OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 167, 28 August 1995

From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@hilbert.cdsp.neu.edu>

Open Media Research Institute Directory

CONTENTS

  • [01] SHELLS KILL AT LEAST 32 IN SARAJEVO.

  • [02] BOSNIA UNIMPRESSED WITH U.S. PEACE PLAN.

  • [03] RUSSIA TO CALL FOR RESUMPTION OF GAS DELIVERIES TO SERBIA.

  • [04] SERBIAN SOLDIERS KILL KOSOVAR ALBANIAN.

  • [05] TUDJMAN CELEBRATES REOPENING OF RAILWAY.

  • [06] KRAJINA CONTROVERSY CONTINUES.

  • [07] THREE BULGARIAN OFFICIALS CHARGED WITH ARMS SMUGGLING TO SERBIA.

  • [08] FLOODING IN ALBANIA.

  • [09] EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN ALBANIA.

  • [10] TRIPARTITE BALKAN MEETING.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 167, Part II, 28 August 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [01] SHELLS KILL AT LEAST 32 IN SARAJEVO.

    Reuters and AFP on 28 August reported that a shell landed 30 meters from the Markale market place around 11:00 a.m., killing at least 32 people and wounding at least 40. The centrally located market, now enclosed, was the site of a similar shelling in February 1994, which killed 68 and led to international outrage against the Serbs. In the latest incident, six shells also hit the main street nearby. The morgue said that it took in 15 people in the first 20 minutes alone. Bosnian Radio said that the shells came from Serbian positions to the south. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [02] BOSNIA UNIMPRESSED WITH U.S. PEACE PLAN.

    The attack came as U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke was preparing to resume talks in Paris aimed at a settlement to the Bosnian conflict. The VOA quoted him as warning the Serbs that they should sign on in the coming week or risk the "heavy involvement" of NATO. Given the track record of threats of NATO air strikes, it is doubtful that Pale will be very impressed by such remarks, and the latest shelling could perhaps be seen in that context. The Bosnian government, for its part, has launched its own 12-point plan. Its military commander, General Rasim Delic, has dismissed the U.S. project as not "having either a head or a tail." He added that Bosnia "cannot expect a lot from the international community. We have only one direction--to continue fighting." Meanwhile in Bonn, Hans Koschnik, EU administrator of Mostar, threatened to withdraw the European police unless the Croats and Muslims unified their respective police forces. He also accused the Croats of virtually blockading the Muslims and said this action must stop, Reuters reported on 25 August. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] RUSSIA TO CALL FOR RESUMPTION OF GAS DELIVERIES TO SERBIA.

    Rump Yugoslav Trade Minister Djordje Siradovic, returning from talks in Moscow, said Russia will call for an immediate resumption of gas deliveries to the rump Yugoslavia, TV Belgrade reported on 25 August. Siradovic said the talks were held in "a very positive and friendly atmosphere in which we found complete understanding on the Russian side and their readiness to talk openly and very constructively about all key issues concerning trade and economic cooperation." Other issues discussed included the export of rump Yugoslav wheat and corn to Russia, and long-term imports of Russian oil to the rump Yugoslavia. The agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline via Bulgaria is ready to be signed. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] SERBIAN SOLDIERS KILL KOSOVAR ALBANIAN.

    Three rump Yugoslav soldiers shot and killed an ethnic Albanian near Djakovica on 26 August, international agencies reported the next day. The Democratic League of Kosovo said the incident occurred as the soldiers were passing a group of local people. The soldiers reportedly insulted and beat up the locals before opening fire on them. It was the 11th killing to date of an ethnic Albanian by the rump Yugoslav military or police. Meanwhile, Serbian forces are being redeployed in Kosovo and Serbian civilians mobilized, the BBC reported on 26 August. Elsewhere Albanian TV on 26 August said that Kosovar shadow state President Ibrahim Rugova has called for better cooperation among Kosovar Albanians following the settling of Serbian refugees in the region. According to the Serbian authorities, about 6,000 Serb refugees have so far arrived in Kosovo, BETA reported on 27 August. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] TUDJMAN CELEBRATES REOPENING OF RAILWAY.

    Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, together with his government ministers and 600 guests, took a ten-hour "freedom train" ride from Zagreb to Karlovac, Gospic, Knin, and Split on 26 August. It was the first time in over four years that the key rail route to Dalmatia has been open, international and Croatian media noted. Enthusiastic rallies greeted Tudjman in what was both a display of patriotic sentiment and the opening of the parliamentary election campaign. He said Croatia will reintegrate eastern Slavonia either through negotiations or, if necessary, by force. Tudjman called on Croats living abroad to come back and help resettle the former Krajina. With regard to the Serbs who fled, the president said that they "disappeared ignominiously, as if they had never populated this land. We urged them to stay, but they didn't listen to us and, well, bon voyage." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] KRAJINA CONTROVERSY CONTINUES.

    The Croatian authorities and the UN have again traded charges over allegations of Croatian atrocities in Krajina. The BBC on 28 August reported that the UN produced a film allegedly showing two Serbian civilians deliberately killed by Croatian troops. A UN spokesman talked of "arson and murder." Croatian authorities said Croatian soldiers had been on an operation to mop up the last remaining pockets of Serbian resistance, in this case in the rugged Plavno area, 20 km north of Knin. Some 70 Serbian peasants asked for and received Croatian identity papers. But Reuters on 27 August quoted General Ivan Cermak as saying in Grubor that "three [armed] Chetniks and two civilians were killed in the action. I have come to supervise the action personally in order to prevent further accusations that Croatian troops are burning Serb houses." Meanwhile in Serbia, Nasa Borba on 28 August reported that the authorities near Cacak have banned that independent daily as reading material for the Krajina refugees. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [07] THREE BULGARIAN OFFICIALS CHARGED WITH ARMS SMUGGLING TO SERBIA.

    Three Bulgarian military officials on 25 August were charged with diverting arms worth $670,000 to Serbia in November 1993, AFP reported the same day. The accused are Colonel Valentin Popinski, head of the Defense Ministry's commercial department, his assistant Colonel Stoian Tsakov, and Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Nikolov, an Interior Ministry official who monitors arms deliveries. They were in charge of supplying the Albanian Defense Ministry with 100 mine launchers and 1,000 mines and ammunition, but the consignment, which was to have been transported to Albania in trucks, went "missing" in Skopje. The three men face between 10 and 30 years in prison if convicted. The military prosecutor reportedly has a contract signed by Popinski and the Serbian private firm Target for the delivery of the same cargo. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [08] FLOODING IN ALBANIA.

    Heavy rains on 25 August flooded roads near Lezha and cut power and telephone lines in several northern Albanian districts, AFP reported on 26 August. Five people died when their truck was hit by water rushing down from the mountain near the village of Kalivac. Large tracts of agricultural land were under water. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [09] EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN ALBANIA.

    Amr Moussa arrived in Albania on 27 August, international agencies reported. His talks with Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi are to focus on relations between the two countries and developments in the Middle East and Bosnia. Serreqi is due to pay a two-day visit to Greece to discuss bilateral problems and the conflict in former Yugoslavia with his counterpart, Karolos Papoulias, later this week. The Albanian Foreign Ministry said his visit is "very important to strengthen [both countries'] already good relations." -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [10] TRIPARTITE BALKAN MEETING.

    The foreign ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, meeting in the northern Greek city of Ioannina on 26 August, reiterated a call to lift UN sanctions against the former Yugoslavia, Romanian media and Reuters reported the same day. They also advised NATO and the UN not to use force in that country. Telecommunication projects and two proposed highways linking the three states with other parts of Europe were discussed. One of the road projects has been delayed by a dispute between Bulgaria and Romania over the location of a new bridge across their common border along the Danube. No agreement was reached on this project, and the two countries asked Greece to mediate. Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias warned his Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts, Georgi Pirinski and Teodor Melescanu, that a "deal should be reached fast," because expected EU financing of the project "will not wait for ever." Melescanu told Romanian TV on 27 August that the problem will be discussed by the three countries' ministers of transportation. -- Michael Shafir, OMRI, Inc.

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
    For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz

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