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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 68, 4 April 1996
CONTENTS
[1] HAGUE TRIBUNAL TO REPORT RUMP YUGOSLAVIA TO SECURITY COUNCIL.
[2] ROW OVER DECLARATION ON BOSNIAN UNITY.
[3] ANTI-NATIONALIST SERBS SAY SARAJEVO CAN STILL BE MULTIETHNIC.
[4] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT CURBING FREEDOM OF SPEECH?
[5] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS CALL FOR DISSOLUTION.
[6] SERBIAN POLICEMAN CONVICTED IN CONNECTION WITH KILLING OF ETHNIC ALBANIAN CHILD.
[7] EXIT VISAS FOR KOSOVAR ALBANIANS ABOLISHED.
[8] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ON BASIC TREATY WITH HUNGARY.
[9] BULGARIA COMPLAINS ABOUT NOT BEING INVITED TO ARMS CONTROL TALKS.
[10] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT SUBMITS MEMORANDUM ON NATO.
[11] BULGARIAN PROSECUTOR SAYS HE MAY ARREST PATRIARCH.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 68, Part II, 4 April 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] HAGUE TRIBUNAL TO REPORT RUMP YUGOSLAVIA TO SECURITY COUNCIL.
The
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has reaffirmed
that it regards rump Yugoslavia as "criminal" and will formally ask the
highest UN body to take action against it. The issue is that Belgrade
continues to harbor three Serbian army officers against whom the court
has issued arrest warrants. The three are wanted in connection with the
murder of 261 non-Serbs in the Croatian town of Vukovar after it fell in
November 1991, Nasa Borba and the Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported
on 4 April. Also in The Hague, Croatian Gen. Tihomir Blaskic pleaded
"not guilty" in connection with the massacre of Muslim civilians in the
Lasva valley in 1993. The court, meanwhile, returned Bosnian Serb Col.
Aleksa Krsmanovic to Sarajevo, where he faces a possible trial for
crimes against humanity. The Hague tribunal had concluded it did not
have enough evidence to charge him. -- Patrick Moore
[2] ROW OVER DECLARATION ON BOSNIAN UNITY.
Some 21 political parties and
organizations have signed a statement backing the indivisibility of the
republic, Oslobodjenje wrote on 4 April. Most of the groups are Muslim--
including President Alija Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action--but
the Serbian Civic Council and representatives of the Jewish community
have also signed. The five main opposition parties in parliament
nonetheless balked, charging that they were not consulted by Izetbegovic
and former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic. The largest Bosnian Croat
party also did not sign the resolution sponsored by the two men. The
apparent rapprochement between the president and his estranged former
prime minister is the subject of much speculation in Bosnia, Vjesnik
reported on 3 April. -- Patrick Moore
[3] ANTI-NATIONALIST SERBS SAY SARAJEVO CAN STILL BE MULTIETHNIC.
Bosnian
Presidency member Mirko Pejanovic has said that the capital can still be
multiethnic because many Serbs are interested in coming back. He argued
that the main obstacles are the Serbian nationalist "war criminals" in
Pale and "the state apparatus of local authorities" in Sarajevo, Onasa
reported on 2 April. Pejanovic heads the Serbian Civic Council (SGV),
which remained loyal to the Bosnian government throughout the war. The
SGV has been active in persuading Serbs to stay in Sarajevo or to return
there. -- Patrick Moore
[4] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT CURBING FREEDOM OF SPEECH?
The Sabor on 29 Marchpassed two controversial laws, which critics say are directed against
the country's few independent media. Under the first measure, the public
prosecutor must start legal proceedings against anyone offending or
slandering the president, parliamentary speaker, prime minister, or and
presidents of the supreme and constitutional courts, Reuters reported.
The second is aimed at persons "revealing state secrets." Investigative
journalism in Croatia is largely limited to one daily and two weeklies,
and the latter especially are active in exposing corruption and abuse of
office by some members of the governing party and their families.
Government officials stated that the laws are in keeping with "European
norms" and were passed to protect institutions, not personalities.
Independent analyst Slaven Letica said that the law will be challenged
in the courts because it violates the principle of equality of all
citizens by singling out five top officials for special treatment. --
Patrick Moore
[5] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS CALL FOR DISSOLUTION.
The Macedonian
parliament on 3 April rejected a motion by the Liberal Party demanding
that the parliament be dissolved and early elections held, Nova
Makedonija reported. The Liberals' claim that the parliament is no
longer representative (see OMRI Daily Digest, 3 April 1996) was
dismissed by the Social Democrats and Socialists. Ethnic Albanian
parties and independent legislators were split over the issue. The
Social Democrats called the Liberals' proposal a "political bluff,"
saying the initiators of the motion should resign their seats in the
parliament if they doubt its legitimacy. -- Stefan Krause
[6] SERBIAN POLICEMAN CONVICTED IN CONNECTION WITH KILLING OF ETHNIC ALBANIAN CHILD.
Boban Krstic, deputy police chief in the Kosovar town of
Kacanik, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in
connection with the 1994 killing of a six-year-old ethnic Albanian boy,
Bota Sot reported on 4 April. Krstic was convicted for "endangering
public order" rather than for manslaughter. He had fired 30 bullets into
a car in July 1994, killing the boy and seriously injuring his parents.
He later claimed that he believed that a criminal suspect was in the
car. Bota Sot said that Krstic was also involved in the death of an
Albanian in the Kacanik jail in 1994. It added that he fought in Bosnia
on the side of the Bosnian Serbs and was highly decorated there. --
Stefan Krause
[7] EXIT VISAS FOR KOSOVAR ALBANIANS ABOLISHED.
The abolition of exit visas
for ethnic Albanians in Kosovo took effect on 1 April, international
agencies reported. Until now, Kosovars traveling to Albania via
Macedonia without an exit visa risked imprisonment by the Serbian
authorities if they had Albanian stamps in their passport. Albania
praised the move as a step toward normalizing relations. -- Fabian
Schmidt
[8] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ON BASIC TREATY WITH HUNGARY.
Ion Iliescu on 3 April
accused Hungary of delaying the signing of a bilateral basic treaty,
Romanian and Hungarian media reported. He stressed that Romania was not
prepared to make any concessions on including in the treaty Council of
Europe Recommendation 1201, which is on ethnic minorities. Hungary is
demanding that the recommendation be included. Iliescu said that if
Hungary drops that demand, "we will immediately sign the basic treaty."
He said ethnic groups that once formed a majority but are now a minority
find it hard to give up their former privileges. -- Matyas Szabo
[9] BULGARIA COMPLAINS ABOUT NOT BEING INVITED TO ARMS CONTROL TALKS.
The
Bulgarian government on 3 April complained that it has not been invited
to talks in Vienna on arms control in the post-cold war era, Reuters and
Demokratsiya reported. Delegates are to discuss the so-called Wassenaar
Agreement, which is intended to succeed COCOM. A Foreign Ministry
spokesman spoke of "the apparent injustice" of leaving Bulgaria out of
the meeting, which is to be attended by representatives of 31 states. He
added that Bulgaria fulfilled all preconditions and that he hoped an
invitation would be forthcoming. Georgi Dimitrov, head of the Foreign
Ministry's International Organizations Department, said that of the 28
initial signatories to the Wassenaar Agreement, only the U.S. opposed
Bulgaria's participation. -- Stefan Krause
[10] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT SUBMITS MEMORANDUM ON NATO.
The socialist
government of Prime Minister Zhan Videnov on 3 April submitted a
memorandum outlining its position on NATO to the parliament's foreign
policy and national security commissions, Standart reported. The
memorandum was in response to a request from NATO Assistant Secretary-
General for Political Affairs Gebhardt von Moltke that the Bulgarian
cabinet clarify its position on participation in NATO enlargement talks.
Vasil Mihaylov of the Union of Democratic Forces said the document says
nothing about whether Bulgaria wants to join NATO. Stoyan Denchev,
deputy chairman of the foreign policy commission, said it is not the
parliament's job to deal with such documents and that the memorandum
should have been sent straight to NATO. -- Stefan Krause
[11] BULGARIAN PROSECUTOR SAYS HE MAY ARREST PATRIARCH.
Prosecutor-General
Ivan Tatarchev on 3 April said he will start legal proceedings against
Patriarch Maksim and will arrest him "if necessary," Standart reported.
Maksim is accused of involvement in the occupation of a candle-making
factory that is run by the "alternative" Synod of Metropolit Pimen. In
the latest of a series of incidents involving Maksim's and Pimen's
supporters, the factory was occupied by priests loyal to the Patriarch
on 18 March and was cleared by the police on 1 April. Maksim's
followers, however, occupied the building again on 2 April. Maksim's and
Pimen's supporters parted ways after the government invalidated Maksim's
election in 1971 and appointed a new synod under Pimen. Pimen's
followers have announced they may soon form a second Orthodox Church in
Bulgaria. -- Stefan Krause
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to [email protected]
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