YDS 9/25

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: [email protected] (D.D. Chukurov)

25. SEPTEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT'S VISIT TO ROMANIA - BULATOVIC, ILIESCU: CHANCE FOR PEACE MUST NOT BE LOST

FRENCH - YUGOSLAV TALKS - CONFIRMATION OF COMMITMENT TO PEACE AND COOPERATION

YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA - DUMA VISIT AIMED AT HELPING RESOLVE BALKAN CRISIS PEACEFULLY

YUGOSLAVIA - DEFENCE - DEFENCE MINISTER STRESSES PEACE AS GENERAL COMMITMENT OF F.R.Y.

YUGOSLAVIA - NIGERIA - YUGOSLAV AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS BILATERAL COOPERATION

WAR IN BOSNIA - KARADZIC ON WAR AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBS - REPUBLIKA SRPSKA ASKS RUSSIA TO OPPOSE WAR OPTION OF CROATIANS AND MUSLIMS - MUSLIM PREMIER VOWS TO SEIZE BANJA LUKA - 124 PEOPLE DIE, 500 DISAPPEAR DURING SERB EXODUS - SERB ARMY REPELS A NUMBER OF CROAT-MUSLIM ATTACKS - SERBS RETURN TO MRKONJIC GRAD - TWO CREW MEMBERS OF BOSNIAN SERB TV DISAPPEAR

CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS - CROATIAN POLICE PREVENTS REFUGEES FROM RETURNING TO KRAJINA

GREECE - COMMEMORATION - GREECE MARKS BREAKTHROUGH OF SALONIKA FRONT IN WORLD WAR I

MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT'S VISIT TO ROMANIA

CHANCE FOR PEACE MUST NOT BE LOST

B u c h a r e s t, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - Romanian President Ion Iliescu and President of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro Momir Bulatovic Friday warned that another opportunity for a lasting solution to the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the crisis in the former Yugoslavia through talks should not be omitted. At a joint press conference after Bulatovic's one-day visit, Iliescu said the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina could have been ended a year ago by peaceful means had sufficient support been lent to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's realistic policy. 'I have pointed this out on a number of occasions and I think that precious time had been lost, while in the meantime huge human and material losses were sustained,' said Iliescu. The two sides pointed out they have exchanged views on the current moment in the peace process in Bosnia and especially on the possibilities for economic cooperation between Romania and Montenegro within the framework of Yugoslav-Romanian relations. Iliescu said he and Bulatovic agreed that the U.S. engagement in the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina essentially contributed to the dialogue. Bulatovic said the U.S. and NATO were expected to exert equal pressure on all parties to the conflict to continue talks and lay down arms. Replying to the question of Romanian reporters how does Yugoslavia view NATO's moving eastward, Bulatovic said that no one in Yugoslavia has prejudices against NATO and that its role was respected as the mainstay of the policy of the United Nations. However, by bombing only the Serb side in Bosnia, NATO has punished the Serbs quite out of proportion, he said. Everything was up to NATO, and the Yugoslavs believe that both NATO and the U.S. would sincerely engage themselves on restoring peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then peace could become a reality within a month, said Bulatovic. The Montenegrin President added that then international sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would be lifted, thereby making it possible to normalize relations with all world countries. Iliescu said he shared the view that sanctions against Yugoslavia could be lifted as soon as war operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina ceased.

FRENCH - YUGOSLAV TALKS

CONFIRMATION OF COMMITMENT TO PEACE AND COOPERATION

P a r i s, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - The Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Milan Milutinovic, said on Friday that the peace agreement for the crisis in the former Yugoslavia was very close and that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was ready to sign it right away. That is why Yugoslavia wants to hold as soon as possible a peace conference 'which must result in the conclusion of final peace'. At a press conference held at the end of a two-day working visit to Paris, Milutinovic said that his talks with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Herve De Charette were essential confirmation of the two countries' shared commitment to peace. The interest of all of Europe is not to continue the tragedy, Milutinovic said, and warned that many want to draw Serbia into war. 'Our restraint should not be interpreted as out weakness', he added. We are, above all, working for peace, but we have drawn a line, Yugoslav Foreign Minister said. Milutinovic pointed out that the attack on Banja Luka means there is no desire for peace. He said it could become the 'Staljingrad of the Balkans', and prove that the international community was powerless and partial. In regard to the territorial delimitation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milutinovic pointed to the need that the 51:49 division be carried out in a way that would take into account the complementarity of territory and at the same time urged the demilitarization of all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister assessed that the lifting of sanctions imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would strengthen the peace process, and inevitably lead to early peace.

YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA

DUMA VISIT AIMED AT HELPING RESOLVE BALKAN CRISIS PEACEFULLY

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 24 (Tanjug) - Speaker of the Russian Duma Ivan Rybkin, heading a Duma delegation visiting Yugoslavia, said here on Sunday that the delegation's visit was aimed at helping resolve the Balkan crisis peacefully. Rybkin told reporters on arrival that he would convey to Belgrade basic political positions by ranking Russian officials towards the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. In this connection, he said Russian deputies were informed about the situation in the former Yugoslavia, because two Russian delegations had already visited the region.

YUGOSLAVIA - NIGERIA

YUGOSLAV AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS BILATERAL COOPERATION

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 23 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister of the Environment, Development and Science Janko Radulovic and Nigerian Minister with Special Duties Lazarus Unaogu agreed during talks in Lagos that there were good conditions for upgrading bilateral relations, particularly in the field of science and technology. The two ministers also discussed developments in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the contribution made by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to a peaceful settlement of the conflict, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The statement said that the Yugoslav delegation, on a visit to Lagos on September 17-23, took part in the fifth General Conference of the Academy of Science of third world countries. The delegation held talks with prominent figures from Nigeria and other countries, as well as representatives of international organizations.

YUGOSLAVIA - DEFENCE

PEACE AS GENERAL COMMITMENT OF F.R.Y.

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 24 (Tanjug) - 'Peace is the general commitment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and we have to be still more resolved and energetic in imposing this on the international community, with the assistance of which it is possible to win out a durable and just peace,' Federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic stated on Sunday. In an interview to Radio Kragujevac, Bulatovic assessed that 'the world, too, absolutely needs peace which will guarantee that the Balkans will never be a possible hotbed and epicentre of new war conflicts which will not represent a threat only for the Balkans but also for the entire Europe and even beyond.' 'The current peace initiative is the last chance of achieving a just peace,' Bulatovic said. The security situation in the F.R.Y. is good and stable despite the fact that the war conflicts on its borders have lasted for over three years, Bulatovic assessed. After the demolition of the telecommunications systems, installations and parts of the anti-aircraft defence system in the Republika Srpska, in NATO air strikes, 'the combat capability of the defence systems of the F.R.Y. has not been jeopardized because all these systems in the F.R.Y. and its army are organized as autonomous,' Bulatovic stressed.

WAR IN BOSNIA

KARADZIC ON WAR AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBS

B a nj a L u k a, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said in Banja Luka on Friday that the civil war in Bosnia had turned into an aggression from outside on the Bosnian Serb state. 'This is no longer a civil war, because we are attacked by NATO and the Republic of Croatia, as a separate state,' Karadzic said in talks with a delegation of the Russian Duma headed by Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Vladimir Lukin. Karadzic said his forces in the civil war had maintained the balance 'against a twice stronger enemy,' but that the people were now suffering because of aggression from outside. Karadzic said the Republika Srpska had wanted peace from the very beginning and that this was the reason why it had accepted the peace agreement proposed in Lisbon in March 1992. He said that the war would not have started if the other two sides in Bosnia had wanted the same as the Serbs.

R.S. ASKS RUSSIA TO OPPOSE WAR OPTION

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha Friday asked Russia to oppose energetically the war option pursued by the Muslims and Croatians, otherwise negotiations would become absurd. Buha, on return from Moscow, set out he conferred with Russian President's National Security Advisor Yuri Baturin, First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Gen. Alexander Lebedev. Buha said that during the several-day visit to Russia at the invitation of the State Duma, he asked for support and concrete diplomatic initiative towards achieving an agreement on lasting cessation of hostilities in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Buha said he conveyed the stand of the Republika Srpska leadership that the 'peace package must include also the lifting of sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republika Srpska and the Serb people as a whole.' He set out that those he talked to agreed with him in that NATO forces should not be sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina in place of U.N. peacekeepers as a guarantor of the implementation of a possible peace accord. In the event of a Croatian-Muslim offensive, the Republika Srpska would defend itself and any help would be welcome, even in arms, said Buha and added that the Serb side was committed to doing everything it could not to be blamed for a possible failure in the negotiations. It was also agreed in the talks in Moscow that Russia send more frequent humanitarian aid to the Serbs and that it be sent via Banja Luka Airport, he said.

MUSLIM PREMIER VOWS TO SEIZE BANJA LUKA

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 24 (Tanjug) - The Premier of the Muslim government in Sarajevo, Haris Silajdzic, has threatened that his army would seize Banja Luka, unless it was demilitarized, Reuters said. Silajdzic told journalists in Zagreb on Saturday that, regardless of proposed agreements, a decision on the outcome of the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina would be made in the field and not at the negotiating table.

124 PEOPLE DIE, 500 DISAPPEAR DURING SERB EXODUS

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - In the columns of Serb refugees fleeing central and northwestern Bosnia before the Croat and Muslim offensive over the past two weeks, 124 people have died, 60 have been wounded and about 500 are missing, the Commissariat for Refugees and Humanitarian Aid of the Republika Srpska has said. The old and the ill refugees dropped dead from exhaustion because they had no medical aid. Sixty people were wounded when the Croatian army shelled the columns of refugees on the road linking Sipovo and Jajce, central Bosnia, while about 500 went missing in the region of Srbobran, Petrovac, Drvar, all in central Bosnia. Of the more than 120,000 refugee Serbs, about 50,000 were children younger than three years, while several dozen babies have been born in refugee columns.

SERB ARMY REPELS A NUMBER OF CROAT-MUSLIM ATTACKS

B a nj a L u k a, Sept. 24 (Tanjug) - The Bosnian Serb Army on Sunday repelled fierce Muslim-Croat attacks towards Novi Grad (formerly Bosanski Novi) and Sanski Most, in the west of the Republika Srpska. Serb troops have gained ground in several directions in the fighting that is still underway and have inflicted considerable losses on the Muslim-Croat forces, the Bosnian Serb Army General Staff reported. The Serb forces repulsed Muslim attacks in the area of Kljuc, south of Sanski Most, the statement said adding that defense lines in the front between Mrkonjic Grad and Jajce were stable. On Sunday morning Muslim forces launched strong infantry-artillery attacks in the area of Gradacac, northern Bosnia to which the Bosnian Serb Army strongly responded. One civilian was killed in Brcko in a Croat artillery attack on Sunday and which was followed by infantry attacks on Serb defense lines.

SERBS RETURN TO MRKONJIC GRAD

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 24 (Tanjug) - Inhabitants of Mrkonjic Grad, a town in western Bosnia-Herzegovina, who had escaped under artillery attacks of the Croatian army from the neighbouring republic, have been gradually returning to their homes. Serb defence, despite strong Croatian attacks, have remained firm, the French AFP news agency said on Sunday, after its reporter toured the town for which the Croats asserted as long as one week ago that it was in their hands.

TWO CREW MEMBERS OF BOSNIAN SERB TV DISAPPEAR

B a nj a L u k a, Sept. 23 (Tanjug) - Two crew members of the Serb television of Banja Luka disappeared on the Doboj battlefront on Saturday while performing their duties. The army of the Republika Srpska said on Sunday that the Muslim forces had opened fire on the TV crew. The two crew members who disappeared are: Sasa Kolevski, the cameraman, and driver Goran Pecinovic, who was wounded. They were accompanied by journalist Rade Malesevic, who managed to reach Serb positions. The fate of the two crew members is unknown but they are believed to be alive.

CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS

CROATIAN POLICE PREVENTS REFUGEES FROM RETURNING TO KRAJINA

B e l g r a d e, Sept. 22 (Tanjug) - Croatian police blocked at Croatian-Hungarian border a group of Krajina Serb refugees who wanted to return to their homes on Friday. The office of the Helsinki Human Rights Committee in Zagreb said that the group comprised nine elderly persons who had fled before the Croatian army aggression on the Republic of Serb Krajina. The AFP news agency cited the Committee's statement as saying that the Committee had sent letters to that effect to the Croatian government and the refugee office, but had received no reply. The Committee warned that health of these persons could be endangered if they remained at the border crossing longer.

GREECE - COMMEMORATION

GREECE MARKS BREAKTHROUGH OF SALONIKA FRONT

A t h e n s, Sept. 23 (Tanjug) - Greek on Saturday marked the 77th anniversary of the breakthrough of the Salonika front in World War I by a commemoration at the graveyard of Zeitinlik near Salonika where the allied soldiers who had been killed in the fighting were buried. Delegations of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, of the Yugoslav Army and a Society for cherishing traditions of Serbia's 1912-1918 liberation wars, as well as Serbian World War I veterans and their descendants, laid wreaths on the graves of Serbian, French, English and Italian soldiers. Along with Greek officials, the commemoration was attended also by World War I veterans from Great Britain, France and Italy.

- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --