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Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-08-13Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Yugoslav Daily SurveyCONTENTS
[01] ICRC ASKED TO HELP FIND ABDUCTED PERSONSTanjug, 1998-08-12The Serbian Red Cross on Wednesday again asked the International Committ ee of the Red Cross (ICRC, 1998) to do everything in its power to discove r what happened to the 118 Serbs and citizens of other nationalities from Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet, 1998) Province who have been abduc ted by ethnic Albanian terrorists, the Provincial Red Cross in Pristina s aid. The ICRC was also asked to do its utmost, through its humanitarian missi on, toward the release of these citizens. In spite of all the efforts so far by the local authorities, humanitaria n organizations in Kosmet, and relatives, nothing is known of the fate of these people, and many of them have been missing for over two months. [02] U.N. ISSUES SLOVENIA-FLAVOURED STATEMENT ON KOSOVO-METOHIJATanjug, 1998-08-12Tuesday night's press statement issued by the President of the U.N. Secu rity Council is a continuation of the efforts to internationalise the pro blem of Kosovo-Metohija, although it is a purely internal affair of Yugo slavia and of its republic of Serbia, in which the Council has no say. Th e Council's statement, read out by the Presidnet for August, Slovenian di plomat Danilo Turk, is a reaction of the lowest order on the part of the Council and is not binding. The document teems with formulations which do not at all help present an objective and true picture of the present situation in Serbia's Kosovo-M etohija Province, and generally dramatises the situation in an effort to obscure and deny the responsibility of the ethnic Albanian leaders for th e interrupted dialogue with the Government in Belgrade. The document is an obvious attempt to protect and shield separatism and terrorism, and to lift the burden of responsibliity from the shoulders of the Government in Tirana for massive infiltrations of terrorists and wea pons from Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Judging from the series of false claims made in the document he signed, the Slovene Turk, who was obviously one of the chief authors of the state ment, was again trying to satisfy his masters in Ljubljana and their fore ign mentors, who have a vested interest in the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija being further exacerbated and not being settled by peaceful means, throug h dialogue. How else can one understand the part of the statement which alleges, wit hout any basis in fact, Serbian security forces' offensive and threat to the civilian population of Kosovo-Metohija. Turk and his helpers in drawing up the statement ignore, certainly not i nadvertently, that the police in Kosovo-Metohija is there to keep law and order and is forced to respond to terrorist attacks and to provocations by extremists from among the ranks of ethnic Albanians. The Slovenian representative to the United Nations certainly knows, sinc e it is common knowledge and the facts have been published, that ethnic A lbanian terrorists in Kosovo-Metohija have in the past seven months carri ed out 447 attacks on civilians and abducted more than 170 civilians of a ll nationalities. The Council President, Slovenian diplomat Turk, tacitly passed over thes e compelling facts, as well as the fact that ethnic Albanian terrorists i n Kosovo-Metohija have in the seven months murdered 66 civilians, one-hal f of them their fellow ethnic Albanians, and carried out other grave ter rorist operations * set off car bombs, dynamited strategic facilities, su ch as buildings of the Power Company, the Water Company, the Post Office, roads, etc. Instead of truly explaining the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, Turk calls for an immediate ceasefire and opening of talks. In this way, he deliber ately ignores the fact that the state delegation has been constantly insi sting on resuming unconditional and direct dialogue, and that ethnic Alba nian political leaders in Kosovo-Metohija have been refusing under variou s pretexts. Turk makes a completely spurious allegation about police brutality and v iolation of human rights and the humanitarian law in Kosovo-Metohija. The world public knows full well that our state and its bodies are makin g a clear differentiation between bandits and terrorists on the one hand, and ethnic Albanian citizens on the other. Examples of the return of mor e than ten thousand displaced ethnic Albanian civilians to Orahovac, and of thousands of others to Glogovac, Suva Reka and other localities, clear ly show that, after being forced away by ethnic Albanian terrorists and s eparatists, they are now returning to their places of residence under the protection and with the guarantees of the state bodies. This easily veri fiable fact has apparently gone unremarked only by the Slovene Turk. Ethnic Albanians have recently surrendered to the police large quantitie s of weapons and amunitions given them by their compatriots in various te rrorist and bandit gangs under threat of violence should they refuse them 2E Slovenian diplomat Turk forgot to mention all these facts in his stateme nt, probably wishing to be consistent on the line of the anti-Yugoslav an d anti-Serbian policy which Ljubljana has pursued for years. It is indicative that the statement minimises and even totally ignores t he good cooperation existing between our state bodies and international h umanitarian organisations. It should also be noted here in connection with the statement, which may be said to be flavoured by Slovenia's intolerance of our country, that t he state bodies of power are honouring in all its points the accord as se t down in the Moscow Declaration signed by Presidents Slobodan Milosevic and Boris Yeltsin. This has been noted several times by officials in bot h Moscow and Belgrade. [03] ANOTHER GROUP OF SERB REPATRIATES TO LEAVE FOR CROATIATanjug, 1998-08-12A group of about 60 Serb repatriates will leave for Croatia on Thursday in the organisation of the UNHCR, sources at the UNHCR Belgrade Office to ld Tanjug on Wednesday. The group mostly consists of elderly people retu rning to the Knin and Korenica regions. A total of 1,527 refugees have returned to Croatia from Yugoslavia since 1996, when the UNHCR started organising repatriation, A group of 116 repatriates, the largest so far, left for Croatia last Th ursday as a result of several-month negotiations between the UNHCR and th e Croatian Embassy in Belgrade and Croatian Government's refugee bureau i n Zagreb aimed at facilitating the repatriation procedure and improving t he process. The UNHCR Office in Yugoslavia has received 17,000 repatriation requests and they will be reviewed by the Croatian Refugee Bureau, which informs the UNHCR office in Belgrade whether they have been granted permission or not, the UNHCR Belgrade office told Tanjug. [04] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS CONTINUE ATTACKS ON ROAD DECANI-DJAKOVICATanjug, 1998-08-12Ethnic Albanian terrorists continued attacks on police and cilvilians on the road Decane-Djakovica last night and this morning, Tanjug learned. The terrorists last night shelled police positions on the Erecka Cuka hi ll near Babaloca, Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet, 1998) Province. T hey alse repeatedly attacked police and civilians in the Decani village o f Pobrdje. There were no casualties among police or civilians. Serbian policemen Srecko Gadzic, Djuro Vabaros and Mile Nikolic were wou nded near Glodjani on Tuesday, the Pristina Media Center said. Policeman Milan Gasic was also wounded near the village of Erac on Tuesd ay afternoon. He was taken to the Pristina hospital and his condition is no longer critical, the doctor in charge said. Certain groups of ethnic Albanian terrorists tried to escape into Albani a on Tuesday and repeatedly attacked Yugoslav Army units deployed on the border and the military facilities located in that area. All the attacks were repulsed, and the terrorist groups broken up. [05] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS KILL ONE CIVILIAN, WOUND ANOTHERTanjug, 1998-08-12Ethnic Albanian terrorists on Tuesday ambushed two Serb civilians in the vilage of Muhadzeri near Klina, Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet, 19 98) Province, killing Radovan Stepic, 39, of the village of Drenovac, an d gravely wounding Vladimir Stasic of the village of Duge Njive, the Klin a municipal authorities confirmed on Wednesday. The terrorists opened fir e from automatic weapons at the two men when they were returning from a f orest after collecting firewood. Stasic was taken to the Pec hospital and his life is not in danger. [06] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS SHELL POLICE POSITIONS AROUND JUNIKTanjug, 1998-08-12Ethnic Albanian terrorists of the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army con tinued for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday their shelling of poli ce positions around the village of Junik, Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija. The police, which has for over ten days been holding several hundred ter rorists under siege in Junik, did not return fire, Decani municipal autho rities said. The police has for the past ten days been in control of all access route s around Junik. Ethnic Albanian terrorists in the village have rejected several police c alls for surrender. The constant shelling of police positions around Junik is believed to be an attempt to help other groups of ethnic Albanian terrorists in Glodjan i. It has, however, failed, as the police overpowered the terrorist stron ghold in Glodjani on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. [07] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS ATTACK YUGOSLAV ARMY MEMBERS, KILL TWOTanjug, 1998-08-12Two Yugoslav Army members were killed on Tuesday, when ethnic Albanian t errorists launched a large number of attacks at Yugoslav Army members who guard the state border and military facilities in Kosovo and Metohija. The terrorists killed captain Anton-Zeljko Martinovic, born in Vukovar i n 1967, and commissioned corporal Bratislav Ilic, born in Nis in 1972. All the attacks were repelled, terrorist groups crushed and an investiga tion into the attacks is under way, Yugoslav Third Army Command said in a statement on Wednesday. [08] SERBIAN POLICE IN FULL CONTROL OF GLODJANETanjug, 1998-08-12One of the biggest strongholds of ethnic Albanian terrorists in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet, 1998) Province, the village of Glodjane, so utheast of Decane, is under full police control as of 14:30 hrs local tim e on Wednesday, police sources in Pristina confirmed to Tanjug. After two days of fighting, police today broke up strong terrorist bases and fortifications in Glodjane and its vicinity, from where the terroris ts constanly attacked police checkpoints, army units and civilians passin g on the Decane-Djakovica road. In these attacks, five policemen were killed and two Yugoslav Army troop s, and about a dozen policemen were wounded. The neutralization of the terrorist base in Glodjane created conditions for the full normalization of traffic along the Decane-Djakovica road. Since nine ethnic Albanian villages surrendered weapons received from te rrorists to police in the past few days, it is expected that the situatio n will soon be quite stable from Djakovica all the way to Decane. [09] MACEDONIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CONGRATULATES YUGOSLAV COUNTERPARTTanjug, 1998-08-12Macedonian Foreign Minister Blagoj Handziski congratulated Yugoslav Fore ign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic on the gold medal won by the Yugoslav nati onal basketball team at the World Championships in Athens. On the occasion of the gold medal won by the Yugoslav national basketbal l team at the World Championships in Athens, please receive sincere felic itations and wishes for new successes in this field, said the telegram. [10] SERBIA'S TOMIC: GOVERNMENT MAKES CONDITIONS FOR BUSINESS, STANDARDTanjug, 1998-08-12Government programmes secure the necessary conditions for continued prod uction growth and protect stable business conditions and the living stand ards of the people, according to Serbia's Vice Premier Dragan Tomic on We dnesday. Tomic said that the economic policy coordinated by Serbia and the other Yugoslav republic, Montenegro, with the Federal Government was being impl emented successfully. It was particularly successful, he added, in the sp here of industrial production, which had risen by 12.7 percent in the fir st half of 1998 over the same period of 1997. Export in the same period h ad risen by 6 percent, which was below the target for this year, he said. However, he added, preparations had been completed for adopting measures that should restructure production with a view to increasing export-orie nted production, so that the targets were expected to be met in this area. The Government had been working for years to create conditions for a con tinued growth of agricultural production, and its measures had borne frui t, he said. [11] YUGOSLAVIA'S MATIC MEETS GERMAN, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIALSTanjug, 1998-08-12Yugoslav Information Secretary Goran Matic and German and French Foreign Ministry officials agreed on Wednesday that Kosovo-Metohija is an insepa rable part of Yugoslavia and Serbia, and political dialogue the only way to end the crisis. Matic, meeting with the German and French officials, stressed that settl ing the present situation in the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia's Kosovo-Met ohija Province is in the best interest of the F.R. of Yugoslavia, and of all of southeast Europe. He said that if the international community take s a principled position on the matters of autonomy, secession and ethnic minorities, it will be possible to speak of reducing tension in Kosovo-M etohija and in the broader region. He stressed that, as different from the new states that have emerged wit h the disintegration of former Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Yugosl avia is a civic state where the ethnic minorities have all rights in line with the highest international standards. Speaking about terrorism, he said that ethnic Albanian terrorists have s upport from certain countries, first of all Albania. He stressed that dia logue is the only way to solve problems, but that ethnic Albanian politic al delegates are polycentric, i.e., they obey different centres of power abroad, which is a reason why they do not have a common platform and why there are no political talks. He said that ethnic Albanian terrorists have so far killed 62 civilians, 27 of them Serbs, 32 Albanians and 3 Romanies, which shows that terroris t gangs are hitting at all those who do not embrace their views, regardle ss of ethnic affiliation. He asked that the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself the Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK, 1998) be put on the international list o f terrorist organisations. The visiting Deputy Political Director in the French Foreign Ministry, P hilippe de Cirmain, said that the United States and the six-power "Contac t Group" are involved in the quest for a solution to the Kosovo-Metohija problem. He said that the ethnic Albanians should make up their minds to it that Kosovo-Metohija is staying within Yugoslavia's internationally re cognised borders. Reality has taken sway and this may be the right time for the ethnic Alb anians to realise that it is in their best interest to open talks with Be lgrade, he said, adding that any other solution would destabilise the reg ion. He went on to say that there is a chance that dialogue might start s oon and that the cooperation of all will be necessary in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Kosovo-Metohija. He said that a deterioration of the general situation in Kosovo-Metohija could result in political, economic and social problems for the F.R. of Yugoslavia, adding he was sure that Kosovo-Metohija has a future only in the F.R. of Yugoslavia. The visiting Deputy Political Director in the German Foreign Ministry, C hristian Pauls, for his part, said that nobody denies Yugoslavia's right to fight terrorism and protect its territorial integrity. He went on to s ay that Germany is willing to invest its authority and influence to bring Kosovo-Metohija's ethnic Albanians to the conference table as soon as po ssible. [12] SAMARANCH OFFERS FELICITATIONS TO YUGOSLAV OLYMPIC COMMITTEE PRESIDENTTanjug, 1998-08-12International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch has fel icitated Yugoslav Olympic Committee President Dragan Kicanovic on the Yug oslav basketball team's triumph at the 13th World Championship in Athens. Samaranch asked Kicanovic to convey his felicitations to the players and the expert team. [13] ICRC DELEGATION HEAD THANKS YUGOSLAV SECOND ARMY COMMAND 9-11.Tanjug, 1998-08-12Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Yugos lavia Thomas Merkelbach has sent a letter to Yugoslav Second Army Command er Lt.-Gen. Radosav Martinovic, thanking him for a successful seminar on war-time law for army members. The seminar was held in Podgorica on June Merkelbach also thanked Second Army for its hospitality and voiced hope that ICRC and the Yugoslav Army would continue to cooperate well this yea r, Second Army said in a statement. [14] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTRY REJECTS ALBANIA'S ALLEGATIONSTanjug, 1998-08-12Yugoslav Foreign Ministry has most strongly rejected as totally untrue t he statement issued by the Albanian Foreign Ministry on August 2, which c ontains a series of untruths and unfounded charges against the Federal Re public of Yugoslavia. The claims of the Albanian Foreign Ministry that Y ugoslav Army helicopters and airplanes had violated Albania's airspace we re invented in order to turn the attention of the world public opinion aw ay from Albania's own role of aiding and abetting terrorism in Yugoslavia 's territory, the statement says. The Yugoslav Ministry notes with regret that this was not the first time that Albanian state institutions * which count on the benevolence of pow erful patrons * resort to blatant untruths in order to cover up their own responsibility for encouraging tensions, backing separatism and terroris m and nourishing illusions of creating some "Greater Albania", which cons titute a great delusion and danger for the region. Facts speak for themselves. Since the beginning of 1998, nearly 100 seri ous border incidents have been caused from the Albanian side. Despite rep eated protests by Yugoslavia, Albania has not only done nothing to preven t mass infiltrations of terrorists and smuggling of arms into Yugoslavia' s territory, but has ignored all appeals for taking part in the activiti es of local joint commissions envisaged by the Agreement on measures for preventing border incidents, thus avoiding and violating its internationa l commitments. The international public is well aware that northern Albania is an area where recruiting, sheltering, arming and training for terrorist and milit ary actions and diversions is being organized for terrorists and terroris t gangs, including mercenaries from third countries and Albania itself, w hich are then infiltrated into Yugoslavia. Evidence of this is contained in a report of a special UN commission which visited Albania from July 11 to 14. Yugoslav Foreign Ministry once again reminds Albania of its internationa l responsibilities and urges it to cease infiltrating terrorists and smug gling arms into Yugoslavia and to put an end to its anti-Yugoslav campaig n, as its current attitude and policy can neither reduce nor cover up the scope of internal conflicts and instabilitiy which constitute the real d anger for regional security. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remains committed to its policy of go od neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation with neighboring co untries founded on equality. There have never been any threats or any dan ger for anyone from Yugoslavia's territory. Relevant Yugoslav institution s will, however, always react with determination to any attempt at endang ering its territorial integrity and sovereignty, in line with the Yugosla v Constitution and law and on the basis of international law. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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