YDS 10/30

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

30. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - FRY GOVERNMENT APPROVES PLATFORM FOR OHIO TALKS - MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH STOLTENBERG ABOUT PEACE PROCESS - SERBIAN PRESIDENT WORKS FOR PEACE, SAYS FRENCH DIPLOMAT - REPUBLIKA SRPSKA VICE-PRESIDENT: WE EXPECT JUST SOLUTIONS IN OHIO - YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT WARNS ABOUT SYSTEMATIC ANNIHILATION OF SERBS IN CROATIA - KONTIC: MEDIA MANIPULATIONS ON YUGOSLAVIA SLOWLY DIMINISHING - BORDER ISSUES MUST BE SETTLED BY POLITICAL MEANS, SAYS OFFICIAL

LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA - WASHINGTON CONSIDERS LIFTING SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA SOON - HANDOGIY: UKRAINE FOR URGENT LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA - SANCTIONS THREATEN MONTENEGRO'S NATURAL RESOURCES

OSCE-ROMANIA-YUGOSLAVIA - ROMANIA FOR EARLY REINTEGRATION OF FRY WITHIN OSCE

SREM-BARANJA REGION - CROATIA NEGOTIATIONS - SERBS REJECT DRAFT PROPOSAL ON SREM-BARANJA REGION

CROATIAN PRESIDENT AGAIN THREATENS SERBS - CROATIAN PRESIDENT AGAIN THREATENS SERBS FROM SREM-BARANJA REGION

NEW HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN YUGOSLAVIA - MARGARET O'KEEFE NEW HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN YUGOSLAVIA - HEAD OF UNHCR BELGRADE OFFICE ENDS MANDATE

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - U.S. TRYING TO RESTRAIN CROATIA - BOSNIAN MUSLIMS CONTINUE TO ARM THEMSELVES, SAYS BRITISH TV

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

FRY GOVERNMENT APPROVES PLATFORM FOR OHIO TALKS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) approved Friday the platform for the Yugoslav delegation at talks in Dayton, USA, on November 1, the Federal Ministry of Information said. In accordance with the Federal Government decision from September 14, the united FRY delegation will be represented by the President of the Republic of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic, President of the Republic of Montenegro Momir Bulatovic, and Federal Foreign Minister, Milan Milutinovic. The Republika Srpska (RS), state of Bosnian Serbs, will be represented within the united FRY delegation by RS Assembly Chairman Momcilo Krajisnik, RS Vice-President Nikola Koljevic and RS Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha. The Federal Government expects the Dayton conference to be a crucial step toward the conclusion of a peace accord to end the civil war in the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the beginning of a period of peace and renewal. That is the goal for which the Yugoslav delgetaion will be working for, consistent with the constructive endeavors of the FRY within the peace process. The Federal Government considers, and rightfully expects, that the Dayton talks will be followed by a U.N. Security Council decision to lift sanctions against the FRY, so that Yugoslavia as an equal partner could give its full contribution to building peace in these territories. Yugoslavia believes that it has been unfairly penalized by the sanctions. Inspite of that, the FRY has met all the conditions set in relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and it has been advocating a peaceful and fair solution to problems throughout the talks. All this, the release said, has been acknowledged by a large number of prominent statesmen and politicians, who stress that Yugoslalvia has become a crucial factor in the search for a settlement. The Federal Government has instructed the Yugoslav delegation to assert the above mentioned facts at the Dayton talks with a view to achieving the strategic goal - durable and fair peace.

MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH STOLTENBERG ABOUT PEACE PROCESS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - President of the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic received on Friday the Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslalvia, Thorvald Stoltenberg. Milosevic and Stoltenberg addressed current issues relating to the peace process in the former Yugoslavia, the Office of the Serbian President said.

SERBIAN PRESIDENT WORKS FOR PEACE, SAYS FRENCH DIPLOMAT N o v i S a d, Oct. 29 (Tanjug) - French Charge d'Affaires in Belgrade Gabriel Keller has stated that Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevicis seriously committed to the policy of peace. French President Jaques Chirac and Foreign Minister Herve de Charette have repeatedly stressed Milosevic's role in overcoming the crisis in the former Yugoslavia and enhancing the peace process, said Keller in an interview with Dnevnik of Novi Sad published on Sunday. Fance will suspend sanctions against Yugoslavia the moment the Peace agreement is signed, he emphasized. We will renew old friendships in a novel way, said Keller and added that the importance France attached to restoring ties with Yugoslavia had been confirmed by the recent visits to Belgrade by De Charette and a French business delegation. He also said he hoped the coming Bosnia peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, and Paris would bring about the end of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Under the agreement reached in Geneva, the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb state) is a separate entity, although its territory has not been precisely defined, said Keller. Noting that it would be unfair to bring people to a conference table without keeping earlier promises, he said that a genuine lasting peace should sastisfy all sides.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA VICE-PRESIDENT: WE EXPECT JUST SOLUTIONS IN OHIO K r a g u j e v a c, Oct. 29 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) Vice-President Nikola Koljevic said Sunday that the peacetalks on Bosnia in Ohio were expected to provide a solution which was'just, in fact equally painful for all sides, like any compromise.' In a statement to the local radio station in the town of Kragujevac in central Serbia, Koljevic assessed the war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina would stop. 'I think the solution will be relatively just, perhaps even more than relatively, not because someone abroad likes us especially, or because NATO is particularly fond of Serbs, but simply because, if a just peace is not established, then the threat of the next war is all the bigger,' Koljevic said.

YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT WARNS ABOUT SYSTEMATIC ANNIHILATION OF SERBS I N CROATIA G e n e v a, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - With militry aggression against Krajina, massive murders, ethnic cleansing and systematic extermination of Serbs and with destroying everything that has been Serb for centuries, Croatia, for a second time in the past 50 years, has committed a genocide against the Serb people - says a Memorandum of the Yugoslav Government communicated to the U.N. Office in Geneva. The Memorandum very precisely lists and elaborates the cases of murders, above all those massive, and destructions of Serb property not only during the Croatian military aggression against Krajina and Western Slavonija but also afterwards. Since 1991, Croatia has in this way been applying pressure to successfully expel more than 400,000 Serbs, while during and after its armed aggression against the Republic of Serb Krajina early August it expelled 250,000 more Serbs. The percentage of Serbpo pulation in the overall Croatian population now is reduced to no more than two or three per cent from 12.5 per cent. In this way, the Memorandum says, Croatia has become an ethnically pure state through drastically violating all international norms and conventions. Through secession and ethnic cleansing of the Serb population, Croatia has in the past four years achieved what could not been achieved by the Independent State of Croatia and its fascist leader Ante Pavelic during World War II. As is said in the Memorandum, the Croatian authorities are doing all to make impossible the return of the expelled Serbs to their homes. The Memorandum was communicated also to all the international organizations within the U.N. system which deal with human rights problems, to the humanitarian organizations, and also to non-governmental organizations headquartered in Geneva. The Memorandum will be publicized as an official document at the next session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The Memorandum of the Federal Government is the answer to acompaign launched in Geneva in order to distract the attention from the problems of the Serbs expelled from Krajina and western Slavonija and of the Serb refugees in western and northwestern Bosnia. This campaign has been joined also by certain humanitarian organizations, for example the UNHCR.

KONTIC: MEDIA MANIPULATIONS ON YUGOSLAVIA SLOWLY DIMINISHING B e l g r a d e, Oct. 28 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic Saturday said in Belgrade that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia continued exposed to an unprecedented media blockade despite having accepted all the plans of the international community. Nevertheless, thanks to the peace-loving policy, media manipulations in the case of Yugoslavia were slowly but surely diminishing, added Kontic speaking to representatives of newsorganizations from Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a Government statement said. 'Your presence here, too, said Kontic, testifies that Yugoslavia with its lasting commitment that peace had no alternative had re-affirmed its position in the world and that the Journalists' Union of Yugoslavia had preserved its reputation and friendly ties.'

BORDER ISSUES MUST BE SETTLED BY POLITICAL MEANS, SAYS OFFICIAL B e l g r a d e, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic has stated that controversial border issues with Croatia must be settled by political means. In an interview to the Belgrade daily Borba, Bulatovic particularly mentioned the question of the strategic Prevlaka peninsula between the Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro and Croatia. 'Croatian troops deployed near Prevlaka on the Croatian side have built fortifications in clear violation of the agreement to fully demilitarise the Prevlaka zone, but U.N. observers are still there too,' he said. Asked about the situation on the border with Albania, Bulatovic said that Tirana's opening to the west and willingness to have NATO bases and conduct joint military exercises with us troops indicated avisible change in its foreign policy. With all due respect for the reality of political relations with Albania, the border with that country must be properly guarded, said Bulatovic.

LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

WASHINGTON CONSIDERS LIFTING SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA SOON B e l g r a d e, Oct. 29 (Tanjug) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said on Saturday that the U.S. did not rule out the possibility of suspending economic sanctions against Yugoslavia even before the peace conference in Paris. 'I certainly would not preclude there being some suspension before there's a formal peace conference,' said Christopher, making clear he was referring to the period between the talks in Dayton, Ohio, and the Paris conference. Christopher made the statement en route to Amman, where we will attend a Middle East Economic Conference.

HANDOGIY: UKRAINE FOR URGENT LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAV IA K i e v, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - The U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia should be lifted immediately, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Handogiy said in a statement published Friday. 'We take the view that Yugoslavia has taken all the necessary steps for the complete lifting of the sanctions,' Handogiy said in the statement published in the influential Golos Ukraini.

SANCTIONS THREATEN MONTENEGRO'S NATURAL RESOURCES M a d r i d, Oct. 29 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro will lose a large part of its natural resources unless the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are urgently lifted, president of the Spanish State Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO Luis Ignacio Ramallo said on Sunday. Speaking in an interview to the Spanish daily Ya, Ramallo confirmed that Montenegro had a very well-preserved natural environment, so that UNESCO was planning soon to place this Republic on the World Natural Heritage list. Ramallo also said UNESCO was considering the possibility of proclaiming the entire Republic of Montenegro a World Natural Heritage.

OSCE-ROMANIA-YUGOSLAVIA

ROMANIA FOR EARLY REINTEGRATION OF FRY WITHIN OSCE P r a g u e, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - The head of the Romanian delegation to the Senior Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ambassador Nicolae Iordache, advocated at a Council meeting Friday the early reintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in that pan-European organization. Ambassador Iordache underlined it was increasingly obvious that the absence of FRY in OSCE hindered decision-making on a series of regional problems, such as was the case of the debate on refugees from various regions of the former Yugoslavia at a Council meeting in the beginning of October in Vienna. Romania will support all OSCE endeavors aimed at establishing dialogue and cooperation with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which should take part in OSCE activities, the Ambassador said.

SREM-BARANJA REGION - CROATIA NEGOTIATIONS

SERBS REJECT DRAFT PROPOSAL ON SREM-BARANJA REGION E r d u t, Oct. 28 (Tanjug) - The Serb side did not accept the draft agreement on a peaceful settlement of the Srem-Baranja region (Sector East) proposed in Erdut on Saturday by international mediators, U.N. representative Thorvald Stoltenberg and U.S. Ambassador in Zagreb Peter Galbraith. Serb negotiating team head Milan Milanovic said after the two and a half hour talks with the international mediators that it had been impossible to accept the draft agreement since it failed to take into consideration the elementary objections of the Serb side. He did, however, confirm readiness for the talks to continue. 'What is written in the document practically means that reintegration into Croatia is very close, which the people do not want,' Milanovic specified, adding that the primary objective of the talks had not been realized - to create conditions for the about 200,000 citizens of the Srem-Baranja region to go on living peacefully in their territory. Serb negotiating team member Slavko Dokmanovic read Item 9 of the draft proposal which says that Croatia can deploy its regular police force and customs officers on its iternationally recognized border with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as soon as the agreement takes effect. 'If we had accepted that we would have become a ghetto cut off from its parent state and entirely left to the mercy, or lack of mercy, of Croatia,' Dokmanovic commented. Serb delegation members Goran Hadzic and Major General Dusan Loncar pointed out the absolute unison of the negotiating team in deciding to reject the draft proposal. 'It would have actually been record quick reintegration, because the agreement envisages that the region be demilitarized in only 30 days and enables Croats to take the borders,' Loncar said. Stoltenberg said immediately after the meeting that the proposed agreement had been the best he and Galbraith had been able to offer within the fundamental principles accepted in Erdut on Oct. 3 (at the first talks between representatives of the Croatian authorities and a Serb delegation of the Srem-Baranja region). Galbraith said the purpose of the agreement had been to secure peaceful reintegration into Croatia with major guarantees for respect of human rights. Galbraith said negotiations on the future of Sector East would move to Dayton, Ohio, and added that it was possible the talks would continue after the U.S. summit.

CROATIAN PRESIDENT AGAIN THREATENS SERBS

CROATIAN PRESIDENT AGAIN THREATENS SERBS FROM SREM-BARANJA REGION Z a g r e b, Oct. 28 (Tanjug) - Croatian Presidemnt Franjo Tudjman has reiterated that Croatia will annex the Serb-populated Srem-Baranja region (Sector East) by any means possible. Speaking at an election campaign rally in Zagreb on Friday evening, Tudjman threatened that Croatia would 'liberate its remaining occupied parts...possibly peacefully,' and if not, then the world would see another 'stormy flash.' Speaking at the rally, Tudjman especially sharply spoke about U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf who called the Croatian authorities fascist, after talks with Deputy U.S. Secretary of State in charge of human rights John Shattuck and representatives of intelligence services. Shattuck had told Wolf that the general atmosphere in Zagreb was similar to that in Berlin in the thirties, while others had told him that the atmosphere was like the one in San Salvador in the eighties. The U.S. Congressman voiced this opinion during a debate on setting up a fund for enterpreneurs from which Croatia was to have received 12 million dollars.

NEW HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN YUGOSLAVIA

MARGARET O'KEEFE NEW HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN YUGOSLAVIA B e l g r a d e, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - The new Head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mission in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Margaret O'Keefe said Friday her first task would be to visit refugee centers and enquire about the problems encountered by these people whose sufferings she had only seen on television.

HEAD OF UNHCR BELGRADE OFFICE ENDS MANDATE B e l g r a d e, Oct. 28 (Tanjug) - Head of the UNHCR Office in Belgrade Charles Henry Bazoche said on Saturday he was leaving Yugoslavia after two years richer for a new humanitarian experience. Yugoslavs, especially those who are sharing their homes with refugees, have taught me a lesson in humanism and I will always remember their exceptional kindness, generosity and an all-pervasive wish to help people in plight, said Bazoche. He said he had been impressed by the work and organizational skills of people who worked for the Yugoslav Red Cross and the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees. Asked what was the most difficult professional experience during his mandate in Belgrade, Bazoche said it was the humanitarian crisis created after the August exodus of Krajina Serbs to the Banja Luka region and their subsequent arrival in Yugoslavia. Bazoche said he was convinced that his successor Margaret O'Kleefe would successfully continue the work at the UNHCR Belgrade office.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

U.S. TRYING TO RESTRAIN CROATIA N e w Y o r k, Oct. 29 (Tanjug) - The U.S. has helped Croatia to become militarily stronger but was now at a loss how to restrain it and keep it from undertaking further military actions, wrote the New York Times on Sunday citing Government sources. U.S. President Bill Clinton, the paper said, had to calm belligerent Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and even threatened him with economic sanctions against Croatia. The Clinton Administration was in an embarrassing situation also over what Croatian troops did in Serb Krajina, where, after the operation it carried out dubbed 'Storm' in August, they burnt 70 percent of Serb houses and murdered a large number of Serb civilians, mostly elderly persons, the paper said. The Times revealed details pointing out that Croatian army became stronger primarily thanks to the Americans and that Washington has in a certain way given Zagreb the 'green light' to attack Krajina. In this a special part was played by the firm 'military professional resources' of Alexandria in Virginia which employed a larger number of retired U.S. generals and admirals. This firm was hired by Croatia as 'consultant', as this was what it was registered for, but its activity seems to go beyond that. The paper cited the testimony that a retired U.S. General employed by this firm, Carl Vuono, five days before Croatia's aggression on Serb Krajina (on Aug. 4) held ten working meetings in Zagreb with senior Croatian Army officers in charge of this operation and worked out the scenario of the 'Storm'. Some military experts, who worked for the U.N. in the Balkans also claimed that elements of U.S. military planning could easily be identified in Croatia's offensive on Krajina. The New York Times wrote that Croatia last year spent about one billion dollars for arming and noted that this could not have happened without Washington's tacit approval. Through Croatia, the paper claims, was also armed the Muslim army in Bosnia, with the Croatians keeping for themselves about 30 percent of every cargo that came in, western officials said.

BOSNIAN MUSLIMS CONTINUE TO ARM THEMSELVES, SAYS BRITISH TV L o n d o n, Oct. 27 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Muslims are still secretly arming themselves, despite a U.N. arms ban and the peace process, and with the knowledge and help of the U.N. and the U.S., a British independent Television channel said on Friday. A British Channel 4 reporter said he had seen classified reports purporting to show that Muslims in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina had during the summer acquired military equipmentand high-tech weaponry, mainly anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems. The weapons arrived mostly via Tuzla airport in central Bosnia, which is officially under U.N. control but, according to Channel 4, apart of it is totally controlled by the Muslim Army and closed to U.N. peacekeepers. Muslim troops kept the weapons mostly hidden at home, and some of it was stored at the airport in tents meant for the refugees. The clandestine arms deliveries were made with the knowledge of the U.N. and Washington, and intelligence reports indicate that the U.S. and NATO were directly involved in them during the summer. The British Television Channel further said that the secret arms deliveries had begun in February 1995, which had been spoken of in public, but that they had been intensified in the past five months. The Bosnian Serbs, too, knew about the deliveries, which is evident from a report from a meeting between the U.N. Force Commander in Bosnia, British Gen. Rupert Smith, and (Bosnian Serb state) Republika Srpska Army Commander Gen. Ratko Mladic. U.S. State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns, speaking for Channel 4, denied the Administration's involvement in the matter, but allowed for the possibility that the Muslims had been secretly buying arms, including U.S.-made equipment, on the black market. If a peace accord is reached, the U.S. will very soon unilaterally lift the arms ban (imposed by the U.N. on arms sales to all of former Yugoslavia) and openly arm the Bosnian Muslims, Burns said.