Subject: YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY CONTENTS: YUGOSLAVIA - UNESCO - YUGOSLAVIA URGES UNESCO TO PROTECT SERB HERITAGE IN KRAJINA YUGOSLAVIA - UKRAINE - YUGOSLAV, UKRAINIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET FUNERAL OF U.S. NEGOTIATORS - YUGOSLAV REPRESENTATIVE ATTENDS FUNERAL AFTER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER'S VISIT - MINISTER CONTENT WITH TALKS IN BELGRADE KRAJINA - ATROCITIES - U.N. ACCUSES CROATIA AGAIN OF HARASSMENT OF SERBS - CROATIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: SERB PROPERTY IN KRAJINA LOOTED - MOST SERB HOUSES AROUND KNIN TORCHED, DESTROYED, OR LOOTED ARMS EMBARGO - MUBARAK OPPOSES EXEMPTION OF MUSLIMS FROM ARMS EMBARGO FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS - FINANCIAL TIMES: CROATIAN TROOPS RAMPAGING THROUGH KRAJINA, TORCHING VILLAGES - SLOVENIAN INTELLECTUAL ACCUSES CROATS OF STARTING ETHNIC CLEANSING YUGOSLAVIA - UNESCO YUGOSLAVIA URGES UNESCO TO PROTECT SERB HERITAGE IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic on Wednesday urged UNESCO to protect Serb cultural and historical heritage in the territory of the Republic of Serb Krajina from destruction by Croatian army. Milutinovic made his request in a letter to UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor, Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In leaving their ethnic home land due to Croatia's aggression, the Serbs were forced to abandon not only their homes, but also their centuries-old holy sites and cultural monuments - old orthodox churches and monasteries, museums and cultural and artistic treasuries, graves of their ancestors, historical monuments and archaeological sites - a total of about 950 cultural monuments, 80 libraries and 122 primary schools, Milutinovic said in his letter. Preliminary reports from the area show that many churches and monasteries were burned or looted by Croatian army, he said. The Croatian authorities have banned access to the area to U.N. and humanitarian organizations representatives, making the control of the preservation of Serb cultural and historical monuments in Republic of Serb Krajina impossible for the time being, he noted. Milutinovic consequently urged Mayor to immediately send teams of experts to the region and exert pressure on Croatian government in order to save Serb cultural, historical, artistic and archaeological wealth and other evidence of the presence and creativity of the Serb people over the centuries in what is today the RSK territory. YUGOSLAVIA - UKRAINE YUGOSLAV, UKRAINIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET B e l g r a d e, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Deputy Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodomir Handogiy told the press on Wednesday following a meeting with his Yugoslav counterpart Radoslav Bulajic that his country believed that the time had come to lift the anti-Yugoslav sanctions. The two officials discussed bilateral relations and cooperation and pointed to the closeness of the two countries' views on the key aspects of the process of resolving the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, Handogiy said. This is why a series of bilateral agreements have been drawn up and the talks on them were successful, he said. The talk also focused on the settlement of the Yugoslav crisis and the possibility of Ukraine joining in the process, as well as on the possibilities of implementing the agreements the two countries signed when Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic visited Kiev. Handogiy said dialogue formed part of the traditionally good relations between the two countries which used to have exceptionally good cooperation in the past. Bulajic said that Ukrainian Foreign Minister and a parliamentary delegation would also visit Yugoslavia soon. FUNERAL OF U.S. NEGOTIATORS YUGOSLAV REPRESENTATIVE ATTENDS FUNERAL W a s h i n g t o n, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Assistant Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic attended Wednesday in Washington on behalf of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic the funeral of the members of the U.S. negotiating team who were killed in an accident last Saturday in Bosnia. Jovanovic presented his condolences to U.S. officials and the families of the deceased, and laid wreaths on behalf of President Milosevic and Yugoslavia. The tragic accident on mt. Igman near Sarajevo is not expected to affect the continuation of the peace endeavors to which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remains committed, deeply convinced that Bosnian crisis can only be settled by political means. In this context, talks with a U.S. peace delegation are expected to continue. AFTER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER'S VISIT MINISTER CONTENT WITH TALKS IN BELGRADE B u c h a r e s t, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Romania on Wednesday again called for a lifting of the sanctions against Yugoslavia as an important precondition for bringing about peace in the former Yugoslavia. Speaking at a regular news conference, Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mirce Djoana briefed the press about Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu's visit to Belgrade on Tuesday. Djoana said the issue of the sanctions against Yugoslavia would also be the focus of a meeting between the Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian foreign ministers to be held in Yanjina in northern Greece this week. On return to Bucharest, Melescanu said he was satisfied with the talks he had in Belgrade. Melescanu reaffirmed that Romania and Yugoslavia had two stands in common: first, a lasting settlement of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia is achievable only through peaceful means, and, secondly, the lifting of the sanctions against Yugoslavia can encourage the peace process. KRAJINA - ATROCITIES U.N. ACCUSES CROATIA AGAIN OF HARASSMENT OF SERBS Z a g r e b, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - The United Nations accused Croatia once again on Wednesday of continuing to expel Serbs from Krajina and Western Slavonija. U.N. Civilian Police reports that 15 armed men, some of whom wore Croatian uniforms, harassed three Serb civilians in the village of Gavrinica in Western Slavonija, and ordered them to leave their homes within 24 hours, U.N. spokesman Christopher Gunnes said. He added that the U.N. continued observing the burning and looting of houses in Krajina by Croatian army. U.N. human rights teams continue reporting on deaths of Serb civilians, Gunnes said. The U.N. has also expressed concern for the fate of 75 Serbs arrested by Croatian troops in Knin in the beginning of August. The Croatians had informed the U.N. they would interrogate the prisoners elsewhere, but did not say where, Gunnes said. CROATIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: SERB PROPERTY IN KRAJINA LOOTED Z a g r e b, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Jure Radic said Wednesday that Serb property in Krajina was being looted and destroyed. Radic told a Croatian government session that he dissociated himself from these instances. Radic, on behalf of the government, proposed that the defense and interior ministries be put in charge of preventing such conduct and punishing the perpetrators of these crimes. Radic claimed these crimes had not been committed by Croatian army or police but by those who followed military actions and plundered and destroyed the property. MOST SERB HOUSES AROUND KNIN TORCHED, DESTROYED, OR LOOTED (by Nikola Stanojevic) Z a g r e b, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman angrily claims that reports on torchings of houses and killings of civilians in Krajina are 'lies.' Croatian Interior Minister Ivan Jarnjak says Serbs 'left a mess behind them' so that the TV shots of Krajina 'show a false picture.' Zagreb Archbishop, cardinal Franjo Kuharic, has also joined the regime's logic of lies. In an answer to a letter from orthodox Patriarch Alexei of Moscow, which was naturally not made public in Croatia, cardinal Kuharic said churches were not 'objective sources' for what was taking place in Krajina and assured the Patriarch that the Croatian government had 'not adopted methods of ethnic cleansing.' Continuing the tradition of cardinal Alojzije Stepinac of the pupper World War II nazi-fascist Independent State of Croatia, cardinal Kuharic speaks along the lines of Tudjman's regime, as if the world did not know that about 500,000 Serbs have been banished or forced to flee from Croatia in ethnic cleansing operations. However, in spite of intense efforts to deny evident facts, the pieces in the mosaic of the suffering of the Serb people in Krajina are falling into place day by day. Futile are the daily touches added to the picture made by the Croatian regime's reporters - those who were allowed to report from Krajina from the very beginning of the aggression, when they were 'harmless reporters in dangerous spots,' as a commentator of the Rijeka daily Novi List sarcastically observed. These reporters, especially those working for state television, who are harmless for the regime, send pictures of a 'normalization' of the situation. They are trying to assure the public that an unusual army had passed through Krajina, virtually in surgical gloves, just as it had been presented in the propaganda during the attack on the Krajina region of Western Slavonija in May this year. However, reports from different sources are increasingly taking the 'glow' off this painted 'idyllic' picture of the situation in the captured territories. Countless houses have been destroyed, burned or looted, often in the presence of Croatian police. Members of a U.N. human rights mission passed through the towns of Benkovac, Kistanje and Djevrske in Southern Serb Krajina and witnessed a large area in flames. They said houses were burning and that it was impossible to live any longer in many villages. International Helsinki Federation representative William Hayden visited Knin and neighbouring areas. Hayden said 75-85 percent of the houses he had seen had been burned, destroyed or looted, and that there was not a single house left standing in Kistanje. All other objects had also been systematically destroyed, from post offices to cafes, Hayden said, but expressed surprise that the Croatian authorities had managed to preserve the Serbian Orthodox Church. Hayden evidently did not know that pictures of this and other orthodox churches were a tool for showing the world that the authorities were 'dedicated' to preserving Serb heritage in the territory of Krajina. Members of the Helsinki Human Rights Committee are concerned about contradictory reports on casualties, missing civilians and mass executions. U.N. representatives have found evidence of a possible mass grave near Knin. U.N. civilian police have figures that 242 civilians have been killed or are missing in the area of Knin, and they have names for only 107 of them. The names of other casualties are not known, and 'nobody knows' who committed these crimes, just as 'nobody knows' who killed nine civilians in the village of Zagrovic. It is known, though, that they were killed from close range and that three fingers had been cut off from each of their hands. It has also been established that eight of them were men, civilians, and that they had been massacred so brutally that it had not been possible to determine the sex of the ninth body. ARMS EMBARGO MUBARAK OPPOSES EXEMPTION OF MUSLIMS FROM ARMS EMBARGO C a i r o, Aug. 23 (Tanjug) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said the unilateral exemption of Bosnian Muslims from an arms embargo will only escalate the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina and urged a political settlement of the crisis in that former Yugoslav republic. Lifting the embargo on arms deliveries would be dangerous, Mubarak said and added that he believed that it would make the situation in the Balkans worse. Mubarak said this in addressing professors and students of the Alexandria University. The Egyptian President was also quoted as urging the finding of a political settlement for the crisis in Bosnia which could be reached only through diplomatic action. FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS CROATIAN TROOPS RAMPAGING THROUGH KRAJINA, TORCHING VILLAGES L o n d o n, Aug. 22 (Tanjug) - The Financial Times on Tuesday quoted the United Nations as saying that, in spite of Zagreb denials, Croatian troops were still rampaging through Krajina, looting and burning Serb villages two weeks after the Serbs had fled the region. Financial Times quoted U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness who said on Monday: 'Krajina is literally ablaze. There are villages which were turned into a living hell by the Croatian army.' It seems that 'Croatia is intent on making it impossible for Serbs to return while at the same time claiming they are welcome to remain in their homes,' Financial Times said. Gunness also told this daily by telephone that: 'Et the moment the Croatian army is barring U.N. access to regions where there was fighting. It is only when the U.N. has full and unrestricted access that we can determine the extent of the ugliness of Croatia's military intervention.' Quoting human rights organizations, Financial Times also said that there were at least four suspected mass graves near Knin and that the Helsinki Human Rights Federation had accused Croatian troops of burning and destroying villages and giving false reports on civilian casualties in the operation. SLOVENIAN INTELLECTUAL ACCUSES CROATS OF STARTING ETHNIC CLEAN SING B e l g r a d e, Aug. 23 (tanjug) - Ethnic cleansing in the territory of former Yugoslavia was begun by Croatia, said prominent Slovenian intellectual Spomenka Hribar in the weekly Mladina, carried by the Belgrade daily Nasa Borba on Wednesday. Recapitulating the events over the past five years, since the former Yugoslav federation disintegrated, Hribar said that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, after the first multi-party elections in Croatia in 1990 which were won by the Croatian Democratic Union, should have gone to Jasenovac and apologized to Serbs for the ethnic cleansing carried out during World War II. About 700,000 people, mostly Serbs but also Jews and Romanies, were exterminated in the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp alone in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a puppet state formed under the wing of nazi Germany and fascist Italy during World War II. Tudjman apologized to Jews, Hribar said, but not to Serbs. Instead of an apology, an article on Serbs as a constitutive people was struck from the new Croatian constitution, dismissals of Serbs from work began, signs with names of places in cyrillic, the alphabet used by Serbs, were taken down, she said. Hribar claims the Croatian authorities in early August this year, after capturing Serb Krajina, again had the chance for a reconciliation with Serbs. Instead, the Croatian leadership decided to issue only 'one-way tickets' to Serbs, she said. =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================