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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 70, 9 April 1996
From: OMRI-L <omri-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu>
CONTENTS
[1] REACTIONS TO RUMP YUGOSLAV-MACEDONIAN RECOGNITION.
[2] BOSNIAN SERBS PRESENT EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES.
[3] BOSNIAN BRIEFS.
[4] CROATIA ARRESTS FOUR BOSNIANS ON TERRORISM CHARGES.
[5] MORE MOVES AGAINST PRESS FREEDOM IN CROATIA.
[6] SERBIAN CRACKDOWN ON ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE MEDIA IN KOSOVO.
[7] ROMANIAN ELECTION UPDATE.
[8] MOLDOVAN PREMIER REFUSES TO NOMINATE DEFENSE MINISTER.
[9] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH TRANSDNIESTER LEADER.
[10] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT DENIES LACK OF SUPPORT FOR ROVER.
[11] BULGARIAN POLITICAL ROUNDUP.
[12] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS ELECT NEW PARTY LEADER.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 70, Part II, 9 April 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] REACTIONS TO RUMP YUGOSLAV-MACEDONIAN RECOGNITION.
Greece on 8 April
voiced its dissatisfaction with the mutual recognition agreement between
rump Yugoslavia and Macedonia, AFP reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman
Konstantinos Bikas said recognition of Macedonia under that name "does
not help stability in the region and cannot be considered a friendly act
towards Greece." Bulgaria welcomed the agreement, saying it will
"contribute to stabilizing the climate in the Balkans." Meanwhile, Vuk
Draskovic, leader of the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement, said the
agreement means "that Macedonia will now be Serbia's bridge to Greece
and Serbia will be Macedonia's bridge to Europe." Milorad Jovanovic,
representative of the Democratic Party of Serbia, was more cautious,
saying the establishment of diplomatic relations was "a little hasty"
because talks over the official name of Macedonia have not yet been
concluded. -- Stefan Krause and Stan Markotich
[2] BOSNIAN SERBS PRESENT EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES.
Serbian pathologists have
spent some days examining the bodies of at least 181 people from a mass
grave near Mrkonjic Grad in western Bosnia. The area was held by Bosnian
Serb forces for most of the war but fell to Croatian units last fall.
Doctors say that 102 out of the 181 show evidence of having been beaten
to death, Nasa Borba reported on 9 April. -- Patrick Moore
[3] BOSNIAN BRIEFS.
President Alija Izetbegovic warned that moves by former
Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic to found his own centrist party could
split the Muslim vote. He added that his own political future would
depend on his health, Oslobodjenje reported on 7 April. The daily two
days later discussed concern over the rapid loss of value of the Bosnian
dinar. A rise in the legal limits on personal income and recent large
payments to workers in state enterprises led to the fall in confidence
in the currency, Vjesnik wrote. On 5 April, government forces freed 18
POWs, while the Croats released 28, the Onasa news agency reported.
Controversy continues over whether the Serbs will be allowed to attend
the upcoming conference on reconstruction aid if they do not free all
their remaining prisoners. -- Patrick Moore
[4] CROATIA ARRESTS FOUR BOSNIANS ON TERRORISM CHARGES.
The Interior
Ministry on 4 April arrested four armed Bosnians in the Adriatic town of
Senj on suspicion that they intended to carry out terrorist activities
in Croatia, Vjesnik said on 8 April. The four reportedly had documents
from the Bosnian Interior Ministry in Bihac, and it thought they may
have been sent to assassinate former Bihac kingpin Fikret Abdic. The
renegade Muslim leader has been living quietly in Croatia since last
fall, after Croatian and Bosnian government forces put an end to his
self-declared mini-state, which had become a client of the Krajina
Serbs. Abdic is currently based in Rijeka, north of Senj. -- Patrick
Moore
[5] MORE MOVES AGAINST PRESS FREEDOM IN CROATIA.
Tax authorities have
presented the country's only independent daily, Rijeka's Novi list, with
a bill for DM 4 million. Customs authorities assessed the Italian
minority's periodical Unija as owing similar amounts, Nasa Borba
reported on 7 April. Opposition groups charged that the move is an
attempt to crush what little press freedom there is in Croatia, Novi
list wrote on 9 April. The tax and customs bills recall the earlier
attempt to drive the independent weekly Feral Tribune out of business
with a pornography tax. The latest measures come on the heels of two new
major restrictive pieces of legislation and the impending closure of the
independent Zagreb radio station "101." -- Patrick Moore
[6] SERBIAN CRACKDOWN ON ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE MEDIA IN KOSOVO.
Serbian police
in Kosovo have closed down the printing house of the Albanian-language
weekly Koha, local media reported. The authorities had insisted that
last week's issue be censored by the prosecutor-general's office before
being printed but the weekly had refused to comply. That office has
since initiated legal proceedings against Koha. The prosecutor-general
reportedly took exception to photograph montages of Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic standing next to men in Nazi uniforms under the title
"Anschluss 1989." The montages appeared in an issue commemorating the
abolition of Kosovo's autonomous status. Koha Editor in Chief Veton
Surroi said he stands "firmly behind the main messages" of the satirical
montage. He added that the prosecutor-general's action indicates that
the weekly was right and that his office is trying conceal what
happened. -- Fabian Schmidt
[7] ROMANIAN ELECTION UPDATE.
Nicolae Manolescu, leader of the Party of
Civic Alliance, said the Liberal Party '93 may soon join the pact
concluded by his party and the Social Democratic Union for the local
elections in May, Radio Bucharest reported on 7 April. The pact, which
was announced on 4 April, provides for the signatories to jointly
monitor election procedures and to support one another in the second
round. Meanwhile, a new party calling itself Romania's Alternative held
its first congress in Bucharest on 5 April. Also on 5 April, the
Romanian Ecological Movement merged with the Ecological Convention, the
National Agrarian Party and several non-government organizations to form
a party called The Ecologists. -- Michael Shafir
[8] MOLDOVAN PREMIER REFUSES TO NOMINATE DEFENSE MINISTER.
Prime Minister
Andrei Sangheli has refused to nominate a new defense minister, accusing
President Mircea Snegur of ignoring a Constitutional Court ruling (see
OMRI Daily Digest, 5 April 1996). Sangheli wants Pavel Creanga to remain
in his post, but Snegur, in a letter to Sangheli dated 6 April, said
investigations have "unequivocally" established that there is corruption
within the Defense Ministry and that Creanga has failed to take
appropriate measures, BASA-press reported on 6 and 8 April. Snegur also
pointed to a statement by 100 army officers on 5 April saying Creanga
cannot remain Defense Minister and that the court's ruling has only
"aggravated" the situation. The officers say that until the problem is
resolved, they will obey only orders from Snegur in his capacity as
commander in chief of the military. Creanga says he intends to resume
office. -- Michael Shafir
[9] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH TRANSDNIESTER LEADER.
Snegur on 8 April
met with the leader of the breakaway Transdniester region, Igor Smirnov,
in Tiraspol to discuss political and socio-economic issues, Moldovan
media reported. Snegur asked Smirnov to pardon the so-called Ilascu-
group, whose leader, Ilie Ilascu, was sentenced to death in 1992 for
alleged terrorist activities. His sentence was later commuted to life
imprisonment. Meanwhile, Romanian Justice Minister Iosif Gavril
Chiuzbaian has urged France to intervene to secure the release of
Ilascu, whom Bucharest is proposing for the Nobel Peace Prize, AFP
reported on 8 April. -- Michael Shafir
[10] BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT DENIES LACK OF SUPPORT FOR ROVER.
Minister for
Economic Development Rumen Gechev on 8 April rejected as "absolutely
groundless" charges by the Rover Group that the closure of the company's
assembly plant in Varna was dictated by bureaucratic obstacles and lack
of government support, Demokratsiya reported. Rover on 4 April had
announced its decision to stop assembling cars in Bulgaria after only
seven months (see OMRI Daily Digest, 5 April 1996). Gechev said the main
reasons for Rover's failure were uncompetitive products, a wrong
marketing strategy, and lack of funding from the Bank for Agricultural
Credit, which owns Rover's partner, Daru Group. He said the government
will help Rover to find a new partner in the form of a "stable state-
owned firm." Meanwhile, Standart reported that rump Yugoslav car maker
Zastava has proposed assembling cars in Bulgaria. -- Stefan Krause
[11] BULGARIAN POLITICAL ROUNDUP.
Hristo Miladinov, Bulgarian ambassador in
Moscow, has handed a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry protesting
Russian President Boris Yeltsin's remark that Bulgaria may join the
integration agreement recently signed by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
and Kyrgyzstan, 24 chasa reported. Miladinov noted that relations with
Russia nonetheless remain a top foreign-policy priority for Bulgaria.
Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev has insisted that the government
officially reject Yeltsin's proposal. Meanwhile, Standart reported that
Zhelev and Petar Stoyanov have vowed to conduct a fair campaign for
primary elections scheduled for 1 June, which are aimed at finding a
presidential candidate for the united opposition. Zhelev and Stoyanov
are the only candidates in the primaries. -- Stefan Krause
[12] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS ELECT NEW PARTY LEADER.
More than one year after
party leader Eduard Selami was fired, the Albanian Democrats have
elected Tritan Shehu as his successor, Albanian media reported. Shehu
has been acting party leader since Selami's dispute with President Sali
Berisha in March 1995, which led to his dismissal. Selami offended
Berisha by supporting the opposition view that the constitution should
be adopted by the parliament. He also demanded that the position of
party leader and prime minister be combined. Meanwhile, Berisha has
pledged that the Democrats will promote "both pre- and post-election
cooperation" among right-wing parties, Reuters reported. The Democrats'
most likely coalition partner is the Republican Party, led by historian
Sabri Godot. Godot has said that the two parties have the common aim of
"fighting communism." -- Fabian Schmidt
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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