YDS 12/27

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

27. DECEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS PROVINCES ARE INTERNAL AFFAIR - PRIME MINISTER OF TAJIKISTAN ARRIVES IN YUGOSLAVIA - SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH APPEALS FOR PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING

ON SERBS' RIGHTS IN CROATIA - CROATIA 'UNPRECEDENTEDLY, SEVERELY AND MASSIVELY' VIOLATES SERBS' RIGHTS

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - POSSIBLE POSTPONEMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF AGREEMENT ON SARAJEVO

*YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS PROVINCES ARE INTERNAL AFFAIR B e l g r a d e, Dec 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milovanovic said on Tuesday that the Dayton accord made no mention of the Serbian provinces of Kosovo-Metohija and Vojvodina because they were Yugoslavia's internal affair. Speaking in a panel discussion organised by the Socialist Party of Serbia, Milutinovic dismissed as groundless all speculation about the status of the provinces, because 'the world has come to realise that there can be no changing of borders in Europe.' 'We recognised Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Dayton accord, but not the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina as it was before the document was signed in Paris,' he explained. 'We recognised Bosnia as it was agreed at Dayton that it should be, made up of two completely equal entities: the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation,' added Milutinovic. He further said that the role of international troops in Bosnia was solely to separate the belligerents and implement the peace accord. Milutinovic said he expected the dispute with Croatia over the strategic Prevlaka peninsula on the Adriatic to be settled in the continuation of the diplomatic efforts. 'Peace will remain the priority of the Yugoslav policy in the future, because without it the development plans that we have set ourselves cannot be attained,' he said.

*PRIME MINISTER OF TAJIKISTAN ARRIVES IN YUGOSLAVIA

B e l g r a d e, Dec. 26 (Tanjug) - The Prime Minister of Tajikistan, Karimov Dzamshel, arrived on Tuesday for a visit to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the head of a delegation of politicians and businessmen from this former Soviet republic. Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic welcomed Dzamshel at the Belgrade airport.

*SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH APPEALS FOR PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING

B e l g r a d e, Dec. 26 (Tanjug) - Peace is imposed on one only when he cannot be induced to love his neighbour, the Serbian Orthodox Church said in a Christmas message delivered on Tuesday. Peace guarded by armies is similar to 'arresting wind or a lull in the storm,' it said. 'A man who has hatred in his heart and waits for an opportunity resembles a serpent that is dangerous not only when it bites but also when it carries poison in its teeth,' Patriarch Pavle and the Archbishops said in the message. Christ's Church always wants peace, but a real peace that begins with unity with God and peace in one's soul before it becomes peace with others, they said. The message - issued ahead of Christmas that the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates on January 7 - said that peace on earth and good will among people had been the purpose of Jesus' descent on earth. It said that peace could be preached only by those who had experienced hunger for God's justice, who had crushed their own selfishness through mercy and who had become the sons of the God of peace, justice and love. 'If there are more such people among those who are building peace today, success will be more certain and our joy greater,' the message said, adding that 'in this terrible darkness of inhumanity, hatred and crimes' hundreds of thousands of Serbs had been expelled from regions that had been their homes for many centuries, such as western Slavonia, Krajina, Dalmatia, Kordun, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc. The Church appealed to the people not be disheartened, not to lose faith in Christ and his invincible truth and justice. The message will be read at services in all Serbian Orthodox Churches in Yugoslavia and abroad on Christmas Day.

*CROATIA 'UNPRECEDENTEDLY, SEVERELY AND MASSIVELY' VIOLATES SERBS' RIGHTS

M o s c o w, Dec 26 (Tanjug) - Russia warned on Tuesday that the Croatian authorities were 'unprecedentedly, severely and massively' violating the norms of the international humanitarian law in treating the Serbs. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Grigoriy Karasin emphasized that the facts about Croatia's violations of the humanitarian law are contained in a report published by the United Nations Secretary General a few days ago. Karasin said that Zagreb had been forced by irrefutable evidence to admit that Croatian soldiers were doing the killing in Krajina, and were looting and burning down Serb houses, but, as he stressed, the Croatian Government had not yet undertaken anything to punish those responsible. He said that Russian U.N. representative Sergey Lavrov delivered on December 22 to the representatives of the Contact Group countries the Russian draft of a Security Council resolution on Zagreb's violations of the international humanitarian law and human rights. Karasin was confident that this draft would be the basis for finalizing a resolution that would condemn such crimes.

*POSSIBLE POSTPONEMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF AGREEMENT ON SARAJEVO

B e l g r a d e, Dec 26 (Tanjug) - IFOR Commander Admiral Leighton Smith said Tuesday he would discuss with his field commanders the possibility of postponing the placing of Serb parts of Sarajevo under the control of Muslim-Croat authorities. Smith made this promise during a meeting in Pale with Republika Srpska Parliament Speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha. Bosnian Serb leaders asked that their forces remain around Sarajevo until September next year, seven months longer than envisaged under the Dayton agreement, in order to alleviate the fears of the Serb population facing Muslim-Croat rule, Reuters reports. Smith said he had told Krajisnik that all aspects of the peace agreement would be examined and that a decision acceptable by all would hopefully be taken, Reuters reports.