YDS 12/4

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)

4 DECEMBER 1995 YDS-1030

CONTENTS:

YUGOSLAVIA - U.S.A. - SERBIAN PRESIDENT SAYS IFOR WILL ENJOY SUPPORT OF FRY

YUGOSLAVIA - STATE CONTINUITY - TUDJMAN: CROATIA RECOGNIZES CONTINUITY OF FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

YUGOSLAVIA - OSCE - CZECH REPUBLIC WANTS YUGOSLAVIA BACK IN OSCE

YUGOSLAVIA - RED CROSS - YUGOSLAVIA STATES REGRET OVER BAN FROM RED CROSS MEETING

SARAJEVO SERBS - FRENCH MINISTER SAYS FRENCH TROOPS WILL HELP SERBS STAY IN SARAJEVO - AGNELLI SAYS SERBS IN SARAJEVO MUST HAVE GUARANTEES - BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL: SARAJEVO SHOULD STAY UNDIVIDED - KARADZIC: STATUS OF SERB SARAJEVO MUST BE SETTLED BEFORE PARIS - BOSNIAN SERBS, U.N. AGREE ON CIVILIAN POLICE DEPLOYMENT

BOSNIA: SERBS - CROATS - CROATS CONTINUE SETTING FIRE TO SERBIAN HOUSES

SREM-BARANJA REGION - U.N. ADMINISTRATOR DUE IN SREM-BARANJA REGION IN THREE WEEKS

CROATIA - SERBS - TRIAL OF A GROUP OF ABOUT 70 SERBS ENDS

SERBIAN PRESIDENT SAYS IFOR WILL ENJOY SUPPORT OF FRY Belgrade, Dec. 2 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic told U.S. congressmen, whom he met in Belgrade, that the multinational forces to impartially implement the Dayton agreement will enjoy the support of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of the citizens of the Republika Srpska. President Milosevic held talks with a delegation of 17 congressmen, both from the Republican and Democratic Parties. The office of President Milosevic stated after the talks that the support of the F.R.Y. and of the R.S. will be extended in good faith that the presence of those forces will reinforce peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and create conditions in which the freedoms and dignity of every citizen of BiH will be protected to the fullest extent. The statement added that the talks covered the most important issues of the political situation in the region, the establishment of a lasting and stable peace in BiH and the normalization of life in the region. Attention was drawn to upcoming activities concerning the implementation of the peace agreement, to be supported fully by the F.R.Y. At the talks between Milosevic and the congressmen, the statement said, a joint interest was expressed for the full normalization of relations between the two countries, which have over a century-long history. The rapid renewal of economic relations between the F.R.Y. and the U.S, for which their is great interest and possibilities, is thus of special importance. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic was also present at the talks, the statement said.

YUGOSLAVIA - STATE CONTINUITY

CROATIA RECOGNIZES CONTINUITY OF F.R. OF YUGOSLAVIA Zagreb, Dec. 1 (Tanjug) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said on Friday that his country accepted the state continuity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Tudjman told a press conference that Croatia did not have anything against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia linking its continuity onto that of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that this continuity could not be objectively denied, since it was based also on the former statehood of Serbia and Montenegro.

YUGOSLAVIA - OSCE

CZECH REPUBLIC WANTS YUGOSLAVIA BACK IN OSCE Prague, Dec. 1 (Tanjug) - The Czech Republic recommended, at a session of the standing Committee of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia be re-included in the work of that organization, the CTK news agency said on Friday. Czech delegation head Zdenek Matejka said at the Committee session on Thursday that this urgent issue should be immediately considered and that a compromise should be reached without any further delay. The Slovak delegation had proposed that a Yugoslav representative be invited to a meeting of the informal OSCE working group which is following the realization of the Dayton accords, the Czech agency said.

YUGOSLAVIA - RED CROSS

YUGOSLAVIA STATES REGRET OVER BAN FROM RED CROSS MEETING Belgrade, Dec. 2 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia on Saturday stated regret because politically-motivated decisions of Red Cross leaderships of some countries prevented its representatives from participating in an international conference of the Red Cross on Dec. 3-7 in Geneva. A Yugoslav Foreign Ministry statement said with regret that the Yugoslav representatives would not be able to participate in the international conference that should primarily deal with the promotion of respect for humanitarian law and which, as well as the International Red Cross Movement as a whole, should at the same time strive for the highest standards of humaneness, impartiality and neutrality. The very act of denying the right to Yugoslavia, as a party to the Geneva conventions, to participate in the work of this international conference, was in violation with the fundamental principles on which the Movement functioned and strived towards universality. Yugoslavia, as a country that is party to the Geneva conventions and a country that fully respected all the noble principles on which these conventions are based on as well as their concrete provisions, appreciates very much the irreplaceable role of the Movement of the Red Cross, attaching exceptional significance to maintaining as well as its full participation in the work of the coming conference, the statement said. The International Movement of the Red Cross has on the whole undoubtedly given exceptional contribution to alleviating the humanitarian tragedy that happened to a greater portion of the population in the former Yugoslavia, the statement said and added that this international humanitarian organization has once again reaffirmed its irreplaceable role in such situations. Yugoslavia, an equal signatory to the Geneva conventions and as a state that bore a major burden in achieving peace in the region and gave a significant contribution in the humanitarian area, sincerely hopes that in the future of the International Movement of the Red Cross the forces truly interested in the preservation of these noble principles would prevail and that the injustice towards Yugoslavia would be righted in the shortest possible time, the statement said.

SARAJEVO SERBS

FRENCH TROOPS WILL HELP SERBS STAY IN SARAJEVO Belgrade, Dec. 3 (Tanjug) - French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said in Rome on Sunday that French troops had been deployed to Sarajevo to make it possible for the local Serbs to stay on in the city. De Charette said that the peace accord initialled in Dayton should be 'completed' to guarantee the position of the Serbs in Sarajevo, the Agence France Presse reported from Rome. There can be no question of changing individual provisions of the Dayton accord, de Charette said during his brief visit to Rome. But, he stressed, there are provisions that need to be amplified, which is the case precisely with the city of Sarajevo which has a 100,000-strong Serb community. De Charette explained that the five-state 'Contact Group' for Bosnia was working on amending provisions of the Dayton accord to ensure the safety of all citizens of Sarajevo. The Commander of the UNPROFOR in Sarajevo, French Gen. Jean-Rene Bachelet, was quoted by the daily Le Monde on Saturday as saying that the Dayton accord had left the Serbs only the 'choice between a suitcase and a coffin'. Bachelet said that, unless the accord were enlarged to include security guarantees for the Serbs in the city, there might be new conflicts.

AGNELLI SAYS SERBS IN SARAJEVO MUST HAVE GUARANTEES Rome, Dec. 3 (Tanjug) - Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli told a delegation of the Republika Srpska on Sunday that Serbs in Sarajevo must have guarantees after the signing of the peace agreement set for Dec. 14 in Paris. Agnelli has during her Sunday visit to Sarajevo told a four-member Bosnian Serb delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha, that the agreement reached in Dayton, however, could not be questioned.

BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL: SARAJEVO SHOULD STAY UNDIVIDED Belgrade, Dec. 4 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha on Sunday said Bosnian Serbs did not want to alter the Dayton accord, but wanted it modified so that it could be applied to Sarajevo. In talks with Susanna Agnelli, Buha said an acceptable solution for Sarajevo would be if the city had the same status as Mostar, which is undivided with six autonomous municipalities, some controlled by Croats, others by Muslims. The Bosnian Serb news agency Srna quoted Buha as saying the Dayton accord would be almost impossible to apply to the Serb parts of Sarajevo. If the international community fails to find at least a provisional solution for Serb parts of Sarajevo, there will be a humanitarian catastrophe and the entire plan will be threatened, said Buha. He said if the international community shunned facts, it would be confronted with much bigger problems, adding he hoped the warning would be taken seriously.

KARADZIC: STATUS OF SERB SARAJEVO MUST BE SETTLED BEFORE PARIS Belgrade, Dec. 1 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic on Friday said the status of the Serb-populated part of Sarajevo had to be settled before the Paris conference as it threatened the signing of the peace accord. The Bosnian Serb news agency Srna quoted Karadzic as telling the press that the solution implied 'a special status and full local authority in the Serb municipalities, after which the Serbs will decide their own fate.' Karadzic said the special status of those parts of Sarajevo and the protection of 120,000 Sarajevo Serbs was an issue of democracy, as the Serbs would not accept Muslim authority. He added that the Serbian soldiers and their families had nowhere to go.

BOSNIAN SERBS, U.N. AGREE ON CIVILIAN POLICE DEPLOYMENT Sarajevo, Dec. 2 (Tanjug) - The Republika Srpska Interior Ministry and the U.N. Civilian Police reached in Pale on Saturday a framework agreement on the deployment of international police in the Republika Srpska. The Republika Srpska's Interior Minister Tomislav Kovac said that concrete tasks would be discussed once the implementation of the Dayton accord began, explaining that the international police force would act only as observers, instructors and supervisors, and would have no executive power. Kovac said that Serb police in the serb parts of Sarajevo guaranteed the people's security, but admitted that, despite this, people, mostly women and children, had lately been leaving the city. Reuters quotes U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo Alexander Ivanko as saying at a press briefing that the issue of Civpol's deployment had been raised by France's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York on Nov. 30. 'What we'd be trying to do is to deploy Civpol into these Serb areas before there are any problems,' said Ivanko.

BOSNIA: SERBS - CROATS

CROATS CONTINUE SETTING FIRE TO SERBIAN HOUSES Belgrade, Dec. 2 (Tanjug) - The armed forces of local Croats are continuing arsons in the zones to be returned to Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite promises made by their leaders that they will put a stop to it. An entire village was burned to the ground north-west of Mrkonjic Grad, Reuters reported on Saturday from Gornji Vakuf, quoting a U.N. spokesman. The U.N. said that Croatian forces started looting houses at the beginning of the week in Mrkonjic Grad, embittered by the fact that, under last month's Dayton agreement, the region is to be returned to Serbs. Six houses were burning in Mrkonjic Grad on Friday, while about thirty Croatian Defense Council troops were standing nearby, refuting official claims that such actions are not condoned. The U.N. also said that British reconnaissance units are banned from entering Mrkonjic Grad and that their movement is limited.

SREM-BARANJA REGION

U.N. ADMINISTRATOR DUE IN SREM-BARANJA REGION IN THREE WEEKS Erdut, Dec. 3 (Tanjug) - Serb negotiator in talks with Croatia Milan Milanovic said on Sunday that the United Nations' administrator for the Srem-Baranja region would be arriving in three weeks' time. Milanovic said that the U.N. administrator and the entire transitional administration apparatus would be based in the region's biggest city of Vukovar. The setting up of the transitional administration will be accompanied by the setting up of two teams - one representing the population of the Srem-Baranja region, and the other, the Zagreb government. The Serb team will most probably be based in Erdut, and the Croatian, in Zagreb or Osijek, Milanovic said. After the teams are formed, talks will begin on the concretization of the Serb-Croatian basic agreement signed on Nov. 12, he added. Milanovic said that the full implementation of the agreement might begin in the spring of 1996. In any case, no decision will be taken without the consent of the Serb team, he added.

CROATIA - SERBS

TRIAL OF A GROUP OF ABOUT 70 SERBS ENDS Zagreb, Dec. 1 (tanjug) - After a 15-day trial, the Council of the Military Court from Karlovac passed sentences in Gospic to the last two standing trial, from a group of about seventy serbs from the U.N. - protected Sector South in Serb Krajina. Most of the Serbs received prison terms from 2 to 12 years, totalling 220 years. Only four were acquitted. The charges brought against the last two Serbs were the same as in all the other cases, 'armed rebellion' or 'subversive-terrorist activity against the Republic of Croatia'. The Serbs were arrested in the operation Storm, conducted by the Zagreb regime at the beginning of August in the south and north of Serb Krajina. After the August aggression on Krajina, Serbs surrendered to the Croatian authorities, believing President Franjo Tudjman who offered them amnesty. However, around 1,300 Serbs ended up in prisons and are now standing trial on criminal charges of armed rebellion.