Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-02-15

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

15 February 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: YUGOSLAVIA AIMS TO TURN BALKANS INTO PEACE ZONE

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS, PRIORITY GOAL

[03] MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH U.N. ADMINISTRATOR OF SREM-BARANJA REGION

[04] YUGOSLAVIA MUST BE REINTEGRATED IN ALL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

[B] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[05] BUHA: INTERNATIONAL FACTORS' UNPRINCIPLED POLICY LEADS TO NEW TRAGEDY

[06] KRAJISNIK: ARREST OF SERB OFFICERS MIGHT CAUSE WAR TENSION

[C] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[07] BBC RADIO DESCRIBES ARREST OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA OFFICERS AS ABSURD

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: YUGOSLAVIA AIMS TO TURN BALKANS INTO PEACE ZONE

In order to fulfill its obligations from the Dayton peace agreement, the international community should create conditions to enable Yugoslavia to realize this aim. Lilic stated that hasty decisions should not be repeated, such as the most recent one regarding the Hague tribunal and its prosecutor Richard Goldstone.

Dumas said that the interested parties should insist that the Hague tribunal establishes the legal criteria - who is entiteled to make arrests, on what conditions, and how indictments are rised in order to build up its international authority and do its work objectively.

Lilic reiterrated that the initialling of the peace agreement for Bosnia in Dayton and its signing in Paris had brought a peace, but added that peace cannot become stable nor lasting if legal criteria of the Hugue tribunal are not determined and if all guarrantors of the implementation of the peace agreement fail to have the same criteria towards all sides in Bosnia.

Yugoslavia highly appreciates France's efforts to conclude the peace process, Lilic said and added that this is a good starting point for future cooperation which opens up wide prospects.

Lilic praised France which will be first EU country to send a Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He said that Yugoslavia would also dispatch its Ambassador to Paris.

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS, PRIORITY GOAL

He said that following the suspension of international sanctions against Yugoslavia, there was no reason why Yugoslavia should not draw closer to the developed western countries.

Lilic said one had the impression that some provisions of the Dayton peace accords were not being adhered to of late, which he said could not be conducive to creating a climate of confidence in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 'We, nevertheless, believe that the Dayton accords will be implemented consistently and in an unbiased fashion, and that the sanctions against Yugoslavia will be lifted in line with the implementation of the accords,' Lilic said.

He said the lifting of the sanctions would enable Yugoslavia's quick reintegration into international financial trends and secure financial aid for it. Lilic said Yugoslavia had lost a great deal during the three and a half years of the internationalsanctions but had to make up for the lost and to rid itself of some negative habits from the period behind it.

Lilic said in a talk with local Pristina officials that stepped-up development, a better standard of living and overall prosperity in Kosovo and Metohija depended the most on inter-ethnic relations.

'We should be happy over the stabilization of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and everything that has been achieved here and by the wish and orientation of all citizens, regardless of nationality, to live in peace,' Lilic said. 'That is why everybody, ethnic Albanians, Serbs, Motenegrins and others, must combat nationalism and extremism by all existing mechanisms.'

'There can be no prosperity in Kosovo and Metohija without a policy of national equality and without respect for the state,' Lilic said.

[03] MILOSEVIC CONFERS WITH U.N. ADMINISTRATOR OF SREM-BARANJA REGION

The importance of the establishing of cooperation between the local authorities and institutions and the UN Administrator and his services in the Srem-Baranja Region was singled out in the talk, the statement said.

[04] YUGOSLAVIA MUST BE REINTEGRATED IN ALL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Meeting representatives of churches and religious communities in Belgrade, Kontic said than by suspending the anti-Yugoslav sanctions, the international community had opened the doors only slightly, not widely, for Yugoslavia's reintegration. Kontic said that the establishment of peace in the former Yugoslvia was the greatest achievement of 1995 and that it must be preserved at all cost.

Expressing satisfaction at the good relations between all religious communities in Yugoslavia and the state, Kontic reiterated that all citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia enjoyed equal rights, regardless of national or religious affiliation. The meeting was attended by the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Pavle, Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade France Perko, Mufti of Belgrade Hamdija Jusufspahic, Chief Rabbi for Yugoslavia Cadik Danon and representatives of Evangelist, Adventist and other religious communities.

Kontic underlined that anti-Yugoslav sanctions must be lifted as soon as possible without any pre-conditions. The sanctions are still being used by some foreign factors as an instrument for realizing their interests in the region, he said.

Kontic said that the OSCE cannot judge Yugoslavia without giving it the right to have its voice heard in the international community, and advocated equal treatment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its reintegration in OSCE.

He noted that the European Union had not yet normalized diplomatic and economic relations with Yugoslavia but that this would be resolved shortly and that Ambassadors of many EU member-states would return to Yugoslavia soon.

Referring to the prospects for normalizing relations with former Yugoslav republics, Kontic said that the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia seemed the closest, and that Slovenia had not yet recognized Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as successor to the former Yugoslav Federation.

The issues of succession and of the Prevlaka peninsula in the Adriatic are the main problems in negotiations with Croatia, and Yugoslavia can therefore hardly recognize Croatia before these issues are resolved, Kontic said.

Yugoslavia wants to maintain good neioghborly relations with all states on the basis of the principles of non-interference and mutual respect, he said.

Kontic expressed satisfaction with the good cooperation between the state and religious communities, and recalled that Yugoslav Constitution and laws guarantee to all citizens the freedom of worship and performing religious ceremonies.

Patriarch Pavle said that everybody should follow the simple rule that one should not do to others what one did not want done to oneself. 'The peace that we are now building for future generations and our children depends primarily on us and is solely in our hands,' he said.

Archbishop Perko said that there could be no lasting peace without the restoration of moral values and reconciliation.

Belgrade Mufti Jusufspahic said that the forces of peace had won and that 'we now have the duty to build and consolidate it.' Speaking of a recent international conference in Kuala Lumpur where he had protested against the fact that the name of Yugoslavia was not written on his nameplate, Jusufspahic said: 'I was very proud because our Yugoslavia and its name were recognized at this gathering and because those who knew nothing about our situation applauded when I told them that there were no killings on religious grounds, religious hatred or destruction of mosques and other places of worship in Yugoslavia,' he said.

Rabi Danon said the meeting with Kontic was a good opportunity to show everybody that 'there is no discrimination in this country.' 'The Serbian people need freedom and peace as much as the air they breathe, because they, like the Jewish people, had survived terrible ordeals in the past,' he said.

[B] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[05] BUHA: INTERNATIONAL FACTORS' UNPRINCIPLED POLICY LEADS TO NEW TRAGEDY

He addressed open letters to High Representative for Bosnia Carl Bildt, the Contact Group and the Steering Committee of the Conference for the implementation of the dayton accord in reaction to the arrest and extradition of two top-ranking officers to the Hague tribunal.

Buha gave examples of violation of the peace accord which seriously threaten to jeopardize the peace process. Moreover, he said that a satisfactory solution had not been found for guaranteeing collective and civil rights of the Serbs in Sarajevo. The deadline under the peace accord for the release of all war prisoners in Bosnia expired a long time ago, Buha said, adding that hundreds of Serbs were still detained in prisons of the Muslim-Croat Federation and Croatia.

Buha also said that the UN sanctions against the Republika Srpska had not been lifted although the Republika Srpska had met all its obligations under UN Security Council resolution 222.

He said that it was only an obvious example of the international community's inconsistency. These examples confirm that unprincipled policy can trigger a new tragedy, Buha said and urged international factors to do their utmost to avert a new tragedy.

[06] KRAJISNIK: ARREST OF SERB OFFICERS MIGHT CAUSE WAR TENSION

[C] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[07] BBC RADIO DESCRIBES ARREST OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA OFFICERS AS ABSURD

The radio said the officers, Gen. Djukic and Col. Krsmanovic, had neither been indicted by the tribunal nor there was any evidence against them. Commenting on a tribunal official's remark that the officers were held prisoner also because they might be witnesses, the radio said no legal system in the world stipulated imprisonment of witnesses.

BBC said the incident had eliminated the provision of the Dayton peace accord for Bosnia concerning freedom of movement. The radio also said the greatest threat to the Dayton accord was the Bosnian Croats' refusal to accept EU Administrator Hans Koschnick's plan for Mostar as well as an assault on Koschnick last Wednesday.