Serbia Today, 96-11-21

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

Serbia Today

21 November 1996

CONTENTS

[01] CEASE OF THE CIVIL WAR

[02] THREE YUGOSLAV PRIORITIES

[03] OBSERVERS GUARANTEE STABILITY

[04] SEVERAL DOCUMENTS FOR EASTERN SLAVONIA SIGNED

[05] THIRD ELECTORAL ROUNDS IN SOME CITIES

[06] UN HUMANITARIAN ENVOY IN BELGRADE SOON

[01] CEASE OF THE CIVIL WAR

The negotiations on ceasing the war in Bosnia began on the 1st of November, 1995, and three weeks later the presidents of Serbia and Croatia, Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, as well as the Chair of the FR Bosnia and Herzegovina presidency Alija Izetbegovic, with the members of the Contact Group attending, signed the peace agreement that became the turning point in solving not only the war in Bosnia but the complete Balkan crisis.

All the participants agreed that the talks were exhausting, that the smallest details were discussed, that all sides did their utmost to reach the solution, at the end, all the participants concluded that the most important thing was accomplished - the implementing of peace and the ending of people's suffering.

In a year from the signing of the peace document in the American Aircraft Base in Dayton, in Bosnia and Herzegovina only a spectacular result -the cease of war - is accomplished. All the rest is still in process, slow and painstaking, but it should bring the Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims to a bearable life together, where not even the knifes will be lightly used, let alone the guns and tanks.

Regardless of obstacles, the most essential conditions for the implementing of the Dayton spirit are slowly being created. All the three sides are contemplating where to position more than three thousand combatants, returning to their homes after demobilization. The representatives of all the three sides are in Wienna, participation in wide ranging negotiations on the control and reduction of arms. Already, some of the directions are connected with regular traffic.

Middle September the parliamentary elections were held and the international observers and the European Union consider them regular. At the first sight, it seemed that everything was back to 1991, since the three nationalist parties polled best, and at the same table, mostly the same ones should be seated. University professor Mladen Ivanic thinks that Bosnia depends on the equal agreement of the three nations. Serbian newspapers for the first time publish the interview of an eminent Croatian politician. Mr. Kresimir Zubak, at the time the President of the Muslim Croatian Federations, says " In Dayton and in Washington the Muslim tendency to dominate Serbs and Croats in Bosnia was defeated."

For the first time, in Pale, the proofs are being found for such a statement in the Dayton documents, as if the reading of the documents lasted for the whole nine months. The heads are being cooled, and the newspapers comment more openly the future assignations in the highest ranks of officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

That was the atmosphere, with all the possible restrictions, in which the first session of the Three-member Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held.

But, although it seemed that some of the barriers are surmounted, the resistance to the Dayton premises is still serious. Luckily enough, the first misunderstandings were quickly over solved and the sessions of the Bosnian Presidency are more often than not, regularly held. (Politika, Nov, 21, 1996.)

[02] THREE YUGOSLAV PRIORITIES

Mr. Jovanovic has informed the auditorium in detail with the Yugoslav efforts to form and ensure the functioning of political institutions in Bosnia , by which all the three nations and both entities should be treated equally, thus not allowing the dissatisfied elements to use the difficulties to increase the pressure to amend or change the Dayton Agreement. (Politika, Nov. 21, 1996)

[03] OBSERVERS GUARANTEE STABILITY

Mr. Markovic said that FR Yugoslavia is putting much effort to solve the question of Prevlaka in a peaceful way and by diplomatic means and specially stressed the resoluteness of Yugoslavia to consistently implement the UN Security Council resolutions, regarding Prevlaka, as well as to fulfill the obligations stated in Item 4, of the Agreement on normalizing relations between FR Yugoslavia and The Republic of Croatia. (TANJUG, Nov. 21, 1996)

[04] SEVERAL DOCUMENTS FOR EASTERN SLAVONIA SIGNED

" We have come to many productive agreements", said UN Administrator Jaques Klein, who attended the signing of the previously reached agreements.

Zagreb and the Serbs from the Srem-Baranya Region agreed upon increasing the number of centers for issuing Croatian documents, and upon several documents for the reconstruction in the region. The Draft on the separate school program for the Serbs in the region was also accepted, as well as the reopening of the railway line in the south region of the Eastern Slavonia, between Vinkovci and Tovarnik.

Till the end of the year, the Croat refugees should return to the three villages at the northern part of the region - Trojnice, Novi Bezdan and Novo Nevesinje . (TANJUG, Nov. 21, 1996.)

[05] THIRD ELECTORAL ROUNDS IN SOME CITIES

[06] UN HUMANITARIAN ENVOY IN BELGRADE SOON

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