Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-02-27

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

27 February 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM YUGOSLAVIA

[01] COORDINATION OF DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY

[B] SARAJEVO SERBS

[02] KOLJEVIC, RIZA ON PROBLEMS SERB SARAJEVO TAKEOVER

[03] BILDT REQUESTS GREATER GUARANTEES FOR SERBS

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL SUSPENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[05] 2,388 WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS CHARGED IN R.S.

[06] SERBS SEEK TRUTH ABOUT 2,000 MISSING SOLDIERS

[D] THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[07] TRIBUNAL IS IN FACT POLITICAL AND NOT JUDICIAL AUTHORITY

[E] E C O N O M Y

[08] YUGOSLAV ECONOMY LACKS CAPITAL

[A] FROM YUGOSLAVIA

[01] COORDINATION OF DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY

The office of President Bulatovic said that the talks reached the conclusion that Yugoslav diplomacy should build a more active, modern and efficient way of asserting and protecting the interests of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the international community.

During his stay in Podgorica, Milutinovic examined with the Foreign Minister of Montenegro, Jeknic, a number of issues linked to concrete cooperation and coordination between the two ministries.

[B] SARAJEVO SERBS

[02] KOLJEVIC, RIZA ON PROBLEMS SERB SARAJEVO TAKEOVER

Koljevic reproached Riza that insufficient control of policemen from the Muslim-Croat federation during the takeover of Vogosca resulted in the 'illegal and premature removal of the Serb flag and insignia', in the presence of senior officers of the intranational community.

Koljevic expressed hope that problems would be resolved in the interest of peace and a lesson drawn from the experience, first of all, by those who are responsible.

Riza expressed concern at the irregularities committed by Muslim-Croat representatives in taking over Vogosca. One must learn from one's mistakes. This is the first operation and the takeover should be more regular in Ilijas (another Serb district of Sarajevo), Riza said.

The U.N. believes the Sarajevo Serbs must be free to decide whether they will stay or leave and will respect their decision, although it would like them to stay, Riza said.

[03] BILDT REQUESTS GREATER GUARANTEES FOR SERBS

The present exodus of Serbs leads to ethnic separation, it should be sped, Bildt said at a press conference in Brussels where E.U. foreign ministers are holding a conference.

Muslim Government must take measures to guarantee safety to Serbs who wish to stay in Sarajevo and encourage those who have already left to return, he said.

Bildt condemned the violent behaviour of Muslim-Croat police in taking over the power in Serb districts of Sarajevo as this has further worsened the atmosphere of insecurity among Serbs.

The developments in Sarajevo are the principal hindrance to the peace process in Bosnia, Bildt said.

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL SUSPENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

The suspension of the sanctions should take effect on Tuesday, 24 hours after the end of the Security Council's session.

[05] 2,388 WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS CHARGED IN R.S.

Internal Affairs Minister Dragan Kijac said Monday charges were brought against 1,478 Muslims, 630 Croats, 11 Serbs and one Yugoslav national, while the nationality of 268 other suspects was not determined.

If the suspects are found in R.S. territory, they will be arrested and handed over to competent legal authorities, Kijac said.

[06] SERBS SEEK TRUTH ABOUT 2,000 MISSING SOLDIERS

The Republika Srpska has released all prisoners of war, meeting its obligations under the Dayton peace accord, Premier Rajko Kasagic told the families of missing soldiers of the Republika Srpska Army.

It is now up to the International Red Cross and the IFOR to put pressure on the Croats and Muslims to help shed light on this matter, Kasagic added.

[D] THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[07] TRIBUNAL IS IN FACT POLITICAL AND NOT JUDICIAL AUTHORITY

'It can be said to be a quasi-court, one with a political role and goals, because it is an instrument of the big powers' global strategy of disciplining 'small peoples and disobedient regimes', the Chairman of the Federal Government Committee for War Crimes told Tanjug.

Prof. Dr. Zoran Stojanovic said the very founding of the Hague-based Tribunal (U.N. Security Council resolution 808 of Feb. 22, 1993) was disputable. He said the Tribunal had been set up as an auxiliary body of the Security Council 'to establish and safeguard peace,' but it was highly debatable how a criminal court could play such a role.

Stojanovic said that, in the first place, the Tribunal did not have precise provisions on crimes and no defined punishments, meaning there was no legal security.

The Yugoslav official said that, although criminal law required a higher degree of precision, the Tribunal's statute included only partially some international conventions which vaguely and in general terms distinguished between war crime and genocide.

'The conventions, which do occasionally say what is punishable, are never concluded among signatory-states to be directly implemented,' Stojanovic said.

The court's statute envisages only prison terms but not their duration. It only says in one of the provisions that, when sentences are passed, the judicial practice in the former Yugoslavia will be borne in mind, Stojanovic said.

He said there was also the problem with the serving of prison sentences, since the court has called on countries to receive sentenced persons to serve their prison terms there.

He said that would mean that while somebody would serve in horrible prison conditions in Pakistan, for instance, somebody else would do so in relatively good conditions in Europe.

Stojanovic said some conventions had even been incorrectly used in the Tribunal's statute.

He gave as an example a provision from protocol 1 of a 1977 Geneva convention, which says that a person who ordered genocide, knew that his subordinate would commit that crime, or had sound reason to know that his subordinate would do so would himself be punished for the crime of genocide.

Stojanovic said the last of the listed possibilities, on which all indictments raised by Chief Prosecutor Richard Goldstone rested, was especially unacceptable in the case of genocide.

Stojanovic linked the recent arrest of Bosnian Serb Army officers to the problem of the extradition of war-crime suspects. He said the Hague-based Tribunal had decided to surmount the difficulties by applying sheer force and using NATO troops to that end.

Stojanovic said the arrests were absolutely irregular, and international acts on political and civil rights and freedoms explicitly stated that a court had no right to detain anyone against whom no indictment had been raised.

The Bosnian Serb officers 'were not, however, even told what they had been arrested for, were they being detained as suspects or as witnesses, and they received no written decisions on their detentation and transfer to the Hague,' Stojanovic said.

The written decisions were delivered to the Yugoslav Embassy in the Netherlands on Feb. 21, although they are dated Feb. 12, Stojanovic said.

If it is true that the Bosnian Serb officers were handed over to the Hague-based tribunal as witnesses, it is absolutely something impermissible, he said.

'National laws know of the use of forcible measures against witnesses who refuse to show up voluntarily when summoned, but not of them being held under detention and especially not of them being transferred to another country,' Stojanovic said.

[E] E C O N O M Y

[08] YUGOSLAV ECONOMY LACKS CAPITAL

Furthermore, it is burdened with public spending outlays, Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic, Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic, Montenegrin Premier Milo Djukanovic and National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic said.

They agreed that urgent systemic laws were necessary in order for foreign capital to find its way to the Yugoslav market now that the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were suspended.

Systemic laws, primarily in privatisation and market liberalisation, are also a basic precondition for Yugoslavia's reintegration in international financial institutions, they added. Without this reintegration, and without their capital, there can be no recovery, financial consolidation and further development for the Yugoslav economy, said a Yugoslav Government statement released after the meeting.

The officials said that, since the beginning of the year, industrial production in Yugoslavia had been on the rise, the national currency - the dinar - was stable, and the central hard currency reserves had been increased. However, they added, there has been a drop in foreign trade and prices are rising.