On our road, the most important part has certainly been played by (Serbian President) Slobodan Milosevic and I think that this contribution of Serbia should be recognised loud and clear,' Lilic said. The most important thing now, he added, is not to give in to outside pressure or pressure from any of the warring parties, and to stand firm on the principles agreed at the Geneva and New York conferences. Lilic said it was the obligation of the international community and the United States to be the guarantors of the implementation of the principles agreed at Geneva and New York, to be the true and just implementers of the peace accords based on those principles. Anything else would be immoral, to put it mildly, and would lead to a wider war, he added. Lilic described Croatia's threats addressed to the Serbs 'as irrational and highly risky, to say the least,' and added that Yugoslavia could accept only talks held between Serbs and Croats to settle territorial and property disputes. He said that the Croatian government had set an incredible precedent when it appropriated absolutely the entire Serb property, taking a course of action previously unknown in the world. Lilic stressed that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had every right to expect its active role in the peace effort to be awarded by the lifting of the sanctions and the country's reintegration in international institutions. This should give Yugoslavia a chance 'to wage a new battle, this time for work and prosperity at home, and certainly for a higher standard of living for its people and, most importantly, for a safer and better future for the coming generations,' he said.

KARADZIC CONFIDENT AT LEAST 49 PERCENT OF BOSNIA WILL BE SERB

B a nj a L u k a, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said Thursday he was confident that the Republika Srpska would cover at least 49 percent of Bosnia. Speaking to Serb Democratic Party officials in Banja Luka, Karadzic said he believed the negotiating team for the Dayton talks headed by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic would bring the Republika Srpska as much independence and state attributes as possible. This would create conditions for continuing the political struggle and the struggle for independence and unification of the Republika Srpska with other Serb lands, namely the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said. Karadzic also said the Bosnian Muslim and Croat armies and the army of neighbouring Croatia would have to give back the western parts of the Republika Srpska captured after September 8, when the three warring sides agreed basic principles of future organisation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

YUGOSLAVIA - FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

GOVERNMENT FORMS COMMISSION FOR RELATIONS WITH IMF

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Government set up a Commission for Relations with the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions on Thursday, a Federal Government statement said. The newly formed Commission will coordinate activities in the drawing up of documents on relations and cooperation with the IMF, the World Bank and other international financial institutions. The Federal Government decided that the Commission be chaired by Federal Prime Minister Radoje Kontic.

BILATERAL TALKS

YUGOSLAV-BELGIAN POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - Assistant Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and Ambassador at the Belgian Foreign Ministry Yves Hansendonk held political consultations at the Foreign Ministry in Belgrade on Thursday. The officials exchanged views about the most topical questions of the peace process in former Yugoslavia and the further development of relations and cooperation between Yugoslavia and Belgium, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

YUGOSLAVIA, SLOVAKIA BEGIN CONSULAR CONSULTATIONS

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - The foreign ministries of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Slovak Republic began consular consultations on Thursday. The talks will focus on cooperation between bodies in charge of consular and legal matters and on measures for further improvement of their cooperation in the interest of an overall development of the Yugoslav-Slovak relations.

YUGOSLAV-ROMANIAN COMMISSION ON LOCAL CROSS-BORDER TRAFFIC

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav-Romanian standing Commission on local cross-border traffic ended its 22nd session in Belgrade on Thursday. The three-day session analyzed bilateral cooperation between the 21st and 22nd sessions and measures for promoting it. The results achieved were appraised as successful and it was noted that conditions would soon be created for a further enhancement of traditionally friendly Yugoslav-Romanian ties. The delegation of the Commission was received separately by Ambassador Radomir Bogdanovic, Chief of the Consular Section in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mihalj Kertes, Director of the Federal Customs Administration, and Radovan Stojcic, Serbian Deputy Interior Minister.

CROATIA - SERBS

SERBS LIVE IN FEAR PRIOR TO PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Z a g r e b, Oct. 26 (Tanjug) - A Serb party leader said on Thursday that Serbs in Croatia were alarmed on the threshold of parliamentary elections by allegations of involvement in a bombing attack and arrests for espionage. Milorad Pupovac, leader of the Independent Serb Party and its candidate in the October 29 parliamentary election, said that the allegation by the Croatian Interior Minister of Serb involvement in the Rijeka bombing attack had only increased anxiety among the Serbs. A car bomb exploded recently outside a police station in the Croatian Adriatic port of Rijeka, killing one person and wounding dozens of others. An Egyptian islamic terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack, but not before Croatia's Interior Minister had alleged without a shred of evidence that the attack might have been the work of Serbs. Elsewhere in Croatia, police has arrested 14 people, mostly Serbs, on suspicion of anti-state activity. Pupavac said that dozens of Serbs had been held for questioning by police for hours, 14 of whom were eventually charged with anti-state activities and remanded in custody. 'All this comes at a time when the remaining Serbs in Croatia are preparing to elect their representatives to the Croatian parliament for the first time,' he said. Pupavac said that this kind of behaviour on the part of the authorities was poisoning the pre-election climate and heightening the fear of the already intimidated Serbs in Croatia.