YDS 10/19

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

19. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S:

MILOSEVIC - DE CHARETTE TALKS IN BELGRADE - MILOSEVIC, DE CHARETTE: RESPECT OF CEASEFIRE IN BOSNIA IS NECESSARY - FRENCH MINISTER: RENEWED FRIENDSHIP - BASIS FOR CLOSER RELATIONS - DE CHARETTE: WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE CLOSER TO PEACE

YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA - YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA SIGN ACCORD ON SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION

THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA - CROATIA - U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL ISSUES ANOTHER WARNING TO CROATIA - TUDJMAN THREATENS AGAIN TO SEIZE SREM-BARANJA AREA

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN KRAJINA - UN: BRUTAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN KRAJINA - CROATIAN ARMY HAS COMMITTED NUMEROUS CRIMES IN KRAJINA

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - UNITED STATES MUST STOP CROATIAN-MUSLIM AGGRESSION, SAYS KARADZIC - SERB REPORTERS KILLED IN MUSLIM CAPTIVITY

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - CROATIAN PAPER: CROATS KILL SEVEN SERB CIVILIANS IN GOSIC VILLAGE

MILOSEVIC - DE CHARETTE TALKS IN BELGRADE

MILOSEVIC, DE CHARETTE: RESPECT OF CEASEFIRE IN BOSNIA IS NECESSAR Y

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said on Wednesday that it is necessary to consistently implement the ceasefire in Bosnia which came into force on Oct.12 one minute after midnight. Milosevic and de Charette said that this is necessary in order to 'define the remaining solutions of the peace agreement, whose signing should mark the transformation of the ceasefire into a stable and guarranteed peace,' the Serbian President's cabinet said in a statement. De Charette said that on this path the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Serbian President personally have provided constant and significant contribution. The statement said that Milosevic and de Charette said that the 'course and results so far of the Geneva and New York meetings, as well as other talks which were conducted, undoubtadly show the positive trend of the peace process, all of which gives optimism regarding its successful and forcoming end which includes the signing of the peace agreement.' The statement said that Milosevic and de Charette stated that the lifting of the U.N. sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should aid both the revival of its economy and have a positive effect on the strengthening of peace and stability in the region and beyond. 'The talks focused on the promotion of bilateral relations, cooperation and links between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and France. Although the sanctions have stopped the dynamic development of this cooperation, the two countries and their peoples in the political, economic and cultural spheres represent a firm basis for the intensification of comprehensive mutual cooperation. In this sense, Yugoslavia and France will continue developing relations on the basis of equality and mutual respect, which has been much supported by visits of Yugoslav and French ministers to Paris and Belgrade,' the statement said. Milosevic accepted with satisfaction President Jacques Chirac's invitation to visit France. The talks were attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic.

FRENCH MINISTER: RENEWED FRIENDSHIP - BASIS FOR CLOSER RELATIONS

B e l g r a d e, Oct 18 (Tanjug) - French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said on Wednesday that one of the two chief aims of his current visit to Belgrade was to lay down a foundation for developing friendly relations between France and Yugoslavia. De Charette was speaking at a press conference after meeting with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic. The other aim of the Belgrade visit is to discuss all questions of importance to establishing peace, de Charette said. He said that agreement had been reached to begin strengthening relations immediately, equally in the political, economic and cultural fields. According to de Charette, France has decided to double its cultural cooperation with Yugoslavia which is clear evidence that France wants to establish very close relations with Yugoslavia in the future. He explained that the two sides would continue to work together for peace, in keeping with the agreed calendar, and was optimistic about further developments, despite the fact that problems were still complex. De Charette said he was basing his optimism on the conviction that there was no alternative to a political settlement for all problems in Bosnia, and that respect for the ceasefire was an essential element. The same is true about a settlement for eastern Slavonia, he added. De Charette said that the question of U.N. sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was directly linked to the peace process and that their lifting should go parallel with the peace process. Asked if the right of the refugees to return to their homes belonged also to the Serbs from Serb Krajina, de Charette said that the law must be the same for all. He said he had mentioned to President Milosevic the matter of release of French airmen shot down over Bosnia, which was of great importance to France, but had nothing new to report. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said that relations between Yugoslavia and france had been greatly intensified. He described the talks with his French opposite number as in-depth discussions of bilateral questions and of the overall peace process that was under way. The talks were important to both sides and, particularly, to the establishment of peace in Bosnia and in the region as a whole, Milutinovic said.

DE CHARETTE: WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE CLOSER TO PEACE

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette Wednesday said at the end of his visit to Belgrade that 'we have never been closer to peace' and that the peace process in Bosnia should unfold 'as fast as possible and justly.' At a press conference at the French Belgrade Embassy, also attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milutinovic, de Charette said he very much wanted for the 'joint work towards peace to be the starting point of a new era' in French-Yugoslav relations. 'France believes, and I think this is the stand of the entire international community, that it is very important for all sides in the conflict to demonstrate the greatest possible restraint as in eastern Slavonia, as well as in Bosnia, there can be no other but a political solution,' he said, speaking of Croatia's amassing of troops toward this sector populated by Serbs. 'We should spare no effort to renew French-Serb friendship. This is how I understand this visit,' said he. He pointed out the possibilities for future cooperation on the political, and particularly of economic plane, and noted that there were many different projects in Yugoslavia in which French enterprises want to join. These ties should be renewed and strenghtened also at the cultural level, thereby renewing also the long tradition of French-Serb friendship, said de Charette. He set out that credits for culural cooperation between the two countries would in 1996 be twice what they were now. Asked about the double standards the international community was applying to the crisis in Bosnia, the bombing of Serbs, and allowing the Muslim-Croatian offensive after a ceasefire agreement had been reached to continue with impunity, de Charette said that 'France would like the international forces in the field to fully apply equal treatment to all sides.'

YUGOSLAVIA - CHINA

YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA SIGN ACCORD ON SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COOPERAT ION

P e k i n g, Oct 18 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister of Science, Development and Environment Protection Janko Radulovic and China's Deputy Minister of the State Commission for Science and Technology, Xu Guanhua signed on Wednesday an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation between their two countries. Radulovic said that it was the first agreement on concrete forms of cooperation between China and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and their scientific and economic organizations signed since the introduction of the U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia. The agreement immediately came into effect.

THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA - CROATIA

U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL ISSUES ANOTHER WARNING TO CROATIA

N e w Y o r k, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - U.N. Security Council Wednesday issued another warning to Zagreb over its systematic human rights violations of Serbs and its renewed threats to attack eastern Slavonia. Current Council President Ibrahim Gambari told newsmen the Council had again discussed Croatia's violent behavior towards the Serbs in Krajina and Croatian threats to the Serbs in sector East (the Srem-Baranja region, as Serbs there officially call it). The discussion was initiated Tuesday by the Russian delegation and the reason behind it was to be found in the reports on Croatia's troops' movements towards the Srem-Baranja region and the threats made by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman that his troops would capture the region. Gambari said he was authorized by the Council and called in Croatian U.N. Ambassador Mario Nobilo and conveyed to him a serious warning. He underlined attention has been drawn to Croatia over systematic and persistent human rights violations of, as he said Serb, minority and demanded on behalf of the Council that this be stopped forthwith. Gambari warned the Croatian authorities to refrain from any action against eastern Slavonia as this could bring into question the peace process which was on good course to end successfully. The Council drew attention to Croatia that it was inviting a climate of insecurity, even panic, among the Serb population in the region with its policy of threats and pressures.

TUDJMAN THREATENS AGAIN TO SEIZE SREM-BARANJA AREA

Z a g r e b, Oct 18 (Tanjug) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman threatened on Wednesday again to seize the Srem-Baranja area (sector East), the only part of the Republic of Serb Krajina which is not under Croatian occupation. During a meeting with visiting Hungarian Premier Gyula Horn, Tudjman said that he wanted the Srem-Baranja area to be peacefully reintegrated to avoid new human losses and a new flight of the civilian population but said that if that was not possible Croatia would be forced to take all necessary steps.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN KRAJINA

UN: BRUTAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN KRAJINA

G e n e v a, Oct 18 (Tanjug) - U.N. representatives announced here Wednesday that Croatia has been ignoring all warnings by the international community and that it went on, after the invasion of its troops at the beginning of August on North and South Krajina, with brutal human rights violations in those territories. The U.N., the statement said, assessed that after the Croatian aggression less than 3,000 Serbs remained in the Krajina sector 'North', which is only 3% of the total Serb population that lived in the region before the Croatian aggression, and that of the 90,000 inhabitants in the sector 'South' only 1,500 Serbs remained. According to U.N. reports, most of them are elderly people, who stayed in the villages, but the Croatian authorities obviously could not tolerate even them. U.N. representatives claim that Croats are systematically practicing the worst kind of terror over the remaining Serbs in those parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina where looting of Serb prperty and torching of Serb houses is rampant. In a show of force, Croatian troops are beating, looting and murdering innocent old people, the statement said and that a typical example of such behaviour was the massacre of nine old people on Sept. 28 in the village of Varivode. That crime was proved, and not even Croats denied it, but nobody has been arrested yet to answer for the crime.

CROATIAN ARMY HAS COMMITTED NUMEROUS CRIMES IN KRAJINA

Lj u b lj a n a, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - In its aggression on the Republic of Serb Krajina in early August the Croatian army committed numerous crimes against Serb civilians and organized the destruction of their property, the Slovenian branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International has said. A delegation of the Slovenian Amnesty International, which recently made a several-day visit to Krajina, issued a report on the situation in this region seriously warning about the Croatian army's crimes, the killing of civilians, massacres, lootings and systematic harrassment of the Serbs. The Slovenian Amnesty International said it had seen examples of executions without court decisions, cases where masses of people had disappeared, various drastic forms of pressure on Serb civilians and the systematic destruction of their homes. The Slovenian Amnesty International determined that Croatian troops were tormenting Serb old people, women and children.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

UNITED STATES MUST STOP CROATIAN-MUSLIM AGGRESSION, SAYS KARADZIC

B a nj a l u k a, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said Wednesday he sincerely hoped the U.S. peace initiative for Bosnia was not 'a farce' and urged Washington to curb the Croatian-Muslim aggression on the Republika Srpska. 'If the United States wants to be trusted, it must stop the aggression of the Bosnian Muslims and Croats and the Republic of Croatia against Republika Srpska, order their troops to withdraw to the positions they held before the aggression and strike against any side that violates the ceasefire,' said Karadzic. Kradzic said that the Republika Srpska would not accept results of the aggression. 'If these territories are not returned to us, a just peace will be impossible, much as we would like to see a just and lasting peace in the Balkans,' said Karadzic. He confirmed reports about involvement of the European Union's Rapid Reaction Force in the latest onslaught on Republika Srpska.

SERB REPORTERS KILLED IN MUSLIM CAPTIVITY

B e l g r a d e, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - Reporters Sasa Kolevski and Goran Pejcinovic of Republika Srpska's Banja Luka TV studio have been killed in Muslim captivity, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA said. The agency said this was confirmed by representatives of the Muslim side at a meeting of commissions for the exchange of prisoners held at Sarajevo airport on Tuesday. Kolevski and Pejcinovic were captured on Sept. 23 on Mt. Ozren in the northeast of Bosnia-Herzegovina during a Muslim offensive. The Muslim authorities had claimed all along that they were alive, but they failed to react to appeals from reporter organizations from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska to free the two reporters.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

CROATIAN PAPER: CROATS KILL SEVEN SERB CIVILIANS IN GOSIC VILLAGE

Z a g r e b, Oct. 18 (Tanjug) - The Croatian weekly Feral Tribune has revealed in its latest edition that a group of Croats in military fatigues had killed seven old Serb civilians - Sava, Marija, Grozdana, Vasilij, Kosa, Dusan i Milan Borak - in the Krajina village of Gosic. A witness told the paper's reporter that he had gone on a brief errand to another village and that he had found the seven people (all of them about 70 years old) killed when he returned half an hour later. 'They were shot in the head... They were lying on their doorsteps, two or three of them together, and the body of one old woman was left on a chair... on my way back, I bypassed a vehicle with a group of people in camouflage uniforms,' said the witness. Another witness (the paper did not disclose the names of the witnesses because their lives are believed to be endangered) said helicopters of the Croatian Interior Ministry had taken the bodies of the massacred civilian to Knin, where they were buried in a mass graves. The crosses of the seven members of the Borak family carry the numbers 543 to 550, the Split paper said, adding that the massacre had left the village completely empty of any residents. In Varivode near Gosic, Croats had earlier brutally killed nine old Serbs, which has been confirmed by U.N. observers. The paper's reporter was present when the body of murdered Dusan Saric (84) was recovered from a well near his house in the village of Kakanj near Varivode on Oct. 13. An old woman in the village of Zrmanja Vrelo told the reporter how her son (50) was killed on Sept. 29. 'I was sitting in the kitchen and my son was sleeping... then four men came and demanded to see our statements of loyalty and citizenship documents. They were breaking things around... one of them put his gun on my son's neck and took him away,' said the woman. The man was killed in the woods nearby with four bullets in the chest, Feral Tribune said.