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Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-08-19Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>CONTENTS
[01] LILIC SAYS YUGOSLAVIA STRONGLY COMMITTED TO DAYTON PEACE ACCORDSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic said Friday that Yugoslaviua was strongly committed to the full implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and urged the international community to treat as equals all three sides in Bosnia. Yugoslavia expects of the internatioal community to pressure the sides which are not showing enough readiness consistently and fully to implement the Accords, Lilic said in a talk with a delegation of the Chinese National People's Congress.The delegation, headed by Vice-Chairman of the Congress' Standing Committee Wu Jieping, arrived on an official visit to Yugoslavia Wednesday. Lilic said China's intensive engagement in the U.N. Security Council would be an invaluable contribution to a lasting solution of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Presiden said. He thanked China for the principled support throughout the crisis, including at the time of the unjust U.N. sanctions, and for the significant humanitarian aid. Lilic said that under the Dayton Accords, all sanctions against Yugoslavia were to be lidted after the Sept. 14 elections in Bosnia and noted that any other solution or the imposition of new conditions would have extremely negative consequences for the wider region. Wu thanked Yugoslavia for the support and said his country highly valued Yugoslavia's principled policy at the difficult time of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. He thanked Yugoslavia for the relief aid sent to help ease the consequences of the recent disastrous floods. President Lilic invited Chinese President Jiang Zemin to visit Yugoslavia. [02] KONTIC RECEIVES DELEGATION OF CHINA'S NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.) Radoje Kontic paid tribute Friday to China for its consistent and principled stance in the U.N. Security Council during the resolving of the Yugoslav crisis. Had everybody possessed as principled stand as China, the Yugoslav crisis for its most part would have been avoided, Kontic appraised in a talk with a delegation of the Chinese National People's Congress headed by Vice Chairman of the Parliament Wu Jieping.The talk focused on the promotion and development of all-round Yugoslav-Chinese cooperation. Kontic pointed to the great significance of the renewal of economic cooperation and said he was certain that the joint efforts would very soon help utilize the ample possibilities of the further universal development of Yugoslav-Chinese cooperation. Wu voiced confidence that the F.R.Y. would soon take again its well deserved place as an equal member of the international community in its organizations and bodies. He conveyed to Kontic the cordial regards from Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng. [03] YUGOSLAV MINISTER RECEIVES CHINESE DELEGATIONB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (tanjug) - A Chinese delegation and the Deputy Yugoslav Foreign Minister here on Friday discussed the development of bilateral relations and options for promoting and strengthening economic cooperation. Radoslav Bulajic told Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Congress Standing Committee Wu Jieping about Yugoslavia's latest international activities and efforts within the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord.The Chinese delegation praised Yugoslavia's peaceful policy and urged the restoration of full status for Yugoslavia in the international community, which included the lifting of the sanctions. [04] CHINA SUPPORTS YUGOSLAVIA'S RETURN TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITYB e l g r a d e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - China urges Yugoslavia's repossessing its rightful place in the international community and it will help toward this as much as it can, said Pan-Chinese National Congress Standing Committee Vice-President Wu Jieping. Wu, who heads a parliamentary delegation on a several days' long visit to Yugoslavia, made a special statement to Tanjug on Saturday.Ever since the U.N. imposed sanctions against Yugoslavia, China has been against such a policy of the international community, he said. Sanctions, hegemony, and might-is-right politics have brought serious damage to Yugoslavia and its people, but they passed that historic test, Wu said. He pointed out that the parliamentary delegation was in Yugoslavia for the very first time in an official capacity and that the visit marked the beginning of cooperation between the two countries' Parliaments. Wu said he believed the mutual support between China and Yugoslavia was important not only for the two countries, but also for the entire region of the Balkans and the rest of the world as well. The Chinese official said the MPS had seen for themselves that Yugoslav leaders were determined in their desire to overcome difficulties and the consequences of the sanctions, together with the people. Wu said he was certain Yugoslavia and China would step up cooperation in future, especially in the area of the economy, which will enable the speedier development of both countries. We brought the kind wishes of the Chinese people for the Yugoslav people, and we shall convey to the Chinese people the wishes of the Yugoslav people that China continue adhering to its principled stand, Wu told Tanjug. [05] ALBANIA OPENLY SUPPORTS SEPARATISTS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJAG e n e v a, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Charge d'Affaires of the Yugoslav U.N. Mission Miroslav Milosevic accused Albania Friday of openly backing the separatist demands and extremist terrorist wing of ethnic Albanians in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Milosevic presented the accusation in a letter sent to the Chairman of the U.N. Subcomission for Protection of Minorities, whose annual session is under way.The letter said that ethnic-Albanian extremists had staged a series of terrorist attacks on the civilian Serb population and the Serbia police in Kosovo and Metohija in the more recent months. The letter followed the presentation in the U.N. Subcommission of incorrect information about alleged violations of the rights of the Albanian national minority in Yugoslavia by Albania's delegate. The letter said Albania had once again misused an international body to spread lies and disinformation and to interfere in Yugoslavia's internal affairs. Albania's duplicity is reflected in the fact that it totally negates the existence of a Serbian-Montenegrin minority in Albania, whose members have no human rights, let alone collective minority rights, the letter said. It observed that ethnic-Albanian ultra-nationalists wanted to create another Albanian state in Europe at the expense of Serbia, i.e., Yugoslavia. The ethnic-Albanian secessionist movement in Kosovo and Metohija has used human and minority rights issues as an instrument for the attainment of their secessionist goal and screen for it, and they have employed all means, including terrorism, the letter said. It noted that the Yugoslav Government had steadily been urging that the problem be resolved through democratic dialogue, without pre-set conditions, but that such a dialogue had been rejected by ethnic Albanians with Albania's support. Ethnic Albanian representatives do not recognize the constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country they live in, the letter said. It set out that ethnic-Albanian representatives rejected to participate in the country's political life and openly manifested their disloyalty to Serbia and Yugoslavia. [06] MILOSEVIC, KLEIN: YUGOSLAV-CROATIAN RELATIONS HAVE POSITIVE IMPACTB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and U.N. Administrator Jacques Klein said Friday that the hitherto normalization of Yugoslavia-Croatia relations had had a positive impact on the resolution of problems relating to the Srem-Baranja Region. They assessed that the normalization of relations between the two countries was also an important factor of the consolidation of peace and stability on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, a released statement said.Both sides assessed that the strong Yugoslavia-Croatia support to respect for the Erdut Agreement, contained in the Athens statement (signed by Presidents Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman on Aug.7), had had a particularly positive impact. Klein informed Milosevic about the most important aspects of the implementation of the Erdut Agreement, especially the invested efforts for the solution of key issues of interest to the local population's life and work in normal conditions. Milosevic and Klein assessed that the invested efforts had produced results. The meeting was attended also by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic. [07] YUGOSLAVIA, CROATIA BRING TO A CLOSE TALKS ON NORMALIZING RELATIONSZ a g r e b, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - A Yugoslav Foreign Ministry delegation that arrived in Zagreb on Friday ended talks with representatives of the Croatian Foreign Ministry. A statement released on Saturday by the Croatian Foreign Ministry said the talks had been successful. The two sides discussed documents that should stipulate the conditions for full normalization of relations between Belgrade and Zagreb.It was agreed that Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic visit Belgrade on Monday to discuss outstanding issues with Milutinovic. [08] NORMALIZING YUGOSLAV-CROATIAN RELATIONS CRUCIAL FOR BALKANSZ a g r e b, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said Europe and the U.S. considered normalization of relations between Yugoslavia and Croatia crucial for stability in the region. In an interview to Saturday's edition of the Zagreb daily Vecernji List, Granic said agreement on full normalization of diplomatic relations is expected to be signed, following meetings in Athens and Geneva between Presidents of Serbia and Croatia Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman.Granic said all outstanding issues should be resolved at expert meetings before the signing of the agreement. He said the talks so far had strived toward solutions and definitions satisfactory to both sides, without obstacles to full normalization of relations, expected to be signed in Belgrade on Aug. 23. [09] KLEIN: CROATIAN, YUGOSLAV RECOGNITION CRUCIAL TO STABILITY IN REGIONZ a g r e b, Aug. 18 (Tanjug) - U.N. Administrator for Eastern Slavonia Jacques Klein told the independent Croatian daily Novi List that the mutual recognition of Yugoslavia and Croatia would be crucial for stability in the region. Klein said that demilitarization having been carried out in the Region, the next most important question was amnesty, so that people could feel free, and economic reconstruction, for which the E.U. has already approved six million ecus.Klein slammed a list of 800 Serbs Croatia excluded from a recently granted partial amnesty. He said one name on the list was of a dead Serb priest and another of a Serb policeman who had been granted amnesty earlier and meanwhile underwent training at an international police academy in Budapest. Referring to France and Germany, which had waged many wars in history, but today had very good relations, Klein asked why could not Serbs and Croats, who spoke nearly the same language, and were both Christians and descendants of the same slavic tribe, have good relations as well. [10] HARASSMENT OF SERBS IN CROATIA CONTINUESB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - At least four persons were killed and 11 wounded in Croatia over the past few months from surprise mines planted in homes or gardens, an official of the Croatian Helsinki Watchdog said on Friday. The AP news agency quoted Executive Director of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for human rights Petar Mrkalj to the effect that this was a new way of intimidating Serbs in Croatia.Croatian police said these were mines left over from the war. However, Mrkalj said the Helsinki Watchdog was convinced the explosions had occurred in places known to have been safe. The Croatian authorities claim that about 12,000 Serbs have returned to Krajina, but U.N. Special Human Rights Envoy Elizabeth Rehn who toured Croatia recently said the Region was desolate. She said the surprise mines were planted inside Serb homes or nearby. [11] ANOTHER SERB KILLED IN CROATIA, HUMAN RIGHTS BODY SAYSZ a g r e b, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - A Human Rights Watchdog body in Croatia has reported that a Serb, a retired General of former Yugoslavia's Army, was killed on Aug. 14 in a village 150 km south of Croatia's capital Zagreb. General Milorad Kiscevic, aged 75, was killed by a mine planted at the door of his house in his native village of Vrebac near Gospic, Serb Krajina, the Helsinki Human Rights Committee said in a statement in Zagreb. Miscevic had visited the house of his birth several times in the past months from Zagreb, where he had lived since his retirement 20 years ago, the statement said.The apparent intention of the bombing was to put a stop to the already slow and sporadic repatriation of the region's displaced population, the statement added. [12] PLAVSIC, FROWICK DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON ACCORDSP a l e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - Acting Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic conferred on Saturday with OSCE Bosnia Mission Head Robert Frowick on the implementation of the Dayton Accords and the upcoming elections. Following the talks, which were held behind closed doors in the bosnian serb political center of Pale, Plavsic said the visit had been one of many such meetings over the past few days. 'September the 14th (the set elections date) is approaching and all sides, in particular those people who have come here to help prepare the elections, sincerely want everything to be worked out in detail and perhaps even to predict certain situations and take the necessary preventive action,' she said.Plavsic said any talks in that sense were very useful. [13] BOSNIAN SERB ACTING PRESIDENT MEETS WITH U.S. AMBASSADORP a l e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - Biljana Plavsic, acting President of Republika Srpska, discussed the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords with U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina John Menzies in Pale on Saturday. Plavsic said after the meeting that they had discussed also the release of the remaining prisoners, pointing out that all prisoners should have been released by Jan. 19 under the Dayton Accords. She said that the release of prisoners was ultimately a humane action and, if carried out in full, the upcoming elections could be held in a much more favourable climate.[14] BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS ONE CONSTITUENCY, SAYS PARLIAMENTP a l e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska's Parliament passed a law on Saturday defining Republika Srpska as a single electoral district for the September elections for the National Assembly. Parliament passed a number of other laws said to be designed to stimulate the work of state bodies and institutions. It also approved a report on the Government's activity in the tracing and liberation of missing persons and prisoners.Republika Srpska Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha said that, under the Sayton Accords, the deadline for settling this problem had expired in January, and added that he had been insisting on its settlement in all his contacts with the world community's officials. Buha informed the deputies that Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic had promised that all Serb soldiers registered by the ICRC and held in prisons in Croatia and the Bosnian Croat state of Herceg-Bosna would be released. [15] KRAJISNIK: SERBS WANT DAYTON ACCORDS TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN BOSNIAP a l e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska Parliament President Momcilo Krajisnik said Friday Serbs wanted the Dayton Accords to be implemented, abuse to cease, and the elections set for Sept. 14 to be democratic. In talks with a delegation of the German Bundestag in Pale, Krajisnik also reiterated that Republika Srpska wanted to preserve peace. The talks also covered the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Krajisnik said Republika Srpska expected Germany's more active participation in resolving the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina since Germany was an important factor in Europe.[16] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA SIGNS FIRST ACCORD WIITH EUROPEAN BANKL o n d o n, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - A Bosnian Serb delegation here on Saturday signed its first accord with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after several days of talks. EBRD will finance pressing works on roads and bridges in Republika Srpska, worth eight million dollars in the first stage.The delegation was headed by Ministers of Finance and communications Novak Kondic and Nedeljko Lalic. Republika Srpska had earlier made a deal with the World Bank for the financing of public works, demobilization, employment and training of former soldiers, costing about five million dollars. The World Bank will also finance mine-sweeping operations. Agreement was also signed with the European Commission on rebuilding the telecommunications network, worth 4.4 million ecus. [17] WASHINGTON: NO ALTERNATIVE TO ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAB e l g r a d e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - The U.S. believes nothing but elections can lead to stability and peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said on Friday. He said U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher had returned from his European tour with the belief that all countries involved in the international efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina must now join forces to secure voting conditions for democratic elections there.Burns said Christopher had often heard complaints from opposition representatives of all three Bosnian sides - Muslims, Croats and Serbs - during his visit to Sarajevo last week. Opposition leaders said there was severe censorship of the press and that their candidates were denied access to state media. [18] GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS WARN OSCE OF ANTI-SERB DISCRIMINATIONB o n n, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - Germany's Social Democrats warned the OSCE on Saturday about the danger of discrimination against Serbs in general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina in mid-September. Genter Verheugen of the Party's Parliamentary Fraction wrote to the OSCE Central Office in Vienna to say that about 100,000 Bosnian Serbs in Germany might never get the chance to vote because of technical problems. Verheugen was speaking about a large community of Serbs from the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina who have been living and working in Germany for years.The technical problems that have arisen in the OSCE Central Election Office in Bonn affect 150,000 Serbs with the right to vote, only 10 percent of whom are war refugees, Verheugen said. [19] ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION BEGINS IN SERB REGION OF EAST SLAVONIAV u k o v a r, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Administrator of the U.N. for East Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem Jacques Klein stated here on Friday that the beginning of economic reconstruction of this Serb region was 'an historical step towards a better future' with which the population's hope for a better life would be fulfilled. Klein said this at a conference at the UNTAES H.q. presenting to newsmen Didije Fo, the Project Manager of the E.U. for the reconstruction of the Region of East Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem.Fo explained that 6 million dollars granted by the European Commission would be invested into the construction of infrastructure, especially the water supply and electric power systems, and the clearing of ruins. Fo said that the Croatian Government's as well as the local administration's proposals for the choice of projects would be respected. The last say, he added, would be that of the UNTAES Economic Commission. Fo added that bids would be invited internationally for all projects and contracts would have to stipulate employment of local manpower. European Commission Chairman Fulvio Paulini pointed out that the European Commission would do all for economic reconstruction in this region to begin at the soonest because, as he put it, 'that would be the best protection of the local population.' [20] FERRY SERVICE ACROSS DRAVA RIVER BETWEEN SLAVONIA AND BARANYA RESUMEDB e l i s c e, Aug. 17 (Tanjug) - The ferry service across the river Drava between Belisce in Croatia and Ribarski Dom in the Serb region of East Slavonia, Baranya and West Srem was resumed on Saturday after five years. The Region's U.N. transitional Administrator Jacques Klein and Croatian Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic snipped the ribbon at Belisce to symbolise the restoration of the service.Every step that is taken is a step in building a common future and openning the region to economic recovery, settlement and the repatriation of refugees, Klein said. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |