Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-02-02

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

2 February 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S DIPLOMATIC, ECONOMIC RECOGNITION GROWS AS IT IS INVITED

[02] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER MEETS WITH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESIDENTS

[B] I N T E R V I E W S

[03] R.S. PRESIDENT SAYS BOSNIAN SERB ARMY DID NOT COMMIT CRIMES

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL: I WILL DO EVERYTHING TO ENSURE SAFETY TO IFOR

[D] FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS

[05] IFOR HAS PROBLEMS WITH MUSLIMS, CROATS AT TUZLA, NORTHEAST BOSNIA

[06] WASHINGTON DISAPPOINTED WITH MUSLIM GOVERNMENT IN SARAJEVO

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S DIPLOMATIC, ECONOMIC RECOGNITION GROWS AS IT IS INVITED TO WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

In a session on Thursday, the Government adopted a platform for a Yugoslav delegation's participation in a Conference of the World Economic Forum on February 5-6, the first following the November 22 suspension of the sanctions against Belgrade, a Government statement said. The delegation will be headed by Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic, the statement said.

The Forum has for the past 25 years been organising conferences of world's leading statesmen, politicians, businessmen, scientists and officials of major international organisations and media at which fundamental issues concerning international policy and economy have been discussed.

This year's conference will deal with peace in the Balkans.

The Yugoslav Government expects that this will be an opportunity for Yugoslavia to once again manifest its firm support for the implementation of the December 14 peace plan for Bosnia and for a resolution of all humanitarian, economic and civilian issues that should be based on an equal treatment of all Bosnia's parties.

Furthermore, Yugoslavia will be in a position to express its willingness, already shown in practice, to resume and promote economic and other links with neigbouring and other countries in this part of Europe.

The conference will also be an opportunity to show that a peaceful and just resolution of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia is a key to creating balance in the Balkans and turning it into aregion of peace, stability and cooperation, the statement said. The statement also said the conference would provide an excellent opportunity to present the Yugoslav economic programme and to stress the Government's economic policy that significantly liberalises the country's economic system, opens its market to Europe and the world and that has already attracted attention of international business circles.

[02] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER MEETS WITH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESIDENTS

They examined limitations that hinder conditions for export owing to an absence of preferential treatment, unsolved questions in payment operations, problems in international communications and inaccessibility to Yugoslav funds in foreign banks. They agreed that a climate of trust and support had to be created between the Yugoslav delegation and participants at the forum, necessary for a speedier reintegration of Yugoslavia into world economy, said the statement.

The procedure of entering the world trade institution should be speeded up, multi-lateral reliefs in exchange obtained with the European Union and relations normalized with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as soon as possible.

The Yugoslav delegation should convince the Forum of Yugoslavia's efforts to pursue a market economy, said the statement. The most important event at the forum will be a separate conference opening on Feb. 5 focusing on the Balkans only.

[B] I N T E R V I E W S

[03] R.S. PRESIDENT SAYS BOSNIAN SERB ARMY DID NOT COMMIT CRIMES

I am completely certain that no crime whatsoever has been committed on orders by any of the military commanders, said Karadzic. However, if some individuals did perform crimes, we are prepared to investigate every such charge and bring the accused to our national courts, Karadzic told the American WTN TV in an interview on Tuesday.

We have cooperated and we cooperate with the Hague tribunal, said Karadzic and added that even if crimes were committed during this war, they had not been an expression of our policy, but they were performed in a civil war, in the fighting of civilians, as vengeance taken for events in the Second World War.

Apart from this, said Karadzic, we are concerned about cooperation also because more than 50 mass graves were discovered of Serbs killed in 1993 near Srebrenica.

Asked about his possible arrest on charges brought against him by the Hague tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia, Karadzic said: I am being upheld by my people and my army so that no one should even think of arresting any of the Serbs here. We verify the charges and we shall conduct inquiries concerning them, said he.

Karadzic assessed that the Hague tribunal, although not being a political body, is under pressure of the anti-Serb hysteria being generated by Western media's satanizing the Serbs as a nation - the hysteria that should be stopped at once.

On the other hand, said Karadzic, one should realize that we, because of our national pride, do not agree to be a national minority. We have not started the war and we know well who is responsible for that... and who ought to be prosecuted, said Karadzic.

We are not satisfied fully with the Dayton agreement because our natural aspiration was to remain in Yugoslavia, to join Yugoslavia, to join Serbia.

The Dayton agreement is a half-way solution for us, but we hope that this will be solved peacefully in time and we shall certainly be the side that cooperates. At all events, we shall not use force, stated Karadzic.

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL: I WILL DO EVERYTHING TO ENSURE SAFETY TO IFOR

Krajisnik said this at a meeting with Commander of IFOR ground forces Gen. Michael Walker, said the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA. Krajisnik said the Serbs would in no variant accept Muslim authority.

'That is why the war broke out in former Bosnia,' he said, adding he was convinced the 'international community urges not only verbally, but sincerely, that Sarajevo be a city in which all would be equal.'

[D] FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS

[05] IFOR HAS PROBLEMS WITH MUSLIMS, CROATS AT TUZLA, NORTHEAST BOSNIA

'I have been dragged into their internal disputes and I didn't want to get involved,' Brigadier-General Finn Saermark-Thomsen, whose brigade is based in the Tuzla area, told the Danish daily Berlingske Tidende, according to the Associated Press.

'The population gets disappointed when seeing that things don't go as they've been promised. And it often affects us,' said he. Saermark-Thomsen said he was confident that the IFOR in Bosnia could fulfil the military part of the peace mission within the scheduledone year. He was not so sure, however, when it came to the civilian part, AP quoted him as saying.

[06] WASHINGTON DISAPPOINTED WITH MUSLIM GOVERNMENT IN SARAJEVO

The paper listed some moves of the Izetbegovic authorities confirming the impression that the Muslim side is less ready to abide by the spirit and letter of the peace accord than the Serb and Croat sides.

The Sarajevo authorities did not observe January 19 as the deadline for the release of all prisoners of war of whom many are still in captivity.

The Muslim authorities did not honour the accord regarding foreign mercenaries and mujaheddine who fought on the Muslim side during the war.

The 'volunteers of Islam' are still in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the paper said and added that according to American intelligence sources there are still Iranian intelligence agents and members of the Iranian revolutionary guard in Bosnia working under the auspices of some humanitarian organisations or carrying passports issued by the Muslim authorities.

Americans believe the mujaneddine pose the biggest danger for U.S. peace troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Sarajevo Government avoids adopting an amnesty law as forseen by the peace accord, a move which would contribute to the accord's easier implementation.