YDS 11/30

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

30 NOVEMBER 1995 YDS-1028

C O N T E N T S :

YUGOSLAVIA - GREECE - FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN ATHENS

UN - YUGOSLAVIA - YUGOSLAVIA EXCLUDED FROM GENEVA ANTI-TORTURE CONFERENCE

ELISABETH REHN'S VISIT TO YUGOSLAVIA - SERBIAN-ALBANIAN DIALOGUE IS A PRIORITY

THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - SARAJEVO SERBS WANT TO REMAIN IN BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC - SERBS REPORT MORE CROAT ATTACKS IN POSAVINA REGION

CROATIA - SERBS - ZAGREB REGIME CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE SERBS

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - WORLD MISSED ITS CHANCE TO SHORTEN BOSNIA WAR - FORMER U.N. COMMANDER

FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN ATHENS Athens, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav and Greek Foreign Ministers Milan Milutinovic and Karolos Papoulias talked in Athens on Wednesday about a series of issues of interest for relations between the two countries. The Milutinovic-Papoulias talks centered on the Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina and steps for its speedy implementation which gives room to stability, peace and economic prosperity of the entire region. Papoulias stressed Yugoslavia's considerable contribution to the peace process and to ending the crisis in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and promotion of the overall relations in the region. The two sides emphasized the importance of the Security Council decision on the suspension of Yugoslav sanctions. It was assessed that this way conditions were met for Yugoslavia's early return to all international organisations and for further promotion and strengthening of relations between the two countries. One of the concrete measures of promotion of bilateral relations will be an agreement on continued use of the Salonike port by the Yugoslav partners which the two countries will discuss in December in Athens.

UN - YUGOSLAVIA

YUGOSLAVIA EXCLUDED FROM GENEVA ANTI-TORTURE CONFERENCE Geneva, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Pavicevic said in Geneva on Wednesday that the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the current conference against torture ran contrary to the peace process in former Yugoslavia. Participants in the 5th conference of states - signatories to the Convention against torture and other inhuman practices, which is under way at U.N. Geneva headquarters, supported on Wednesday the islamic states' initiative to exclude Yugoslavia from the conference. The motion was carried with 47 ayes, two nays (Yugoslavia and Russia) and 45 abstentions. Pavicevic said that, on April 27, 1992, Yugoslavia had clearly opted for keeping its seats in all international organisations, that it remained signatory to agreements and conventions and considered itself as the successor-state to former Yugoslavia. This has been confirmed by the U.N. international legal service. The only one that can decide whether or not yugoslavia can take part in the conference are the depositors, in this case U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who invited Yugoslavia to attend the Geneva conference, Pavicevic said. The Russian Ambassador, too, said that the initiative and vote had violated the rules of conduct of the Convention, and this position was upheld by the Spanish representative who spoke also in his capacity as President of the European Union. Pavicevic submitted to the participants the Belgrade Government's memorandum presenting clear arguments why Yugoslavia cannot be denied the right to participate in the conference of the convention signatory states. The memorandum was circulated as an official document at Geneva's Palais des Nations on Wednesday.

ELISABETH REHN'S VISIT TO YUGOSLAVIA

SERBIAN-ALBANIAN DIALOGUE IS A PRIORITY Belgrade, Nov. 28 (Tanjug) - Special U.N. Human Rights Rapporteur Elisabeth Rehn said on Tuesday that the only way to deal with problems in Serbia's province of Kosovo-Metohija was through dialogue between the Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides. Speaking to reporters in Belgrade after her Monday's visit to the province, Rehn said she did not have the true picture of the rights and wrongs in the province, but felt certain that no one side could ever be entirely to blame for misunderstandings and problems. During her visit to the province, Rehn met with government and opposition representatives, toured some reception centres for Serb Krajina refugees and the Mother Theresa hospital that treats only ethnic Albanian patients. The problem is that the Yugoslav Government provides health protection and education, which most ethnic Albanians distrust, and therefore both sides must open dialogue and keep it up until a compromise is found, Rehn said. Rehn said she had received documents in Kosovo-Metohija purporting to show human rights abuses, but said that she would need well-documented cases for her next report, due in March. She repeated she was very well satisfied with cooperation she had received from both Yugoslav authorities and non-governmental organisations.

THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

SARAJEVO SERBS WANT TO REMAIN IN BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC Ilidza, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - Over 35,000 residents of the Serb part of Sarajevo on Wednesday demanded from the international community to keep Serb Sarajevo and its population of 130,000 a part of the Republika Srpska. Serbs rallied in Ilidza, a Serb part of Sarajevo, to protest against the fact that Serb Sarajevo is to be included in the Muslim-Croat federation under the Dayton agreement for Bosnia. The rally in Ilidza was addressed by local Serb political, military and cultural officials.

SERBS REPORT MORE CROAT ATTACKS IN POSAVINA Banja Luka, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - The Republika Srpska Army Command said late on Wednesday that Croat forces had continued during the day to attack Bosnian Serb defence positions and targets deep inside its territory in the north Bosnian Posavina region along the Sava river. Bosnian Serb Army sources also reported that enemy forces were continuing to torch Serb homes on the slopes of mt Manjaca, south of the Republika Srpska's biggest city of Banja Luka. The command said that enemy forces had for the past fortnight been torching Serb villages in the areas of Banja Luka, Mrkonjic Grad, Kljuc and Sipovo, territory belonging to the Republika Srpska under the Nov. 21 accord struck at Dayton.

CROATIA - SERBS

ZAGREB REGIME CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE SERBS Zagreb, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - The Military Tribunal in Karlovac, Croatia, sentenced on Wednesday 13 Serbs to between two and five years in prison for armed rebellion. Another military court, this time in Gospic, Croatia, has acquitted only two of 15 Serbs tried on similar charges, Croatian radio said on Wednesday. After the main hearing on Monday morning, this trial, too, ended at the usual lightning speed. Prior to the opening of peace talks at Dayton, and since the reaching of the peace accord, Croatia has stepped up summary trials of Serbs jailed for alleged armed rebellion.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

WORLD MISSED ITS CHANCE TO SHORTEN BOSNIA WAR Moscow, Nov. 29 (Tanjug) - The world missed its chance to end the Bosnian war when the warring parties had found a peace settlement in 1993, a U.N. Commander is quoted on Wednesday as saying. Swedish General Lars-Eric Wahlgren, who commanded the U.N. Protection Force in former Yugoslavia, said for the Moscow Nezavisimaya Gazetta that the international community had then failed to recommend giving economic assistance to the three warring parties. The peace deal therefore fell through, Wahlgren said and added that, if this had not been so, events would have taken a different course. He said that the international community had made a mistake when it recognised Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state at a time when war had already broken out. It was also a mistake to designate 'safe havens' in Bosnia and then give the Muslim army free access to them, Wahlgren said. Wahlgren said that another mistake of the international community that prolonged the war had been its unequal treatment of the warring parties - Muslims, Serbs and Croats - and too many negotiating parties in the past years. Responding to the interviewer's remark, Wahlgren said it was quite natural that the United States, by openly supporting the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia, had acted as an ally of Iran and radical islamic groups. He said that there were many in the United States who were less worried by the problem of restoring peace in the Balkans than by the situation in the Persian Gulf, because they were loath to lose positions in the countries in the region. What is involved there is a lot of money and Arab oil, he explained.