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Serbia Today 96-05-09Serbia Today DirectoryFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Serbia Today9 May 1996In This Edition:AMONG BALKAN COUNTRIESCONTENTS[01] YUGOSLAVIA ENDORSES THE NORMALIZATION OF THE SITUATION AND OF THE RELATIONS AMONG BALKAN COUNTRIES[02] OLIVETTI REPRESENTATIVES VISITED THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENT[03] CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE[04] THE QUESTION OF PEACE CAN NOT BE SOLVED IN THE HAGUE[05] BELGIAN COMMENTARIES ON THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL[06] INCOHERENCE OF THE CROATIAN AMNESTY[07] IFOR SUSPECTED OF CRIMES AGAINST SERBS[08] PEACEMAKERS THAT EXTENDED THE WAR[01] YUGOSLAVIA ENDORSES THE NORMALIZATION OF THE SITUATION AND OF THE RELATIONS AMONG BALKAN COUNTRIESSerbian President Slobodan Milosevic met yesterday with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and his assistants. During the talks about the current political issues in the region, it has been stressed that our country is making efforts to help the normalization of the situation and of the relations among Balkan states and nations, believing that this is a decisive factor for peace and stability in the region. The two sides agreed that the intense cooperation between numerous Yugoslav and Russian partners is an example and a major contribution to the development of equitable relations in the world.Mr. Ivanov stated that he delivered to President Milosevic a message by President Yeltsin which underscores the Russian readiness to comprehensively develop political, economic, cultural, scientific and other relations with Yugoslavia. The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister also added that his country is determined to maintain its active role in the settlement of the crisis in former Yugoslavia and in the implementation of the peace agreements for Bosnia. Mr. Ivanov stressed that economic relations and the international position of Yugoslavia have been discussed, in view of the fact that Russia believes that FRY should be re-admitted to the UN and other global institutions. (Politika, May 9, 1995) [02] OLIVETTI REPRESENTATIVES VISITED THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENTSerbian Minister of Industry - Mr. Oskar Fodor, received yesterday the Executive Vice President of the Italian multinational company Olivetti - Mr. Luigi Zannin, and his associates. Mr. Zannin illustrated Olivetti's business activities in our country and underscored the determination to continue the mutually fruitful collaboration which started 25 years ago and was not interrupted completely even during the sanctions. Olivetti is the only computer company that has a joint venture company and a number of individual investments in our country and is prepared to create one of its best foreign operations in this part of the world. Praising the good and successful cooperation with Olivetti, Minster Fodor endorsed the plans of the Italian company, especially concerning investments and the implementation of modern technology and training of experts. The Serbian Government attributes great importance to the enhancement of economic relations with Italy, which has all the prerequisites to become one of the leading business partners for Serbia - Mr. Fodor said. (Politika, May 9, 1995)[03] CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL KNOWLEDGEThe Serbian Ministry of Science and Technology presented yesterday in Belgrade 18 publications containing the results of scientific research projects completed between 1991 and 1995. "These achievements represent a major contribution of our scientists to the global scientific patrimony, and they encompass 409 doctoral theses, 181 registered patents, 234 monographs and 745 monographs of national importance" said Dr. Ratko Uzunovic, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology. The 338 projects involved 6.105 scientists and scholars. For the forthcoming 5-year period (up to year 2000) 250 research projects have been approved due to their importance in the development priorities for Serbia in the spheres of energy, agriculture, transport, communications and production technologies. (Borba, May 9, 1995)[04] THE QUESTION OF PEACE CAN NOT BE SOLVED IN THE HAGUEThe UN Security Council asked all the countries from former Yugoslavia to fulfill their commitments regarding the cooperation with the International tribunal for Crimes of War, including the obligation to arrest persons indicted by the Tribunal. The Security Council request has been prompted by the intervention made by Tribunal Chairman Antonio Caseze, and his objections to the lack of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. The Security Council communiqu‚ stresses the lack of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal by the Yugoslav side and quotes the example that Yugoslav authorities still have not arrested three Yugoslav citizens (Veselin Sljivancanin, Milo Mrksic and Miroslav Radic).Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic - Head of the Yugoslav Mission to the UN informed the Security Council Chairman - Chinese Ambassador Kin Huasan, that FR Yugoslavia is cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and that no serious obstacles are involved, particularly not political ones. Arguing these assertions, Mr. Jovanovic underscored that the Yugoslav side has always sustained that war criminals and those that have breached international humanitarian codes should be tried regardless of their citizenship, and offered concrete examples of cooperation with the Tribunal. Federal Deputy Premier and Minister of Justice - Mr. Uros Klikovac, and Federal Foreign Minister - Mr. Milan Milutinovic met with Tribunal Chairman Caseze in Belgrade at the beginning of this year and discussed such cooperation. In fact, at the end of February, Mr. Milutinovic informed Judge Caseze that the Yugoslav side is prepared to accept the opening of a Hague Tribunal Bureau in Belgrade. In his letter, Ambassador Jovanovic also stresses that FRY reacted to the request of the Hague Tribunal and - following a ruling of the Novi Sad Court - turned over to the Tribunal two witnesses Drazen Erdemovic and Radoslav Kremenovic. Furthermore, the same Novi Sad Court indicted Erdemovic for the crimes he committed in Bosnia, and Kremenovic for concealing these crimes. The fact that Yugoslavia is cooperating with the Hague Tribunal is corroborated by the recent statement before the US Congress by State Department Undersecretary for Political issues - Mr. Peter Tarnoff - to the effect that Belgrade is taking the necessary steps for cooperating with the tribunal in the Hague. Bearing in mind all these circumstances, as well as the essential fact that the question of peace and its stabilization can not be solved in the Hague but only in the Balkans - with the pacification and the normalization of relations in this troubled region - it would be more logical if the Security Council were to step up its involvement in these processes especially since it played a rather active role in the Bosnian war, rather than to insist in its efforts to "stabilize" a tribunal which still has not acquired a clear position within the international community. (Tanjug, May 9, 1995) [05] BELGIAN COMMENTARIES ON THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNALThe leading Belgian daily - "La Libre Belgique" observes that the procedure followed by the International Tribunal for Crimes of War in Former Yugoslavia includes numerous omissions that could influence the course of the trial, and the final ruling in the case of Dusan Tadic. The legal expert consulted by the newspaper remarks that such shortcomings include the fact that the Hague judges defined by themselves the procedure they will follow instead of giving this assignment to an independent juridical body. Furthermore neither the judge nor the prosecutor offered a clear characterization of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, although this has a major bearing on both the trial and the sentence. Particular dilemmas have been raised by the prosecutor whose speech dealt more with politics than with the crimes that are to be judged. (Borba, May 9, 1995)[06] INCOHERENCE OF THE CROATIAN AMNESTYA day before the opening of the Belgrade-Zagreb highway, the Croatian Government submitted to the national parliament a draft law on amnesty for the inhabitants of the Serbian region of Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srem. However, bearing in mind the experience that the people of Krajina in the Western parts of the republic of Serbian Krajina had with the previous Croatian amnesty, one should be extremely cautious in interpreting the character of the latest amnesty. In fact, in the military operations last summer, Croatia first captured a large number of people, then granted amnesty to several hundred of them - accused of alleged armed rebellion, but kept in jail at least as many and is now prosecuting them. Savo Strbac, Chairman of the "Veritas" Information-Documentation Center, says that the objective of the international community is to promote "coexistence" of Serbs and Croats in this region and that the decision on amnesty for "Serb rebels" is an important element, but adds that it is still unclear who is to be pardoned and who isn't. Mr. Strbac sustains that the final decision should be made by some neutral court and not by Croatian judiciary, because it has clearly shown its partiality. In fact, many persons from Krajina that practically never took a weapon are still being kept in Croatian jails. There are justified fears that such a destiny awaits many of those living in the region to which the latest Croatian amnesty applies. (Politika, May 9, 1995)[07] IFOR SUSPECTED OF CRIMES AGAINST SERBSOfficers of the Security Service Center in Zvornik discovered yesterday the remains of four Serbs from the village of Milici that disappeared on May 3, after they went to the forests between Zepa and Srebrenica to cut firewood. The carbonized bodies and their burned truck have been found. "We presume that they were killed by some infiltrated Moslem terrorist group. Our suspicions are enhanced by the fact that several IFOR aircraft have been seen landing in that region and several surrounding ones where Moslem strongholds existed. There are even suspicions that IFOR members were involved in infiltrating Moslem terrorists in Republic of Srpska (RS) territory", said Dragomir Vasic, Head of the Security Service Center. During their search for the four missing woodcutters, RS Police discovered an large arms depot in an abandoned Moslem home, including infantry mines, poison gasses, and other similar arsenal of foreign origin. (Vecernje novosti, May 9, 1995)[08] PEACEMAKERS THAT EXTENDED THE WARTwo men that pretended for years to be peacemakers for former Yugoslavia - are now being questioned by the US Senate Foreign Policy Committee. Peter Galbraith - the first US Ambassador in Zagreb, and Charles Redmann - US Ambassador in Bonn, were - to put it without diplomatic embellishments - arms- dealers. Two years ago, Galbraith and Redmann used to meet often in Zagreb, but their true assignments have been discovered only several months ago. The Americans used the Iranian political involvement in the Balkans, namely the Iranian ambitions to help their "Moslem brothers" in Bosnia, and negotiated a tactical alliance in Zagreb between "sworn enemies" (Iran and USA) to sell arms to Moslems and Croats. To make their dealings more successful, Galbraith and Redmann insisted on NATO air-strikes against Bosnian Serb positions. Furthermore, Galbraith calmly witnessed and sometimes even helped the ethnic cleansing of some 700 000 ethnic Serbs. Without the dirty "mediation" of these two "diplomats" - whose services are now repudiated even by their own country - the war in Croatia and Bosnia could have been ended two years ago. (Vecernje novosti, May 9, 1995) |
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