Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-07-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAVIA INTERESTED IN UNIMPEDED DEVELOPMENT OF ALL EUROPEAN STATES

[02] KONTIC MEETS WITH SCHUESSEL

[03] MILUTINOVIC DESCRIBES CONFERENCE AS SUCCESSFUL

[04] YUGOSLAVIA WANTS EQUALITY-BASED COOPERATION WITH WORLD

[05] THE HAGUE-BASED WAR CRIMES COURT LACKS OBJECTIVITY

[06] PARTY LEADER DJAPIC OPPOSES RETURN OF SERBS

[07] SLOVENIAN DAILY ON 'ETHNIC ENGINEERING' AGAINST SERBS IN SARAJEVO

[01] YUGOSLAVIA INTERESTED IN UNIMPEDED DEVELOPMENT OF ALL EUROPEAN STATES

Prime Minister Radoje Kontic told the economic summit of Central and Eastern European countries in Salzburg that the security system could be achieved only if based on equal respect for the interests of all European countries.

Yugoslavia, as a key factor in the Balkans, takes the view that a full and successful implementation of the Dayton peace accords will contribute to a further stabilization of the situation in the region and beyond in Europe, Kontic said.

He noted that the Vienna talks on sub-regional arms control, held as part of the implementation of the Dayton agreement, had been successful primarily thanks to Yugoslavia, although Yugoslavia was still kept out of the OSCE structures.

The keeping of the 'outer wall of sanctions' against Yugoslavia is not and cannot be in the interest of peace, security and cooperation in Europe, the Yugoslav Prime Minister told the summit participants.

'We rightly expect that Yugoslavia will soon be reintegrated into the international community, that it will receive full support for its economic recovery and that the severed economic and social ties in the region will be renewed,' Kontic said.

He said that was 'a basic precondition for lasting and stable peace and development and a significant contribution to security and cooperation in Europe.'

The Salzburg summit, organized by the Davos World Economic Forum, was opened by Austrian President Thomas Klestil. It is attended by the heads of state or government of 15 Central and Eastern European countries and many ministers, central bank governors, directors of multinational companies and economic experts.

The central theme of the three-day summit is the promotion of regional cooperation at the political and economic levels.

The summit will also discuss the European Union's eastward expansion, European security, privatization and the protection of the human environment.

[02] KONTIC MEETS WITH SCHUESSEL

Kontic and Schuessel met at an economic summit of Central and Eastern European countries in Salzburg.

The Yugoslav Prime Minister expressed great satisfaction after the meeting with Schuessel, the first on such a high level in the past five years.

Both sides agreed that high-level political contacts should be stepped up. The inter-state regulations should be renewed as soon as possible in order to strengthen economic cooperation, especially the agreements on economic and trade cooperation, investment protection and avoiding double taxation as well as those in the field of transport.

The Austrian side agreed that a partial alleviation of the visa regime was necessary, Kontic told Yugoslav reporters.

Schuessel said that Austria understood much better now the Yugoslav call for the lifting of the so-called outer wall of sanctions and pledged to take certain measures to this end in future.

[03] MILUTINOVIC DESCRIBES CONFERENCE AS SUCCESSFUL

Milutinovic told the Monday issue of the influential Bulgarian daily Duma that the Balkan countries should join Europe together because that was the only way in which they could be a strong factor in it.

Milutinovic said that the Yugoslav delegation had proposed the setting up of a Balkan parliament, some sort of a consultative assembly of Balkan countries, which would meet regularly or as needed and would comprise permanent parliamentary delegations of all regional countries.

Milutinovic said that 'all regions in the continent have their parliaments.' An assembly of Balkan countries would contribute to a better understanding in the Balkans, he said and added that 'parliaments are elected by people and this can turn into a very good potential.'

The newspaper Trud on Monday carried Milutinovic's statement that 'initiatives for consolidating the regional stability and security should as a rule be made by the Balkan countries themselves.'

In a statement to the Monday issue of the Sofia newspaper Standart, Milutinovic said that 'Yugoslavia welcomes the Bulgarian Government's initiative for calling this conference. The mere fact that the conference is being held on this level for the first time after six years is very positive, despite Macedonia's absence. The conference of foreign ministers in Sofia has exceeded the highest expectations ahead of its holding.'

Asked by the Standart reporter why Croatia and Slovenia were observers at the Sofia conference, Milutinovic said that they 'wish to be part of Central and Western Europe' and that 'such goal is good.'

'I do not understand why everybody want to disassociate themselves from the Balkans. Even if the Balkans was a powderkeg once, it does not mean that it will be so in future. The European civilization was born in the Balkans and there is nothing to be ashamed of.'

Asked by the Standart and Trud reporters whether he believed that the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Yugoslavia had been protected, Milutinovic said that ethnic Bulgarians in Eastern Serbia 'have the same rights as all other Yugoslav citizens and such a problem does not exist for us.'

[04] YUGOSLAVIA WANTS EQUALITY-BASED COOPERATION WITH WORLD

Milosevic said at the inauguration of 'Yugoslavia - 3' satellite station in Ivanjica, Western Serbia, that the station reflected Yugoslavia's efforts as soon as possible to promote all-round relations with the countries of the region and the rest of the world.

Milosevic told a big crowd at the inaugural ceremony that it was on july 7, 1941 that Serbia had risen in arms against nazi-fascism and that it had done so at a point when any resistance to the big power which had occupied europe had seemed hopeless.

'However, the national liberation struggle ended in a glorious victory,' Milosevic said.

He said the citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia knew best that freedom had no price, that life in peace was the chief interest of every people and peace was inseparable from freedom.

'The battle for peace, an element of our policy in all the recent difficult years, is pursued through efforts for a fast development of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the promotion of its ties with the region and the world as a whole,' Milosevic said.

[05] THE HAGUE-BASED WAR CRIMES COURT LACKS OBJECTIVITY

War criminals must be punished if their guilt is proven, but the Hague Tribunal should help lessen the conflict and not stoke hatred and fear, Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanassievsky said at Sofia, where he attended a Southeast European ministerial conference.

According to the Bulgarian BTA news agency, as quoted by Agence France Presse, Afanassievsky said that the Tribunal should be truly a tribunal, and not a political body serving the interests of onebiased policy.

He stressed that Russia supported all that should help make irreversible the processes of peace and democratic development in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Afanassievsky added that he was not, however, convinced that the debates at the hague were conducive to this end.

[06] PARTY LEADER DJAPIC OPPOSES RETURN OF SERBS

Croatian newspapers quoted Djapic Friday as telling a news conference in Zagreb that Serbs must not be permitted to return to Croatia 'even if it will mean that Croatia will not be admitted to the Council of Europe.'

[07] SLOVENIAN DAILY ON 'ETHNIC ENGINEERING' AGAINST SERBS IN SARAJEVO

Citing Carl Bildt and his deputy Michael Steiner, the daily said that it was a shame for Sarajevo what is going on in the residential areas that in March, under the Dayton peace agreement, became part of the Muslim-Croat Federation.

'I am ashamed because of Sarajevo, I keep asking myself why Alija Izetbegovic and reis ul uema Mustafa Ceric do not do something to prevent the violence against Serbs', Delo quoted Steiner as saying, who called the latest persecution of Serbs systematic 'ethnic engineering'.

Every night there is a series of attacks on Serb homes, windows are broken, apartments are broken into, Serbs are robbed and threatened, Steiner said.

The violence against Serbs was confirmed by Bildt. He said he talked about that with President Izetbegovic, Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic and Interior Minister Agdo Hebib. They all agreed that such behaviour was wrong, but the same thing keeps happening, Delo said quoting Bildt.

A strong demand for putting a stop to terror against Serbs was also made by U.S. senators to the Muslim leader and his most faithful party, political and military associates.

Democratic senator Joseph Bayden even threatened the Muslim top leadership that America will review its policy in Bosnia unless things were not brought into order in their Party of Democratic Action, the Slovenian daily said.

Citing reliable sources in Sarajevo, Delo said that protection for Serbs, and an end to the shameful mistreatment and ethnic cleaning is increasingly called for by organized groups of Muslim intellectuals.

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