Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-01-31

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

31 January 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER URGES WESTERN COUNTRIES TO RENEW COOPERATION

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT LILIC RECEIVES SLOVAK PREMIER MECIAR

[03] YUGOSLAV, SLOVAK OFFICIALS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENTS

[B] YUGOSLAVIA - EUROPEAN UNION

[04] E.U. WILL SOON RECOGNIZE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER URGES WESTERN COUNTRIES TO RENEW COOPERATION

Kontic underscored in letters sent to his British, French, Swiss, and Danish counterparts and the U.S. Secretary of State that the further 'freezing' of the Yugoslav assets would be in collision with international law, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The Yugoslav Prime Minister drew attention to Yugoslavia's high level of cooperation and traditional friendship with the five countries prior to the introduction of the international sanctions.

Kontic offered assurances that there was no reason for keeping the National Bank of Yugoslavia assets blocked since the sanctions against Yugoslavia had been suspended. He said if the assets remained blocked, the principle of the equal treatment of all sides would be brought in question.

Kontic said the respective principle was one of the basic principles of the peace agreement for the former Yugoslavia and a condition for the agreement's successful implementation.

The Prime Minister said talks on the overall division of the former Yugoslavia's assets and debts were under way among the former Yugoslav republics and the freezing of the Yugoslav central bank assets alone would prejudice the final solution to the issue. There is no ground in international law or practice for further keeping the assets blocked. The continued 'freezing' of the assets could negatively reflect on the achieving of a lasting and just peace and stability in the region, Kontic said.

The Prime Minister said that Yugoslavia was implementing a programe of economic stabilization and economic reform, which features decentralization and deregulation, including privatization.

In similar cases, countries receive necessary financial support from the international community, whereas Yugoslavia is not allowed even to use its own resources, Kontic said.

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT LILIC RECEIVES SLOVAK PREMIER MECIAR

President Lilic and Prime Minister Meciar stressed the indispensability of surmounting as soon as possible the damage caused by the international community's sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which were felt also by Slovakia, and of establishing the once successful just as new and more up-to-date links.

President Lilic stressed that the basic goals of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were: good cooperation with all neighbours, the economic recovery of the country, and the full return to all international organizations and institutions.

Lilic said that in the materialization of these goals, Yugoslavia was expecting support from the friendly countries which, like the Slovak Republic, with principled policy during the crisis on the soil of former Yugoslavia, had reaffirmed that traditional friendship was resisting even the biggest challenges.

Peace, inaugurated by the Dayton agreement, cannot be stable if the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia itself were not stable economically and socially, said Lilic and added that the basic prerequisite for this goal to be realized was the reintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into all international streams.

Prime Minister Meciar agreed with this appraisal and said that Slovakia would, within all the forms of world, European and regional cooperation of which it is member, endeavour for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to take the place that objectively belongs to it.

As another proof of friendship and good cooperation, the position of the Slovak minority was mutually underscored. It was said that this majority has been living in Yugoslavia for two and a half centuries, preserving its language, schools, culture, or national identity.

Meciar especially underlined that this was not so in some other countries where his compatriots live, while the Slovak Republic also applies Europe's highest standards when the position of national minorities is concerned.

But there are attempts, veiled in the protection of human rights, to force demands for the formation of separate autonomies and similar forms of 'statehood within the state,' said Meciar and emphasized that the Slovak Government was resolvedly against such attempts.

[03] YUGOSLAV, SLOVAK OFFICIALS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENTS

Yugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister Radoslav Bulajic and Secretary of State in the Slovak Foreign Ministry Jozef Sestak signed a Protocol on Consultations between the foreign ministries.

Kontic told reporters that he and Meciar had agreed that the Dayton peace agreement and the agreement on the Srem-Baranja Region were being implemented in keeping with the dynamics and contents of the documents.

Only the consistent implementation of the agreement can be in the service of peace and stability in the region, he added. Kontic said that the two sides had agreed that there were all conditions for a speedy promotion of all forms of mutual cooperation following the suspension of the international sanctions against Yugoslavia.

'We have initiated the promotion of parliamentary cooperation and raising of our diplomatic relations the level of embassies, and said that the ambassadors in Bratislava and Belgrade should be appointed as soon as possible,' Kontic said.

The Slovak side promised to represent Yugoslavia's interests, launch initiatives and support other countries' proposals for Yugoslavia's full reintegration into the world, Kontic added.

[B] YUGOSLAVIA - EUROPEAN UNION

[04] E.U. WILL SOON RECOGNIZE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

Unofficially there are indications that this process could begin much earlier with the lifting of diplomatic relations between E.U. countries and Belgrade on a bilateral basis. This was announced on Monday by the Foreign Ministers of France and Germany, Herve de Charette and Klaus Kinkel.

De Charette said that Paris has never withdrawan its diplomatic recognition of Yugoslavia and that it would dispatch its Ambassador to Belgrade as soon as possible. Kinkel said that Yugoslavia is far too much an important factor in Europe to remain isolated from it forlong.

Yugoslavia's major role in shaping the future relations in the Balkans were on Monday underscored by E.U. Chairman and Italy's Foreign Minister Susanna Agneli and the International Community's High Representative for the Implementation of the Civilian Part of the Dayton Agreement, Carl Bildt.

Both Agnelli and Bildt conveyed the stand of the Council of Ministers that Yugoslavia's return to Europe could significantly boost the peace process and that only the regulation of relations between all states created in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and their integration into European trends would guarrante a stable peace in the region and in the entire continent.

Agnelli told journalists who linked the decision to temporarily postpone the recognition of Yugoslavia primarily to the issue of Serbia's southern Kosovo-Metohija province, cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague and to other issues, that although all this is important, it is in no way connected to the current process of normalization of relations with Yugoslavia.