Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-03-01

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

1 March 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] CZECH PRIME MINISTER TO VISIT YUGOSLAVIA - IMPETUS FOR BILATERAL COOPERATION

[02] YUGOSLAVIA READY TO COOPERATE WITH E.U. MONITOR MISSION

[03] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER MILUTINOVIC RECEIVES GEERD AHRENS

[04] AHRENS REAFFIRMS KOSOVO INTEGRAL PART OF SERBIA AND YUGOSLAVIA

[05] GOOD CONDITIONS EXIST FOR FURTHERING YUGOSLAVIA-UKRAINE COOPERATION

[06] UKRAINE BACKS UP YUGOSLAVIA'S FULL REINTEGRATION INTO EUROPE, WORLD

[07] YUGOSLAV-ROMANIAN TALKS END

[B] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[08] EXODUS OF SERBS FROM SARAJEVO CONTINUES

[09] BOSNIAN SERBS PROTEST AGAINST MUSLIM CIVILIANS RAIDING ILIJAS

[10] FATE OF POWS IN BOSNIA STILL UNCERTAIN

[11] ICRC OFFICIALS VISIT BOSNIAN SERB JOURNALIST IN TUZLA PRISON

[12] SERBS HELD IN BOSNIAN MUSLIM CAMPS TESTIFY BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

[C] SERBS IN CROATIA

[13] MORE KILLINGS IN KRAJINA

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[14] 'DIARIO 16': DIFFERENT YARDSTICKS FOR MOSTAR, SARAJEVO

[15] NEZAVISSIMAYA GAZETA: WORLD FORGETS CRIMES AGAINST SERBS IN BOSNIA, CROATIA

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] CZECH PRIME MINISTER TO VISIT YUGOSLAVIA - IMPETUS FOR BILATERAL COOPERATION

The Government also reviewed and adopted the report of the Yugoslav delegation from the world economic meeting in Davos at the beginning of February and assessed that its participation in the meeting had contributed to the diplomatic and economic affirmation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the world. The forum in Davos showed the possibility of dialogue of all parties involved in the resolution of the crisis in the territories of the former Yugoslavia and a willingness to look for new ways of economic cooperation and development, together with neighbouring and other countries of the region. The statement also said that a readiness was expressed at the forum to help the process of economic recovery of the former Yugoslavia and to open possibilities for the gradual economic integration of the Balkan region and further European integration.

[02] YUGOSLAVIA READY TO COOPERATE WITH E.U. MONITOR MISSION

He stressed the importance of unbiased and objective reports on violations of human rights of Serbs in Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The two sides agreed that the role of the EU Monitor Mission was extremely important for a peaceful resolution of the issue of Prevlaka, a strategically important peninsula between Yugoslavia and Croatia.

[03] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER MILUTINOVIC RECEIVES GEERD AHRENS

The Yugoslav side in the talk highly appraised the knowledge of national minorities and the endeavours of Ambassador Ahrens in the settling of the question of the position of minorities on the basis of dialogues and tolerance.

It was emphasized that the national minorities, to enjoy all the rights guaranteed by international conventions must be loyal to the country they live in and must respect its laws.

[04] AHRENS REAFFIRMS KOSOVO INTEGRAL PART OF SERBIA AND YUGOSLAVIA

In his talk with Yugoslav Minister Margit Savovic, who is in charge of human freedoms and the rights of national minorities, Ahrens said all had to be done for confidence to be restored between the citizens of different nationalities in Kosmet.

Reviewed in their talk was the situation regardiing general human rights and the rights of national minorities in the teritory of former Yugoslavia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia it was noted that dialogues were the only way to develop still further the living together of all citizens, the announcement said.

[05] GOOD CONDITIONS EXIST FOR FURTHERING YUGOSLAVIA-UKRAINE COOPERATION

Bozovic said Yugoslavia's foreign-policy priorities were the consolidation of peace on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, negotiated solutions to disputed issues, and a consistent implementation of the peace agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina. A condition for the normalization of the situation and the creation of conditions for the reconstruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina is for the international community to treat as equals all sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bozovic said.

It is also extremely important that Yugoslavia's membership in European and world institutions be reactivated, this being a condition for stable peace in the region, Bozovic said. He noted that Yugoslavia devoted great significance to its economic cooperation with other countries.

Moroz agreed that it was necessary to have Yugoslavia reintegrated into all international processes, and said Ukraine would urge that Yugoslavia be admitted to the Council of Europe. He said that, in view of the similarities between the economies of the two countries, all fields of future cooperation should be defined.

[06] UKRAINE BACKS UP YUGOSLAVIA'S FULL REINTEGRATION INTO EUROPE, WORLD

Radulovic was reported to have expressed gratitude for Ukraine's principled stand towards the crisis in the area of former Yugoslavia, its total humanitarian aid and its endeavours for lifting the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Moroz pointed out that Ukraine was working for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's return to international organizations and its full reintegration into Europe and the world community. At this point, he stressed the need for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's sooner inclusion in the OSCE and the Council of Europe.

[07] YUGOSLAV-ROMANIAN TALKS END

[B] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[08] EXODUS OF SERBS FROM SARAJEVO CONTINUES

After federal police's entry on Friday into Vogosca, international representatives cautioned against their incorrect conduct that might make the remaining Serbs leave their homes. Before federal police entered Vogosca, UN officials promised that every federal policeman would be surveilled by two international police instructors, but the promise was difficult to keep because the UN did not have a sufficient number of such instructors, and federal police could be seen streets patrolling alone in Vogosca streets. For this reason, in Ilijas, one international instructor oversees the performance of two local policemen.

[09] BOSNIAN SERBS PROTEST AGAINST MUSLIM CIVILIANS RAIDING ILIJAS

Muslims stoned Serb families fleeing the area who refused to live side by side with Muslims and Croats.

The Ilijas incident was also reported to the international community's Deputy High Representative for Civilian Affairs, who was asked to urgently take measures to protect Serb civilians. The population of Ilijas has dropped from 14,000 to 3,000 over the past several days.

[10] FATE OF POWS IN BOSNIA STILL UNCERTAIN

According to figures of the association of families of captured and missing Bosnian Serb Army members, the Republika Srpska demands the release of about 2,000 POWs. Hurtubise said a total of 131 Serbs were held in Muslim prisons and 55 by the Bosnian Croat Army. She said the Bosnian Serb Army held 28 POWs.

Members of the Bosnian Croat Commission for the Exchange of POWs told their Serb counterparts at a meeting in Kupres Wednesday that 110 Serb soldiers thought to be held in a Bosnian Croat prison were in a Muslim prison in Bihac and about 140 in two prisons in Travnik. The Bosnian Croat side said it was surprised that the Serb side had not been informed about this by the ICRC, which claims to know about those POWs.

Hurtubise said the POWs included 62 persons suspected of war crimes. She said six of the 62 were charged by Muslims, 51 by Croats and five by Serbs.

[11] ICRC OFFICIALS VISIT BOSNIAN SERB JOURNALIST IN TUZLA PRISON

Bosnian Muslims kept silent about Djuric's arrest for more than five months.

Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA said Thursday that the visit followed an exchange request by the Journalists' Association of the Muslim-Croat Federation. The Assocition proposed that Djuric be exchanged for Bosnian Muslim Hidajet Delic, photographer for the Muslim news agency BH Press, who was arrested by Bosnian Serbs in February for witnessing Muslim war crimes. Muslims arrested Djuric in September 1995, on Mt Ozren in central bosnia, together with journalist Predrag Popovic, whose fate remains unknown, said SRNA.

[12] SERBS HELD IN BOSNIAN MUSLIM CAMPS TESTIFY BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

Association President Slavko Sibalija said testimonies had been given this time by more than 30 Serbs of different ages who had been held prisoner for six months at least in one of the six Muslim camps near Sarajevo and the town of Konjic, southeast of Sarajevo. He said the witnesses had testified about the worst forms of torture.

Association member in charge of documentation for the war crimes tribunal Dragica Jovanovic said direct accusations against Muslim civilian and military leaderships had been presented in the documents and testimonies.

She said it had been established that Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic and other Muslim officials had known about the existence of the camps and had even visited some of them. Association members said a heliport used by Izetbegovic's helicopter was only 30 meters from the camp at the Tarcin silo, near Konjic. They told the press that two Serb witnesses had testified before the investigators of the war crimes tribunal that Izetbegovic had visited more than once the camp at Celebici, near Konjic.

They said a preliminary list identifying the sites of more than 30 mass graves in Sarajevo in which Serb victims were buried had been presented to the tribunal's investigators and a request made for proceedings to be instituted against persons responsible for the illegal trials of many Serbs in Sarajevo.

Association's lawyer Dragan Vasiljevic said information had been received that tribunal's investigators had heard in the United States the testimonies of 9 Serbs, former camp inmates, and were to hear 60 more.

Some of the witnesses, Serbs held at the Tarcin, Trnovo, Igman, Celebici and Musale camps near Konjic, told the news conference about the physical and psychological torture and other horrors they had gone through at the Muslim camps.

[C] SERBS IN CROATIA

[13] MORE KILLINGS IN KRAJINA

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[14] 'DIARIO 16': DIFFERENT YARDSTICKS FOR MOSTAR, SARAJEVO

Concerning the exodus of Serbs from the Sarajevo municipalities going under control of the Muslim-Croat Federation, the paper said the international community, in Sarajevo's case, 'sided with one party - the Muslim,' while, in Mostar, 'both communities (the Muslim and the Croat) were treated as equally legitimate.'

The paper said that all those who were trying to apply to Sarajevo the model used in Mostar's case 'collided with hostility and disqualification.'

Whereas the Croats in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar were pictured as 'a respectable community entitled to its own administration,' the Serbs in Sarajevo were treated as 'an illegitimate group and a handful of artillerymen,' the paper cautioned in its article headlined 'Lessons of Mostar and Sarajevo.'

Even when the Croats in Mostar assault European Administrator Hans Koschnick, 'not one voice in the world is raised for their punishment.'

The paper noted that the west was turning a deaf ear to such a conduct of Croats because 'it is useful to label the Serbs (alone) as evil men in order to disguise the responsibility of the majority, including here also the responsibility of the great powers.'

[15] NEZAVISSIMAYA GAZETA: WORLD FORGETS CRIMES AGAINST SERBS IN BOSNIA, CROATIA

The world has a picture of Serbs as aggressors because of the one-sided approach of Western leaders and journalists, and 'facts about human rights violations and atrocities against the Serb population are not for public use', the daily said.

The article pointed to the mass crimes committed by the Croatian Army against Serbs in Krajina and to the misdoings of Muslim-Croat troops in Bosnia.

Zagreb and Sarajevo have not yet handed over, as the UN has demanded, documents about 750 people whose graves are recent although it is 'not difficult to figure out who is buried in them', the daily said. UN representatives have discovered in Krajina the graves of 230 killed Serbs, and the Croatian authorities have not done anything to bring the murderers to justice, the daily said.

As a violation of the basic rights of the civilian population, the daily cited the attacks on Serb refugee columns from Krajina last August, who were bombed by Croatian aircraft while the Muslim fifth corps opened artillery fire on them. About 1,000 people were killed in a few days.

There were practically no reactions by the international community, UN envoys and officials to the violations of the rights of Serbs, the daily said.