Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-03-15

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

15 March 1996

CONTENTS

[A] YUGOSLAVIA - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

[01] GOVERNMENT MIGHT ABOLISH VISAS WITH INTERESTED STATES

[B] HUMAN RIGHTS: U.N. - YUGOSLAVIA

[02] SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES ELISABETH REHN

[C] YUGOSLAVIA - THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[03] YUGOSLAVIA AND TRIBUNAL ENTER A NEW COOPERATION PHASE

[D] SARAJEVO SERBS

[04] SERBS CONTINUALLY TERRORISED BY SARAJEVO MAFIA

[E] O P I N I O N S

[05] CONFERENCE ON ARMING MUSLIMS IN BOSNIA

[06] FORMER MEDIATOR OVEN SAYS BOTH EUROPE, U.S. ERRED

[A] YUGOSLAVIA - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

[01] GOVERNMENT MIGHT ABOLISH VISAS WITH INTERESTED STATES

Offers to this effect will be sent to Greece, Poland, Russia and Slovakia, which have already been approached in this connection, a Government statement said.

States that should not be willing to abolish visas for all travel papers will be offered to do so only for diplomatic and service passports, and for private passports for business trips. States unwilling to abolish visas for any type of travel papers will be made an offer of reciprocal measures for simplifying and speeding up visa issuing procedures. Visas with individual countries will be abolished unilaterally if such a move should be in the direct interest of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Government said. With a view to improving overall relations and cooperation in the Balkans, the Government adopted a decision obviating the need for Yugoslav citizens travelling to Albania to have an exit visa.

[B] HUMAN RIGHTS: U.N. - YUGOSLAVIA

[02] SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES ELISABETH REHN

The two sides agreed on the importance of continued efforts and the impartiality of international organizations and agencies, particularly those stemming from the United Nations, in regard to respecting human rights in the former Yugoslavia, especially in dealing with the problem of refugees.

Yugoslavia is consistently supporting these activities and will continue its successful cooperation with Rehn's team, said the statement.

[C] YUGOSLAVIA - THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[03] YUGOSLAVIA AND TRIBUNAL ENTER A NEW COOPERATION PHASE

'Yugoslavia has changed its stand towards the Hague Tribunal and expressed readiness for cooperation,' Deputy Chief Prosecutor Graham Blewitt said at a news conference and announced that the Tribunal would soon open an office in Belgrade with Dejan Mihov of Bulgaria as liaison officer.

Blewitt, who is leading a tribunal delegation to Yugoslavia, said that the court would shortly issue indictments against perpetrators of crimes against Serbs. Many crimes have been committed against the Serbs but the Tribunal had so far been unable to gather evidence on this, Blewitt told reporters. He said that his discussions over the past four days with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic and representatives of the Federal Justice Ministry dealt with war crimes trials in Yugoslavia but declined to give any details saying the talks were confidential.

[D] SARAJEVO SERBS

[04] SERBS CONTINUALLY TERRORISED BY SARAJEVO MAFIA

Le Monde wrote that the members of the mafia from the old part of Sarajevo were advancing in full force seeking stores or flats they can seize, i.e. ways of getting rich fast. 'The best houses have already been plundered by the powerful' a new Muslim arrival said sitting on a German-made car. 'They have been coming to Ilidza during the past month and buying Serb houses at a trifle price.'

The powerful in question are 'leaders of the Muslim ruling Democratic Action Party, members of government and heads of big Sarajevo firms' Le Monde said. 'Ethnic division' in Sarajevo shows that the Dayton accord has really failed, Le Monde wrote while Liberation said that 'unified Sarajevo' in fact meant a 'final split' of the peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

[E] O P I N I O N S

[05] CONFERENCE ON ARMING MUSLIMS IN BOSNIA

This could present the somewhat surprisingly acute yet unanimous reaction by representatives of nearly all the european powers to the U.S. intentions to have the Muslim army armed in order to 'establish a balance' of power and hence, allegedly, guarantee a more lasting peace in Bosnia.

Such a balance of power as could be reached through arming and training the army of the Muslim-Croat federation (MHF) is the subject matter of a conference gathering together forty countries in Ankara on Thursday.

An equilibrium of fear certainly is something that had been functioning during the cold war period - but under the different circumstances. That was an extorted balance which in no way whatsoever can work as a pattern applicable to Bosnia.

If the ultimate goal is a multi-ethnic community within which its two entities - the Serb and the Muslim-Croat - would strive for abating mutual tensions and for cooperation, especially on the economic plane, no one in his right mind would believe that this goal was attainable by arming either side.

American analysts almost invariably explain that this means the administration's concession to the Congress lobby which is inclined to the Muslim Government in Sarajevo. This explanation may be right but insufficient to be accepted.

Concerned here is a possibly perilous development from the arming and training one of the parties to the just discontinued civil war in Bosnia. The shift to a durable peace, after the atrocious warfare, depends in the first place on the absolutely equal relationship towards all the sides that had been warring until recently.

Such moves simply have to stir up serious concern as may be seen from German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel's asserting he could not understand that the U.S. does have money for arms but not does not have money for the construction of the devastated country.

Bearing in mind that Germany is the closest American ally in Europe, one may infer how firm and repelling is the attitude of the European countries towards the moves that are potentially capable of rekindling the conflict in the immediate vicinity of the European states.

France has risen against the U.S. ideas, as its Foreign Ministry representative specified that his country was giving priority to the reconstruction and development, not to the arming of the crisis region.

Moscow refused to participate in the Ankara conference which should promote the idea of arming and training and raise 800 million dollars planned for the cost of the entire project.

Russia simultaneously decided to lift the embargo on arms deliveries to the area of former Yugoslavia, which was interpreted as the warning that Moscow would not be indifferent and would not so easily cede the arms market to its western competitors.

At the American Congress, dilemmas do not cease as regards the Sarajevo Muslim Government's stance towards the sojourn of Iranian instructors and mujaheddin. The republican leader Bob Dole, who advocates military assistance to be extended to the MHF, says that the presence of Iranian intelligence members and soldiers in Bosnia is jeopardizing the future of this state as a democratic and pluralist state in Europe.

In the end, the question remains as to what influence will be exerted by the Ankara conference and its results on the disarmament talks now underway in Vienna, where the until yesterday confronted sides are negotiating on the confidence buildup measures and disarmament, including reductions of their military potentials down to the proportions foreseen by the Dayton peace agreement.

For Bosnia, the Vienna negotiations account for a lengthier and more painful, but a more certain, road when the safeguarding of a lasting peace is concerned. Such a peace is the best interest not only of Bosnia but also of the entire region and, naturally, of Europe as a whole. (by diplomatic editor Z.Jevdjovic)

[06] FORMER MEDIATOR OVEN SAYS BOTH EUROPE, U.S. ERRED

Owen was speaking at a promotion of the German edition of his book. What happened in the former yugoslavia is a great lesson for all, Owen said.

Speaking about the recognition of former Yugoslav republics, Owen cautiously said that he did not believe that the recognition of Slovenia and Croatia had been so destructive, but that it was a big mistake that this model was later applied to other republics, primarily Bosnia-Herzegovina.