Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-06-10

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] SERBIAN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC - INTERVIEW TO DER SPIEGEL

[02] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES DINI, SANTER

[03] MILUTINOVIC: NEW PAGE IN YUGOSLAVIA'S RELATIONS WITH E.U.

[04] SANTER: EX-YUGOSLAVIA SHOULD BECOME AREA OF STABILITY, PROSPERITY

[05] DINI: YUGOSLAVIA CHIEF FORCE IN MAKING PEACE AGREEMENT

[06] DINI: IT IS TIME FOR ASSESSMENT OF DAYTON AGREEMENT RESULTS

[07] BULAJIC: DIPLOMACY AT SERVICE OF ECONOMY

[08] PLAVSIC: REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS COMMITTED TO DAYTON ACCORD

[09] BOSNIAN SERB PRIME MINISTER: NO POSTPONEMENT OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONS

[10] UNHCR CONCERNED ABOUT HARASSMENT OF SERBS IN SARAJEVO

[11] U.N. SPOKESWOMAN SAYS SARAJEVO SERBS ARE BEING HARASSED

[12] NORWEGIAN DIPLOMAT SAYS WESTERN MEDIA WRONGED THE SERBS

[13] AKASHI'S STATEMENT ON MARKALE PLACE

[01] SERBIAN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC - INTERVIEW TO DER SPIEGEL

Regarding relations with Germany, the Serbian President said that Germany could be a valuable ally of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, especially in preserving the peace. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Germany can establish highly diverse economic, cultural and political cooperation, he added.

Milosevic said that the German press had in recent years published a lot of false information about developments in former Yugoslavia and biased interpretations of them, which had gone especially to the detriment of Serbia. Serbia has been pictured as the only or at least the main cause of war in former Yugoslavia, but this is not so, he said.

He went on to say that the history that weighed on the two countries must remain in the past, and not be repeated either for Serbia or for Germany. They are both European nations and in the same boat on this continent, and the responsibility of the strong and the rich nations lies in helping the others, not in imposing their own life-styles on them, he stressed.

Milosevic commented on the agreement struck with German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel in Belgrade in May about the repatriation of 120,000 asylum-seekers to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from Germany by end 1997. In this context, he said that all young people who had refused to respond to the army call-up in the early 1990's had been amnestied a few months ago and were free to return. He said, however, that this pertained only to citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and not to all those frauds who thought they would fare better in Germany if they posed as victims of persecution by 'the Serbian dictatorship.' If Germany has wasted money on them, it is not to be pitied, because the authorities must have known quite well that nobody has been driven out of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that nobody has had to run away from any kind of pressure or terror, he added.

Yugoslavia holds no political prisoners, unless those who shoot at police officers and are found in possession of large quantities of fire arms for army use, explosives, ammunitions and the like should be considered as such, Milosevic said. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic said that from the outset of the Yugoslav crisis he was for keeping the former federation, which he believed to be in the interest of all the peoples who lived in the area, and when despite everything clashes broke out he was for their peaceful settlement.

Milosevic said the Dayton Peace Agreement was being successfully implemented first of all because it took into account the formula of equality of all three peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina which he himself had always advocated.

'The war is over, that is clear to everyone,' ilosevic said and added 'the people want peace'. Lasting and consolidated peace in Bosnia depends on treating equally the interests of the Muslims, the Serbs and the Croats, Milosevic said. 'An equal stand towards the three peoples is the key to peace in Bosnia' he said.

He said that war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was not attributable to an individual or even a single people and stressed that 'responsiblity for the war is borne by all three peoples, and especially great responsiblity is carried by some members of the international community'. 'War in Bosnia was waged between three peoples and each of these three peoples had ideologists of war. Each of these ideologists was prodded from outside Bosnia,' Milosevic said.

Speaking about the large number of victims and refugees caused by the conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia Milosevic said that civil war was not worth the price of a single life.

Regarding his role in the peace process the Serbian President said he was doing everything to contribute to it adding that the United States and Europe were justified in looking upon him as an important partner.

Serbian President views as important the fact that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has survived as a multi-ethnic state and has avoided inter-ethnic strife. Milosevic said that this was a major achievement in a situation where a large-scale war was flaming in the Balkans.

Speaking about the media campaign waged against Yugoslavia all through the crisis years, he said that nobody could now deny that those who had fought and won a multi-ethnic state - the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - had been branded as nationalists.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was from the start branded even as the aggressor and exposed to brutal sanctions at the hands of the international community, he added. Meanwhile, Milosevic said, those who seceded and created ethnically pure and nationalistic states have been lauded as democrats and have received support and recognition from the international community.

The aggressive nationalism and the creation of ethnically pure states, or rather statelets, with the help of the international commumnity, cannot have anything in common with anything good, with any positive values at the close of the 20th century, he added.

He said he firmly believed that nobody could deny in the future that Europe had acted against its own best interests in the Yugoslav crisis.

Asked what the war had brought the Serbian nation, Milosevic said that it must be borne in mind that the war had been imposed on the Serbs outside Serbia. The Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina had been for decades one of the Republic's three constituent nations under the Republic's Constitution, he said. They refused, therefore, to be stripped over night of the right to decide about their republic and become second-rate citizens in some jamahiriyah, he said. In this context, he stressed that the war in the lands of former Yugoslavia had bypassed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and that the Bosnian Serbs had achieved the Republika Srpska, their entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Serbian president stressed that he considered the question of the Southern Province of Kosovo and Metohija to be an internal affair of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which shall not be internationalised. 'I have seen... that Germany, through a public statement of your Minister Kinkel, as well as the British, the Americans, the French, the Russians and others also consider this to be our internal affair.'

Emphasising that 'Albanians in Yugoslavia are clearly a minority', Milosevic said he did not believe that anywhere in the world a national minority enjoyed the rights of the Albanian minority in Serbia. 'Albanians have their schools, radio and television programmes, at least 20 papers and magazines which are extremely critical, some of them have even published very gross insults, but not a single edition of these papers has ever been banned. Albanians here are free and live in a free land.' Serbian president does not see any of the leaders in the (Bosnian Serb State) Republika Srpska in Pale as opposing the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord for Bosnia-Herzegovina. He said that the Republika Srpska's acting President Biljana Plavsic had recently assured him of absolute willingness to see the Dayton Accord implemented.

Expressing optimism about further implementation of the Accord, Milosevic said he attached the greatest importance to the upcoming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The elections will set up legal democratic institutions in the two entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina - the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation - and their common bodies of power, he explained. Once this is done, there can be talk of a normalisation in the region and of return to day-to-day civilian life, he added.

Milosevic said he was sure that the vast majority of people on the Serb side, as well as on the Muslim and the Croat sides, wanted peace, and that he expected the results of the elections to reflect this choice.

As for the repatriation of refugees and displaced persons, he Said he was sure that their return was possible. Everybody, including the international community, is working to help create conditions for the return of refugees that will be based on personal and legal security and security of property, Milosevic stressed. He said that the plan for the withdrawal of the IFOR could prove quite realistic if the civilian part of the peace accord were successfully implemented. Of course, he added, this on condition that nobody should trump up reasons for delaying the elections beyond mid-September. In this context, Milosevic said he was certain that the Dayton Accord would be successfully implemented and that there would be no further need for international troops.

Serbian president said that intensive work was underway for the full normalisation of relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia. He expressed the conviction that the normalisation of relations between Yugosalvia and Croatia would pave the way for the return of 230,000 Serbs expelled last year from the Republic of Serb Krajina. The danger of conflict breaking out between Serbs and Croats in Bosnia will finally be eliminated with the normalisation of relations between Yugoslavia and Croatia, Milosevic said adding that 'neither the Serb nor the Croat side in Bosnia can in that case ignore the categoric positions of Belgrade and Zagreb'. Furthermore, Belgrade and Zagreb are the best guarantors to the Muslim side in Bosnia-Herzegovina that no one will attack them.

'The only possibility left would be for the Muslims to wage war on themsleves, which I do not believe they will do, or to wage war alone on Serbs or Croats - which would be equal to suicide,' Milosevic said.

Serbian president said that it was clear from the conduct of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that it is a 'political and not a legal institution'. Emphasising that there was no innocent party in the three-sided civil war in Bosnia, Milosevic said 'justice can only be done if the same standards apply to all,' adding that 'unfortunately, the work of the Tribunal in the Hague has until now offered no basis for such an impression.'

Milosevic said it was Serbia's stand that all war criminals should answer for their crimes and said that 'whoever is responsible for (war crimes) in Serbian territory will be brought to justice.' 'I do not beleive that trials against war criminals from Serbia, if there are to be any, should take place outside Serbia,' Milosevic said, noting that Serbia started its first war crimes trials two years ago. He also said that in the country's Criminal Law war crimes are considered as the gravest criminal acts liable to be punished by death.

[02] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES DINI, SANTER

It was heard that positive results have been registered in the hitherto implementation of the peace plan for Bosnia, which makes a good basis for continuing the successful course and comprehensive realization of duties stemming from the Dayton Agreement.

A priority in this context is to prepare the forthcoming elections, whose holding will undoubtedly create conditions for an overall stabilization of the situation and relations in the territory of former hostilities.

Both sides in the talks voiced expectation that the sides to the agreement and the involved international factors will show cooperativeness in fulfilling this task, so that the elections could be organized in keeping with the agreement and within the given time.

It was heard that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the European Union have a common interest in improving cooperation, both bilateral with E.U. member-countries and with the E.U. as a whole.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia strives toward equal participation in current European intergration processes and considers a development of its relations with E.U. countries one of its top foreign policy priorities.

The two sides agreed that the full normalization of relations between Yugoslavia and E.U. member-states is the best possible contribution to that effect.

The talks were also attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic, Italian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Francesco Bascone, Head of the E.U. Mission in Belgrade Michal Alan Graham and Yugoslav Ambassador to the E.U. Dragoslav Jovanovic.

[03] MILUTINOVIC: NEW PAGE IN YUGOSLAVIA'S RELATIONS WITH E.U.

'We especially tackled the relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the E.U. as an institution' in addition to questions relating to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, Milutinovic said after talks between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the E.U. delegation.

'We fell confident that the E.U. will urge a speedy and complete reintegration of Yugoslavia into all international forums and organizations,' he said, adding that it would stimulate the peace process and a stabilization of the overall economic and democratic process in this part of Europe.

Yugoslavia expects the E.U. to include it in the general scheme of preferentials and the PHARE programme and to open the E.U. market for products from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Foreign Minister said.

Both sides positively assessed hitherto results in the implementation of the Peace Agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the Erdut Agreement between Zagreb and Serbs in the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem on peaceful settlement of their dispute, to which Yugoslavia has given and continues to give an important contribution, Milutinovic said. 'The E.U. can support the orientation of countries in this region to strengthen cooperation,' Milutinovic said, adding that Yugoslavia had a significant role in that respect.

The two sides agreed that it is now most important to speed up preparations for free elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to secure the freedom of movement to all citizens, to ensure a free return of refugees and equal treatment in the media, Milutinovic said. He said both sides had agreed that help from international factors was needed to achieve all this.

[04] SANTER: EX-YUGOSLAVIA SHOULD BECOME AREA OF STABILITY, PROSPERITY

This is also very important to the E.U. because its own stability also partially depends on stability here, said Santer, who was visiting Belgrade with President of the E.U. Council of Ministers Lamberto Dini.

After five years, a time has come to surmount confrontations and reach a period of cooperation, and that is why a normalization of relations is now taking place, Santer said after talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

He said that, despite awareness of the existing problems in the peace efforts, there is a wish to do everything to secure successful economic and commercial ties in the future. He said he would inform the Ministerial Council about all the E.U. delegation had heard during its visit to the former Yugoslavia, and expressed hope that a period of cooperation lies ahead, both inside the region and with the E.U. countries.

[05] DINI: YUGOSLAVIA CHIEF FORCE IN MAKING PEACE AGREEMENT

The E.U. still counts on Yugoslavia's constructive role in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, Dini said, adding that talks with Milosevic had been very constructive. He said the E.U. delegation fully agreed with Milosevic on the need for holding elections in Bosnia by September 14 and fore stablishing new legitimate institutions of government.

Yugoslavia's progress after the period of sanctions (imposed in May 1992 and suspended in November last year) will enable a full normalization of its ties with the E.U. in the area of tariffs, preferential agreements and trade, Dini said. He said this was where he saw a good prospect for Yugoslavia and its significant contribution to the development of the entire region, as well as to the E.U.

[06] DINI: IT IS TIME FOR ASSESSMENT OF DAYTON AGREEMENT RESULTS

He said it was especially important to continue preparations for holding elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina as scheduled by Dayton, by mid-September this year at the latest. He added there were still problems regarding the freedom of movement and the return of refugees to their homes but explained it was unrealistic to expect refugees to return in a few months and said the process would last longer.

The meeting due to be held next week in Florence, which will be attended by Foreign Minsiters of E.U. member countries and of countries from the former Yugoslavia, will make the final decision about Bosnia elections, assess results of the half-year implementation of the agreement and determine further steps to be taken.

Dini said that the process of military and political stabilisation in Bosnia should go paralelly with the process of reconstruction and economic normalisation.

Regarding doubts expressed about the signing of the arms control agreement in Oslo ahead of the Florence meeting Dini said he was sure a solution would be found and that everything would be completed according to a determined plan regardless of the Muslim side's last minute refusal to accept the proposed agreement.

Concerning the stand towards Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic Dini said stabilisation in the area must go ahead independently of the fate of the two leaders whose extradition is demanded by the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal.

European Commission President Jacques Santer, who was in Belgrade together with Dini, said the aim of the visit to Belgrade was to determine the present situation and prospects for establishing relations between countries in the region and eu member countries in the future. In that respect Santer stressed E.U.'s regional approach in the settlement of problems in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. He explained this meant that first of all countries in the area should promote stability and fulfill criteria for the respect of some of the basic values observed in all E.U. countries.

He said this was most of all related to the question of human rights.

[07] BULAJIC: DIPLOMACY AT SERVICE OF ECONOMY

The motto of many diplomacies around the globe is: above all interests and only after that friendship, the daily said, adding that Bulajic attended a recent international meeting held in Bratislava dubbed 'economic dimension of diplomacy.'

Bulajic said that the meeting, which was attended by Foreign Ministry officials from 52 states, pointed to the fact that overall stability could be achieved only through developed relations between states - within the World Trade Organizations and regional integrations.

Transition countries which face many economic problems are particularly interested in integration, Bulajic said, adding that international organizations had not sufficiently helped them.

The E.U. recommends to central, eastern and southeastern European countries the creation of mutual ties and cooperation in line with the standards of the World Trade Organization. The E.U. maintains that these countries should join regional and subregional integrations, the central European free trade zone, the Black Sea economic cooperation.

Speaking about Balkan economic cooperation, Bulajic said that sanctions had prevented Yugoslavia from taking part in regional integration but that proposals have been made for its admission to some of these associations.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

[08] PLAVSIC: REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS COMMITTED TO DAYTON ACCORD

The Dayton Accord is binding on and is being consistently implemented by the Republika Srpska, and problems in its application should be sought on the other side, Plavsic said. The implementation of the Accord must not be jeopardised from any side, she added.

Speaking about the upcoming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in its two entities - the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation - Plavsic said that the authorities in the Serb part were quite ready for the vote. Difficulties about the elections could emerge only in the Federation, because the federal partners -- muslims and croats - have not settled their mutual relations, Plavsic said.

[09] BOSNIAN SERB PRIME MINISTER: NO POSTPONEMENT OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONS

[10] UNHCR CONCERNED ABOUT HARASSMENT OF SERBS IN SARAJEVO

Speaking in a news conference in Banjaluka, Nyberg said Serbs were getting beaten up in the street. He said Sarajevo police had done nothing to protect Serbs, which he said was impermissible because it was the Sarajevo Government's duty to stop violence and protect all citizens regardless of their ethnic origin.

Spokesman of the IFOR Command in Sector Northwest, British Lieutenant Colonel Paul Brook, said the past week had been peaceful. He said in cooperation with Bosnia's parties, their ammunition dumps and barracks were inspected during the week, and said a small quantity of anti-aircraft weapons that should have been placed elsewhere had been confiscated.

Brook said in addition to communications, the power grid and health care facilities, IFOR units were also engaged in the repair of instruments and runways at Banjaluka airport so that civilian air traffic might resume in three weeks' time.

Spokesman of the OEBS Thomas Miglierina told reporters that the registration of voters had begun in Celinac and Kotor-Varas near Banjaluka. Miglierina said the setting up of local electoral commissions in the Republika Srpska was going on a faster pace than in Bosnia's other entity, the Moslem-Croat Federation.

The registration of parties that want to participate in Bosnia's elections, which is to end by June 14, has fallen behind schedule, he said and added that some parties appeared to be waiting for the last minute to register.

Spokesman of the International Police Task Force in Sector Southwest, Alun Roberts, described as successful activity by mixed police patrols. More serious problems have only been encountered in the area of Livno, a Croat-held town in the southwest of the Moslem-Croat Federation, where mixed police patrols are yet to be set up, he said. Roberts also referred to two cases of expulsion from Banjaluka, but refused to make further comment. He said the public would be informed about the matter once an investigation into the cases had been completed.

[11] U.N. SPOKESWOMAN SAYS SARAJEVO SERBS ARE BEING HARASSED

Speaking about the freedom of movement and repatriation of refugees, Manuel said that this was not being implemented according to plans and that although no visible lines separated ethnic communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a whole wall of other things separated them.

The demilitarization of Eastern Slavonia proceeds well, Manuel said.

According to the interpretation of a force for the implementation of the U.N. transitional administration of Eastern Slavonia mission, the Serb-Croatian agreement on a peaceful settlement of the regional problem does not envisage Serb autonomy in the region, she said.

Coordinator of the UNHCR for the former Yugoslavia Rene Vanrooyen praised Yugoslavia for assisting refugees and the Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro for a large number of projects aimed at making them capable of supporting themselves. He expressed belief that a mass repatriation would not be possible, especially for refugees from Croatia, because only about 6,000 requests for the return have been approved so far.

O P I N I O N S

[12] NORWEGIAN DIPLOMAT SAYS WESTERN MEDIA WRONGED THE SERBS

The former U.N. peace mediator in ex-Yugoslavia said during a debate on media coverage of the civil war in the area that Muslims in Bosnia-Hezregovina were the most skillful in their use of the media which served to create a picture of Sarajevo as a Muslim town exposed to Serb aggression.

Eide, the Assistant of the former Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia Thorvald Stoltenberg of Norway, said that some 90 percent of the news reports from Bosnia-Herzegovina were launched from the Muslim side and only 10 percent from the Serb side.

During the debate in the town of Bergen Norwegian judge Hanesofie Greve agreeed with Ambassador Eide on the key role played by western media. The media did a unique job in that conflict, said greve who was member of the U.N. Commission for gathering material on war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[13] AKASHI'S STATEMENT ON MARKALE PLACE

Akashi told the German news agency that such a report not only existed but that many journalists had its copies. He mentioned the article by journalist David Binder in which he mentioned in 1996 some details from the secret U.N. report. Binder claimed that the report sent to the U.N. Headquarters in New York stressed that the Muslim police prevented U.N. investigators from examining the site where the mortar-fired shell exploded and doctors were not brought in to help the victims on the spot while ambulances 'happened to be nearby' to rush as many as 197 wounded persons to hospitals within 25 minutes.

After investigating in detail the crater and examining the path of shrapnel, U.N. investigators undoubtedly discovered that the shell was fired from an area that was situated behind Muslim Army lines.

The report stressed that on that day the Bosnian Serb Army artillery was not active, and no fire was opened near the market. However, the official U.N. report published at the time indicated that it was not possible to determine from where the mortar was fired because it allegedly came from an area where Serb and Muslim positions are very close. Although the 'real' report existed, the U.N. decided at the time to make public the 'neutral' one and declared the other one secret.

The massacre, the German news agency recalled, brought about the NATO ultimatum to Bosnian Serbs to withdraw their heavy guns from positions around Sarajevo.

At the time, U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright stated it was hard to believe that a Government would do something like that to its own people and that although all the facts were not known, it seemed that the Bosnian Serbs were to blame most.

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article