Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-06-07

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES: NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS IN THE REGION

[02] CONSULAR SECTION AT YUGOSLAV BUREAU IN ZAGREB BEGINS WORK ON JUNE 15

[03] SIXTY SERBS, FORMER CROATIAN PRISONERS, ARRIVE IN BELGRADE

[04] FIRST ORGANIZED RETURN OF REFUGEES TO CROATIA

[05] BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENT SPEAKER RECEIVES WORLD ENVOY DE LAPRESLE

[06] SERBS SEEK EXTENSION OF UNTAES MANDATE FOR ANOTHER YEAR

[07] MUSLIMS IN SARAJEVO HARASS SERBS, WRITES WASHINGTON POST

[01] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES: NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS IN THE REGION

In an interview to the Austrian journal Monitor and the Belgrade journal Review of International Affairs, Jovanovic pointed out that Yugoslavia had already in its constitutional declaration adopted on Apr. 27, 1992, expressed full respect of the rights and interests of newly formed states in the territory of former Yugoslavia, and confirmed that it has no territorial aspirations toward any sides.

The regulation of the many outstanding problems formed with the break-up of the former common state is possible only through political talks, the patient building of confidence and understanding, on the principles of good-neighborliness, Jovanovic said.

As normalization of relations is a two-way process, it is clear that it is expected that the other partners, on these bases, also make full contributions, he said.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia sees mutual respect, confidence and cooperation of all balkan countries on the grounds of equality and mutual interest, non-interference in internal affairs, as the foundation principles on which peace, stabilityand goodneighborliness in the Balkans is built. He said.

Jovanovic assessed the inclusion of the Balkans in European integration processes would be possible only through 'greater mutual cooperation, closeness, strengthening of confidence, overcoming all open issues through talks, and the intensification of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the region.

Jovanovic said Yugoslavia would continue to oppose any partial approach in the treatment of issues of vital interest for security, peace and stability in the Balkans.

The crisis in former Yugoslavia best shows how interference and the influence of outside balkan factors, revival of old and forming of new spheres of influence in the region, which as a rule lies behind the different axes and transversals, can have tragic effects on the entire region, Jovanovic said.

Asked by Monitor reporters how the Yugoslav government intends to solve the alleged problem of the Kosovo and Metohija province, Jovanovic said this was an internal affair of Serbia and Yugoslavia which should be resolved through dialogue of official state representatives and representatives of the Albanian national minority.

Jovanovic said the Albanian national minority in Yugoslavia enjoys all rights, which eables ethnic Albanians to preserve their national and cultural identity. They refuse to use these rights, however, in order to show that they are allegedly threatened and fulfil the separatist aspirations, he said.

Jovanovic welcomed the unequivocal stand of the international community that Kosovo and Metohija is an integral part of the republic of Serbia.

We expect the community in future even more resolutely to use its influence on ethnic albanians to accept dialogue and a life together for the stabilization of the situation in Kosovo and elsewhere in the region, jovanovic said.

The Yugoslav authorities on several occasions proposed dialogue on all open issues, but not secession, to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, but they always flatly refused.

[02] CONSULAR SECTION AT YUGOSLAV BUREAU IN ZAGREB BEGINS WORK ON JUNE 15

The Yugoslav Bureau will deal with the protection of the interests of Yugoslavia, its natural and juristic persons, will issue travel papers to Yugoslav citizens and visas to foreigners, protect the interests of Yugoslav natural and juristic persons in the exercise of their inheritance rights and deliver court and other acts, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said.

Belgrade has called for a meeting of Foreign Ministry, police, and customs officials of the two countries to be held in the second half of June with a view to defining a common practice of reciprocity and facilitating conditions for the crossing of the common border.

[03] SIXTY SERBS, FORMER CROATIAN PRISONERS, ARRIVE IN BELGRADE

They were arrested during Croatia's operation Storm in August 1995, when more than 250,000 Serbs fled the northern and southern parts of U.N.-protected Serb Krajina.

Those who wanted to speak said that they had experienced worst maltreatments in the prison in Karlovac, about 50 km southwest of Zagreb. The majority of the group did not wish to speak in fear of retaliation against the Serbs who remained in Croatian prisons.

President of the Yugoslav government's Commission for Humanitarian Issues and Missing Persons Pavle Todorovic, who welcomed the group, said he was dissatisfied because more than 250 Serbs were still in Croatian prisons.

The Croatian side constantly politicizes the problems of prisoners and missing persons, todorovic said and added that the international community would have to put pressure on the Zagreb regime to fulfil Basic humanitarian law obligations, the Yugoslav Information Secretariat said in a statement.

[04] FIRST ORGANIZED RETURN OF REFUGEES TO CROATIA

The refugees will be reunited with their families in Zagreb, Knin, Rijeka anbd Vinkovci.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[05] BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENT SPEAKER RECEIVES WORLD ENVOY DE LAPRESLE

Republika Srpska Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha, who attended the meeting, told reporters that the Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Muslim-Croat Federation could not agree on what should be the subject of international arbitration in the case of Brcko. Republika Srpska officials insist that, under the Dayton peace accord, international arbitration can be sought only for the matter of widening the corridor at Brcko. The Government said that the Muslim-Croat Federation, on the other hand, was seeking arbitration for the town of Brcko itself, which has been under Bosnian Serb control since war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 1992. Buha said that de Lepresle had been asked to clarify the matters of freedom of movement and of the arming of the Bosnian Muslim army by the United States. Buha said it was untenable that the freedom of movement should be guaranteed while the Muslim-Croat Federation was drawing up lists of war criminals.

SREM - BARANJA REGION

[06] SERBS SEEK EXTENSION OF UNTAES MANDATE FOR ANOTHER YEAR

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[07] MUSLIMS IN SARAJEVO HARASS SERBS, WRITES WASHINGTON POST

In a report from Sarajevo, the newspaper said that gangs of Bosnian Muslims, with the tacit and active support of the local authorities, were harassing, beating up and evicting from homes the remaining Serbs.

The daily said that U.N. police officials in Sarajevo had received about 40 complaints of harassment and persecution of Serbs, and that the majority of them were true, but that the Muslim authorities had not acted on them and that no arrests had been made.

Muslim police have even been involved in some of the operations of harassment and intimidation of Serbs, the daily quoted foreign observers as saying.

Foreign diplomats and observers condemn the Muslim government's passivity and complicity in these operations, but none of the foreign guarantors of peace has done anything to put an end to this practice, the Washington Post said.

It quoted a European official as saying that the Muslim Government was in fact working to make the Serbs leave Sarajevo.

This, according to the official, would clear the way for the Government in the next elections, as it would leave in the city only Muslim voters sympathetic to the ruling party of Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic.

The newspaper said that about 50,000 Serbs had left the Sarajevo surburbs since the signing of the Dayton accords late in 1995 and the unification of the city under the rule of the Muslim-Croat Federation, and that barely 7,000 Serbs remained.

The census of 1991 showed Sarajevo to have more than 157,000 Serbs, who accounted for 29.9% of the population.

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