YDS 10/31

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

31. OCTOBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

ON THE EVE OF THE DAYTON CONFERENCE - HOLBROOKE: BOSNIAN MUSLIMS, CROATS JEOPARDISE PEACE PROCESS - HOLBROOKE SAYS UNITED STATES WILL PRESS ALL SIDES TOWARDS AGREEMENT - IVANOV: BOSNIA TALKS WILL BE VERY COMPLICATED - E.U.: ANTI-YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS DEPEND ON DAYTON BOSNIA TALKS OUTCOME - SACIRBEJ SAYS MUSLIMS PLACE HOPES IN NATO

RUSSIA-BOSNIA - GRACHEV: RUSSIA TO SEND TWO BATTALIONS TO BOSNIA

CROATIA - ELECTIONS - E.U. OBSERVERS BRAND CROATIAN ELECTIONS AS UNDEMOCRATIC - DENMARK'S RULING PARTY CALLS FOR RESTRAINT TOWARDS CROATIA - SIMON WIESENTHAL: JEWS IN CROATIA LIVE IN FEAR

ON THE EVE OF THE DAYTON CONFERENCE

HOLBROOKE: BOSNIAN MUSLIMS, CROATS JEOPARDISE PEACE PROCESS L o n d o n, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - U.S. chief negotiator for former Yugoslavia Richard Holbrooke was quoted on Monday as saying that Muslim-Croat conflicts about their Bosnian Confederation and the problem of eastern Slavonia were threats to the peace process. The Financial Times quotes U.S. Under-Secretary of State Hoolbroke as saying that Croatia's war plans for eastern Slavonia (the Srem-Baranja region) were a threat to peace. Holbrooke was speaking for the London daily ahead of a final round of peace talks between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, due to open in Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 1. The Srem-Baranja region is the only part of the Republic of Serb Krajina that the Croatian Army has not occupied after it overran the rest of the Serb state in May and August of this year. Hoolbroke spoke also about the problem of mercenaries - mujaheddin from Islamic countries - fighting in Bosnia, saying that they would have to leave the area as soon as a peace accord was reached.

HOLBROOKE SAYS UNITED STATES WILL PRESS ALL SIDES TOWARDS AGREEMEN T N e w Y o r k, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke has stated that there is no assurance the Bosnia peace talks will succeed but that the U.S. will press all sides towards agreement. Speaking only 48 hours before talks among Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, his Croatian counterpart Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Moslem leader Alija Izetbegovic in Dayton, Ohio, Holbrooke told a State Department news conference late Monday that the parties faced 'immense practical difficulties' in filling in details of earlier broad accords. Holbrooke said, 'if Dayton and the peace process do not succeed, Bosnia will slip back into war.' He said the talks would also deal with the U.N. Security Council sanctions against Yugoslavia, saying the sanctions would be lifted once a peace treaty went into force and would be suspended once a peace agreement was reached. He also said the talks would be held behind closed doors and reporters would have no access, adding that the only official that would inform the public about the latest developments would be State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns. In agreement with Carl Bildt, E.U. mediator and Co-Chairman of the International Conference on former Yugoslavia, Burns will act as both a European and a U.S. Spokesman, depending on circumstances, he said. Holbrooke said members of the delegations to the talks had agreed not to contact reporters. Hoever, if they nevertheless do so, it will completely disrupt the peace talks, he said. He said it was hard to say when the peace talks would end.

IVANOV: BOSNIA TALKS WILL BE VERY COMPLICATED B e l g r a d e, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday evening that the talks on Bosnia would be very complicated but stated the hope that they would enable taking the first serious step towards creating a solid basis for a solution to the conflict in this former Yugoslav republic. Ivanov travels Tuesday to the air force base Wright-Patterson at Dayton, Ohio, the site of the talks between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. He pointed out on state 'Ort' TV, as reported by AFP, that there was no other solution apart from peaceful solution. He noted that in this war everyone was a loser - the Serbs, Croatians, Muslims and Europe and added that everyone must jointly seek for a solution for such a situation. He said the future of Aurope would to a greater degree depend on how successful the situation in the Balkans would be dealt with.

E.U.: ANTI-YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS DEPEND ON DAYTON BOSNIA TALKS OUTCOM E L u x e m b o u r g, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - The lifting of the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will depend on the success of talks on Bosnia in Dayton, Ohio, E.U. Envoy to former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt and Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana said on Monday. Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the E.U. Council of Ministers, Bildt and meeting Chairman Solana said that the sooner a peace accord was signed, the sooner the sanctions against Yugoslavia would be lifted. Bildt said that much had been done in talks to date, but that much also remained to be done at Dayton, in order that a peace accord should eventually be signed, probably in Paris. In Bildt's view, the negotiators will have their most difficult job in formulating constitutional solutions for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bildt and Solana both see the situation in eastern Slavonia (the Srem-Baranja region) as a possible stumbling block in the further peace process, in view of Zagreb's threat to seize by force this part of the Serb state in Croatia.

SACIRBEJ SAYS MUSLIMS PLACE HOPES IN NATO N e w Y o r k, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - Foreign Minister in Bosnia's Sarajevo Muslim Government Muhamed Sacirbej told a press conference at the U.N. Monday that his Government was placing highest hopes in NATO, but not only as regards preserving future peace in Bosnia but also as regards preserving a 'unified' Bosnia. Sacirbej said it would not be enough to send NATO troops to Bosnia, but that Bosnia-Herzegovina would have to be included in the Alliance's structure. Elaborating further on this thesis on which Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic also insisted over the past few days in New York, Sacirbej stressed that the Muslim delegation would at the talks in Ohio persevere to the end on, as he said, the preservation of a single Bosnia. He said the Muslims accepted within a single Bosnia two entities (Serb and Muslim-Croat) to be established, but without their right to sovereignty and independence. Asked whether this single Bosnia faced danger from Croatia, as Croatian President Tudjman frequently set out that a common Bosnian state was an 'artificial creation' and as such untenable, Sacirbej said his Government hoped the Croatian President would not come to Ohio with such stands and that Croatia would come to understand that a single Bosnia was of strategic significance for it. He also set out that his delegation for Ohio accepted the peaceplan of the Contact Group for Bosnia, that it was ready to negotiate there about a peace solution, but that peace in Bosnia continued in the hands of the U.S. and the E.U.

RUSSIA-BOSNIA

GRACHEV: RUSSIA TO SEND TWO BATTALIONS TO BOSNIA A t h e n s, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said Monday his country would sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina two battalions to separate the warring sides in this former Yugoslav republic. He told a press conference in Athens that the battalions would be added to the two battalions Russia already has in Bosnia under U.N. command. Grachev was speaking to reporters about details of his accord with U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry. Addressing newsmen after his talks with his Greek counter-part Gerasimos Arsenis, Grachev specified that an accord with the U.S. has not been reached as yet on the manner of command of these forces which are to monitor peace in this former Yugoslav republic. Russia has no wish to place its troops under NATO command, Grachev set out, and stated the hope that the solution to this problem would be found during the coming meeting between military representatives of Russia and the U.S. set for Novemebr, most likely in Brussels. Grachev also said Russia would take part with one brigade and the U.S. with one or two brigades in a special unit that would be in charge with creating the conditions for normal life in Bosnia. He added that troops from other countries would also join this unit. He noted that the unit would be entrusted with the task of creating the conditions for the establishment of normal air traffic, distribution of humanitarian aid, securing the conditions for the return of refugees and the reconstruction of electrical power facilities and other infrastructure installations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Asked whether Greek troops would also be included in the peace-keeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Arsenis said this depended primarily on whether the conditions Athens has put forth would be met. These conditions are: a peace agreement to be signed first, multi-national force to have a U.N Security Council mandate and the operation to be joined by other, non-NATO, countries. The Greek Defense Minister set out his country also believes it could only join the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina if all sides in the conflict agreed to their arrival.

CROATIA - ELECTIONS

E.U. OBSERVERS BRAND CROATIAN ELECTIONS AS UNDEMOCRATIC B o n n, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - A Swedish official who monitored Sunday's parliamentary elections in Croatia on behalf of the E.U. described them on Monday as undemocratic and asked the West to register a sharp protest in this connection. German media quote the official, Deputy Foreign Minister Pierre Schori, as saying for Swedish Radio that the elections had been strongly reminiscent of the bad elections in Latin America where thewar apparatus and propaganda were abused. Freimut Duwe, Deputy of the Social Democratic Party in the German Parliament, told German Television's Channel One from Zagreb that the elections had been farcical, and invited Western Governments to stop and think where Croatia was heading. Duwe accused the Croatian Government of roping in the press in the service of the elections. He asked the Bonn Government to be careful in its dealings with Croatia, not least because of the Zagreb regime's human rights abuses. The few remaining Serbs in Croatia have been at the receiving end of more harassment on the hands of Croatian authorities. Five hundred Serbs have complained to the Serbian National Party of being listed as Croats in voters' registers, which made it impossible for them to vote on a separate ballot for the Serb candidates. The Goettingen-based German Society for Endangered Peoples believes that Tudjman's victory in the elections is disastrous to the peaceful coexistence of various nationalities. The Society accuses Tudjman of trying to create a Serb-free Croatia by persecuting the Serbs and systematically destroying the property of the Serb refugees, making it impossible for them to return.

DENMARK'S RULING PARTY CALLS FOR RESTRAINT TOWARDS CROATIA B e l g r a d e, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Denmark's ruling Social Democratic Party has urged the Government and the E.U. to show utmost restraint in support for Croatia following parliamentary elections in that country on Sunday. Party Spokesman Ove Fisch told AFP that he was critical of the elections which, according to international observers, were full of irregularities. Fisch said that, before Europe granted any assistance to Croatia, Zagreb must offer guarantees for protection of national minorities. Fisch called on his Government to show restraint towards the Croatian Government also because of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's war threats. The Croatian Government must manifest real commitment to peace, in particular in eastern Slavonia (U.N. Sector East), Fisch said. He described as 'impermissible' Tudjman's threat to seize the Serb-populated region by force.

SIMON WIESENTHAL: JEWS IN CROATIA LIVE IN FEAR V i e n n a, Oct. 30 (Tanjug) - Nazi crimes investigator Simon Wiesenthal said on Monday that the about 1,200 Jews in Croatia were living in fear because of the rehabilitation of the ideology of ustashas (World War II Croatian nazis). Prompted by the victory of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Sunday's parliamentary elections, Wiesenthal, who heads the Jewish archives in Vienna, said he was concerned for Croatia's future. Wiesenthal said that the rightist nationalist HDZ was again leading the chant of the slogans chanted in the day of the nazi-sponsored Independent State of Croatia, and the ustasha ideas were being spread again. The streets and squares that had been named in memory of victims of nazism are being renamed after some Croatian kings nobody has heard about, he said.