BosNet NEWS / Apr. 16, 1996

From: Nermin Zukic <n6zukic@SMS.BUSINESS.UWO.CA>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

CONTENTS

[01] High Representative for Bosnia Carl Bildt

Commenting on a small sample poll - only 613 persons polled, 52% Americans favored leaving in December while 42% favored staying, Galvin said, "You don't have complete support [to stay more than a year, but] you don't have a very large percentage that says no."

``We have had problems in the attitudes that continue to be shaped by Mr Karadzic and General Mladic, indicted war criminals who are not eligible to run in the election,'' OSCE Ambassador Robert Frowick told reporters in Sarajevo. The OSCE is charged under the Dayton peace agreement with organising elections and a regional arms control programme for the former Yugoslavia.

``This is the most complex electoral process, probably in history. It certainly seems to be so for any country in the world in this century... Therefore we are dealing with a very imperfect situation...It's going to be a classic example of politics being the art of the possible.''

Frowick further commented on the natiolist leaderships in Bosnia-Herzegovina: ``Such attitudes [of nationalist leaderships in Mostar and RK/RM] must be addressed by the international community... Both the U.S. and the European Union need to step up efforts to induce compliance with the (terms of) the peace agreement, which are clearly being obstructed by these kinds of attitudes.'' The only solution was ``from the top down, through Belgrade and Zagreb...''

``(Karadzic) is an indicted war criminal and under the constitution is clearly ineligible to run, so...his political life is over... He can engage in tactical (political) skirmishing as he does. (Karadzic and Mladic) make their presence known and their influence felt, so in that sense they remain active.''

``Time is rapidly running out for the two, just as it is for those who are supposed to deal with them,'' a diplomat warned, referring to Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic.

``Western powers will start to bludgeon Milosevic to remove Karadzic. It's something he has promised to do,'' another diplomat said.

``The only money Karadzic will ever get from us is for his upkeep in prison in The Hague,'' High Representative for Bosnia Carl Bildt told reporters.

``We all agree that it is imperative that they not remain in power,'' Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said.

[02] IZETBEGOVIC'S STATEMENT ON SILAJDZIC'S PARTY

Observers believe the meeting in Zenica marked SDA pre-electoral campaign, regardless of the fact its President, Alija Izetbegovic, tried to deny it, by saying: "This is not a pre-electoral meeting. This is a meeting with a people after four years of war. When we will plan a pre- electoral meeting, we will look for the tallest platform in Bosnia and gather there a million persons. We can do it, for the people is with us." As the BH Prime Minister H. Muratovic, who has just returned from the Brussels conference, was also present, Izetbegovic pointed out "U.S. fulfills its promises and offers a new perspective". Izetbegovic also talked about the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, founded by Haris Silajdzic, which held its first convention in Sarajevo, a day before SDA meeting in Zenica:" Founders of that Party say they fight for a Bosnian Bosnia. I suppose they wanted to say we fight for a Muslim Bosnia. It seems rather they fight for power and not for Bosnia which is not the same. Because, on the territory liberated by BH Army, the fight for Bosnian Bosnia has already been gained. This fight should be lead on the part of BH under the Croatian and Serb authority." (end) A.S.

[03] STOLAC, CAPLJINA, VARES, BUGOJNO

International representatives in BH point out four Federal municipalities- two under the control of R BH Army in Central Bosnia (Vares and Bugojno) and two under HVO control in Southern Herzegovina (Stolac and Capljina) as the main reasons for the slow improvements in Croat-Bosniaques' relations, return of refugees and functioning of Federation and of its two cantons - those of Travnik and Mostar.

Michael Steiner, Deputy High Official, met these days with the representatives of these municipalities, expressing again his concern for the situation in the municipalities and called on an urgent improvement. Bosnian media claim international community intends to equal the guilty in artificial way, and point out the differences between Bugojno/Vares and Stolac/Capljina. Thus, Pero Markovic, actual Co-President of HDZ BH, was one of the most responsible for the genocide committed upon Serbs in 1992 and Bosniaques in 1993 while he was the President of the Capljina municipality. Musair Penava, President of the Capljina War Presidency, reminded that old women aged more than 80 and girls younger than 2 years, were driven to the detention camps in Capljina. Andjelko Markovic, Croatian leader in Stolac said three years ago:" What is being defended in Capljina is Southern Croatia, of which Capljina makes a part." Mehmed Dizdar, President of the Stolac War Presidency, says:" We can not even approach Stolac. We visited the town in February last year, accompanied by Zubak, Ganic and Steiner. During a short drive, we saw 86 mined houses. More than 300 were mined sine the Washington agreements. K. Zubak lied when said that Stolac was destroyed by chetniks. What was damaged by chetniks have been repaired long ago, and all you can see destroyed now, has been done by Croatian units. The fact I denied this Zubak's statement was never reported by BH TV." Sarajevo magazine "Dani" informs:

There were 27.800 inhabitants in Capljina before the war: 15.000 Croats, 7.800 Bosniaques, 3.600 Serbs and unimportant number of "Yugoslavs". Out of 256 square meters of the municipal, 123 are private and 133 public. There are some 150 to 200 Bosniaques in Capljina today: either those born in mixed marriages or some older persons. First camps under the HVO jurisdiction were created in Capljina. Almost 2.000 Bosniaques from this municipality were prisoners of these camps. There are some estimations claiming 1.000 Bosniaques houses have been pulled down till today. Out of 8 mosques existing before, just one has remained. Pre-war Municipal Assembly had 51 committeemen, out of whom 27 from HDZ, 11 from SDA, 6 from SDS, 4 from SDP and 3 belonging to the reformist- liberal coalition.(...) Stolac municipality consists of 541 square meters. According to 1991 census, 18 545 inhabitants lived there, out of whom: 8093 (43.6%) Bosniaques, 6113 (33.9%) Croats, 3912 (21.1%) Serbs and 427 (2.3%) others. In the second half of 1993, HVO members occupied a major part of the municipality.

Bosniques who were not violently killed in the Stolac bone diseases hospital where imprisoned in the camps of Dretelj and Gabela, where torturing and slaughtering continued. The last strike was destroying of Bosniaques religious and cultural monuments. Out of some 8.100 Bosniaques from Stolac area, 6100 of them have been living since 1993 in very difficult conditions, from Blagaj to Tuzla area and some 2000 are dispersed in America, Australia and Europe. Just 16 Bosniaques remained in Stolac. One old woman returned a year ago. (...)Prim. dr. Ivo Barisic, Croat, pediatrician, working in the Bugojno hospital, says:" If Pope himself ordered us to live with Muslims we would not accept it. We can only live beside them, but not with them. I will never drink a cup of coffee with any Muslim. (...) At the time of BH Army/HVO conflicts, 749 Croats remained in Vares. Today, there are 3600 of them.(...) President of the Primary Court is Croat, Director of "Energoinvest" is Croat, Head of the Cultural Center "Ljiljan" is Croat, as well as Director of the firm "Sumarstvo" and more than 20 teachers". (end) A.S.

[04] NO PEACE WITHOUT RECONCILIATION

President of BH Presidency, Alija Izetbegovic, stated yesterday Bosnia would pursue to rely upon U.S. and Europe in its foreign policy which does not necessarily implies a need for rejecting the support of Islamic countries. On a pre-electoral gathering, organized in Zenica and on which assisted more than 15.000 people, Izetbegovic called them all on mutual reconciliation because "it is an indispensable condition for peace". Individuals are responsible for crimes, and not whole nations", Izetbegovic said, pointing out that a struggle for an undivided Bosnia is the most important objective which provides return of all refugees to their homes. (end) S.K.

[05] 'SRJ' INSISTS ON CONTINUITY

President of 'SRJ', Z.Lilic in his interview to Kragujevac Radio-station program "The seal of time", stated "his country will soon witness a return to all international organizations for its sovereignty and legal continuity are nor longer under the question." He stressed 'SRJ' expects to be soon involved in UN, OESS and MMF. He especially pointed out OESS for, as he said, this European organization can not solve certain questions concerning the safety and cooperation in the Balkans "without the assistance of SRJ". However, recent negotiations held between MMF and SRJ broke apart because Belgrade authorities insisted upon the question of "legal formulation defining whether SRJ inherits a membership to MMF on the basis of continuity or according to the same principles as BH, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia". Belgrade insisted upon a continuity and the Federal government offered to return a complete debt of former- Yugoslavia (16 mld US$). "It is more than crazy. They react as someone completely mad ", was a comment of 'SRJ' National bank Governor, Dragoslav Avramovic, made on the Federal government proposal. He has recently sent a letter to Serbian government informing them that the situation of SRJ concerning its foreign currency reserves is catastrophic and that the same are decreasing every day for a million US$. "No matter which reconstruction of a production is concerned, refreshment of the capital is needed.

Foreign currency reserves hardly overpass 300 millions US$", Avramovic said, adding that the Federal government did not allow him to take part at the meeting of National Banks' Governors coming from the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, on which a division of foreign currency and gold reserves should have been discussed. The Federal government forbade him to "interfere". All his proposals concerning the division (estimated on some 700 millions US$) between the ex-Yugoslavia countries, were rejected by the Federal government. The only possible solution for SRJ Avramovic sees in a full cooperation with MMF and a realization of the Program 2 for, "otherwise, Serbia will be faced with the destiny of Angola", Avramovic said. (end). S.K.

[06] INVESTIGATORS CONCLUDED A FIRST PART

After 11 days of work, International Tribune investigators concluded a first part of the investigation of the location where are probably situated collective graves of Bosniaks from Srebrenica. They examined more than 10 possible sites. Some bones and shells were found some 30 km North of Zvornik and in the vicinity of the dam Brnica.

Investigators also visited the village of Orahovac where, according to some witnesses, Bosniaks were killed. All evidence should now be analyzed by the same group which intends to return to BH soon in order to pursue the investigation. (end) S.K.

[07] B-H SOLDIERS WILL BE PAID

"The bankbooks will be given out today to members of B-H Armed forces with the total amount of their payment earned during the time spend in Armed Forces", says the B-H Federation Defence Ministry press release.

The data is collected on the whole territory of B-H Republic, and the amount of payments has been denoted with three categories: 4OO, 5OO and 6OO DM. The payments will be accounted for the period from April 1992 to April 1995. "1OO% invalids and the families of killed solider have a right to be paid from the day they were drafted to armed forces to the end of war", says the Ministry press release. According to B-H Presidency's decision the right to payment besides the B-H Army soldiers and B-H Police Forces have the members of HVO. However, this still has not been legally regulated, and B-H Government considers that HVO members received regular payment during the war so there is no reason to pay them. At present it is hard to expect that soldiers will be paid in cash because the state budget still does not foresees it. (end) S.K.

[08] SERBS STILL COUNT ON UNION

"The process of uniting "republic srpska" and "FRY" will continue disregarding the borders, and establishing of the financial cooperation is the first step in that direction", stated in an interview for Belgrade's "Na\a borba" the vice-president of "republic srpska" Nikola Koljevi5 and added that relations between Bosnian Serbs and Milo\evi5 are "correct". (end) S.K.

[09] DEADLINE FOR WITHDRAWAL - APRIL 19

"Process of withdrawal started a month ago, but we still can not say for certain that it will ended by the deadline", stated NATO spokesman in Sarajevo Simon Haselock adding that the deadline for withdrawal of all military forces to barracks and storing the heavy arms at the places denoted by IFOR will expire on April 19. "This is the biggest operation of that kind in the modern history", emphasized Haselock. Out of 3O1 OOO soldiers half, around 15O OOO, will have to return to barracks and the other half will return home. About 8OO tanks, 35OO mortars and 13OO cannons will be put under IFOR control. All heavy arms which will be found at unauthorized places after 12O days deadline expires IFOR will have authority to seized it and destroy. (end) S.K.

[10] AMERICANS MUST REMAIN

"US forces must remain in B-H longer than was first foreseen, in order to keep the peace in the country, and US public must be prepared for that", stated former NATO Chief Commander John Galvin. According to the latest US polls most of Americans support US mission in B-H, but most of them also think that forces should be withdrawn by the end of December, one year after signing of the peace agreement. (end) S.K.

[11] SLOVENIA - MONTE NEGRO

The Monte Negro delegation headed by Trade Minister Du\ko Lali5evi5 arrived today to two day visit to Republic Slovenia. According to some unofficial sources the intention of Montenegrin delegation is to explore the possibilities for establishing and enforcing the economical cooperation. Montenegrins will have talks in Trade Ministry and Ljubljana Bank while the talks with Foreign Minister have been left out this time. Only four months ago Slovenia recognized 'FRY', and Montenegro is only its one part, which some think is the reason why the meeting with Minister Taler will not take place. However, there are some rumors that Monte Negro intends to separate from 'FRY'. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry press release says that there is no deeper meaning in this purely economical visit. (end) S.K.

[12] NEW BOMBING ATTACK UPON BELGRADE MOSQUE

An explosive device was launched last night upon Bajralkli, the sole mosque in Belgrade. Material damage was registered upon the mosque and neighboring buildings. The same mosque was hit by a hand bomb two weeks ago, when the Franciscan Monastery of Saint Anthony was being hit by two "Molotovliev cocktails" (explosive devices). (end) A.S.

[13] TUDJMAN REJECTED TO CONFIRM DRAZEN BUDISA

Cabinet of Croatian President Tudjman informed F.Tudjman rejected to confirm the nomination of Drazen Budisa as Zagreb Major. Tudjman thus accepted the advice of Croatian government. Tudjman made the same decision with three predecessors of Budisa (Goran Granic, Jozo Rados, Ivo Skrabalo), also members of HSLS (Croatian social-liberal party), candidate by the association of 7 parties which have almost 2/3 majority in the Zagreb Assembly. The nomination of two proposed Budisa's deputies - Vesna Vesligaj and Matija Ocic- was also refused. Drazen Budisa was today out of Croatia - as the Croatian Parliament Vice-President, he visited Slovenia, together with the Croatian Parliament President, Vlatko Pavletic and Vice-President, Vladimir Seks, in order to discuss a bilateral Croatia-Slovenia cooperation. Budisa has already started the procedure of "freezening" his mandate to the Parliament, but it would probably be stopped, for he would not become a Zagreb Major. President of the Zagreb Assembly, Zdravko Tomac, expressed his regrets and made a following comment of Tudjman's decision, by saying:" Budisa was chosen with 32 votes YES and 10 NO, which means with a visible majority, proving the fact that a considerable part of HDZ members also voted for Budisa. (...) We have now nobody else to propose who could be acceptable for the leading party. The situation has already been for a long time out of the legal frames. Mrs. Matulovic, to who we have already voted no confidence for two times, does not want to submit her resignation. It means, a completely unconstitutional situation. A new Major must propose a new city-government with 15 days for the former one is not valid any longer. More than a month has already passed and still the old ones are in a function, as if the elections did not take place. It is illegal, illegitimate. It seems the Government and state rulers have no other possibility than to dismiss us, for they failed the last chance to solve this conflict in a democratic way." (end) A.S.