YDS 10/3

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

03. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC FOR NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS BETWEEN BELGRADE AND SKOPJE - FYROM PRESIDENT FOR NORMALIZATION OF YUGOSLAVIA-FYROM RELATIONS - YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS COMING CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON MAPS - YUGOSLAV RED CROSS CALLS FOR URGENT FOREIGN AID FOR KRAJINA REFUGEES

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - RUSSIAN DELEGATION ENDS VISIT TO RS - HOLBROOKE: TALKS ON CEASEFIRE ARE NOT OVER

FILE CROATIA - CROATIAN SOLDIERS KILL 12 SERB CIVILIANS IN KRAJINA - U.N. HAS EVIDENCE ON CROATIA'S MASSACRE OF SERB CIVILIANS - U.N. CONFIRMS THAT CROATS CONTINUE TO USE VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS - E.U. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SAYS KRAJINA CLEANSED OF SERBS - LE FIGARO: SERBS ARE ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN CROATIA - SPANISH DAILY UNCOVERS CROATIAN ATTROCITIES AGAINST SERBS - CROATIA PUTS SERBS ON MOCK TRIALS

THE SREM-BARANJA REGION - SERB-CROATIAN TALKS TO OPEN IN ERDUT ON TUESDAY

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - BRITISH MEDIA SAYS MUSLIMS MAIN OBSTACLE TO BOSNIA CEASEFIRE

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC FOR NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS BETWEEN BELGRADE AND SKOP JE B e l g r a d e, Oct 2 (Tanjug) - President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic called, in his meeting with President of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Kiro Gligorov in Belgrade on Monday, for the full normalization of relations between Belgrade and Skopje. This is the first meeting between Milosevic and Gligorov since the secession of this former Yugoslav republic from the S.F.R.Y. in the winter of 1991. Macedonia is the only one of the former Yugoslav republics which had broken away from the then six-member Federation in a peaceful way. Milosevic, as was announced, stressed that the recently achieved accord between Athens and Skopje was undoubtedly contributing to a positive development of the political situation in the region. Within such a positive development of the political situation in the region, it is necessary that at the soonest time possible the full normalization of relations should be materialized along the line Belgrade-Skopje and Skopje-Athens, which is a significant factor of stability of political conditions in the Balkans and example of implementing good-neighbourly relations and overall mutual cooperation that simultaneously makes up a component part not only of the regional but also of the European integration processes, said Milosevic. The talk between Milosevic and Gligorov encompassed the current questions of the political situation in the region and the questions of concern for the future development of mutual relations and cooperation, it is said in the announcement.

FYROM PRESIDENT FOR NORMALIZATION OF YUGOSLAVIA-FYROM RELATIONS S k o p l j e, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - President of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov said during talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade Monday it was jointly noted that full normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and FYROM was in the interest of stability in southern Balkans, especially after the signing of the Greek-FYROM accord. On return to Skoplje, following the first visit to Belgrade since Macedonia seceeded from the former Yugoslavia four years ago, Gligorov stated the hope that Yugoslavia and FYROM would establish diplomatic ties and normalize relations. Gligorov expressed his country's readiness to develop good-neighborly relations and contribute to peace and stability in the Balkans. In the talks with Milosevic, said Gligorov, 'we jointly noted that, after U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia were lifted, conditions would be created for developing normal economic relations and cooperation between the two countries and beyond in the region, thereby significantly improving the present economic cooperation of all Balkan states.' Gligorov reiterated support to the U.S. peace initiative for Bosnia and stated the 'conviction that orientation towards associating of the Balkan countries with the European groupings was the best alternative for the future and stability in the Balkans.'

YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS COMING CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON MAPS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic has told Radio Kragujevac that the meeting in New York is 'another step in the strengthening of the overall equality of Republika Srpska with the Muslim-Croat Federation,' which he said was an 'important step towards peace,' the Belgrade daily Politika Ekspres said on Monday. Milutinovic underscored that an agreement on a complete cessation of hostilities and establishment of lasting peace was to take place in a comparatively short time as well as an agreement about the map, which, he said, the conference would focus on. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister agreed with assessments that the signing of peace documents and restoration of peace should take place by the end of the year at the latest and said he believed this would happen much earlier.

YUGOSLAV RED CROSS CALLS FOR URGENT FOREIGN AID FOR KRAJINA REFUGE ES B e l g r a d e, Oct 2 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Red Cross appealed on Monday to foreign relief agencies in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to provide urgent medical and financial help for the about 200,000 refugees from Serb Krajina in Yugoslavia before winter comes. The refugees are mostly women, children and old people, Red Cross President Radovan Mijanovic said in the appeal to representatives of international humanitarian organisations operating in Yugoslavia. Mijanovic added that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had received all displaced persons, drawing on all its resources, but that these had unfortunately proven insufficient. Half a million refugees in yugoslavia were joined in august by 200,000 others displaced by Croatia's aggression on the Republic of Serb Krajina, who had to leave everything behind and run for dear life, he said.

FORMER BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

RUSSIAN DELEGATION ENDS VISIT TO RS B a n j a l u k a, Oct 2 (Tanjug) - A delegation of the Russian Federation Defence Ministry ended on Monday its three-day visit to the Republika Srpska where it became familiarized with defence preparations to avert an aggression by the Republic of Croatia's regular army and an offensive by Bosnian Croats against the Serb areas. An announcement by the Main Staff of the R.S. Army (V.R.S.) said that the Russian delegation, headed by Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the armed forces Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Zhurbenko, had seen for itself the destructive impact left by NATO air force on civilian and militry facilities. Having met with Commander of the V.R.S. Main Staff Gen. Ratko Mladic, Gen. Zhurbenko stated that the delegation had screened the situation in order to draw up its report to political and military leaders of Russia. 'We are ready to study this area, not only the territory of the R.S. and the F.R. Yugoslavia, but also that of the Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, when we are invited there. Here we have had the possibility of meeting with military and political leaderships and touring many places so as to see for ourselves, in the field, the effects of this war,' Zhurbenko said. Gen. Mladic, in thanking Gen. Zhurbenko for the visit, said 'Russian Generals have seen how deep our wounds are and against what force we have been fighting for the fifth year for our people to be able to stay in their ancestral homes.'

HOLBROOKE: TALKS ON CEASEFIRE ARE NOT OVER B e l g r a d e, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - U.S. peace Envoy Richard Holbrooke said in Sarajevo on Monday after talks with the Bosnian Muslim leadership that talks on a ceasefire in Bosnia had been fruitful and useful, but were not over. 'On a ceasefire the talks are in conclusive,' Holbrooke said, and added that disagreements between the two sides were still considerable on the type and nature of the ceasefire and the relevant details, agencies reported from Sarajevo. The continuation of the conflict in Bosnia is not fatal to the peace process, but it would be much better if a ceasefire was reached, Holbrooke said.

FILE CROATIA

CROATIAN SOLDIERS KILL 12 SERB CIVILIANS IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - Croatian soldiers have committed another crime by killing 12 Serb elderly in a Krajina village captured in Croatia's August aggression. The AP news agency quoted representatives of the Croatian Helsinki Watch Committee as saying Sunday that the latest crime had been committed in the village of Varivode southwest of Knin against people aged between 60 and 85. Ivan Zvonimir Cicak of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, who toured the completely devastated village of Varivode with a group of activists, was quoted as saying that the Committee had reliable information based on eyewitness accounts. Cicak said that among those identified were the bodies of Jovan Beric, 75, and his wife Milka Beric, 71, and of another six Berics. He said that among the elderly people who had been killed were also married couples Djukic and Pokrajac. Cicak said on arrival to the village that his group had found traces of blood and tissue. He added that the group had information that the bodies had been taken away and secretly buried. Commenting on Cicak's reports on the Varivode crime, U.N. Spokesman Alun Roberts said that U.N. representatives also had information about this and were trying to verify them.

U.N. HAS EVIDENCE ON CROATIA'S MASSACRE OF SERB CIVILIANS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - U.N. was in possession of evidence that something terrible happened to the Serb civilians in the village of Varivode near the town of Kistanja (Sector South of the Republic of Serb Krajina), said U.N. Spokesman in Zagreb Chris Gunness Monday. U.N. observers found evidence about a possible mass killing, said Gunness and added that before the investigation was completed he could say nothing further on the massacre. The crime was confirmed by the Croatian authorities, Reuters reported and set out that with this confession the Croatian Government has for the first time formally acknowledged there have been mass killings in Serb Krajina.

U.N. CONFIRMS THAT CROATS CONTINUE TO USE VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS B e l g r a d e, Oct 2 (Tanjug) - Uniformed persons continue to terrorise Serbs remaining in the Serb Krajina region after Croatia's offensive of Aug. 4, despite Zagreb's assurances that the Serbs'human rights would be respected, a U.N. Spokesman said on Monday. 'Looting has entered a new and very disturbing phase,' U.N. Spokesman in zagreb Chris Gunness said, and added that plundering of houses with Serbs living in them was accompanied with violence, and that empty houses were still being looted, too. Gunness said that U.N. civilian police had registered at least ten cases of robbery with violence in the past week, despite assurances from Croatian authorities that several hundred persons accused of looting had been arrested. According to figures quoted by Gunness, between 3,500 and 4,200 civilians, too poor or too old to run away, have remained in the region which had a 185,000-strong Serb community before the Croatian Army stormed it in the summer.

E.U. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SAYS KRAJINA CLEANSED OF SERBS B r u s s e l s, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - Croatia has expelled nearly all Serbs from Krajina, an E.U. Human Rights Commission, set up immediately after Croatia's early August aggression on Krajina's southern and northern parts, has stated. According to a report by the Commission, of 200,000 Serbs who lived in U.N. Sectors South and North in Serb Krajina before the aggression, only about 5,000 Serbs live there now. The report has not been officially released at the E.U. Headquarters but well-informed sources say it could be on the agenda of a meeting of the E.U. Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. The report lists murders, plunder and torching of Serb property in Krajina, the sources say. According to the Commission, a number of Serb villages have been burnt to the ground. Observers in Brussels say that the report, which provides strong evidence of the Zagreb policy of ethnic cleansing, could significantly slow down the process of Croatia's integration into Europe. Moreover, it could weaken Zagreb positions in allotting funds within a recovery of war-destroyed economies of the states that have been formed after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, observers say.

LE FIGARO: SERBS ARE ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN CROATIA P a r i s, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - The Paris Daily Le Figaro said Monday Serbs in Croatia lived like an 'enslaved people, while Croatian robbers are sawing terror throughout the (Krajina) region, occasionally setting fire to Serb houses.' 'Tens of trucks are arriving daily from Dalmatia and Zagreb to the Plavno valley to collect refrigerators, washing machines and television sets looted from abandoned Serb homes,' said the correspondent of the french daily in a report from the Krajina center of Knin. The paper wrote with derision about Croatia's 'liberation' of Krajina, saying that the remaining Serbs in the region were forbidden even to leave an area of 100 meters around their homes. 'Senior Croatian leaders admit that hundreds of the remaining Serbs were brutally murdered in the region in mid-August. But they are still trying to minimize this with a comment: 'So what. People want the revenge and that is not quite abnormal.' The paper said Croatian nationalism had got out of control in Krajina and was devastating the area, while officials in Zagreb tried to minimize the brutal behaviour of their troops. The paper's correspondent said many Croatian families now had as many as five television sets and four washing machines in their homes, and concluded that what was happening in Krajina could be described as 'systematic looting, terror and devastation of everything that is associated with Serbs.'

SPANISH DAILY UNCOVERS CROATIAN ATTROCITIES AGAINST SERBS M a d r i d, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - E.U. observers have confirmed that Croatian armed forces 'brutally bombed lines of Serb refugees' from Krajina in a 'campaign of crimes' which embitters diplomatic circles in Europe, the Spanish daily El Mundo said Monday. 'Several lines of Serb refugees who had been trying to leave Knin fleeing from the Croatian offensive were shelled at the city's outskirts, while the few Serbs that remained were brutally murdered with a bullet in the back of the head,' El Mundo said quoting a report by U.N. observers. A report by the E.U. monitoring mission, which El Mundo took over from The Guardian of London, said that 'six Serbs are liquidated daily in Krajina' and that 'investigators discovered couples and old people killed with a bullet in the back of the head at a Knin cemetary.' 'Whenever they would meet Serb men in uniform in the company of women, Croatian troops would kill them all,' said the report, which also said that 'Serb houses were torched and Serb property looted.' El Mundo said British experts to the U.N. in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina had announced they had 'not found a single piece of evidence which would blame Serbs for firing the shell which killed 40 civilians in Sarajevo's Markale market on Aug. 28, which was a pretext for NATO's bombing of Bosnian Serb positions.' The Spanish daily pointed out that Commander of the Russian peacekeepers in Sarajevo Andrei Demurenko had said at the time that 'U.N. members forged the results of the investigation so as to do damage to Serbs.'

CROATIA PUTS SERBS ON MOCK TRIALS B e l g r a d e, Oct 2 (Tanjug) - Croatian authorities are putting Serbs on mock trials for criminal offences, the Belgrade daily Politika Ekspres said on Monday and added that the indictments had no evidentiary value and that witnesses were not even mentioned. The paper said that a court in the Adriatic town of Zadar hadinitiated an investigation (September 11) against 57 Serbs, including those who had found shelter in the U.N. base in Knin during Croatia's aggression on Krajina in early August. Milan Dupor, a lawyer from Belgrade, said in an interview with the daily that Croatian Prosecutors had not provided details to corroborate their 'discoveries' - dates, description of the criminal action, the places where the alleged crimes were committed and the names of the alleged victims. It is inadmissible, from the professional point of view, not only to fail to give the names of witnesses but to say that the (possible) witnesses may not even appear before the court. Dupor quoted excerpts from the indictments against four Krajina Serbs - Zeljko Balic, 37, from Vrpolj, Petar Bjelobrk, 57, Boza Cosic, 45, and Ilija Jojic, 55, from Knin, and said that they had been indicted for war crimes and might face a 20-year prison sentence. Legal action has also been brought against another 53 Serbs, including women accused of bombing attacks and rape, Politika Ekspres said. Dupor dismissed the possibility of Yugoslav lawyers representing the Serbs. The accused will probably have officially appointed lawyers and one can easily conclude who will decide on the fate of the 'rebel' Serbs, Dupor said.

THE SREM-BARANJA REGION

SERB-CROATIAN TALKS TO OPEN IN ERDUT ON TUESDAY E r d u t, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - Direct Serb-Croatian negotiations on the territory which comprises Sector East will open in Erdut on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbright said here on Monday. Following talks with a delegation of the Srem-Baranja region, headed by Assistant Defence Minister of the Republic of Serb Krajina (R.S.K.) Milan Milanovic, Galbright said the meeting would be held at the U.N. Command in Erdut and that the Croatian delegation would be headed by Hrvoje Sarinic. Galbright said he conferred with the Serb side about principles which a draft peace solution should contain, and added that, as had been agreed, he could not present any further details. Galbright pointed out that coordinating the principles and a final settlement needed flexibility of both sides. He explained that this Serb-Croatian dialogue was part of the overall U.N. peace initiative which in earlier weeks in Bosnia had led to considerable break throughs. He believed that the American initiative here would achieve an equal, if not greater progress. The question of eastern Slavonija must be resolved simultaneously as that of Bosnia, if not sooner, Galbright set out. He said little time had been left for that, as Croatia announced that it would not extend the U.N. mandate after November 30 and said it reserved the right to all options for resolving the problem after that date expired. Commenting on the destruction and looting of Serb property in the western part of the R.S.K. Galbright reiterated that the U.S. Government had told the Croatian Government that it condemned such actions. Galbright said the U.S. expected the Croatian Government to take certain measures for solving this problem and would follow the developments, he added.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

BRITISH MEDIA SAYS MUSLIMS MAIN OBSTACLE TO BOSNIA CEASEFIRE L o n d o n, Oct. 2 (Tanjug) - British media said Monday that Muslims remained the main obstacle to ceasefire in Bosnia following the New York agreement on Bosnia and the resumption of U.S. Chief Negotiator Richard Holbrooke's tour. A BBC commentator said Bosnian Muslim authorities in Sarajevo were suspicious of any ceasefire before an oveall peace deal. The commentator said Sarajevo authorities made the reaching of the ceasefire conditional on a long list of their demands. The commentator said Bosnian Serbs were also an obstacle to the entire peace agreement because they had requests concerning a division of Sarajevo, expansion of the corridor and as to Gorazde. The London paper The Daily Telegraph said that the change of military balance in western Bosnia had created a situation in which the Bosnian Muslim Government was now disinclined for the peace settlement. The daily said the Sarajevo Government hoped that, although their offensive had been halted on the battlefield, Muslims would still gain more at the conference table. London daily Independent, in a report by its Belgrade correspondent, deals with the future of a divided Bosnia, saying that a special problem will be a deep mistrust within the Muslim-Croat Federation. The daily said that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had said in public that the Federation with the Muslims had been accepted out of strategic reasons alone. It said Bosnian Croats, who were already using the Croatian currency and have their own army, solely aimed at the linking with Zagreb.