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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 85, 30 April 1996
CONTENTS
[1] TWO DEAD AND FIVE WOUNDED AS SERBS AMBUSH MUSLIMS.
[2] IFOR TOLD NOT TO ARREST WAR CRIMINALS.
[3] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS SOME IFOR MUST GO AFTER DUMPING WASTES.
[4] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA URGES THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO DROP SUIT.
[5] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA CANCELS DEBT TALKS.
[6] SERBIA REFUSES ALBANIAN CITIZENS RIGHT TO RETURN.
[7] BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER RULES OUT RUSSIAN VETO ON NATO EXPANSION.
[8] MEDIA LICENSES TO BE REVIEWED IN BULGARIA.
[9] NEW PRICE HIKES IMMINENT IN BULGARIA.
[10] ALBANIAN FLEET ON STRIKE IN DURRES.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 85, Part II, 30 April 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] TWO DEAD AND FIVE WOUNDED AS SERBS AMBUSH MUSLIMS.
At Lukavica near
Doboj, a group of mainly young Muslim adults on 29 April sought to avoid
an IFOR roadblock designed to keep the Serbs and Muslims apart and ran
through a mine field. Serbs ambushed the Muslims at the other end, and
the combination of weapons and mines left two Muslims dead and five
wounded, CNN and the International Herald Tribune reported on 30 April.
Elsewhere, angry elderly Serbs smashed the windows on buses taking
Muslims to visit graves near their former homes in Trnovo, south of
Sarajevo in Bosnian Serb territory, the BBC reported on 29 April.
Similar incidents took place the previous day when Muslims tried to
travel to gravesites around Bosnia for the Bairam holiday. In these
cases, the Serbs successfully blocked the Muslims' entry while IFOR
troops looked on. The Dayton agreement specifies that there is to be
freedom of movement and that refugees have the right to go home. --
Patrick Moore
[2] IFOR TOLD NOT TO ARREST WAR CRIMINALS.
Dutch IFOR troops have been
specifically ordered by their British commanders not to arrest war
criminals, the Rotterdam paper NRC Handelsblad stated on 29 April. The
story emerged during a visit to Bosnia by Dutch Foreign Minister Hans
van Mierlo, who reportedly said that justice will never be done in
Bosnia and that he agreed with the order. A debate has been going on
since last summer in the Netherlands over the allegedly cowardly
behavior of Dutch UNPROFOR troops at Srebrenica. Last August, the
largest single atrocity in Europe since World War II took place there
when Serbs massacred at least 5,000 Muslims. IFOR commander, U.S. Adm.
Leighton Smith, said that it is not his men's business to catch war
criminals: "Hold those who signed [the] Dayton [agreement] responsible
[for arresting Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic, Gen. Ratko Mladic
and others] and get off IFOR's back," the International Herald Tribune
reported on 30 April. The peacekeepers' mandate is not to hunt down war
criminals but to detain them if they come into contact with them. --
Patrick Moore
[3] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS SOME IFOR MUST GO AFTER DUMPING WASTES.
Bosnian Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic visited an IFOR waste dump near
Olovo in the U.S. zone in central Bosnia and said that the commanders of
the unit responsible must leave the country at once. He charged the
units with vandalism by contaminating two hectares of fertile soil and
polluting the Stupcanica river, Onasa reported on 29 April. Muratovic
added that the damage must be corrected and implied that the U.S. firm
involved in waste control in the area was dumping dangerous wastes
brought in from elsewhere. There have been periodic reports in the local
media suggesting that the peacekeepers have seriously damaged the
environment. -- Patrick Moore
[4] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA URGES THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO DROP SUIT.
At the latest round of hearings against rump Yugoslavia for its alleged
involvement in genocide, Belgrade's representative, Rodoljub Etinski,
urged the International Court of Justice to drop the case, saying his
country had nothing to do with the war in neighboring Bosnia. He
described the conflict as a civil war fought between rival Muslim,
Croat, and Serbian factions. He also said Bosnia seceded illegally from
the Yugoslav federation, violating the rights of ethnic Serbs there,
which should disqualify the case from the Court's hearings. Bosnian
Ambassador to the UN Muhamed Sacirbey countered Etinski, saying that
Belgrade played a significant role in the war and violated the 1948
Genocide Convention by arming and supporting rebel Serbs, Reuters
reported. He added that Belgrade's support for the Dayton peace accord
does not exempt rump Yugoslav officials from justice. -- Stan Markotich
[5] RUMP YUGOSLAVIA CANCELS DEBT TALKS.
Rump Yugoslavia's debt negotiating
team, led by federal Finance Minister Jovan Zebic, abruptly canceled a
29 April New York meeting with representatives of the London Club of
Bankers, Nasa Borba reported the following day. The meeting was to have
focused on the distribution of assets among the successor states of
socialist Yugoslavia. Representatives of international banks were
reportedly stunned by Belgrade's cancellation. Zebic forwarded a letter
to his team stating that "conditions are not yet opportune [for talks]."
-- Stan Markotich
[6] SERBIA REFUSES ALBANIAN CITIZENS RIGHT TO RETURN.
The Serbian Helsinki
Committee accused Serbian authorities of refusing rump-Yugoslav citizens
of Albanian origin entry into the country, Reuters reported on 29 April.
The committee pointed out that the Albanians had valid passports. The
protest was issued after a group of 11 Kosovar Albanians were refused
entry at the Pristina airport. They were re-directed to Belgrade's
airport and also refused entry there. Similar cases have been reported
since December 1995. In other news, Kosovar Shadow State Prime Minister
Bujar Bukoshi sent a letter to EU President Susanna Agnelli warning that
the increasing violence in the region may force ethnic Albanians to
"take additional measures" to defend themselves. He urged the EU to
apply pressure on Belgrade to "stop its provocations." -- Fabian Schmidt
[7] BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER RULES OUT RUSSIAN VETO ON NATO EXPANSION.
Zhan
Videnov on 29 April said Russia cannot be allowed to veto former
Socialist countries' aspirations to join NATO, AFP reported. On the
first day of a two-day visit to Vienna, Videnov said that Bulgaria does
not see Russia as a potential threat to its national security, but that
NATO enlargement and the building of a new European security system are
"processes in which no country should veto anything." Videnov warned
that NATO enlargement should be "very well thought-out beforehand" so as
not to create a "deficit in security or new tensions." Videnov added
that there is no prospect of Bulgaria joining Belarus, Kazakhstan, and
Kyrgyzstan in a process of closer association with Russia. -- Stefan
Krause
[8] MEDIA LICENSES TO BE REVIEWED IN BULGARIA.
The Committee for Posts and
Telecommunications (KPD) on 29 April announced that all private and
foreign TV and radio stations, cable networks, and providers of other
related services will have to apply for new licenses by 5 July,
Demokratsiya reported. The KPD will reconfirm or revoke existing
licenses within six months after the deadline. A government decree
empowers KPD to restrict licenses "for reasons connected to public
interest" and revoke them "in the case of actions violating public
interest." The decree also lets KPD Chairman Lyubomir Kolarov personally
decide which licenses are renewed. Informed sources say that some cable
TV network operators will lose their licenses. RFE/RL and Darik Radio
may also not receive renewals because of the stations' critical
positions on the Socialist government. -- Stefan Krause
[9] NEW PRICE HIKES IMMINENT IN BULGARIA.
The government on 29 April decided
to raise the prices of petroleum, oil, and natural gas by 1-13%,
Demokratsiya and Pari reported. The new prices become effective on 1
May. The same day, electricity prices will go up by 41%. Standart
reported that a 15-20% price increase for drinking water is also
expected to be announced this week. Chairman of the National Commission
for Prices Dimitar Grivekov told 24 chasa that the new fuel prices are
due to high crude oil prices on the international market and the strong
U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, Krastyo Petkov, chairman of the Confederation of
Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, in a letter to Prime Minister
Videnov published in Trud, blamed the cabinet, writing it has "led
Bulgaria into new financial bankruptcy." -- Stefan Krause
[10] ALBANIAN FLEET ON STRIKE IN DURRES.
Albanian trade fleet workers in
Durres have gone on strike, demanding 20% of the profit from a recent
sale of 25 ships. The sale was a step toward privatizing the fleet, but
the workers are claiming profit-sharing rights as shareholders in the
fleet. Head of the government privatization agency, Niko Glozheni said
the law is unclear on the workers' share-holding rights. The workers are
now demanding that the State Control Commission investigate the case,
Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 30 April. -- Fabian Schmidt
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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