YDS 12/5

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

5 DECEMBER 1995 YDS-1031

C O N T E N T S :

YUGOSLAVIA - E.U. - E.U. SUSPENDS ANTI-YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS

YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA - YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT TO VISIT CHINA

BOSNIA: SERBS - CROATS - SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS CROATS FOR TORCHING SERB HOUSES - ELISABETH REHN URGES CROATIA TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS - CROATS SET FIRE TO SOME 20 SERB HOUSES A DAY

SARAJEVO SERBS - E.U. MINISTERS SAY SERBS SHOULD BE SAFE IN UNDIVIDED SARAJEVO

YUGOSLAVIA - RED CROSS - POLITICS MUST BE ELIMINATED FROM IFRC ACTIVITIES

KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - YUGOSLAV MINISTER: KOSOVO SECESSIONISTS HAVE NO CHANCE OF SUCCESS

YUGOSLAVIA - ECONOMY - YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT APPROVES FREE IMPORT OF OVER 1,200 ITEMS - GOVERNOR AVRAMOVIC: PRIVATIZATION IS BOTH A POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUE

E.U. SUSPENDS ANTI-YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS Brussels, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The European Union Monday suspended the sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The meeting of Foreign Ministers of the 15 E.U. member-states announced that the decision on imposing sanctions on trade and other relations with F.R. of Yugoslavia was no longer in force.

YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA

YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT TO VISIT CHINA Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic will visit the People's Republic of China from December 18 to 23 at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. President Lilic's visit is the first official highest-level visit to the friendly country in the past ten years and President Lilic's first official visit after the suspension of U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia. The visit is expected to considerably contribute to the promotion of the traditionally friendly relations and cooperation between Yugoslavia and China.

BOSNIA: SERBS - CROATS

SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS CROATS FOR TORCHING SERB HOUSES New York, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The United Nations Security Council on Monday condemned Croatian authorities and asked them immediately to stop torchings of houses and looting of Serb property in the towns of Mrkonjic Grad and Sipovo in central Bosnia-Herzegovina. Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Sergei Lavrov, who presides over the Council in December, told reporters that the Council members had authorized him to ask Croatian authorities to stop this violence immediately.

REHN URGES CROATIA TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The Special U.N. Rapporteur for Human Rights Elisabeth Rehn Monday urged Croatia to respect human rights in line with the peace accords initialled on November 21 in Dayton. At her meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in Zagreb, Rehn demanded a cessation of the looting and torching of Serb property in areas under the control of Bosnian Croats, Agence France Presse reports. Rehn said that she had seen with her own eyes the destruction and burned-down sites along the road from Banja Luka to Mostar and that she would take up this issue in detail with Croat Defense Minister Gojko Susak.

CROATS SET FIRE TO SOME 20 SERB HOUSES A DAY Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - U.N. Commander in Bosnia, General Richard Dannatt said after visiting Mrkonjic Grad and Sipovo, that some 20 houses a day are burned by the Croatian army in Western Bosnia. Dannatt said that he would continue to protest to HVO (Bosnian Croat militia) leaders 'to try to hold them to their promises to stop the widespread destruction', Reuters reported. Dannatt said that the protests have given no results up to now, and that under his current U.N. mandate he 'is not able to deploy soldiers to physically deter arson' in Serb towns. 'Apart from moral persuasion, observing and reporting is all we can do', said Dannatt whose armoured unit is based in Gornji Vakuf, 70 km south-east of Mrkonjic Grad.

SARAJEVO SERBS

SERBS SHOULD BE SAFE IN UNDIVIDED SARAJEVO Brussels, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - Foreign Ministers of the European Union said Monday the Sarajevo government was obliged to secure full civil rights, security, and human rights for Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and to build mutual confidence. The conclusions of the Brussels meeting said it was necessary to preserve Sarajevo as an undivided city and the capital of a united Bosnia-Herzegovina. French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said after the meeting that the securing of Serb rights in Sarajevo would be the first and true test for the state wisdom of the Bosnia-Herzegovina government and that the international community would strictly observe this. E.U. mediator Carl Bildt also said it was the obligation of the Sarajevo government to secure for Serbs full civil and human rights and that this was now the primary obligation of the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Meanwhile, the Bosnian Serb news agency Srna said deputies of the Assembly of Serb Sarajevo had decided on Monday to hold a referendum on Dec. 12 to decide about the future of that part of the capital which they control. The Assembly adopted the Dayton accords, but not the maps of demarcation between the two entities, under which Serb Sarajevo is in the Muslim-Croat federation.

YUGOSLAVIA - RED CROSS

POLITICS MUST BE ELIMINATED FROM IFRC ACTIVITIES Geneva, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Mario Villaroel Lander said at a plenary session of the organization's 26th conference in Geneva on Monday that politics had to be eliminated from humanitarian activities of that organization. Most of the speakers at the plenary session - which marked the beginning of the working part of the conference opened on Sunday - said that politics was essentially incongruous with the organization's basic principles. Swiss dailies also warned Monday that the situation considerably differs in practice, and noted with regret that the organization has again failed to avoid scandal at the conference. Papers recalled the 1986 conference in Geneva, when a scandal broke out over South Africa's participation, adding that it was even worse in Budapest in 1991, when the conference was cancelled because of an Arab boycott. Journal de Geneve daily said that politics was again quite perceptible both behind the scene and on the floor. It mentioned the 'Yugoslav case' and the fact that the Yugoslav state delegation was prevented from participating on equal footing in the work of the humanitarian meeting. Thus, the seat for the Yugoslav state delegation is empty but the Yugoslav Red Cross organization, headed by its President Radovan Mijanovic, is attending the conference. One hundred and eighty five state delegations and 163 national Red Cross delegations are present at the conference. Journal de Geneve said that the United States and islamic countries had managed to ban the Yugoslav state delegation from the conference, attempting also to prevent the participation of the Yugoslav Red Cross delegation. Observers in Geneva on Monday warned about the strengthening of the islamic bloc in international relations and mentioned the example of Yugoslavia in that context. The islamic bloc has in the past several days managed to prevent the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from participating in two international meetings - the conference of the Convention against torture and the Red Cross conference.

KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

KOSOVO SECESSIONISTS HAVE NO CHANCE OF SUCCESS Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The majority of ethnic Albanians are aware that the demands of the separatists for an independent Kosovo and Metohija have no chance for success, especially since the key international factors have said that the problems in this province should be resolved within Serbia and Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Interior Minister Vukasin Jokanovic has said. In an interview to Monday's Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, Jokanovic said that the security and equality of all citizens of Kosovo have been preserved despite attempts by separatists to set up their parallel institutions and bodies. Jokanovic underscored that since 1990 in Kosovo there has been no mass violence, and that the number of inter-ethnic conflicts has dropped. He said that all citizens of Kosovo are guaranteed equal rights and security regardless of national and religious affiliation. Jokanovic said that the longterm goal is the stabilization of the situation in this part of Serbia and the separation of the Albanian population from the separatist movement because 'even those Albanians who want to realize their constitutional rights are exposed to pressures, intimidation, threats and attacks by extremists.'

YUGOSLAVIA - ECONOMY

YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT APPROVES FREE IMPORT OF OVER 1,200 ITEMS Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav government has passed several decisions lifting numerous import-export limitations and enabling the free import of more than 1,200 items and the export of about 400 domestic articles. This marks the start of the liberalization of imports in keeping with the new package of economic measures adopted by the Yugoslav Government in late November. The 15-point program has once again put the national currency (dinar) on par with the German mark (1 DIN = 3.3 DM), and a number of other measures will be introduced to stimulate production and foreign trade. The Yugoslav Government has reduced non-customs duties for consumer goods by four times, from the previous 83 percent to only 18 percent. The Yugoslav Government's decision also enables free exports, with the exemption of wheat, corn, meat and meat products. The Government decisions came into force on November 26 after they were published in the Official Gazette.

PRIVATIZATION IS BOTH A POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUE Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - The Governor of Yugoslav National Bank Dragoslav Avramovic said Monday that privatization was one of the 15 points of the 'program-2' for economic recovery of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which has been accepted by both the Federal Government and the Governments of Serbia and Montenegro. Avramovic, author of both Yugoslav economic recovery programs, made this statement at a press conference in Belgrade in the expectation of the forthcoming international round table on privatization in countries undergoing transition, which he will chair. In conditions prevailing in Yugoslavia, privatization is both a political and an economic issue, Avramovic said, pointing out he did not believe in ideological approach to resolving ownership problems. He said he expected that basic dilemmas on privatization in Yugoslavia would be resolved within one month, or at least that alternatives would be proposed, on which deputies should take a decision in the beginning of January.