Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-06-17

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

CONTENTS

[01] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES KORNBLUM

[02] KORNBLUM SAYS HE BRIEFED PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC ON FLORENCE MEETING

[03] MILUTINOVIC: IMPORTANT STEP IN IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS

[04] MILUTINOVIC ON AGREEMENT OF REGIONAL ARMS CONTROL

[05] YUGOSLAV VICE-PREMIER SAYS MONETARY POLICY MUST REMAIN RESTRICTIVE

[06] LILIC SAYS COOPERATION WITH BULGARIA IMPROVING

[07] INTERNATIONAL POLICE: SARAJEVO SERBS PRESSURED TO LEAVE CITY

[08] U.N. WARNS ABOUT CONTINUING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BOSNIA

[01] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES KORNBLUM

Information and views were exchanged about the overall civilian and political aspects of the implementation of the peace plan. Topical issues concerning bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslalvia and the United States were also raised at the meeting. It was concluded that progress has been made in that respect and that the normalization of relations between the two countries was in the interest of strengthening peace and stability in the region.

[02] KORNBLUM SAYS HE BRIEFED PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC ON FLORENCE MEETING

Kornblum told reporters he and Milosevic discussed in detail important issues, especially those concerning preparations for elections in Bosnia, and that they expected President Milosevic to help the full implementation of the Dayton peace agreement. He added that the exchange of views with Milosevic was 'very good' and that an understanding was demonstrated at the talks about things that needed to be done for the further implementation of the agreement.

Kornblum added that the talks were useful, within ongoing efforts, and that they demonstarted the resolution of the United States to stay involved in Bosnia and in the region with a view to achieving enduring peace.

[03] MILUTINOVIC: IMPORTANT STEP IN IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON ACCORDS

It is of vital importance that agreement was reached at the conference on the holding of elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that it was clearly shown what the remaining steps were for the elections to be succesfull, Milutinovic said. It is very important that the date for the elections was confirmed. That is why it is of the utmost importance that full freedom of the press, speech, rallying, and movement of citizens in the entire territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina be secured, and that it is made possible for all refugees to vote as planned under the Dayton accords, Milutinovic said.

Milutinovic said the importance of the conference was also that it had clearly marked the obligations of all the involved sides, which they have accepted and are obliged to fulfil.

The Florence conference confirmed the principle of equality of all three peoples and the two entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Talks on the reconstruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina and financial assistance from the international community continued at the conference.

Milutinovic said the Florence conference was important for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia because its results were in accord with the principled policy of Yugoslavia, which is aimed at peace and stability not only in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but in the entire region as well. We believe that this meeting has completed yet another step in the international affirmation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, toward its full reintegration in the international community, Milutinovic said.

He indicated the importance of the bilateral contacts which the Yugoslav delegation had made with representatives of leading countries, neighboring countries, and also Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These contacts will contribute toward the successful continuation of the process of normalization of relations between Yugoslavia and the former Yugoslav republics, Milutinovic pointed out.

[04] MILUTINOVIC ON AGREEMENT OF REGIONAL ARMS CONTROL

'I am satisfied that, following the intense talks in Vienna held under the chairmanship of Mr. Eide of Norway, whose efforts we highly appreciate, agreement was reached on issues which are of particular importance for peace and stability in our region,' Milutinovic said.

The agreement regulates the manner of arms limitations for certain categories so that a balanced and stable ratio can be achieved, based on the lowest possible level of armament, Milutinovic pointed out.

Peace in the Balkans means peace in Europe, Milutinovic said. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had since the very beginning invested great efforts and cooperated in the Vienna talks, he said.

Yugoslavia is interested in the full implementation of all aspects of the Dayton accords which it considers the guarantee of lasting peace and stability in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Milutinovic said.Expressing hope that the other parts of the peace accords would be resolved in the same way - in the spirit of cooperation, equal treatment, and respect for the interests of all sides - Milutinovic said he was thinking of the process of reconstruction which should restore and give impetus to regional, economic, and other forms of coperation.

[05] YUGOSLAV VICE-PREMIER SAYS MONETARY POLICY MUST REMAIN RESTRICTIVE

To achieve this goal, a larger inflow of foreign capital is needed in the first phase, he said.

The Yugoslav Government expects world financial organisations and foreign creditors to take into account the causes of the former Yugoslavia's disintegration as well as adverse effects of the UN sanctions against Belgrade and additional expenses incurred by aiding refugees and displaced persons, and to secure more favourable conditions for the reorganisation of its foreign debt, he said.

The expectation is based on the practice that international financial organisations and foreign creditors have applied in the case of other states that have been in a far more favourable position than Yugoslavia, he said.In order to normalise relations with the International Monetary Fund, the Government is ready to pay immediate liabilities as soon as its status in the IMF has been regulated as well as to open talks with the World Bank on modalities of paying overdue liabilities.

Zebic said the Yugoslav Government and the National Bank of Yugoslavia would insist on extending dates by which quotas should be rounded off and instalments paid to the IMF and the World Bank, if conditions were not created before for normalisation of Yugoslavia's relations with with these two institutions.

I N T E R V I E W

[06] LILIC SAYS COOPERATION WITH BULGARIA IMPROVING

Lilic said recent intensified contacts and political dialogue had had favourable impact on the expansion of cooperation in all fields. He said the two countries had signed quite a number of contracts since the beginning of the year, with trade in the January-April period amounting to 80 million dollars.

Lilic also said ethnic Bulgarians in Yugoslavia were part of a nation that Yugoslavia regarded as friendly. He said Yugoslavia wanted ethnic Bulgarians to remain a factor of bringing the two nations closer as well as of better understanding and closer ties. 'Bulgarian minority is equal with Yugoslav citizens in every sense - political, economic and cultural,' he said.

Lilic made reference to Bosilegrad, Dimitrovgrad and Blagoevgrad in Serbia, near the border with Bulgaria, where he said ethnic Bulgarians' participation in local authorities was almost 100%. He said in municipalities where ethnic Bulgarians lived there were four primary schools attended by 2,210 pupils where lectures were held in Bulgarian language. Moreover, in Blagoevgrad and Bosilegrad there were secondary schools, attended by about 600 ethnic Bulgarians, he said.

Lilic also said there were frequent statements in Bulgaria referring to 'western provinces' in the context of Yugoslavia and its republic, Serbia. As a sovereign state, Yugoslavia regards as unacceptable the term 'western provinces' when referring to its eastern parts, he said. 'Such positions are not in the interest of good-neihbourliness, mutual confidence and stability in the region,' he said.

Asked about Yugoslavia's view on closer ties among the Balkan states, Lilic said the region's future lay in the economic development, peaceful and stable conditions and its rapid integration into modern European processes. It is in the interest of all Balkan peoples to take their fate in their hands and that the region becomes a zone of peace and cooperation as well as of free traffic of people, ideas, goods and capital, he said. Lilic said overall promotion of bilateral and goodneighbourly relations, and mutual respect and noninvolvement in another country's internal affairs would largely help achieve this goal. The Balkan's future lies in its being a zone of peace and stability integrated into European trends, he said.

The situation in Kosovo and Metohija results from unrealistic efforts on the part of separatist forces to detach an integral part of the federal unit of Serbia from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the support of certain foreign factors, Lilic said. This is supported by the 'fact that in the period of the widest autonomy in Kosovo and Metohija under the 1974 Constitution, a separatist rebellion broke out in the province,' he said. Lilic said that the problem in Kosovo and Metohija was not in the limiting of human and minority rights, but in the refusal of part of Albanian minority to exercise their rights in keeping with the Serbian and Yugoslav Constitutions. According to Lilic, 'the solution lies in active joining of members of Albanian minority in Yugoslavia's constitutional and legal system, i.e. their participation in elections so that they can secure the resolving of issues they are interested in through their legitimate representatives.'

'I wish to stress that Kosovo and Metohija is Yugoslavia's internal issue and that the international community has an unequivocal stand in this respect,' Lilic said.

Speaking about the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said that currently the most important issues were the holding of elections and constituting of new authorities. New authorities would review open issues such as individual responsibility for war crimes regardless of people's nationality, including the possible responsibility of Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, he said. 'One thing is certain, nobody is innocent in Bosnia-Herzegovina. If we wish a stable peace, the same standards have to be applied to everybody. The war was prolonged because the same standards had not been applied to Croatia, the Muslim and Serb sides,' Lilic said.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

[07] INTERNATIONAL POLICE: SARAJEVO SERBS PRESSURED TO LEAVE CITY

[08] U.N. WARNS ABOUT CONTINUING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BOSNIA

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