Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-03-28

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

28 March 1996

CONTENTS

[A] THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] SERBIAN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BILDT

[02] SHIGH REPRESENTATIVE BILDT EXPECTS BOSNIAN PROBLEMS TO BE SURMOUNTED

[03] SKONTIC UPHOLDS VIDENOV'S INITIATIVE ON BALKAN MINISTERIAL MEETING

[04] SYUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT ON COOPERATION WITH NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA

[05] SYUGOSLAVIA AND RUSSIA FOR PROMOTION OF BILATERAL COOPERATION

[06] SYUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT ROMANIA IN EARLY APRIL

[07] SSENIOR AUSTRIAN AND YUGOSLAV DIPLOMATS MEET IN VIENNA

[08] SCONFERENCE ON REGIONAL ARMS CONTROL BROACHES ON ESSENTIAL ISSUES

[09] SFRANCE TO BACK YUGOSLAVIA'S RETURN TO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

[B] SERBIA - NATIONAL DAY

[10] SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES FELICITATIONS ON NATIONAL DAY

[11] SERBIAN PRESIDENTIAL DECREE CREATES GENERALS OF POLICE

[C] WAR CRIMES AGAINST SERBS

[12] TWO U.N. RAPPORTEURS CRITICIZED FOR IGNORING CRIMES AGAINST SERBS

[D] BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

[13] BUHA SAYS EQUAL TREATMENT OF BOTH BOSNIAN ENTITIES IS KEY TO PEACE

[E] C O M M E N T A R Y

[14] CRIMINAL BECOMES WITNESS FOR HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[F] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[15] NEW YORK TIMES: NOBODY WANTS UNIFIED BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

[16] FRENCH RADIO REPLIES TO CROATIAN U.N. AMBASSADOR NOBILO

[A] THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] SERBIAN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BILDT

The world community should accelerate work on concrete financial help, which in turn should help along the repatriation of refugees and the consolidation of the overall situation in both the Serb and the Muslim-Croat entities in Bosnia, it was heard during the talk. This will intensify also preparations for the election of legal institutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, both sides said. They agreed that these institutions would normalise the situation, stabilise peace and create conditions for the process of confidence-building between the people in the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation to succeed.

Special stress was laid on the need for the local bodies and institutions as well as the competent international factors to assume full responsibility for the protection of the rights and freedoms of the people in Bosnia, especially the safety of person and property.

The meeting was attended by Milan Milutinovic, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[02] SHIGH REPRESENTATIVE BILDT EXPECTS BOSNIAN PROBLEMS TO BE SURMOUNTED

Speaking after a meeting with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bildt said that the parties concerned were maintaining continual dialogue to this end. Bildt said he was especially worried by the fact that not all prisoners had been released in Bosnia, which he said would influence the international community in its assistance of Bosnia's economic reconstruction.

He said that efforts were being made to create the best possible conditions in the parts of Sarajevo vacated by Serbs in order that those who might wish to return should have an opportunity to do so in the next few weeks.

[03] SKONTIC UPHOLDS VIDENOV'S INITIATIVE ON BALKAN MINISTERIAL MEETING

[04] SYUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT ON COOPERATION WITH NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA

The Government adopted a report on the talks between Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikola Sainovic and Russian Minister for Fuel and Energy Yuri Konstantinovich Shafranik. The Russian Federation is one of Yugoslavia's most important long-term partners in the field of energy resources supply, it was said in the talks. Measures were established for a further stimulation of cooperation between the two countries' businessmen and the implementation of the signed inter-governmental agreements and protocols.

The signing of agreements in the field of oil and natural gas and the forming of mixed Yugoslav-Russian companies were agreed upon.

[05] SYUGOSLAVIA AND RUSSIA FOR PROMOTION OF BILATERAL COOPERATION

[06] SYUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT ROMANIA IN EARLY APRIL

The inter-state agreement is planned to be signed when Romanian President Ion Iliescu visits Belgrade later in April.

[07] SSENIOR AUSTRIAN AND YUGOSLAV DIPLOMATS MEET IN VIENNA

These are the first high-level official talks between the two states to be held in the past three years.

[08] SCONFERENCE ON REGIONAL ARMS CONTROL BROACHES ON ESSENTIAL ISSUES

The principal aim of the arms talks, started on January 5 in the OSCE Vienna headquarters, is to reach a military balance between Balkan countries and ensure a lasting stabilisation of the situationin the region. Ambassador Djokic told Yugoslav Reporters in Vienna that the first drafts of the document are being examined at this round of the talks. The negotiating parties now have to determine areas of common ground as well as those where their stands differ, Djokic said. The sides will have the period until the next round of talks, scheduled in the second half of april, to clear issues that have remained unresolved in this phase.

These questions include the volume of the verification and means of carrying out inspections of military potentials as well as some other questions relatedto this, Djokic said. One of the disputed questions is whether personnel is included in the agreement on limiting five categories of arms, determined by the Dayton Accords. The OSCE role in the implementation of the agreement is also an important question regarding which there are some principled differences, Djokic said.

[09] SFRANCE TO BACK YUGOSLAVIA'S RETURN TO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Keller said that a project of mutual recognition by Belgrade and Skopje already existed and contained the definite formula of 'regulating the questions of continuity of current Yugoslavia.'

The resolution of these questions, Keller added, would make operational the already prepared economic contracts, especially in the domain of textiles, because facilities have already been agreed for the imports of Yugoslav-made textile goods by the E.U. countries.

He assessed that the Yugoslav and French economies had great possibilities to cooperate and many specificities of French enterprises corresponded well, particularly in the field of telecommunications, fast railways, highways, and the automotive industry.

[B] SERBIA - NATIONAL DAY

[10] SERBIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES FELICITATIONS ON NATIONAL DAY

On March 28, 1989, the Serbian Parliament passed constitutional amendments giving Serbia full sovereignty and attributes of state in all its territory, including the territories of its two provinces - Vojvodina in the north and Kosovo-Metohija in the south.

President Lilic said in his message that the celebration of Serbia's National Day this year was enjoyed in peace won for the entire Serbian nation. Serbia and Montenegro, within their common state of yugoslavia, have met all their obligations under the Dayton Peace Accord and have every right to expect full reintegration in the international political and financial community, Lilic added.

Prime Minister Kontic said that, owing to a policy of peace and national equality pursued in very difficult conditions, Yugoslavia had won affirmation as an important factor in the Balkans, and beyond, in Europe and the world.

Serbian Premier Marjanovic said that the Serbian people, owing to a wise and consistent policy of peace, had managed to win a place in the international community, an achievement to which Serbia's unity and stability had decisively contributed.

Montenegrin President Bulatovic said he was 'convinced that the time ahead will see strong and speedy economic development and a further promotion of democratic processes in Serbia and Yugoslavia.'

Col.-Gen. Perisic said that Serbian National Day had great and historic importance for the safeguarding of Serbian national being, state continuity, sovereignty and reputation in the international community.

Republika Srpska President Karadzic said that 'a united and strong Serbia is a guarantee of security not only for the people of Serbia and the other Serbs, but for the entire region of southern Europe as well.'

[11] SERBIAN PRESIDENTIAL DECREE CREATES GENERALS OF POLICE

Police forces in Yugoslavia had generals for some years after World War II, but then the ranks were allowed to lapse.

By Presidential Decree, Deputy Interior Minister Radovan Stojicic, 45, was made Colonel-General, and Chief of Police Vlastimir Djordjevic, 48, was made Lieutenant-General. Assistant Interior Minister Stojan Misic, 47, Assistant Chief of Public Security Marinko Kresoja, 41, Commander Special Forces Obrad Stevanovic, 43, Traffic Safety Police Chief Dragisa Dinic, 55, and Belgrade's Police Chief Petar Zekovic, 49, were made Major-Generals.

On the occasion of Serbian National Day, March 28, President Milosevic also granted amnesty to a certain number of prisoners.

[C] WAR CRIMES AGAINST SERBS

[12] TWO U.N. RAPPORTEURS CRITICIZED FOR IGNORING CRIMES AGAINST SERBS

Milosevic's letters to Bakr Ndiaye and Nigel Rodley came in reaction to their reports which include no mention of Serb victims in Bosnia and Krajina. The reports will be on the agenda of the next U.N. session in early April.

Milosevic criticized Ndiaye for declining to react or to take any measure in the case of massive crimes and killings of Serbs following Croatia's military offensives on the western, northern and southern parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina in May and August last year. Ndiaye had more than enough material for that, including Yugoslav Government reports and reports and statements by the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the UNHCR and Human Rights Rapporteur Elisabeth Rehn.

Such an attitute toward Serb victims can only encourage the perpetrators of those crimes who have not been punished, Milosevic said.

He made the same criticism of Rodley, adding that the Yugoslav Government wanted an urgent action to put to an end such unpunished crimes against Serbs.

The two letters circulated as official documents at Wednesday's 52nd Session of the Human Rights Commission at the U.N. Headquarters in Geneva.

[D] BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

[13] BUHA SAYS EQUAL TREATMENT OF BOTH BOSNIAN ENTITIES IS KEY TO PEACE

Buha and Hopkinson discussed the problem of pows, elections and other questions related to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement.

Buha said after the meeting that Hopkins had been informed that there might be big problems if the Bosnian elections were organized in keeping with the Dayton Agreement. Buha said that under the Agreement, the voters should vote in the municipalities they lived in before the war, which might cause new migrations from the Republika Srpska towards the Muslim-Croat Federation and vice versa.

The Serb side informed Hopkinson about the inconsistency on the part of some members of the international community, primarily the U.S., which supported the arming and training of the Muslim-Croat Federal Army during a Conference on Disarmament in the Balkans in Vienna.

Hopkinson said he was pleased with the meeting with the Bosnian Serb Government officials. He expressed hope that such contacts would be held in future in order to ensure a successful implementation of the Dayton Agreement.

[E] C O M M E N T A R Y

[14] CRIMINAL BECOMES WITNESS FOR HAGUE TRIBUNAL

Dr Bosanac became the Director of Vukovar Hospital in July 1991, just before the beginning of Croatia's war of secession from former Yugoslavia. The euphoria of Croatian nationalism was at its highest then, and Dr Vesna Bosanac was appointed Hospital Director by the nationalist Croatian Democratic Community in Zagreb and the former director, Serb Rade Popovic, was dismissed without any explanation.

The crimes committed by Dr Bosanac against Serb civilians and JNA troops who at the time were being treated in Vukovar Hospital are grave and monstrous, the daily said. Witnesses who managed to escape the hospital run by Dr Vesna Bosanac, speak today about her. She was not alone, witnesses say. She had the support of Dr.Juraj Njavro, a certain Dr. Zujovic from Zagreb, Dr. Kratofil from Osijek and paramedic Marko Mandic. The Vukovar Hospital served as a warehouse for ammunition so that at one time there were 300 guns in the x-ray room.

Dr Bosanac and her team also helped Tudjman's troops kill Serbs outside the hospital. One of the witnesses said he saw Tudjman's troops enter the hospital with snipers, climb the roof, and shoot at Serbs and JNA troops.

When it was finally clear that Tudjman's guard would be defeated in Vukovar, around two hundred members of Croatia's Interior Ministry and of the National Guard, criminals from Vukovar, put on white hospital coats and tried to get out of the city as 'hospital staff'. The organizer of the evacuation was Dr Bosanac and Dr Njavro, Dnevnik said.

[F] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[15] NEW YORK TIMES: NOBODY WANTS UNIFIED BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Ever since the Dayton summit, however, it has been increasingly obvious that Bosnia-Herzegovina is progressing not towards a unified state, but rather towards gradual disintegration, Yhe New York Times said.

In substantiation, the daily listed Serbs' exodus from Sarajevo, Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic's ties with Iran, and insoluble tensions inside the Muslim-Croat Federation, with the federal partners unable to agree even about a common flag. The daily further said that there was not a true wish either on the side of the warring parties to live in a common state, or on the side of the international community to spend money to maintain an integral Bosnia-Herzegovina by force.

The only thing that the West is willing to pay for is for NATO to prevent further bloodshed there and keep the belligerents apart, added the commentary by The New York Times' Thomas Freedman.

The best indication that Bosnia is not consolidating the unification process is that some key diplomats, who had been expected to work to preserve a single Bosnia-Herzegovina, have left, the daily said. The first to leave was U.S. Chief Negotiator for former Yugoslavia Richard Holbrooke, followed by his successor Robert Galucci, and now the international community's High Representative, Sweden's Carl Bildt, too, has announced his intention of leaving.

[16] FRENCH RADIO REPLIES TO CROATIAN U.N. AMBASSADOR NOBILO

Nobilo, in a special announcement for the general public on Monday, supported his assertion by what the Radio called a dizzying statistics on comparing crime in the U.S. and Croatia. Nobilo, in his statement, compared data by a humanitarian organization, according to which 67 cases of looting, physical assaults and kilings were registered in Krajina over the last two months, with the figures of similar crimes in New York, Wasington and Miami.

The Radio singled out parts of the same report by the humanitarian organization, saying that the Serbs remaining in Krajina after Croatia's invasion were living in a hostile environment and their physical security was uncertain.

The French Radio said in conclusion that Nobilo's statement suffered from the chronic disease of Croatian policy - comparing Croatia with bad rather than good examples in the world. Hence the war crimes committed by Croats, as Nobilo alleged, were not to be questioned, because crimes have been carried out also by Englishmen, Frenchmen and Americans themselves. .