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OMRI Pursuing Balkan Peace, No. 41, 96-10-15
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Pursuing Balkan Peace
No. 41, 15 October 1996
CONTENTS
[01] DETERMINED MUSLIM REFUGEES CARRY ON
[02] SERBS CONTINUE BOYCOTT OF JOINT BOSNIAN INSTITUTIONS.
[03] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER SAYS SEPARATION STILL A PRIORITY.
[04] ACADEMY FOUNDED ON NATIONALIST NOTE.
[05] EXPLOSIONS IN NORTHERN BOSNIA . . .
[06] . . . AS THE STANDOFF PERSISTS AROUND ZVORNIK.
[07] CROATS BLOCK SERB REFUGEES FROM GOING HOME.
[08] FIRST TRAINING CENTER FOR MUSLIM-CROAT ARMY OPENS.
[09] OSCE MONITOR SAYS BOSNIA NOT READY FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS.
[10] WAR CRIMES UPDATE.
[11] CROATIA CHARGES YUGOSLAV ARMY CHIEF WITH WAR CRIMES.
[12] ZAGREB FREES SERB POW's UNDER NEW AMNESTY LAW.
[13] EASTERN SLAVONIA UNDER CROATIAN ADMINISTRATION IN EARLY SPRING?
[14] CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CLOSE DOWN "KLEIN'S" MARKET.
[15] SERBIA AND CROATIA FIGHT OVER ETHNIC MINORITY IDENTITY.
[16] CROATIAN GENERAL WARNS AGAINST TUDJMAN'S AMBITIONS.
[17] FORMER BANK GOVERNOR RESIGNS FROM SERBIAN OPPOSITION COALITION.
[18] BONN AND BELGRADE SIGN AGREEMENT ON REFUGEE RETURN.
[19] SERBS ARREST THIRD SUSPECTED KOSOVAR TERRORIST.
[20] ALLEGATIONS ABOUT FORCED LABOR IN SERBIAN MINES PROVEN FALSE.
[21] SLOVENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS ALL EX-YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS SHARE SUCCESSION EQUALLY.
[22] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS BELGRADE.
[23] GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ENTER 'KEY PHASE.'
[24] GREECE STRENGTHENS POLICE FORCES IN FIGHT AGAINST ALBANIAN PIRATES.
[01] DETERMINED MUSLIM REFUGEES CARRY ON
Even before the three nationalist parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina were handed
the fruits of their often overwhelming victories -- in some cases with vote
totals well in excess of 100% of the number of registered voters -- many
observers saw trouble looming ahead. The reason was simple: the same three
parties had won in the 1990 elections, and the result had been first gridlock
in government and then war.
The circumstances had changed in roughly six years, but not necessarily for
the better. First, a new constitution was in place thanks to the Dayton
agreement. But like its predecessor, it made much use of a system of checks
and balances dating from the period of Josip Broz Tito and based on the ethnic
principle. Thus, the new system of government, like the earlier model, could
easily be hamstrung by each of the nationalities functioning as a bloc and
refusing to compromise.
Second, the victorious parties were once again the Serbian Democratic Party
(SDS), the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), and the Muslim Party of
Democratic Action (SDA). In many cases, the same individuals who had won in
1990 were elected again. But there were changes as well. The SDS had in the
meantime become associated not only with a war of conquest to establish a
greater Serbia but also with massive war crimes as a deliberate means toward
that goal. Its former chairman and the most prominent Bosnian Serb politician,
Radovan Karadzic, was now wanted for war crimes and could not openly take part
in politics.
The HDZ had gone through a war not only with the Serbs, but with the Muslims
as well. Its anti-Muslim hard-core was based in Herzegovina, where the HDZ
had established a state-within-a-state that functioned more as if it were part
of Croatia than of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The HDZ-dominated establishments
in Herzegovina and Zagreb often -- but not always -- paid lip-service to
the Croat-Muslim alliance, but in practice it often seemed that their agenda
was still to establish a greater Croatia.
The SDA, for its part, was increasingly coming under the sway of its
nationalist wing. This was evident almost as soon as the Dayton agreement was
signed, and Serbs, Croats, and non-SDA Muslims were purged from top military
commands in the government army. There was an element in the SDA, moreover,
that, like the nationalists in the SDS and HDZ, would have preferred to
partition Bosnia rather than keep it as a unitary state. This group was
generally referred to as the Islamic fundamentalists. If they were ever to
dominate party policy, it would mean that no leading party remained committed
to the principle of a unitary, multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia
would thus be divided between a greater Serbia, a greater Croatia, and a
Muslim mini-state dependent on foreign backing.
Cassandras who felt that 1996 would bring a repetition of 1990 found that they
did not have to wait long for confirmation of their fears. The Serbs, in fact,
failed to show up for the first meeting of the joint legislature and the
session of the presidency slated for that same day. Few believed their excuse
that they were concerned for their safety in Sarajevo. It seemed evident
instead that they had boycotted the gatherings as an opening move in a new
chess game in Bosnian politics.
The best that the "international community" could do in response was -- as had
generally been its practice -- to scold, admonish, and cajole. The Serbs then
offered conciliatory words, but it was clear that the chess game was only
beginning.
But in the north of Bosnia, some Muslim refugees had begun showing the world
that there was a way to implement the principles of the Dayton agreement
despite the obstructionism of the Serbian authorities and the weakness of the
foreigners. In late August, a group of Muslim refugees returned to their homes
in the village of Mahala near Zvornik in the "zone of separation" between the
two entities (see ). Mahala is located in the Republika Srpska, the
authorities of which were not pleased to see these "ethnically cleansed"
families return. And IFOR -- which saw its main mission as the prevention of
violence and the preservation of itself -- was horrified, especially as some
of the Muslims were armed.
But the Muslims stuck to their argument that the Dayton agreement guarantees
them freedom of movement and the right to go home. Eventually, they shamed
IFOR into providing them with a degree of protection from the predictably
upset Serbs. More recently, a similar set of developments took place in the
nearby village of Jusici, and Dugi Do seemed to be next on the Muslims'
list.
The villagers might nonetheless soon find themselves involved in "incidents"
with the Republika Srpska police, and under increasing pressure from IFOR to
go back to the refugee camps lest any violence result. In the meantime,
the Muslims of Mahala and Jusici have shown that quiet determination in
sticking up for one's rights might have a future, even in Bosnia. -- Patrick
Moore
[02] SERBS CONTINUE BOYCOTT OF JOINT BOSNIAN INSTITUTIONS.
Meanwhile, the Serbian member of the Bosnian presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik,
again refused to sign a loyalty oath to Bosnia-Herzegovina, AFP reported on 12
October. Krajisnik said that he objected to any ceremonies taking place in a
Sarajevo building associated with the Croat-Muslim federation and that he
would only sign on Bosnian Serb territory. He also refused to meet German
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel together with the Croatian and Muslim members of
the presidency and met the German guest separately instead. Krajisnik, who had
earlier declined to come to Sarajevo out of alleged fears for his safety,
arrived there on 12 October to talk with Kinkel and U.S. special envoy John
Kornblum. Krajisnik says he is defending Serbian interests by taking a hard
line on joint institutions, Nasa Borba reported on 14 October. The World
Bank warned the Serbs on 11 October, however, that they stand to lose their
share of reconstruction aid if the boycott continues, Onasa stated. The
international Contact Group had earlier made similar threats to the Serbs.
Their prime minister, Gojko Klickovic, nonetheless responded that the Serbs
will not yield to pressure and that they will not accept the reintegration
of Bosnia-Herzegovina. -- Patrick Moore
[03] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER SAYS SEPARATION STILL A PRIORITY.
Aleksa Buha, the foreign minister of the Republika Srpska and head of the
governing Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), stated for his part on 14 October
that independence from the Croat-Muslim federation and union with Serbia still
top the SDS agenda. He demanded that the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia,
China, and the UN set up diplomatic offices in Pale. Buha also added that the
government and parliament of the Republika Srpska will meet there on 19
October, news agencies and Nasa Borba reported. Buha argued that the Serbs
may take until 28 October to return to the three-man Bosnian presidency,
saying that body will determine its own rules and procedures. -- Patrick
Moore
[04] ACADEMY FOUNDED ON NATIONALIST NOTE.
Meanwhile on nearby Mt. Jahorina, the opening session of the new Academy of
Sciences of the Republika Srpska took place on 11 October. It set up a four-
person Executive Committee and Presidency, including the historian and
ideologue Milorad Ekmecic. Former Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war
criminal Radovan Karadzic made an appearance to talk to visiting Belgrade
intellectuals. Prominent Serbian nationalist politician Mihajlo Markovic said
at the gathering that the war had "had some sense" because it led to the
establishment of yet another Serb state, the Republika Srpska, Onasa noted on
14 October. -- Patrick Moore
[05] EXPLOSIONS IN NORTHERN BOSNIA . . .
Returning to the subject of the plucky refugees, numerous blasts of
unidentified origin took place in houses in three former Muslim villages on
Bosnian Serb territory on 10 October, the BBC reported. The villages are
Mumbasic and Stanic Rijeka near Tuzla, and Kordoni near Zvornik, Reuters
added. Some 223 Muslims had gone back to Jusici as of that date, Onasa stated.
They burned a Serbian flag after Bosnian Serb and UN police confiscated
weapons from them, Nasa Borba noted on 11 October. Meanwhile in Sarajevo,
the SDA promised to help the residents of Jusici rebuild their homes, Onasa
said on 10 October. It also plans to open branch offices in the Republika
Srpska, where it is the second largest party in parliament. -- Patrick
Moore
[06] . . . AS THE STANDOFF PERSISTS AROUND ZVORNIK.
And the war of nerves continued over the weekend. The RS authorities released
three Muslims who had been jailed in Zvornik, Dnevni avaz wrote on 14
October. The RS police in Jusici maintained a tense standoff both with Russian
IFOR troops -- whom they had threatened on 11 October -- and with the
villagers. Early in the morning of 12 October, an explosion destroyed a Muslim
home on the outskirts of nearby Mahala, in an area known as Hajvazi. --
Patrick Moore
[07] CROATS BLOCK SERB REFUGEES FROM GOING HOME.
Nor are those Muslims the only victims of ethnic bigotry. Bosnian Croats on 13
October prevented 250 Serbs from visiting their homes in Drvar, forcing the
refugees to go back to Banja Luka, Nasa Borba noted on 15 October. Tens of
thousands of Croatian and Bosnian Serbs fled the Croatian advance roughly one
year ago. They have since charged the Croats with conducting a policy of
"ethnic cleansing" and using violence and intimidation against the mainly
elderly or infirm Serbs who stayed behind. The Dayton agreement guarantees
freedom of movement and the right to go back to one's home. Onasa on 14
October quoted a UNHCR spokesman as saying that the incident was particularly
"tragic," since the association of Serbs from Drvar is one of the few voices
in the Republika Srpska calling for all people to go home. -- Patrick
Moore
[08] FIRST TRAINING CENTER FOR MUSLIM-CROAT ARMY OPENS.
Turning to the issue of security arrangements, Military Professional Resources
Inc. -- a company run by retired U.S. Army generals -- opened the first
training center on 7 October for the joint Muslim-Croat Army. The facility is
in Pazaric, south of Sarajevo, Oslobodjenje reported. The opening ceremony
was attended by Defense Minister Vladimir Soljic, a Bosnian Croat, and his
Muslim deputy Hasan Cengic. Gen. Rasim Delic, who will command the joint
forces, said: "From this moment, I am not a general without an army." His
Croat deputy, Gen.-Col. Zivko Budimir, said the center might well become the
future Bosnian Military Academy. The $400 million U.S.-sponsored program is
aimed at establishing a balance between the federal army and Bosnian Serb
forces. It also seeks to help merge Muslims and Croats into a united force
under civilian control. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] OSCE MONITOR SAYS BOSNIA NOT READY FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS.
And as to the upcoming November local vote, Ed van Thijn, the chief OSCE
monitor during the 14 September general elections, said he will not accept the
same job in the municipal ones because Bosnia is not ready for them, AFP
reported on 13 October. Van Thijn said that ballot should be postponed until
spring because voter lists are not reliable and refugees still would not be
able to vote where they wish to in November. Municipal elections were
postponed from September to November after it was found that the Serbs
especially were tampering with voter registration. On 12 October, OSCE
spokesman David Foley said delaying the municipal elections would undermine
the peace process. AFP on 11 October quoted Bosnian Serb President Biljana
Plavsic as threatening, however: "If the process of forced and illegal
repopulation of the Republika Srpska continues [an apparent reference to the
return of the Muslim refugees; see above], conditions for [holding] local
elections will not be met." -- Daria Sito Sucic
[10] WAR CRIMES UPDATE.
The issue of atrocities has been in the news, too. In New York, the Security
Council on 10 October protested the lack of progress in investigating the fate
of missing persons and singled out the Bosnian Serb authorities as obstructing
efforts. At the Laniste cave near Kljuc in western Bosnia, government
officials have removed 70 bodies so far of Muslims believed to have been
killed by the Serbs on 1 June 1992. Among the gruesome discoveries have been
severed heads pierced with nails, news agencies noted. -- Patrick
Moore
[11] CROATIA CHARGES YUGOSLAV ARMY CHIEF WITH WAR CRIMES.
Meanwhile in Croatia, prosecutors have charged Gen. Momcilo Perisic, the
current Yugoslav army chief of staff, with war crimes when he was a colonel in
the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), AFP reported on 5 October. The
prosecutor in Zadar indicted Perisic along with eight other former JNA
officers for having ordered and carried out attacks against civilian targets
there and in the surrounding region in August and September 1991. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[12] ZAGREB FREES SERB POW's UNDER NEW AMNESTY LAW.
That same weekend as it charged the general, Croatia acted on a new general
amnesty law and released 41 Serbs held for rebelling against the state,
Slobodna Dalmacija reported on 8 October. Some 18 other Serbs charged with
war crimes remain in custody of the Split district court. Most of those
released went to Serbia, while a few opted to stay in Croatia, according to
Hina. Also, 15 Serbs charged and imprisoned for espionage were released on 7
October, Novi List reported the next day. Lawyers announced they are filing
charges for compensation for those held over one year. The amnesty law pardons
all Croatian Serbs who took part in the uprising after Croatia's declaration
of independence in 1991, except for hose explicitly charged with war crimes. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[13] EASTERN SLAVONIA UNDER CROATIAN ADMINISTRATION IN EARLY SPRING?
Turning from the events of the past to those of the future, one spotlight has
been on eastern Slavonia, the last Serb-held area in Croatia. Jacques Klein,
the UN transitional administrator for the area, said on 8 October he hopes it
will return to Croatian administration next spring at the latest,
Hina reported. "Our aim is next spring and then to terminate the mandate by
early summer," Klein said after a meeting with Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman. Klein added that he wants elections to "take place as soon as
possible' on the basis of pre-war lists of registered voters. But Derek
Boothby, UNTAES deputy administrator, told Reuters on 10 October that
Croatia's hopes for a 15 December vote cannot be met. The balloting must be
conducted 30 days before the UN mandate ends, which will in the last analysis
be decided by the UN Security Council. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[14] CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CLOSE DOWN "KLEIN'S" MARKET.
There has been other news from that region, too. Local authorities in the
Osijek-Baranja district on 10 October put an end to the market on the border
between Serb-held eastern Slavonia and Croatian-controlled territory,
Vecernji list reported. On 12 October, Croatian authorities began turning
back Croats on their way to the market on alleged grounds of health, AFP
reported. Klein supported the market as a place where confidence between Serbs
and Croats was being rebuilt. UNTAES spokesman Douglas Coffman said the market
helped over 45,000 people from both sides to reestablish contacts broken by
the war, and that the UN "deeply deplored" the decision to close it down. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[15] SERBIA AND CROATIA FIGHT OVER ETHNIC MINORITY IDENTITY.
Nor has this been the only site of Serb-Croat tensions. Hido Biscevic, an aide
to the Croatian foreign minister, protested Serbian Vice Premier Ratko
Markovic's recent statement on the Backa Croats, known as Bunjevci. Markovic
had said that the people in question "are neither Croats nor Serbs, but only
Bunjevci," and will receive the status of a nation (narod) in Serbia,
Vjesnik reported on 11 October. Hungarian Croats had earlier protested
Markovic's statement that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is also the
"motherland" of Bunjevci living in Hungary. Those Hungarian Croats issued a
statement that the Bunjevci are Croats and of the same origin as the ones in
Lika, the Croatian Primorje, and Dalmatia, Hina reported on 4 October.
According to Hina, the Serbian authorities first devised the new national
group "Bunjevci" for the 1991 census. The apparent purpose is to reduce the
absolute size of and to split the "Croatian" minority in Serbia, as well as to
stake a claim on the Croats of Hungary. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[16] CROATIAN GENERAL WARNS AGAINST TUDJMAN'S AMBITIONS.
Back in Croatia, retired Gen. Anton Tus -- the former Chief of the General
Staff -- said on independent Radio 101 that President Franjo Tudjman is
pursuing a course of folly in trying to make Croatia a force in the Balkans.
"We don't have the human, material, or economic resources to be a regional
military power. Our future should be in alliances, not in exhausting ourselves
to build up our armed forces." The government has been steadily acquiring a
modern arsenal since independence in 1991. Historian Tudjman, moreover, was
visibly carried away with the success of his armies against rebel Serbs in
1995 and may be dreaming of other things to come. Among the latest reports are
that Defense Minister Gojko Susak wants to buy modern Soviet-type aircraft
from Ukraine. Slobodna Dalmacija on 10 October quoted opposition politician
Josip Manolic as saying that Susak is carrying out a wholesale purge of the
army command structure as well. -- Patrick Moore
[17] FORMER BANK GOVERNOR RESIGNS FROM SERBIAN OPPOSITION COALITION.
And things have been happening in Serbian politics, too. Dragoslav Avramovic
resigned as leader of the "Zajedno" (Together) opposition coalition due to
"aggravated health conditions," Nasa Borba reported on 10 October. The 76
year-old former National Bank governor and World Bank economist was considered
the glue that held the four often feuding parties together. His resignation
could be a serious blow to the coalition, which according to a recent opinion
poll by Vreme had overtaken the ruling coalition of Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic in popularity, Reuters reported on 9 November. Nasa
Borba speculated that the real reasons for Avramovic's resignation were
threats to obstruct his daily dialysis treatment, and pressure by Milosevic
during a closed-door meeting on 9 October. -- Dukagjin Gorani
[18] BONN AND BELGRADE SIGN AGREEMENT ON REFUGEE RETURN.
Still in the Serbian capital, German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther and his
federal Yugoslav counterpart Vukasin Jokanovic signed a refugee repatriation
agreement on 10 October. According to the text, about 135,000 refugees will be
expelled within the next three years, most of whom are Kosovar Albanians. The
agreement has prompted protests from German human rights groups, which charge
the government with sending people into dangerous situations for the sake of
domestic political agendas. They argue that the ruling coalition wants to win
voters back from the radical nationalist Right and to cut back government
spending at the expense of the weakest.
The same day several hundred Kosovo Albanian refugees rallied outside the
Interior Ministry, holding posters that read: "Don't sent us back to the
torturers!" Deutsche Welle's Albanian broadcast on 10 October carried a
commentary saying that the return of refugees would aggravate tensions in
Kosovo. The situation in Kosovo, meanwhile, continues to be tense. Police
repression, arbitrary arrests and torture are no exception, and talks between
Belgrade and the Albanians are not in sight. The OSCE mission, which Belgrade
expelled in 1993, has not allowed to return; hence nobody will be able to
ensure the security of the refugees. The German Interior Minister's priority,
however, is that the agreement sends a signal to anyone contemplating coming
to Germany, which he says is "not a country of immigration."
Xenophobia and political opportunism -- rather than any appreciation of the
situation in the successor republics of the former Yugoslavia -- are at the
core of the agreement, which is only the last in a series of government
measures to get rid of refugees. Already earlier this year, the federal and
state interior ministers had cleared the way to allow the state authorities to
start expelling refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina as of 1 October. Then on
9 October, Bavaria deported the first of 320,000 Bosnian refugees and pledged
to continue with the expulsions. The state of Berlin, furthermore, said it
would start sending people back to Bosnia this month. This was despite
criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which had
called on the German authorities to postpone the expulsions until spring. The
UNHCR warned that there is no suitable housing available and that expelling
people on the eve of the winter would create huge problems in Bosnia.
But criticism about the expulsions also came from within the governing
coalition. The federal ombudsman for foreigners, Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen,
also criticized the Bavarian authorities, saying they were more concerned with
ensuring rapid repatriations than with the well-being of the refugees. In any
event, the expulsions to Bosnia and to Kosovo take place at a time when there
is no basic legal security for the refugees. The Dayton agreement is virtually
a dead letter, while human rights in Kosovo are far from being addressed. --
Fabian Schmidt
[19] SERBS ARREST THIRD SUSPECTED KOSOVAR TERRORIST.
And evidence of this is not hard to find. Serbian police officers on 7 October
arrested a third suspected terrorist in roughly one week, Reuters reported.
The police claim that Idriz Haljiti participated in two bomb attacks on a
police station and one on a refugee camp in Vucitrn. Police continued to
search for other members of a group, believed to be the shadowy Kosovo
Liberation Army. Meanwhile, Milosevic refused to receive UN human rights envoy
Elizabeth Rehn, Nasa Borba reported on 8 October. The minister without
portfolio in charge of minority rights, Margit Savovic, expressed
"astonishment and concern" to Rehn about statements the latter made in Kosovo,
when she discussed with Kosovar shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova the
option of making Kosovo an "international protectorate." -- Fabian
Schmidt
[20] ALLEGATIONS ABOUT FORCED LABOR IN SERBIAN MINES PROVEN FALSE.
Another source of controversy regarding Kosovo has centered on charges that
Muslim refugees from Srebrenica -- an ancient mining community -- have been
sent to do forced labor in Trepca. The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund
(HLF) sent a commission there to investigate, Nasa Borba reported on 8
October. The HLF said that it found no evidence to support the allegations,
which were based on reports made by refugees in England and Germany and by the
Union of Refugees and Displaced Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The HLF
talked to people who were identified earlier as missing people from Srebrenica,
as well as to other persons. It turned out that some refugees or former
citizens of Srebrenica or other Bosnians indeed were working in Trepca, but
voluntarily. Some of those identified as missing by the Bosnian organization
had meanwhile taken the citizenship of federal Yugoslavia. A commission of the
International Red Cross also visited the mining center and found no evidence
to substantiate the earlier reports. -- Fabian Schmidt
[21] SLOVENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS ALL EX-YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS SHARE SUCCESSION EQUALLY.
Moving well northward to "the sunny side of the Alps," Milan Kucan told the
Montenegrin weekly Monitor that all six former republics have equal claim to
the succession of Yugoslavia dating from 1918, Onasa reported on 10 October.
He thus challenged Serbia-Montenegro's claim to the sole right of succession
under the name Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and hence to the former
country's shared wealth and assets. Kucan noted that Slovenia had paid huge
sums of money for the JNA, which were then put to "woefully wrongful,
unfortunate, and tragic purposes." Yugoslavia as a country did not enable the
Slovenes to "secure their vital interests as a people," he added, and
concluded that Slovenia's 70-year association with the other peoples of
Yugoslavia could not change the fact that its strongest cultural and spiritual
ties are with Central Europe and not with the Balkans. -- Patrick
Moore
[22] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS BELGRADE.
But back in the Balkans, Blagoje Handziski met with his federal Yugoslav
counterpart Pavle Bulatovic in Nis on 8 October, Nasa Borba reported. The
defense ministers were accompanied by high-ranking military delegations. They
agreed to quickly resolve open border disputes and exchange military attaches.
JNA pensions were also on the agenda. MILS, however, indicated that both sides
also discussed a Macedonian request for some of the military equipment that
Belgrade is obliged to destroy according to the Dayton agreement. Serbian
capacities for arms destruction are limited to one factory in Smederevo and
observers doubt that Belgrade will be able to fulfill its obligations, Beta
reported. It is widely rumored that Belgrade is trying to sell off some of the
hardware in the meantime (see ). -- Fabian Schmidt
[23] GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ENTER 'KEY PHASE.'
The meeting between the Greek and Macedonian UN ambassadors -- Christos
Zacharakis and Ivan Tosevski -- on 7 October in New York prompted Nova
Makedonija and Kathimerini to write on 9 October that talks on Macedonia's
name had entered a "key phase." MILS reported that Zacharakis proposed several
composite names including the term Macedonia, such as New Macedonia and
Republic of Macedonia--Skopje. Tosevski did not comment on the report. Ta
Nea reported that Tosevski made no proposals and that Zacharakis demanded
that the process be speeded up since "conditions are good for finding a
solution." The Greek daily commented that the most Greece is likely to get is
that Macedonia would be referred to as New Macedonia in the UN, a second name
would be established for internal use, and Greece would chose a third name for
bilateral communication. -- Stefan Krause
[24] GREECE STRENGTHENS POLICE FORCES IN FIGHT AGAINST ALBANIAN PIRATES.
Moving to the Adriatic, Greece will deploy a special police force to fight
groups of marauding boat thieves operating between Albania and Corfu,
the International Herald Tribune reported on 1 October. The Albanian
pirates are held responsible for numerous armed attacks, including the murder
of a British yachtsman in late September. Parts of Corfu have been plagued in
recent months by Albanians crossing the straits that are less than four
kilometers wide. They have been robbing luxury yachts and have smuggled
illegal immigrants to Greece. The Corfu Channel was a key confrontation point
early in the Cold War but has recently become an area of increased tourism on
both sides. -- Fabian Schmidt
Compiled by Patrick Moore
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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